Lost and Found: Chiang Mai’s Predecessor

                                   by Jim Goodman

Wat That Kao in Wiang Kumkam

       In the late 13^th century, a small Tai Yuan state in the far north of present-day Thailand, under the ambitious King Mengrai, began expanding south.  Assuming power in 1261 when he was just 22, the following year he moved his capital from Chiang Saen to a new city on the Kok River that he named after himself—Chiang Rai.  The new kingdom was Lanna, which translates as ‘a million rice fields.’  The next 15 years he spent consolidating and incrementally expanding his control over his neighbors.  Then at the end of the 1270s he heard about the wealth of Haripunchai, capital of a Mon kingdom in what is now Lamphun.

        After a carefully planned campaign of subterfuge carried out by a secret ally within Haripunchai, Mengrai captured it in 1281.  He stayed there for over a year, then traveled throughout his newly enlarged realm to oversee new fortifications and to endow monasteries. He did not intend to make Haripunchai his own capital, preferring to maintain it as a major Buddhist center.  Instead, in 1286 he ordered the construction of a new capital, on an existing Mon settlement, further north, at Wiang Kum Kam, a few km south of contemporary Chiang Mai.

the original foundations of Wat Chang Kam, from 1290

        Haripunchai was the most sophisticated place Mengrai had ever seen.  His capture of it involved no destruction at all and he seemed determined to preserve it as he found it. He definitely absorbed its influence and sought, by building a city on its model, next to a river, surrounded by walls and moats, to make something just as splendid.  Wiang Kumkam lay on the south side of a bend in the Ping River, and thus on the right bank, as Chiang Mai is today. 

       The location was prone to flooding, though, and after a few years Mengrai scouted the area for a new capital, founding Chiang Mai in 1296. Wiang Kumkam continued to exist as a kind of sister city and in fact, most of its ruins date from long after the transfer of the capital to Chiang Mai.  Sometime in the 17^th century, however, the Ping River changed its course, forcing the evacuation of its population, burying most of the city under 1.8 meters of sediment, and leaving it on the river’s left bank.

votive tablets unearthed at Wat Chang Kam

         For many generations Wiang Kumkam was just a memory that grew into a legend.  It was the Lost City, the Lanna Atlantis, the underground metropolis.  But nobody knew where it was.  Then in 1984 farmers in the area, while plowing their fields, unearthed some ancient votive tablets.  They turned them over to the Fine Arts Department of Chiang Mai University, who subsequently began excavating on the site.  It turned out to be Wat Chang Kam, the second oldest extant ruins in Wiang Kumkam, originally built in 1290.

       Only the foundations remain, but success here prompted excavations and restorations throughout the area.  At many of these sites just the foundations, and maybe parts of the columns, have been reconstructed.  A few contain well preserved chedis as well, and at Wat That Kao, renovators have restored a prominent Buddha statue by following the remnants of a lime-plastered, brick original found during the excavation.

Chedi Liam, from the west bank of the Ping River

statue of King Mengrai, Wat Phra Singh

         The most attractive remnant of Wiang Kumkam is Chedi Liam, at the western en d of the old city near the river.  Built in 1288, the first monument in the city, it copies the style of the Mon chedi in Lamphun’s (Haripunchai’s) Wat Chamadevi, dedicated to the city’s 8^th century founding queen.  Multi-tiered on a square base, with standing Buddha images in niches all around each level, it is unique to temple architecture around Chiang Mai.  The compound, like Wat Chang Kam, also has a new and active temple today, with resident monks.  Other buildings include the assembly hall, ordination hall and a shrine to the four-headed Erawan, the Thai equivalent of the Hindu Creator God Brahma.

