Rainy Day Excursions to Chiang Mai Museums

                                       by Jim Goodman

model of the King of Lanna's coronation procession

       When the sticky hot dry season of long days of temperatures hovering around 40 degrees C. finally ends, usually late June, it comes as quite a relief.  Early rains clear and cool the air and it becomes possible to walk around, even in the sunshine, without perspiring heavily and risking exhaustion.   Intermittent, heavy cloudbursts are followed by a couple intervening dry hours before another rain.  And the longest periods of precipitation only start late at night.

model of ancient city protection rites at Hua RIn Corner

     That changes after several weeks.  Tropical storms batter the coast of Vietnam and, while the mountains between Vietnam and Laos block the winds, the torrential rain proceeds westward into northern Thailand.  Then Chiang Mai might have all-day rains.  If not constant precipitation, the weather will anyway be very cloudy.  This precludes any trips to the lovely countryside or even much time outdoors in the city.  It’s the Buddhist retreat season, so there are no festivals to watch, either.  

       In such conditions, the best way to appreciate Chiang Mai is to spend time in the museums, for the city has many.  Some are for specialists, like those for stamps, coins, textiles and even insects.  But others are more multi-faceted, highlighting the most interesting aspects of Chiang Mai’s history and culture.  Conveniently, five of them are right in the heart of the old town.

historic photo of elephants in the city streets

       A block north of the old town center is the Three Kings monument to Mengrai of Lanna, Ramkamhaeng of Sukhothai and Ngam Muang of Phayao.  Behind it stands a wide, three=story white building that was City Hall before the administration moved a few kilometers north.  Now it is the Arts and Culture Center, dedicated to various aspects of the city and its development.  In the first room, visitors watch a short film, narrated in English, introducing the city’s attractions.  Other rooms feature exhibits of historical photos, models of ancient activities, key moments of development and aspects of rural life.

       The old photographs date from the late 19^th to early 20^th century.  A view of the iron bridge from the west bank of the Ping River shows how heavily forested the east bank side was back then.  Other photos show elephants in the streets and old-fashioned bamboo and wood houses with thatched roofs, right in the heart of the city.

opening scene of a film on the Burmese occupation

       One room displays small models inside glass cubes that depict city protective rites at the four bastions of the old town.  They include small crowds of officials and a line of monks connected by a thread.  Oddly, though, since this was a rite performed in the Kingdom of Lanna days, the bastions look like models of the ruins of them that stand today.

        In another depiction, of a royal procession into the city, at the head of the line is a man leading a dog on a leash.  This actually was the old Lanna coronation rite and the man with the dog was a Lawa tribesman, representing the original settlers of the Chiang Mai area.

Ping River scene from a century ago

       Thematically, the exhibits then jump ahead historically to a century ago and Chiang Mai’’s modern development.  Another glass cube model depicts elephants at work in the logging industry.  Then comes a scale model of the railway tunnel north of Lampang.  Next is a room with a film of events like the opening of the railway station and airport, plus the establishment of churches, corporations and schools.  The remaining rooms include a rather perfunctory introduction to the hill tribes and an exhibit on rice production, with a very informative film about the entire growing cycle.

old photo of a Chiang Mai nobleman

       Behind this building is the separate Chiang Mai Historical Center, which deals with periods not covered by the Arts and Culture Center. Exhibits cover the entire story of Chiang Mai, beginning with before the Tai Yuan even came here.  Then the area was the home of Lawa, or Lua, a Mon-Khmer people who were hunter-gatherers, whom visitors learn about at the first exhibit.

        Next is the story of King Mengrai, Chiang Mai’s founder, and of the laws he made for the kingdom, with samples of these, written on palm-leaf manuscripts, displayed in cases.  A large map identifies the boundaries of Lanna and the other kingdoms in the region during the centuries of its heyday.  At that time it was a commercial hub for the region, with resident traders from so many different neighboring states that Chiang Mai was known as ‘the city of twelve languages.’  Another map shows the main trade routes of the times, by river and by land, and lists Chiang Mai’s principal exports.  These included things travelers recognize; like salt, leather, ivory, rhinoceros horn, gold, silver, minerals and honey, and a few unexpected resources; like lac, an insect product used for making dyes and shellac, as well as gum Benjamin and civets.

