Why Chiang Mai?

                                                                         by Jim Goodman

Chang Puak Gate and Doi Suthep

       Thirty years have passed since I decided to make Chiang Mai my home.  Of course the city is much bigger now, more congested, more polluted, but that’s true almost everywhere.  It swarms with tourists during the dry months and is still pretty crowded even in the rainy season.  But increasing tourism is a permanent phenomenon for any attractive destination and Chiang Mai gets such attention because it truly deserves it.  Its location, size, cultural features, religious and historical monuments all contribute to its popularity for travelers, and were precisely the characteristics that first enchanted me. 

the iron bridge across the Ping River

       The city lies on a broad plain between the mountain Doi Suthep to the west and the Ping River to the east.  With mountains on the horizon, especially north and west, towering trees both right inside the city and gracing the banks of the moats and the river, Chiang Mai is easy on the eyes. 

       Even with its expansion over the past three decades, it’s still a small city.  Traffic can be pretty heavy at times, yet if you’re on a motorbike instead of driving a car, even in rush hour you can be in the quiet, clean-air countryside in less than half an hour.  Most of the city traffic emanates from the business district near the river and the suburbs.  The old town, the main focus for tourists, experiences far less traffic.

Ku Ruang, the southwest bastion

       Chiang Mai dates its creation to 1296, founded by Mengrai, King of Lanna, a state that at its peak comprised most of the provinces of Northern Thailand.  Roughly square-shaped, 1.5 km per side, surrounded by moats, the city had five entry gates, bastions at the four corners and brick walls connecting them.  Mainly the extended royal family and some of the nobility lived within the walls, while commoners dwelt outside.  From its inception the city had many temples and another large portion of the city’s population were resident monks. 

       Today the old town has about forty temples within the moats and many more in the neighborhoods beyond them.  One cannot walk very far without passing by a temple compound and the high sloping roofs of the viharn, the main assembly building, and the spires of the chedi, the reliquary building shaped like an inverted bell that stands behind the viharn, are often taller than surrounding secular buildings.  Towering skyscrapers are absent from the old town, and much of the rest of the city as well, a factor adding to the pleasure of exploring it.

Wat Phra Singh compound

       In the early 90s, though, real estate speculation threatened to turn Chiang Mai into a Little Bangkok.  Condos and high-rise hotels began going up at a frantic pace.  Ownership changed hands several times before the building’s completion.   Meanwhile debris from the construction process fell into people’s yards and monastery compounds.

       By the mid-90s city residents were more than just annoyed.  Before work began on the Rimping Condominium next to the Nakhon Ping Bridge, angry neighbors called in monks to curse the ground.  Then they put up a banner just across the street announcing what they had done.  The condo went up anyway, but after its completion it was nearly three years before anyone moved into it.

ruins at Wat Chedi Luang

       The governor rebutted these complaints by stating that Chiang Mai needed development and that meant more condos and hotels.  But shortly after that an earthquake struck, cracking four of the condos.  Nobody was hurt and it fact it was a mild tremor, but it did scare people living near anything tall.  Then the governor himself died in a helicopter crash.  His successor reversed policy and limited new buildings within the city limits to six stories.  Those that had already begun construction were permitted to rise according to the original plan.  But since then, the six-story rule has held and all the tall buildings standing in the city today are at least twenty years old. 

sculpted horses at Wat Khun Kha Ma

       Thus Chiang Mai did not become Little Bangkok after all.  It retained its identity as a small, pedestrian-friendly city, full of historical and religious monuments, free of the hustle and bustle of a major metropolis, even though it’s Thailand’s second largest city.  There are no industrial complexes or big factories in the area and tourism, broadly defined, is the biggest industry. 