Buddha images on Chedi Liam

       If Mengrai had a palace in Wiang Kumkam it hasn’t been discovered yet.  Because of the flooding, Mengrai soon sought a new site and didn’t sponsor any more construction other then Wat Chang Kam.  Always an astute politician, he had earlier in 1287 forged alliances with the rulers of the small state of Phayao and the much larger Kingdom of Sukhothai.  Ostensibly, this was a response to the establishment of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in China, although the Mongols never did invade Thailand. 

the compound of Wat Chedi Liam

       The alliance did prove useful to Mengrai in another sense, for, when he sought to build a new capital, he solicited the advice of his allies.  He had already scouted the area and roughly selected a site between the mountain Doi Suthep and the Ping Rive.  It was to be set a little distant from the riverbank, but close to tits tributary he Nam Kha River and its natural reservoir, northeast of old Chiang Mai, which would supply water to the city and its moats.

       Wiang Kumkam was a rectangular city, measuring 800 meters by 600 meters.  Mengrai envisioned a much larger city for his new capital, but his allies recommended something a little smaller.  In the end Chiang Mai, which literally means “new city,” was nearly square, 1.2 kilometers by 1 kilometer.  Like Wiang Kumkam (and Haripunchai), moats and walls surrounded the city. 

Sriphum Corner, where construction of Chiang Mai began

       Geomancers and astrologers determined the date and place for starting construction, which began at the northeast Sriphum Corner on 18 April, 1296.  While workers were busy building the city, Mengrai stayed in what is now the compound of Wat Chiang Man, which later became Chiang Mai’s first temple.  Its construction began in 1296, the same year as the foundation of the city. 

         From 1296 Chiang Mai was the most important city in Mengrai’s Kingdom of Lanna.  He subsequently marched his army south against the Mon kingdom of Hanthawaddy, centered around Pegu (now called Bago) in Lower Burma, but the Mon king there offered submission and bestowed his daughter as Mengrai’s bride.  Campaigning next against Bagan, he secured their submission as well.  Back in Lanna, he promulgated a law code that served the country throughout its existence.

bronze Buddha head found in Wiang Kumkam

the reconstructed Buddha at Wat That Kao

       Mengrai died in 1317 when struck by a lightning bolt while in the market at what is now Chedi Luang, in the center of the city.  Lanna then extended from the northern border of Thailand down to Lampang, with allied states or vassals on its southern borders.  Mengrai’s dynastic successors continued to rule until after the Burmese conquest in the mid-16^th century.

Wat E-Khang

       After his death, Mengrai became a kind of cult figure for the northern Thai, right down to contemporary times.  In Chiang Mai, the second oldest temple, now called Wat Mengrai, contains a tall standing Buddha whose face is allegedly modeled on that of Lanna’s first king.  A statue of him stands in the garden behind the temple.  Other Mengrai statues are in Wat Phra Singh and Wat Chedi Luang.  The latter compound also contains the City Pillar, supposedly erected on the spot where lightning struck the king.  As the building is not always open, city folk constructed a new shrine a block north, which is always loaded with flowers and other offerings.

       Venerated just as often is the Three Kings Monument, another block north of the shrine.  This sculpture commemorates the famed 1287 alliance and depicts Mengrai of Lanna, Ngam Mueang of Phayao and Ramkamhaeng of Sukhothai.  Elsewhere, Chiang Rai honors its founder with a huge statue of him in a popular park in the northern part of the city and a big new shrine has recently been built near the highway in Mae Chan district.  In Wiang Kumkam, Wat Phaya Mengrai, near Chedi Liam, is one of the excavated ruins, though only the foundations remain.  But at Wat Chang Kam, at the far end of the ruins, stands a shrine that claims to be the resting place of Mengrai’s spirit.  Thai tourists never fail to stop in to offer incense and prayers.

the chedi at Wat E-Khang

demon statue at Wat Ku Aisi

       Although after the founding of Chiang Mai Mengrai no longer paid attention to his former capital, Wiang Kumkam continued to exist as a kind of ‘sister city’ to Chiang Mai.  Members of the royal family had homes there and Mengrai even returned there for a while in 1311 to recover from an illness.  Royalty and nobility continued to sponsor the construction of more temples.  Its position on the river gave it good commercial connections and among the items excavated were Yuan and Ming Dynasty ceramics from China.  Even after the Burmese conquered Chiang Mai in 1558 Wiang Kumkam continued to function as a city.  Burmese policy at this time was to rule Lanna as a semi-autonomous vassal state and to respect local culture and patronize the religion, which was the same Theravada Buddhism of their own country. 

