Giant sand chedis are built in many temples around the time of the annual songkran water festival. People bring handfuls of sand to their local temple and it is then sculpted into a sand chedi. The sand brought is symbolic of the sand and dirt carried away from the temple on the soles of visitors feet during the preceding year.

Songkran is the traditional Thai New Year and is celebrated from 13th to 15th April. This annual water festival, known in Thai as 'songkran,' and in Burmese as 'thingyan' marks the beginning of the rainy season and is celebrated in Burma, Laos, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, usually in April.

Chiang Mai (meaning "new city"), sometimes written as "Chiengmai" or "Chiangmai", is the largest and most culturally significant city in northern Thailand. King Mengrai founded the city of Chiang Mai in 1296, and it succeeded Chiang Rai as capital of the Lanna kingdom.