       Temples and the historical remnants are the main tourist attractions.  Temples all over Thailand feature ancient chedis, outstanding sculptures and so forth and so do various Chiang Mai temples.  The most famous chedi is that at Wat Chedi Luang, which in the 15^th century stood 95 meters tall, truly the region’s first religious skyscraper.  A major earthquake in 1545 knocked down the upper part, never rebuilt.  What’s left of it still rises higher than all other buildings around it.

Tha Pae Gate

       Some temples are unique to Chiang Mai.  I include Wat Lamchang, Temple of the Tethered Elephants, erected on old Lanna’s royal elephant stable and full of elephant statues in the compound.  Not far away is Wat Khun Kha Ma, built on the former royal stables after an epidemic slew the horses and the distraught owner wanted to commemorate his beloved animals.  Finally, there is Wat Lokmolee, across the northeast side of the moat, which has a special shrine to Chiraprapha, the only Queen Regnant in Lanna history, who ruled briefly about a dozen years before the Burmese conquered the city in 1558.

       All these details became familiar to me the more I explored Chiang Mai, augmenting my appreciation of the city.  In 1996 the city celebrated its 700^th anniversary by restoring some of the old temples and city walls.  Wat Lokmolee’s restoration came only this century, along with a few other temples.  This exemplified another notable feature of Chiang Mai.  Its people have a strong sense of their own separate cultural and historical development, without that sliding into nationalism or separatism, such as affects the Shan in Myanmar.  One manifestation of that is keeping their historical monuments in good shape and restoring whatever can be restored.

alms-giving in the old town

       When the Japanese occupied Chiang Mai they tore down the gates and walls to use the bricks to make new roads.  They left the four corner bastions standing though, but it was not until the late 1960s that the city got around to reconstructing the gates.  And only in the mid-90s were parts of the walls rebuilt.

       Of the city gates, the most important today is Tha Pae Gate, the eastern one, with a large plaza in front and the only one vehicular traffic cannot pass through.  It’s popular in the morning with tourists who want to pose for photos with the pigeons.  It is also the venue for special city events—beauty contests, stage shows, New Year’s countdown--and festival processions pass by here.  Opposite Chang Puak Gate, the northern one, and right next to Chiang Mai Gate, the southern one, food stalls open at night, with a variety of inexpensive meals on offer.

northern beauty on a Loy Krathong float

Flower Festival procession

       Another example of the Northern Thai people’s cultural consciousness is their enthusiastic celebration of the city’s festivals.  A majority of these are Buddhist events and largely restricted to gatherings at the temples, though one of them, Buddha’s birthday, includes a procession up Doi Suthep the night before.  Religion is still a major factor in local people’s lives and many Chiang Mai residents rise early to donate food, money and other daily necessities into the monks’ begging bowls when they make their morning rounds.

summer flowers on Rattanakosin Street

       Others are basically secular, even if they have accompanying rituals.  The most famous is Songkran, 13-15 April, marking the traditional Thai New Year.  It’s also known as the Water-Throwing Festival, after its primary activity—people throwing water on each other the whole day long for three days.  After one experience of it I have tended to avoid it over the years.

       The most attractive event is Loy Krathong, held for three days around the full moon of November.  People make krathongs—small boats made out of banana leaf, containing flowers, incense and a candle—and float them in the Ping River.  This is done to persuade the river goddess to cease the rain, for it’s harvest time soon, and take the waters back, by giving her a beautiful send-off.  Processions, fireworks, stage shows and thousands of floating lanterns wafting into the sky these nights make it the most spectacular and enjoyable public event of the year.

flowering trees on the northern moat

       The Tourism Authority of Thailand added another annual event to the calendar with the creation of the Flower Festival the first weekend of February.  Heavily decorated floats on flatbed trucks file in a procession from the train station all the way through downtown Chiang Mai to Buag Had Park in the southwest part of the old town.  Here they stay another day, while various food and commercial stalls set up on adjacent streets. 