Wat Nanchang, the north-facing temple

       As a result, still more temples were erected in Wiang Kumkam in the 16^th and 17^th centuries until the Ping River suddenly changed course sometime in the mid-17^th century, swerved west and inundated the city, forcing its abandonment.  All the residents moved far away and the area remained deserted until the beginning of the 19^th century.  Wars with Burma had all but depopulated much of the north in the last decades of the 18^th century.  After King Kawila from Lampang re-established Lanna in 1796, people began leaving their forest hideouts to make farms and villages again.  And those who settled in the Wiang Kumkam area had no idea an ancient city lay beneath their homes and fields until farmers found those ancient votive tablets in 1984.

Wat Huamong

       For the next twenty years archaeologists excavated and restored as much as possible in over two dozen sites.  Today it is an ever more popular tourist attraction in Chiang Mai, different from visiting ancient cities like Ayutthaya, Phimai or Sukhothai, where all the monuments are enclosed together.  At Wiang Kumkam the ruins lie scattered among village neighborhoods, with houses right next to them.

       The area is too big to cover on foot, so groups take tourist carts or buses and individuals explore by bicycle or motorbike.  Another option is to take a leisurely ride on a pony cart, which seats up to three and costs 300 baht (c. $9) for a tour around nine temples.  Traffic is very light throughout the area and various drink and snack shops exist along the roads and in the two new temple compounds at Chedi Liam and Wat Chang Kam. 

elephants at the base of a Wat Huanong chedi

       The pony carts start from the park’s official entrance, next to the highway around the corner from Wat Chang Kam. Those on bicycles or motorbikes, though, can also start from Chedi Liam and follow the signs indicating the name, direction and distance of the various ruins.  A section of the original moat and city wall remnants lie just east of Chedi Liam, with Wat Phaya Mengrai on the other side.  Further on the road passes Wat That Kao and its large reconstructed Buddha image.  It’s the only Buddha image in any of the sites, though bronze and stone sculptures have been excavated and are now displayed at Chiang Mai’s National Museum.

       The ruined chedi at Wat That Kao rises a little higher than its base, but two other sites a little north feature relatively intact, full-sized chedis,  They are in a different style than Chedi Liam and probably indicative of the type of chedis that used to stand in all the other excavated sites.  The older compound, Wat Pupia, holds the foundations of the viharn and ordination hall, a small water tank in front of the latter and the chedi towers behind the viharn.  The statues in the niches are gone, but some of the stucco sculpture around them remains. 

Wat Ku Magleua

       The other extant chedi is at Wat E-Khang, one of the last to be built in the city.  The original name has been lost, but because it was until recently a haunt of wild monkeys, local people began calling it E-Khang, after the Northern Thai word for monkey (khang). 

       Most of the ruins are just reconstructed brick foundations and the bases of vanished chedis, but even a few of these can be interesting.  Wat Nanchang is a rather large compound and, unusual for Thai temples, faced north, to the Ping River’s course at that time.  Wat Huanong, from the 15^th-16^th centuries, contains the foundations of several buildings, part of the entry gate and four extant elephant sculptures around the base of a chedi.  Wat Ku Aisi features a large demon statue.