model of King Tilokarat in the Inthakin Museum

       Another room covers the period of the Burmese occupation from 1558 until 1774.  A short film montage here covers that period, with actors in historical costumes portraying the events.  Apparently Burmese rule was not particularly oppressive, at least in the beginning, for the film doesn’t have any such scenes and only mentions that there were revolts occasionally, especially in the last decades, and two invasions by Ayutthaya.  The film ends with the expulsion of the Burmese, but emphasizes the role of Siam more than that of the northern rebels. 

mural of 15th century daily life, Inthakin Museum

       The final exhibits deal with the repopulation and resurrection of Chiang Mai, its development over the next two centuries and a room full of photos from the early 20^th century.  Only a few have captions, however, but among the most arresting are of a nobleman dressed in fancy clothes and a shot of a large water wheel on the east bank of the Ping River, with the iron bridge in the background.  Since water wheels are used to convey river water to farms, one can assume that back then farms lay close to the river.  Now that area is all urbanized.

       A museum devoted to Lanna’s Golden Age under King Tilokarat (1441-87) stands just across the lane south of the Arts and Culture Center, next to Wat Inthakin.  This small temple used to house the City Pillar, a sacred icon of Chiang Mai, but it was removed to Wat Chedi Luang after the city was restored as Lanna’s capital in 1796.  The small temple, built with black wood and gold trimming, is still one of the city’s most attractive.

model of a spinner, Lanna Folk Life Museum

        Next to it is the Inthakin Museum, with exhibits dedicated to the life and times of King Tilokarat, who reigned in a period of great prosperity and prestige.  Tilokarat expanded the kingdom’s territory in all directions, which is shown on a map inside, and was also a great promoter of Buddhism.  He had Wat Jed Yod built, now on the other side of the super highway north of the city, to host a World Buddhist Council. 

antique loom, Lanna Folk Life Museum

       The museum exhibits include wall murals depicting scenes of the daily life of the commoners, like weaving, cooking, carrying water and dancing, as well as elephants going off to war.  Elsewhere there are statues of the king in his court, models of events in his reign, including a life-size elephant transporting the Emerald Buddha, warriors with their weapons and famous monks of the times.  Altogether, the Inthakin Museum gives a well-rounded picture of everyday life in Lanna’s Golden Age, from daily chores to royal spectacles, and even the 15^th century style of punishing criminals.

basketry exhibit, Lanna Folk Life Museum

       Still in the same neighborhood, across the street from the Three Kings monument stands a two-story, white, 19^th century building, originally a royal palace, that for a long time served as the city’s courthouse.  When that, like the City Hall, was moved north of the city, the building later became the Lanna Folk Life Museum.  Intended to be an exposition for both foreigners to understand the lifestyle, art, traditions and culture of Northern Thailand, and Chiang Mai’s residents to appreciate their own heritage, the museum has eighteen exhibition rooms covering a variety of cultural themes.

antique house, now the Lanna Architectural Museum

       Some displays deal with the material side of daily life, such as the spinners, thread winders and looms used to make cloth, including a fine antique loom with carved decorations on the lower horizontal beams.  Samples of antique sarongs from the collections of famous Chiang Mai noblewomen hang inside glass display cases.  Another room shows the craft of weaving baskets, in others various types of betel boxes and other lacquered containers, eating utensils and rich people’s ornaments. 

       Other exhibits deal with traditional arts, like the golden stenciling on red backgrounds known as laikhram in Thai, the techniques of painting murals, like the ones at Wat Phra Singh, with the pictorial outlines stenciled on one side and fully colored on the other, and the casting and styles of bronze Buddha images   Other rooms are dedicated to describing the elements of temple architecture and displaying the typical kinds of artworks the people give to the temple, from flower displays, images and lanterns to the long, thin, woven cotton banners called tung.  Models and photos also depict activities at the temples, the festivals and entertainment such as the graceful fingernail dance.

bedroom in the antique house

       Certainly this is the place to become familiar with the traditional aspects of the Thai lifestyle. Much of it is still going on, both within the city and especially in the rural villages.  For a look at how the upper class used to live one can visit the Lanna Architectural Museum, just a block south, opposite Wat Phantao.   This temple features dark teakwood walls and roofs and was originally part of a royal palace in the mid-19^th century.  The temple went up after that king died and his successor lived elsewhere.  It was the heyday of the teak trade and many of the city’s finest old houses date from that period.

