Photo: Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Khruba Siwichai: Lanna's Saint and the Doi Suthep Road
Khruba Siwichai (ระฯคูบาฯระฯสีวิไชยฯ, Kham Mueang reading khru-ba si-wi-chai) is one of the most loved and respected monks of Lanna. The Moradok Lanna dictionary records that he is known as the "ton bun", the saint of the Lanna lands. He led the faithful in restoring temples across Northern Thailand and built the road up Doi Suthep that people in Chiang Mai still use today.
His story is more than the life of one monk. It is a picture of Lanna in a time of change, when the customs of the local Sangha met a new order from the centre.
Who was Khruba Siwichai?
The dictionary explains the word khruba (ระฯคูบาฯ, read khru-ba) as "a social position of the Sangha, used only in Lanna culture". It honours a senior monk who is strict in the discipline and has visibly done great good for Buddhism. It is not an official ecclesiastical rank: it is a title given by the faithful.
The dictionary also records several names the villagers used for him: Khruba Siwichai, Khruba Chao Siwichai and Khruba Sinlatham. Under khruba chao (ระฯคูบาฯเจั้า, khru-ba chao), it gives him as the example of a khruba chao who did not descend from the nobility "but was truly a leader, a lord of the spirit".
Early life: from Ban Pang in Li
According to Kritsana Hong-uthen (กฤษณา หงษ์อุเทน, 2021), Khruba Siwichai was born on Tuesday 11 June 1878 at Ban Pang, Mae Tuen Subdistrict (since renamed Si Wichai Subdistrict in his honour), Li District, Lamphun. He was the son of Nai Khwai and Nang Usa.
It is said that a thunderstorm raged on the day he was born, so his father named him "Ai Fa Hong" ("thunder boy"), and also "In Thafuean", a sound that roars up to the god Indra.
As a young man he became a pupil of Khruba Khatti, abbot of Wat Ban Pang, and ordained (buat, บวฯช) as a novice at 18. Three years later he was ordained a monk at Wat Ban Hong Luang, Ban Hong District, Lamphun (general sources give 1899), and received the name "Phra Siwichai". When Khruba Khatti died, he succeeded him as abbot of Wat Ban Pang.
Ton bun: the conduct the people trusted
The dictionary defines ton bun (ต฿นฯบุญ, ton bun) as "saint, one who has merit", an honorific for a monk of beautiful conduct and strict in the Dhamma and discipline, and gives him as the example outright: "such as Khruba Siwichai, the saint of Lanna".
A study by Phra Ekkachai Techawaro and colleagues (พระเอกชัย เตชวโร และคณะ, 2025) of his conduct concludes that he kept several dhutanga (ascetic) practices:
- eating only one meal a day
- wearing robes made of discarded cloth
- refusing money and keeping no more requisites than he needed
- living in seclusion and walking on pilgrimage
The researchers argue that this strictness made the villagers' faith grow, and that he turned that faith into building temples and public works, which they call spreading the Dhamma as a "gift of Dhamma".
Restoring temples across Lanna with the power of faith
Wherever Khruba Siwichai went to restore a temple, the faithful (sat-tha, ระฯศัทธฯาฯ) poured in with labour and money, and the work was finished quickly. The person who funds a building in a temple is called a chao sat-tha (เจั้าสัทธฯาฯ, "patron") in Lanna.
Sources differ on how many temples he restored or built. Katherine Bowie (2023) writes "more than 100 temples", Kritsana Hong-uthen gives 108, and an article in THE STANDARD says more than 70.
| Year | Restoration (after Kritsana Hong-uthen, 2021) |
|---|---|
| 1920 | Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, Lamphun |
| 1921 | the chedi of Wat Phra That Doi Koeng, Hot District, Chiang Mai |
| 1922 | the Phra Chao Ton Luang vihara, Wat Si Khom Kham, Phayao |
| 1923 | Phra That Doi Tung, Chiang Rai, and Phra That Cho Hae, Phrae |
| 1924 | Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai |
| 1930 | Wat Phra Phutthabat Tak Pha, Lamphun |
| 1931 | Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai |
Besides building, he gathered the Tipitaka in Lanna script scattered among many temples, sorted it, and had scribes inscribe it anew on palm leaves: 5,408 bundles (phuk), over about two years between 1926 and 1928.