       Other ruins, though without any sculpture or chedi, local people continue to venerate by adding  small modern sculptures and a makeshift altar.  At Wat Ku Khao, next to the tree-lined road to Lamphun, it’s a larger bronze seated Buddha.  For local people, they may not be very familiar with the ancient city’s history, but the excavators have uncovered many hitherto unknown holy places that they must recognize and venerate.  The buildings may be in ruins, but the gods are still there.

Wat Pupia

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The Last Restorations of Classic Chiang Mai

                                                     by Jim Goodman

Sriphum Corner, 1989

Sriphum Corner today

       In 1996 Chiang Mai celebrated its 700^th anniversary.  In preparation for this event the city renovated the five gates around its old town, added sections of the former walls that were demolished, along with the city gates, during the Japanese occupation in World War II, and improved the condition of the four original bastions, which had not been torn down, that stood at each corner of the city.  It also renovated a few of its most famous temples for the occasion.

       However, this process did not extend to all of Old Chiang Mai’s notable temples.  Chiang Mai became the new capital of the independent Kingdom of Lanna in 1296 and retained that role until conquered by Burma in 1558.  While Burmese governors did sometimes sponsor temple construction in the city, thereby ingratiating themselves with the natives, the temples most important religiously and politically to the former regime were ignored and even abandoned. 

       In 1774 King Kawila of Lampang, allied with King Taksin of Siam, expelled the Burmese occupiers, but then removed the remaining population and abandoned the city.  After campaigns to drive the Burmese out of northern Thailand entirely and raids on northeast Burma to kidnap people and resettle them in Lanna, Kawila began reconstructing Chiang Mai and officially re-established the city in 1796, five hundred years after its original foundation. 

       Kawila oversaw the restoration of the most important Lanna temples, like Phra Singh, Chedi Luang and Wat Chiang Man, today’s most popular tourist attractions, but others were left in dilapidated condition or, except for the original chedi, left in ruins, their other buildings pilfered for construction elsewhere.  In some cases this situation remained even until after the 700^th anniversary.

Wat Inthakin

       In the 21^st century, in response to both the spurt in tourism, foreign and domestic, and increasing awareness and pride in its cultural heritage, city authorities began targeting the last long-neglected monuments for renovation.   Among these was Wat Inthakin, in the north central part of the old town, which was actually the first religious building erected in the city during its original construction in the 1290s.  It housed the City Pillar, its palladium, which, unlike other city pillars in Thailand, was a standing Buddha image.  (Kawila later removed it to a separate shrine in Wat Chedi Luang.)

       With its limited function, Wat Inthakin was not a monastery and consists only of its main worship hall (viharn), a couple of old chedis to its rear and another across the street.  The elegant, restored viharn has a two-tiered, nearly black roof, with gilded edges and gilded embellishments in the front, rendering it one of the most beautiful buildings in the city.

museum mural of daily life in the 15th century

       Next to Wat Inthakin is a museum dedicated to the life and times of King Tilokarat, who reigned 1441-1487, considered Lanna’s Golden Age.  Tilokarat expanded the kingdom’s territory in all directions, which is shown on a map inside, and was also a great promoter of Buddhism.  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, 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.

Chedi Plong

       This century’s renovations also included sites in the suburbs outside the old walled city.  Haiya, the neighborhood adjacent to the old town’s southern moat, was home to commoners, particularly crafts workers, who were not permitted to live within the city proper.  An earthen wall surrounded the area and residents had their own chedis and temples.  

       Suriyawong Road, directly south of Chiang Mai Gate, hosts a few of these, including a lone brick chedi in the Sukhothai style and a couple of temple compounds.  The further of these, Wat Yang Kuang, features a recently restored chedi.  Rising from an octagonal base, except for its gilded crown at the very top, it is all white, making it look almost like a modern creation.