Highland People's Museum

       The two-story house across the street is a beautiful example.  Rectangular and built of teak, a plastered white colonnaded façade surrounds the ground floor.  Living quarters are upstairs, with comfortable elevated beds, mosquito nets, some elegant furniture and a balcony all around the building. The house sits within a walled compound because in the past all the houses of the nobility had walls around them, which were forbidden for commoners’ houses.  There is no class division anymore, so nowadays everybody has compound walls.

Lisu life exhibit, Highlands Museum

       Other than a desultory description in one of the Arts and Culture Center rooms, Northern Thailand’s hill tribes do not get any attention in the city museums.  To become acquainted with these fascinating people’s culture one goes north of downtown Chiang Mai, a little beyond the super highway and then west to the museum dedicated to the hill tribes.   Three stories high, at the edge of a large pond, with restaurants lining the banks, it is commonly known as the Hill Tribe Museum.  Yet signs in the vicinity identify it as Highland People’s Learning Museum or Highland People’s Development Museum or Tribal Village Museum.

model of a Hmông opium smoker

       On the first floor each exhibition room features one of the hill tribes.  Models depict domestic scenes with typical male and female activities—weaving, embroidering, whittling, etc.  Various traditional items like baskets, containers, tobacco bongs, musical instruments, trays and containers lie around the exhibit floor and are also mounted on the walls.  Varieties of ethnic clothing hang from the opposite walls.  Besides typical domestic chores, the exhibits include one of a reclining Hmông man smoking opium and another of Hmông children spinning tops and musicians on lute and gourd-pipe in the background. 

       The hill tribe museum doesn’t get the traffic the others do.  Unlike the old town museums, which are all within a short walk of each other, visitors to the hill tribe museum need a vehicle for transportation to and fro.  In an effort to boost interest, the city government this year sponsored a Tribal Life Festival for four days in August.  Stalls lined the lane leading to the entrance.  Some of them had tribal women doing embroidery, others were just mixed handicraft stalls.   At times entertainers took the stage at the end of the lane, like Lisu dancers or a Karen harp player.  Many dances were Thai however, and with rain constantly a threat, the audiences were a moderate size.  The most splendidly dressed participants were the Palong women, from a tribe not even mentioned or given an exhibit in the museum; perhaps because they‘ve only been here about 25 years.

Akha exhibit , Highlands Museum

Palong woman at the Tribal Life Festival

       The festival, like the museum, laid emphasis on entertainment and handicrafts.  But entertainment is part of traditional life.  And the handicrafts are like relics of a bygone age, when people made themselves what they wore and used every day, unlike these modern times, when folks simply buy readymade, manufactured items in the shops.  We cannot bring back Chiang Mai’s past, but thanks to its museums, it has been preserved for us to remember and appreciate.

Karen women at the Tribal Life Festival

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Houses in the Jungles

                                               by Jim Goodman

Akha village above the Mae Suai plain

       The monsoon has finished and the weather is cool and dry in the hills of Northern Thailand.  This is the building season for anyone who needs a new house, before the work activity shifts in late winter to preparing the fields for planting.  In recent times many of the mountain people have improved their lot enough to afford lumber or cement brought in from the plains.  Traditionally, though, they obtained all they needed for a house from the jungles that surrounded them.

       Except for the Karen, who began settling in Northern Thailand from the 18^th century, coming out of Myanmar, ethnic minorities only began migrating into the area in the 20^th century, particularly the last decades.  As the plains were already occupied, and as they had lived in the hills in their original homelands, bands of migrants picked a location deep within the forest with a reliable water source and cleared an area to establish a village.

Lahu village, Mae Kachan district

       The slash-and-burn type of agriculture the people pursued involved clearing a patch of forest to make fields.  But because the soil in the hills is not very rich, after two years they had to abandon the fields and clear another patch.  The monsoon regenerates the abandoned fields, though, and after several years farmers return to clear and utilize the same fields again. 

       These fields lie a little distant from the village, past the thick swathe of forest on all sides of the settlement.  Besides keeping them fairly isolated from the affairs of the cities, plains and governments, the forest location has other advantages conducive to a goal of relative self-sufficiency.  In addition to being a source of building materials, the jungle provides them with food like birds and wild game, plus edible plants and fungi, as well as medicinal herbs.

