Wat Chang Lom — "Temple of the Surrounding Elephants" — is the masterpiece of Si Satchanalai. A perfectly proportioned bell-shaped chedi in the Sri Lankan style sits on a square base, and around that base, half-emerging from the laterite blocks, are 39 life-size stone elephants, their massive front legs and shoulders pressing outward as though they were carrying the weight of the monument above.
The original Buddha image niches that ringed the chedi a step above the elephants once held seated Buddhas, all but four of which have disappeared, leaving stylized lotus-shaped pedestals. The composition is one of the finest in Thai religious architecture, and is best photographed in the warm light of the first or last hour of the day.