       In contrast, the restored Chedi Plong at Wat Chiang Chom, north of the old town near Sri Wattana market, retains its original brick structure and unusual circular shape.  The adjoining temple compound is all newly rebuilt, and the Buddha image at the base of the chedi is recent, but the chedi itself is basically the original one, with a shape unique to the city and representative of the great variety of chedi styles erected in Old Chiang Mai.

the gutters and chedi at Wat Jedlin

       Within the old city, the most important renovation was that of Wat Jedlin, on Phrapokllao Road, south of the city center.  It was one of those temples abandoned during the Burmese occupation, not re-established by Kawila or anyone since, including the committee assigned to preparing Chiang Mai for its 700^th anniversary.  It was originally the site for the coronation of King Kae Mu, the last monarch of independent Lanna.  Until 2004, all that remained of the wat was its chedi and a large Buddha head on a platform next to a pipal tree.  Behind it was a swamp.

       The renovation program began with enclosing the compound with a wall and erecting an elaborate brick and stucco entrance gate on Phrapokklao Road.  Unfortunately, appreciation of this is marred by the presence of a jumble of wires attached to a concrete pillar beside it.  Visitors usually go in through the wider vehicle entrance to its left.   The new, triple-roofed viharn is just behind the entrance gate. Inside in front of the altar are a few very realistic statues of the temple’s most famous monks, along with a Chinese Buddha in the front, a Burmese one in the middle and a large Lanna-style Buddha in the back.

antique Buddha head, Wat Jedlin

the praying skeleton

       The antique Buddha head in the courtyard next to the viharn has also been restored, with a concrete nose and left eye.  A small altar behind it features a mock skeleton dressed in a white suit.  When people drop a donation into the box beside it, the skeleton bows forward with hands folded and recites a prayer.

       Right behind the viharn is the original chedi, dating back to at least the 16^th century.  On the lowest tier of the base sit a row of nine round stone balls.  Called luknimit in Thai, these stones are ordinarily buried in the ground to mark the boundary of the temple when it is first built or undergoes restoration.  If they are out in public it indicates a reconstruction or renovation is being planned though that may be a long way off yet.  Meanwhile devotees come to make merit by adorning the stones with wafers of gold leaf.  On the day of the luknimits’ ceremonial burial, people come to add to that burial objects that symbolize their desires in the same hole as the luknimits:  notebooks and pencils to improve their memories, needles to sharpen their brains and threads to represent a continuous line of progress in their lives.

symbolic animal, Wat Jedlin

       Wat Jedlin mean the Temple of the Seven Gutters, or Troughs, that have been mounted once again next to the chedi.  In classical times the king allegedly sat at the end of these gutters for a ceremonial cleansing bath.  Nowadays a Buddha image sits at the end of the gutters, bathed during major festivals.

       The swamp behind the chedi has been cleaned up and reduced to an attractive pond.  A rickety bamboo bridge spans it, with rest stops along the way, and ends at the monks’ quarters on the other side.  Visitors can enroll in a session of Monk Chat, also offered at other Chiang Mai temples, and converse with English-speaking monks about Buddhism, monastic life or anything else.

       The monks are from the immediate neighborhood, for the restoration of Wat Jedlin went beyond historical reconstruction to revival of an institution.  An example of its new neighborhood relevance is the contribution to the compound of a new symbolic sculpture of a strange black and white animal with four ears and five eyes, mounted next to the old Buddha head.  A poster next to it explains that the creature represents Buddhist precepts. The four ears represent the four virtues of loving kindness, compassion, empathy and equanimity.  The five eyes stand for the five taboos against killing, stealing, unlawful sex, harmful speech and using intoxicants.

pond in front of Wat Jedlin's monks' quarters

       The other major temple restoration, actually completed before that of Wat Jedlin, was of Wat Lokmolee, just outside the old city moat on its northwest side.  King Ku Na, the 6^th monarch of the Mengrai Dynasty, who ruled 1367-1388, established the site as a residence for ten Burmese monks he invited to live in Lanna.  Its importance rose in 1527 with the construction of a viharn and the second tallest chedi in Chiang Mai, after the one at Wat Chedi Luang.  From then on it was known as Wat Lokmolee, the Topknot of the World.

