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Chiang Mai's status
as Thailand's primary arts and crafts centre extends far back into
Thai history. Dating from at least the 15th century,
Chinese mule-and-pony caravans used Chiang Mai as a key relay point
for goods transported between China and the Indian Ocean port of
Moulmein in Burma. By the end of the 19th century many
artisans from China, northern Burma and Laos had settled in the
area to produce crafts for the steady flow of regional trade. This
trade focused on a market district known as Ban Haw, just across
the Ping River from the main ferry landing (thaa phae, the
foot of today's Tha Phae Road) for caravans arriving from the east.
The Ban Haw market eventually became the modern-day Night Bazaar
along Chang Khlan Road.
While merchants carried out their business
in Ban Haw, the chang or artisans themselves formed communities
to the east of Chiang Mai alongside the main caravan route heading
into the city. Two such communities were Sankamphaeng and Bo Sang,
which today remain home to many of Chiang Mai's most talented craftspeople.
Surrounded by mountains on three sides
and the Ping River on the fourth, the square, walled-and-moated
city of Chiang Mai remained isolated from the rest of Thailand until
relatively recent times. A railway link with the Lanna capital was
only completed in 1921. In 1927, King Rama VII and Queen Rambaibani
rode into the city at the head of an 84-elephant caravan, becoming
the first central Thai monarchs to visit the North, and in 1933
Chiang Mai officially became a province of Siam.
Meanwhile Bangkok and Central Thailand
had modernised quickly during the late 19th and early
20th centuries. One of the side effects of this modernisation
process was that Bangkokians began to prefer imported goods or Thai
imitations of imported goods. Hence the culture of the Thai artisan
was all but lost in Thailand's geographic heart.
In Lanna, locally created arts and
crafts remained a mainstay of the economy throughout this era of
transition. Chiang Mai's fortuitous isolation thus helped to preserve
the Thai artisan culture so that when Bangkokians -- as well as
cultures outside Thailand -- once again became interested in works
of local provenance during the latter half of the 20th
century, the talents and treasures of the North were still accessible
and available. Today chances are that almost any shop producing
handicrafts anywhere in the kingdom has in its employ at least one
artisan hailing from Chiang Mai.
All of Chiang Mai's arts and crafts
show a blend of local and international influences. Along with the
Mon art of Hariphunchai, absorbed when King Mengrai annexed the
kingdom to Lanna, Chiang Mai benefited from a constant influx of
peoples from neighbouring China, Myanmar and Laos, not to mention
indigenous groups such as the Lawa. Other Thai-speaking ethnic groups,
particularly the Thai Lü and Shan, also affected the development
of Lanna arts and crafts.
SILVER
Lacquerware
with motifs in gold
Photo © Tourism Authority of Thailand |
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Chiang Mai chronicles recount that
500 silversmithing families who fled the Mongol invasion of Burma
in 1284 took up residence outside the city's southern gates, in
an area known as Wualai. Strolling along Wualai Road today, you'll
hear the clinking sounds of iron on silver, as the descendants of
these early Lanna artisans continue to hammer out Thailand's finest
silverwork.
Chiang Mai silversmiths are distinguished
by their skill with repoussé, in which silver objects
are hammered from the inside to raise beautiful relief patterns.
Rising as much as an inch from the background, these reliefs typically
encompass rich floral or animal patterns.
Silver art most highly valued in Chiang
Mai today include elaborate ceremonial bowls and trays meant to
hold offerings for royal or religious ceremonies. Delicately ornamented
boxes, spittoons, and other accoutrements used to support the once-prevalent
Lanna habit of betel and areca nut chewing -- sold in sets known
as chian maak -- are also favoured among collectors.
Smaller pieces in the form of pendants,
necklaces, bracelets and rings are a specialty of northern Thailand's
hill tribes, particularly the Lisu, Akha, Hmong and Mien.