A conservation view
Kritsana Hong-uthen (2021) notes that although Khruba Siwichai's restorations were well meant, they sometimes clashed with modern principles of conserving ancient monuments, because repairs did not always keep the original form. The same study quotes a letter from Prince Damrong Rajanubhab expressing concern that ancient chedis, such as those at Wat Chamthewi and Wat Chet Yot, might be repaired out of their original style.
Ecclesiastical charges: when Lanna custom met a new order
Khruba Siwichai's life was not smooth. He faced ecclesiastical charges (being accused and investigated under the monastic discipline or Sangha administration) several times. The research explains that the main cause was that he acted as preceptor, ordaining monks and novices according to Lanna custom, without being appointed by the central Sangha, which went against the Sangha Administration Act of the time.
Bowie (2023) places this in the context of Bangkok centralising its power over Lanna, in both civil and religious affairs. The study by Phra Ekkachai Techawaro and colleagues sees the charges as arising from "structural conflict in the local Sangha" rather than breaches of the discipline.
He was held in Chiang Mai for more than three months, then sent down to Bangkok on 18 May 1920. The news made the front page of the Bangkok Times. There were eight charges, such as ordaining monks and novices without permission, disobeying the district Sangha head, and not lighting lamps or beating gongs to celebrate the coronation day (Bowie, 2023). Kritsana Hong-uthen states that the inquiry found him "guilty of nothing", and he returned home on 23 July 1920.
After building the Doi Suthep road he was accused again of ordaining monks on his own authority and issuing them ordination certificates. At that time about 60 temples asked to leave the provincial Sangha's administration and come under him (Bowie gives 60–90). He was sent down to Bangkok at the end of October 1935 and stayed at Wat Benchamabophit. Bowie, citing Phra Wimonyanmuni, writes that about 1,000 monks and novices he had ordained were forced to disrobe in January–February 1936. The crisis ended when he signed an agreement to follow the Sangha regulations on 21 April 1936, and he returned to Lamphun on 18 May 1936.
The position the temples gave him at that time is called "chao mua ubosot" (head of an ordination-hall group) in Kritsana's work, following Lanna Sangha custom. The dictionary has a close word, chao hua wat (เจั้าห฿วฯวัดฯ, chao hua wat), meaning "the monk who presides over all the temples in a group that share one ordination hall".
When was he first arrested? Scholars still disagree
Sources differ on the number of times. Kritsana Hong-uthen and Phra Ekkachai Techawaro and colleagues say he faced charges three times between 1908 and 1936.
As for the first arrest, most biographers place it around 1908–1910, in the reign of King Rama V. But Katherine Bowie (2023) argues in the Journal of the Siam Society that the Sangha Act of 1902 was not yet in force in Lanna at that time, and proposes that the first arrest probably took place around 1915, in the reign of King Rama VI, on charges related to the Military Conscription Act.
The outcome of the 1920 inquiry is also recorded differently. Kritsana says he was found not guilty, while Thai Wikipedia, citing the documents of the Supreme Patriarch, says he admitted some charges and accepted a penalty.
The Doi Suthep road: a road of faith
The work that made Khruba Siwichai known throughout the country is the road up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Before it, climbing the mountain meant hours on foot. MGR Online (2026) reports that a road had been planned in 1917, but it would have cost about 200,000 baht and taken three years, and with no government budget the plan was dropped.
Lanna people have a saying, khuen doi loi huai (ขึ้นฯดอฯยฯลอฯยฯห้วฯยฯ, khuen doi loi huai), "to climb mountains and wade streams", meaning "to travel everywhere with great hardship". This road turned that hard climb into a journey anyone could make.
Opened: 30 April 1935, when the first car reached Doi Suthep
Time taken: 5 months and 22 days
Length: 11 kilometres 530 metres
Labour: no fewer than 5,000 of the faithful a day
(Kritsana Hong-uthen, 2021 · MGR Online, 2026)
Sources tell the first day slightly differently. MGR Online writes that Khruba Siwichai struck the first hoe, while Kritsana Hong-uthen says that Chao Kaeo Nawarat, the ruler of Chiang Mai, dug the ceremonial first hoe and rode in the first car up the mountain on the opening day.
Every year on 30 April, Chiang Mai Province still holds a memorial ceremony at the Khruba Siwichai Monument at the foot of Doi Suthep. In 2026 it marked the 91st anniversary, with a procession of vintage cars carrying his portrait up the mountain to re-enact the first ascent (MGR Online, 2026).
Final years and the legacy that remains
After returning from Bangkok in 1936, Khruba Siwichai lived in Lamphun. His last public work was the Siwichai Bridge linking Lamphun and Chiang Mai, begun in 1938 and completed after his death.