       For a resident then, Chiang Mai has regular public events to punctuate the year.  Some are rather sedate temple affairs, but others, like Loy Krathong, are spectacles worth seeing every time they occur.  Loy Krathong occurs at the beginning of the cool, dry season, the most comfortable time of year.  Temperatures drop somewhat the next couple months, but not to the level of more northern countries.  It never snows here or at night gets colder than ten degrees Celsius. 

200 year-old tree at Wat Chedi Luang

sacred trees on the road to Lamphun

       From March through May is the hot, dry season, with temperatures reaching up to forty degrees Celsius in the daytime.  Yet the nights are pleasant and in compensation for the heat, tropical fruits abound in the market and flowers bloom on the trees along the moat and throughout the suburbs.  When the rains commence in June-July, the temperatures drop a bit and the rain comes mostly at night and rarely all day long.

monk procession on a Buddhist holy day

Lahu Shehleh in Warorot Market

      Besides their colorful displays when they blossom, some of Chiang Mai’s trees are believed to be home to guardian spirits, like the towering dipterocarp planted by Kawila at Chedi Luang, after he resurrected Chiang Mai in 1796, following the expulsion of the Burmese.  The biggest trees in temple courtyards date from the compound’s original construction or a major renovation.  To honor the tree’s guardian spirit, devotees place poles at its base to prop it up and relieve the stress of its weight.  Other venerable trees feature shrines in front and the tall trees parallel to the old road south to Lamphun are wrapped in yellow robes to indicate their sanctity.  They make this route the most beautiful drive in any direction outside Chiang Mai.

street mural, Loi Kroa Road

       Modern Chiang Mai has its supermarkets and shopping malls, but the traditional markets, like Warorot and Muang Mai along the river, are still quite active, the latter all night long.  The scenes here are sometimes enhanced by visits of ethnic minorities from the mountains, dressed in their traditional clothing, especially Lahu Shehleh, Hmong, Akha and Palong, which adds an exotic, colorful aspect to the streets, yet another attraction of life in Chiang Mai. 

       Night markets are also popular, especially with tourists, both the Night Bazaar on Changklang Road and the ‘walking street’ weekend markets Saturday on Wualai Road, southeast of Chiang Mai Gate, and Sundays on the road between Tha Pae Gate and Wat Phra Singh.  Lanna handicrafts dominate the goods on sale, from hill tribe products to items from long-established specialty villages, like celadon wares from San Kamphaeng, umbrellas from Bor Sang, woodcarvings from Hangdong and silver and lacquer creations from Chiang Mai’s Haiya district.

       In addition to its traditional crafts, Chiang Mai is one of the country’s prime artistic centers, home to many modern artists.  The city has several galleries and art and photography exhibitions take place throughout the year.  Imaginative street artists have also covered bare compound walls with their works and when riding around familiar routes I often come across new murals that cause me to stop for a bit and appreciate.

rising of a 'super moon' over the banks of the Ping River

       Beyond the city’s assets, which I am constantly discovering the longer I stay here, Chiang Mai is close to other attractions in the region.  It is a short, pleasant drive to ancient Lamphun, whose moats, walls and religious architecture had a profound impact on Mengrai and his foundation of Chiang Mai.  The hills, valleys and gardens of Mae Rim are less than an hour away going north.  Hmong, Lahu and Karen villages are within easy reach, while Akha, Lisu, Palong and Yao villages are further on.  Forest parks and scenic reservoirs are also within easy access, while the Ping River itself is most attractive near the city and a great venue for sunset and moonrise viewing.

       All these features make the city increasingly popular with tourists, but they hardly ever get in my way.  Tourism development has basically meant more hotels and restaurants, so if I fancy a different meal than the local food that I ordinarily prefer, I can choose among a variety of Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, German, French, American and Italian restaurants.  It’s obvious why Chiang Mai became a tourist hub, as well as a favorite place for retirees and pensioners.  They are all here for the same reasons that lured me to remain for three decades so far, with little inclination to seek anything conceivably better.

wooden foot-bridge over the northern moat

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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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