Akha house leaning against a slope

       Now men go into the forest and, wielding simple machetes, cut and shape hardwoods for use as house posts, chop study bamboo poles for the framework and split others for floors and wall planks.  After laying out the wood and bamboo to dry, they prepare cords of bark strips or rattan to lash the poles, beams and planks.  Meanwhile the women gather thick imperata grass near their fields and bind stalks of it together on bamboo sticks to make roofing sections.  

       The type of house built varies by ethnic group.  While they might live high up in the hills, the Hmong, Yao and Lisu tend to put their houses on relatively level areas in the section of the forest they have cleared.  These sit directly on the ground, though some may be raised on stilts, especially if they live nearer to the plains and Thai influence.

Karen village,Mae Sariang province

       Traditional houses among the Akha, Lahu, Karen and Palong are usually stilted.   Some lie angled on slopes, so that the stilts only hold up the lower end.  They also attach an open-air balcony on one side, used for drying laundry, dyed cloth, herbs and vegetables, or for just sitting in the sun, as opposed to the somewhat dark interiors. 

       All of them use the same building materials, but the architecture may differ a little.  Lahu and Palong houses tend to be longer than those of the Karen and Akha.  Usually staircases of wooden planks are at the entrances, but to get into a Lahu house one uses a notched log leaning against the balcony next to the front door.  Akha houses also have a pair of ‘horns’ over the apex of each end of the roof, rather like the traditional northern Thai houses in the plains.

Palong village, Doi Ang Khang

       Usually a few related families get together for the construction.  When all the materials are dried and ready the men, advised by the village’s most experienced architect, erect the framework, lay down the floor beams and end beams, then put up  the central support post..

       Before going any further, the house owner makes a ceremonial offering to the underground spirits, lest the disturbance of having a house built over them anger them to the troublemaking point.  Among the Akha, this is a small dish containing an egg, some rice grains and silver shavings.  The owner pours these into a crevice at the foot of the central support post.  Following this rite, construction resumes.

construction materials laid out to dry

       Men climb up the framework and fasten the roof poles together with rattan strips.  Then they lay out the sections of roof thatch the women have made, overlapping them so that they won’t leak in the rain.  On Akha houses the two poles at each end of the roof cross to form a V above the top of the roof.  Usually these are plain extensions of the poles.  But sometimes they are wooden additions, with curved ends like cattle, and with three to five serrated wooden swords suspended vertically below the apex.

       Making the frame is but a day’s task, but the rest of the work, inside and outside, requires more time.  They have to put up the already prepared walls, made of latticed split bamboo, lay out and bind together the floor strips, install shelves, make a couple windows and shutters and make one or two hearths.  Outside they have the balcony and its railing to construct, the granary to erect, the staircases to make for the entrances and the fences for the gardens and animal pens.

putting up the frame

Lahu man splitting bamboo

     One feature of Akha house interiors that distinguishes them from those of other hill people is the partition wall, running through about three-fourths of the center, that divides it into two sections.  One side is the women and children’s sleeping quarters and the other side is for men and guests.  Both side have a hearth, for traditionally men cooked the meat and tea and women cooked the rice and vegetables, as well as the animal feed, usually at a separate hearth by the door to the women’s entrance.  If the house is small it may have only one hearth, but with two cooking stands.

Palong girl making roofing

       According to Akha mythology, when only men lived on earth an Akha man was lonely and so the Creator God Apoemiyeh instructed him how to find a spirit wife.  When the man reached the appointed place and called out three times, a creature part tiger and part spirit appeared.  She was furry and naked, had long, sharp fangs, sickle-shaped fingernails and hoe-shaped toenails.  The man cut the bottom of a rice sack for her to wear (the prototype Akha miniskirt), slipped his shoulder bag over her head and took her home.  But that night the wife killed and devoured him.

       Then she desired a new husband and proposed to the first Akha man she met.  He deemed her too frightening to wed.  So she bade him to strike off her fangs and nails and build a wall inside the house, promising to stay on her side of the partition at night.  Reassured enough, he agreed, she kept her promise and eventually turned into an ordinary human Akha woman.  And the partition has persisted in Akha houses until today, even when they build a Thai-style house or become Christian.

Akha women making thatch roof sections

       The wall also plays a social role.  Women and children tend to retire early and wake up early, as do the animals.  The wall separates them at night from the men socializing on the other side, for they tend to stay up later.  The men’s side may also be ornamented with the jawbone of a boar or deer as a symbol of men’s hunting prowess.

