Doi Suthep-Pui

Doi Suthep-Pui National Park was created in 1981 next to the city of Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, and protects some 261 km² around two summits, Doi Suthep and Doi Pui, the latter rising above 1,600 metres.

Its proximity to a large city and its altitudinal gradient have made it one of the best-studied areas in the country from a botanical point of view: within a few kilometres one passes from the deciduous dipterocarp forest of the lower slopes to montane evergreen forest and the cloud forest of the summits, and more than two thousand species of vascular plant have been catalogued, many of them first described here.

The park also has considerable cultural significance. On its slope stands Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, founded according to tradition in 1383 and the most venerated Buddhist temple in northern Thailand, reached by a stairway flanked by nagas. Hmong communities live at the higher altitudes, and the royal palace of Bhubing is also within the park. That combination of urban proximity, pilgrimage and tourism generates very high visitor pressure and problems of building development along its edges.