       This was also the year Lanna’s Golden Age ended and the kingdom began its decline.  King Ket Chettharat, who had just come to power, was a weak ruler who alienated his court officials, who deposed him in 1538.  But his son proved an even worse ruler and these same officials deposed and executed him in 1543 and restored Ket Chettharat.  Two years later he also suffered assassination and his daughter Chiraprapha became Queen Regent. 

       Two weeks after her accession a major earthquake struck Chiang Mai and toppled the towering chedi at Wat Chedi Luang.  Shortly afterwards Ayutthaya invaded Lanna.  Unable to raise enough troops from the other parts of the country, perhaps because she was a woman, she had to agree to Ayutthaya’s terms.  When Ayutthaya attacked again the following year her forces defeated them.

the viharn's front entrance

the viharn's side entrance

       Then she abdicated in favor of her son Sethathirat, who ruled just one year and then moved to Luang Phabang to become king there, taking the Emerald Buddha of Chiang Mai with him.  Lanna’s misfortune continued as the country was without a king at all for three years.  Finally, Mae Ku mounted the throne, but wasted the country’s resources on inconclusive border wars.  In 1558 King Bayinnaung of Pegu captured the city after only token resistance. 

       Mae Ku served as a vassal ruler until deposed and exiled to Burma in 1564.  His wife succeeded him in the role as Queen Wisuttha Thewi until her death in 1578.  From then on the Burmese installed their own sovereigns.  Wat Lokmolee lost its royal patronage.  Its chedi housed the remains of the murdered Ket Chettharat, probably those of Chiraprapha and for certain those of Wisuttha Thewi.  But it was no longer an active temple.  Its neglected buildings, except for the chedi, which remained in place right down to the 21^st century, fell into ruin and eventually people removed the bricks and timber. 

Phya Phom, the god with four heads

roof decorations on the viharn

       Reconstruction began in 2003 by walling off the compound, erecting a tall, ornate entrance gate and building a new viharn in the classic Lanna style with a triple roof of dark tiles.  Tall, carved staffs, with portraits of the twelve calendar animals, flank the front and side entrances.  Carved plaques depicting scenes from Buddhist mythology grace the interior walls and the space above the entrance.  The interior features a massive seated Buddha, decorated walls and a ceiling painted with floral and geometric designs and a scene from the Buddha’s life.

       Besides the monks’ quarters, the temple’s renovation included the addition of features not part of the original compound.  Now there are statues of Phra Phom, the four-headed Thai equivalent of the Hindu Creator God Brahma, a multi-armed bodhisattva Guan Yin, the Mahayana Buddhist goddess of compassion, and a reclining Ganesh, the elephant-headed son of Shiva.

       In front of the chedi is a rope pulley, for a bamboo tube attached to a gilded, dragon-headed bird.  Devotees fill the tube with water and then pull it on the rope high up on the chedi.  At the end it dumps the water to splash on one of the Buddha images on a tier of the chedi, an act of merit for Thai Buddhists.

statue of Queen Chiraprapha

devotional water tube at the chedi

       The most notable addition, though, is the shrine to Queen Chiraprapha just inside the compound.  The bronze sculpture dates its creation to 2003, the year of the temple’s reconstruction, and is the only reminder of her historical existence in the city.  She ruled Lanna only about a year and a half and the circumstances of her abdication, and what happened to her afterwards, remain undocumented and unclear.

       Yet the shrine has become popular among Chiang Mai women and fresh flowers and offerings mark the site every day.  After all, she was independent Lanna’s only queen, obviously installed after her father’s deposition because she was qualified, She abdicated after defeating and inflicting great losses on Ayutthaya’s second invasion, so one could say she retired in triumph.  All those factors make her, in the minds of Chiang Mai’s female devotees, worthy of veneration.

the restored Wat Lokmolee

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