       On the women’s side, as though recognizing that women bear the children who continue the ancestral line, are all the paraphernalia associated with ancestral rites.  The sacred bamboo section is fastened to the pole next to the central support post.  At harvest time the household will insert the first five panicles of cropped rice as an offering to the ancestors.  The ancestral basket stands beneath it, beside a small altar tray where the family leaves offerings during festival rites.

       The hearth, with Akha as well as other mountain people, is square, with logs or sticks for fuel laid at angles pointing to a common center.  The fire is left to smolder when not aflame.  A three-legged, circular, iron cooking stand straddles the fire.  Suspended over the hearth, a large square plank of plaited split bamboo holds several cups, bowls, plates, chopsticks, etc, made of bamboo and several large gourds, which will later be used as water containers.  The smoke wafting up from the fire gives these items a dark patina over time, hardens the surfaces and keeps insects from boring into them.

decorated Akha balcony and house 'horns'

Lahu house, Doi Ang Khang

       Usually household members sleep on raised beds along the back walls or else thick mattresses on bamboo mats.  They sit on round stools, about 12 cm high, with buffalo hide seats.  They dine at round or square tables of woven split bamboo and when not using them suspend then upside down above the hearth to get the same smoke treatment as the utensils and gourds.  Often the stools are stacked in a corner until mealtime and people simply squat or sit on the floor.

       Large woven bamboo hampers by the beds contain most of the clothing.  Bigger items might be hung from hooks on the back walls.   The shelves along the wall behind the hearth are filled with more gourds, water jugs, pots and pans, ladles, chopstick containers, flasks, traps, scales, farm tools, fishing gear, tobacco boxes, bamboo chili mortars, small baskets and assorted odds and ends.  Hunting equipment, like long-barreled rifles and crossbows, they place on the highest shelves to keep them out of the reach of children.

Akha woman pounding rice beneath the house

       Because of the overhanging roofs and few, if any, windows, which are more useful for letting out the smoke than letting in the light, the house interiors are dark.  Most hill tribe villages only received electricity in the 1990s.  Until then the only illumination they had inside, besides the fire, came from tiny oil lamps.  (But people could still run a television off a car battery.)

       As a result, work that requires good lighting, like embroidery, as well as much of the socializing, takes place around the porch by the door or on the adjoining balcony.  Its floor, like the one inside the house, is made of split bamboo, lashed across bamboo poles, rendering it a little springy and making it creak whenever anyone walks across it.  Bamboo railing lines the sides, the poles used for hanging laundry or dyed cloth.  A portion of the floor may be used for drying grains.  Children play here and sometimes the family chooses a warm and balmy evening to dine out on the balcony.

       Standing in the yard a little way from the house is the granary.  Except for what it will need for the day, the family keeps its rice and other crops in this elevated shed as a precaution.  If a fire should burn down the house, at least their food supply will survive.  A modest fence surrounds the yard, which may also have chicken coops and pigpens on the grounds and a small vegetable garden occupying one part.

Akha man plaiting split bamboo

       Often the pigs, like the dogs, roam freely all day, but always return to be fed.  They sleep under the house and the noises they make at night are part of everyday sounds for the residents and unlikely to wake them up as a consequence.  They also keep the mortar and pestle for pounding rice, operated by foot, underneath the house, since it is too big to put inside.

       Hill tribe houses are quite sturdy and can last generations.  They do require some periodic renovation, though.  After three years the thatched roof starts leaking and must be replaced.  Making new roof sections is thus a common early winter village activity, even when no new houses are being built.  Individual strips on the floors might also need replacement. 

       As for the attached balcony, that also needs periodic renovation and the Akha have a festival activity to determine whether it is necessary.  In the late summer, during Ka-ye-ye, en event staged to chase out lingering evil spirits in the village, children wield painted wooden swords and race through the village slashing away at invisible spirits.  They run up the women’s entrance into the house, then out the other side to jump up and down on the balcony.  If it starts to break, that signals the owners it’s time to change it.  So sometimes people try to stop; the kids from jumping on the balcony because they don’t want to have to change it just now.

       When construction is completed, or at least that much of it that requires outside assistance, the house owner holds a feast for all involved.  The host will slaughter a pig or a couple chickens, urge everyone to eat as much as they can hold and ply them with rice liquor to enhance the conviviality.  And they’ll be ready to join the work crew whenever any of their guests are ready to build their own new house.

Akha village houses and granaries, Chiang Rai province

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