The full name of the monastery means "The Monastery of the Emerald Buddha on the Water Jar Knoll". This name partly derives from the legend of Mae Suchada, a religiously-inclined woman living around the year 500. At that time, the area was in the midst of an unusually severe famine. One day, a monk descended from heaven and offered Mae Suchada a watermelon. When she broke it open, she found a large green gem which turned into a Buddha image through the assistance of the god Indra. Although this helped alleviate the famine, the local king grew suspicious of the monk working so closely with a woman and suspected the two of them were secretly lovers. He ordered the two executed, but the monk managed to escape. Another famine subsequently ravaged the kingdom, proving the error of the king's judgement. The image in question
is now enshrined at WatPhra That LampangLuang.