The local legend goes that the Lord Buddha travelled to Thailand and directed that one of his breast-bone relics be enshrined in a chedi to be built on this very site; and so it was in 535 BC, eight years after his death. Historians actually date the first construction, a short stupa (there's a replica of how it may have looked in a pond in front of the temple), to around the 9th century AD and modifications have been routine since then. In 1690 it was raised to 47m and you'll find replicas of this tâht all over Isan. The current design went up in 1941, but it toppled during heavy rains in 1975 and was rebuilt in 1978.