Chiang Mai

1st March

My first experience of Chiang Mai was at night. I had a wander round - the street food stalls are all close to the hostel. I actually wasn't going to come to Chiang Mai, due to it being burn season. In the dry season between February and April, they burn the rice fields and agricultural waste in preparation for growing new crops. I'd checked the air quality reports and it didn't seem that bad. I must admit though, in the morning there did seem to be a haze over the mountains.

I finally tried one of the steamed buns - which was nice.

The next day I decided to do a walk around all the temples, but after the first temple, I started to feel extremely tired and it wasn't just the heat. I felt like I was coming down with the flu or a cold or something, and my body started to ache.

Wanting to fight on, I took some paracetamol and carried on.

Wat Lok Moli

Here you could fill a container with holy water and hoist it up to the Buddha as a blessing

Wat Chiang Man - the city's oldest temple - built in 1296

Three Kings Monument - the kings who founded the city

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Kings_Monument

There was some celebration being prepared for in the square.

I decided to visit the museum, which was nice and cool inside. It was a colonial style building, with information on the history of the city and the origins of the people and culture

From back in the stone age:

and bronze age

Archaeologists and historians assumed that Tai or Yuan ethnic groups began migrating south from China in the 11 th century to the land the Lua had occupied.

According to the Chiang Mai Chronicle, the first person in the recorded history of this region is King Mangrai, whose mother, Ua Ming Chom Mueang, was a Tai Lue princess from Chiang Rung, Sipsongpanna (Xishuangbanna), China.

In 1263, King Mangrai founded the city of Chiang Rai or Yonok Nakorn as his new capital in the Kok River basin. (Two decades later, he moved further south determined to conquer the Prosperous Mon kingdom of Hariphunchai (now Lamphun).) This was the start of the founding of Lanna Kingdom

Shortly after defeating the Hariphunchai Kingdom, King Mangrai decided to relocate his capital and create the new capital of the Lanna Kingdom.

He was searching for a perfect location, looking for "Auspicious Signs" and ""Seven Signs of Good Omens", according to traditional concepts and beliefs. He came across an ideal location at the foothills of Doi Suthep, the land sloped down from the west to the great Ping river basin in the east. Unlike earlier settlements of other cities which were oval, the fortified city was almost a square in shape.

Like other cities of the period, Chiang Mai was built according to traditional astrological and religious principles. The shape of the city symbolises the human figure the head, back, stomach, hands and feet. 

In addition, the belief of Trai Phum or the Three Worlds which are the Sensual World, the Form World and the Formless World, influenced city planning.

According to the Chiang Man Temple Stone Inscription, Chiang Mai was founded on Thursday, the 8th day of a waxing moon, in the 6th lunar month of the Year of the Monkey, 1296 at four in the morning.

The Ping River basin has been the centre for civilisations since ancient times, fed & protected by mountains 

Coronation ritual

Textiles

Rice and Food

Tai food is a blend of local vegetables and herbs (galangal, ginger, Iemon grass, bean, sesame seeds) and water animals caught on the fertile rice fields or river. The Tai peoples have a shared culture of cultivating rice, preserving food and cooking. Various cooking techiques such as grilling, roasting in banana leaves and smoking were used by Tai people. Preserved fish, bean and vegetables were also popular because they could be kept throughout the year. Among Tai-speaking rice farmers it was common belief that woven bamboo known as 'Ta Laew' or 'Eagles eyes' prominently placed in the middle of the rice fields would protect the crops from harm and ward off evil spirits.

Lanna Texts and Buddist scripts 

Lanna currency

There were some missionaries around 1864 but as we know, Thailand never became colonised - due to strong ruling Kings at the time.

There are still Hilltribes with their own identity 

Determined to see more temples I went on to Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang

Then Wat Chedi Luang......although getting 'templed out ' I may have mixed some of these up!

I think this is a city pillar before being damaged by the 1545 earthquake but I wasn't 100% sure 

I was growing tired now & keen to see Wat Sri Suphan - The Silver Temple - ladies are not allowed inside for fear of 'damaging the sacred relics, causing them to lose their power' according to Lanna beliefs.

The Silver temple was constructed around 2004 but the site has existed since 1500.

Year of the Pig

I like how the blue tiles make it look like a river flowing out of  the temple door.

It's quite beautiful and I loved the depictions of other sites around the world. 

There were Silver workshops dotted around

I headed back to the hostel to sleep 

.....and basically, that's where I stayed that evening & the whole next day, mainly sleeping & only surfacing to write a bit & drink water. 

I must have got some kind of bug. Hopefully not Maleria or Dengue fever ........I'm being dramatic 🙄......of course.