He died on 21 February 1939 at Wat Ban Pang, Li District, aged 60. His body lay at Wat Ban Pang for a year, was then moved to Wat Chamthewi in Lamphun, and received a royally sponsored cremation on 21 March 1946 (Kritsana Hong-uthen, 2021).
His relics were divided among many places. The dictionary has a special word for them, ku khruba si-wi-chai (กู่ระฯคูบาฯระฯสีวิไชยฯ), "a stupa containing the relics of Khruba Siwichai, found in temples and places throughout the North", for example at Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai.
But Kritsana Hong-uthen (2021) found in official records that the statue was installed on its base at the foot of Doi Suthep on 8 June 1963, almost a year before the dam opened. THE STANDARD (2020) reports that the historian Pensupa Sukkata also could not confirm where these words came from.
The monument at the foot of Doi Suthep is cast in bronze. Professor Silpa Bhirasri designed it and modelled the head, and Khien Yimsiri modelled the body. Its celebration was held on 8–11 June 1963, exactly the 85th anniversary of his birth (Kritsana Hong-uthen, 2021).
Summary
- Khruba Siwichai (1878–1939) was born at Ban Pang, Li District, Lamphun, and is honoured in Lanna as a ton bun, a saint strict in the discipline.
- "Khruba" is a title of honour unique to Lanna, given by the faithful, not an official ecclesiastical rank.
- He led the faithful in restoring more than a hundred temples, and gathered the Lanna-script Tipitaka in 5,408 bundles.
- He faced ecclesiastical charges several times for ordaining monks by Lanna custom at a time when the centre was taking control of the Sangha.
- The Doi Suthep road, about 11.5 km long, was finished in 5 months and 22 days through the villagers' faith.
Look up ครูบา ต๋นบุญ and more Lanna words for monks in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai), and read about the temple celebrations the faithful build together in the article Poi Luang (in Thai).
Read next: Phra Ubali Khunupamachan (Fu Attasivo), the senior monk of Khruba Siwichai's time who became abbot of Wat Phra Singh and Wat Phra That Cho Hae, both temples Khruba Siwichai had restored.
Sources
- Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai): ครูบาศรีวิชัย · ครูบา · ต๋นบุญ · กู่ครูบาศรีวิชัย
- กฤษณา หงษ์อุเทน [Kritsana Hong-uthen]. (2021). อนุสาวรีย์ครูบาศรีวิชัย ณ เชิงดอยสุเทพ จังหวัดเชียงใหม่: ปิดตำนานปาฏิหาริย์แห่งอมตะวาจาครูบาศรีวิชัย [The Khruba Siwichai Monument at the foot of Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai: closing the legend of Khruba Siwichai's immortal vow]. Journal of Fine Arts, Chiang Mai University 12(2). In Thai.
- Bowie, K. A. (2023). Dating the First Arrest of Khruba Srivichai, the Saint of Northern Thailand. Journal of the Siam Society 111(1), 1–22.
- พระเอกชัย เตชวโร (กันทะทอน) และคณะ [Phra Ekkachai Techawaro (Kanthathon) and colleagues]. (2025). ศึกษาวิเคราะห์ศีลวัตรของครูบาเจ้าศรีวิชัย [An analytical study of the conduct of Khruba Chao Siwichai]. MBU Lanna Academic Journal 14(2). In Thai.
- MGR Online. (2026, 30 April). เชียงใหม่ทำบุญรำลึกครบรอบ ๙๑ ปี "ครูบาศรีวิชัย" นำเปิดถนนขึ้นดอยสุเทพ [Chiang Mai makes merit for the 91st anniversary of Khruba Siwichai opening the Doi Suthep road]. In Thai.
- ณัฐพงศ์ ดวงแก้ว [Natthaphong Duangkaeo]. (2020). พลิกประวัติศาสตร์ "อมตะวาจาครูบาศรีวิชัย" กับการอภิวัฒน์สยาม พ.ศ. ๒๔๗๕ [Revisiting Khruba Siwichai's "immortal vow" and the Siamese Revolution of 1932]. THE STANDARD. In Thai.
- ครูบาศรีวิชัย (Khruba Siwichai). Thai Wikipedia (used as a lead only, for his monastic name and ordination year). In Thai.
Look up "ครูบาศรีวิชัย" in the Moradok Lanna dictionary (in Thai)