LACQUERWARE
Lacquerware
with motifs in gold
Photo © Tourism Authority of Thailand |
Although several Asian countries are
known for lacquerware, the predominant style of incised lacquer-work
most seen today dates to 11th-century Chiang Mai. Originally an
art developed by the Thai Khün community, lacquerware was a
method of creating bowls, cups, vases, trays, and plates that were
impervious to leaks or waterlogging -- ancient precursors to Tupperware.
Purely decorative items -- such as octagonal folding tables or tableaux
intended for hanging on walls -- have expanded the lacquer artisan's
repertoire in the post-plastic era.
To make lacquerware, a sticky resin
from the Melanorrhea usitata tree is typically mixed with
paddy-husk ash to form a light, flexible, waterproof shell over
bamboo-strip frames. For top-quality lacquerware, artisans weave
only the basic frame from bamboo, before meticulously winding the
whole with horse or donkey hairs. A lacquer mix is then applied
over the framework and allowed to dry. The piece is then sanded
down, and other lacquer coatings are applied one by one in a similar
manner. A high-quality piece may bear seven layers of lacquer in
all.
After this, the lacquerware is engraved
and painted, then polished to remove the paint from everywhere except
in the engraved lines. It can take five or six months to produce
a high-quality piece of lacquerware with as many as five colours.
Along with the artistic quality and precision of the engraving,
flexibility is one characteristic of good lacquerware. You should
be able to squeeze a horse-hair bowl until the rims meet without
the sides suffering any damage.
TEXTILES
Chiang Mai's textile markets specialise in Lanna-style textiles
based on intricate Thai tribal patterns dating back centuries. One
of the most popular purchases among Thais is the phaa sin,
a length of woven silk or cotton cloth sewn into a tube and worn
as a long, belted skirt. Many designs are available, the most authentic
local choice being a Thai Lü tapestry weave. The most evocative
colour schemes come through the use of traditional, all-natural
pigment dyes made from local plants and insects.
A Chiang Mai favourite for its everyday
utility is the seua maw hawm, a collar-less, half-sleeved
shirt made of medium-weight indigo-dyed cotton. Among Chiang Mai
residents it's a tradition to wear this shirt on Fridays, even if
you work at a bank or government office. And no true aficionado
of Lanna textiles will be without at least one yaam, a sturdy
cotton bag with a comfortably broad shoulder strap, available in
an infinite number of designs and colours.
PARASOLS AND
MULBERRY PAPER
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Colourful hand-painted
parasols
Photo © Tourism Authority of Thailand |
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Bo Sang, the 'umbrella village' to
the east of Chiang Mai, enjoys worldwide fame for its hand-painted
parasols. Designs vary from traditional oiled brown cloth daubed
with simple black designs to giant paper parasols bearing sun-lit
landscapes rendered in kaleidoscopic hues. Typically the handles
and frames are made of sturdy bamboo.
With its slighted wrinkled appearance
and ragged edges, paper handcrafted from saa, the bark of
a mulberry tree native to northern Thailand, creates a primitively
elegant impression. Its strength and amenability to colour and printing
makes saa ideal for products as diverse as gift-wrapping
paper, greeting cards, stationery, artificial flowers, and lampshades.
Mulberry bark is a renewable paper resource that requires little
processing compared to wood pulp, hence the paper also appeals to
environmental consciousness.
CELADON
Baan Celadon
Siam Celadon pottery |
All manner of ceramics and hand-thrown
pottery are produced in Chiang Mai. Most typical is Thai celadon,
which features a deep, crackle-glaze finish in greenish hues. Originally
hailing from the Sawankhalok area, celadon is now also fired in
Chiang Mai kilns. Celadon products -- typically bowls, vases, plates,
cups, and art figures -- also come in stylish blue and grey tones.
BASKETRY
Intricate
basketry
Photo © Tourism Authority
of Thailand |
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Hand-woven baskets and other receptacles
of all shapes and sizes represent some of the best shopping bargains
in Chiang Mai. Artisans typically weave these objects from strips
of bamboo, or less commonly, thinner grasses or reeds. In more elaborate
pieces, black-dyed bamboo strips are interwoven with natural green
strips to create eye-pleasing geometric patterns.
One of the more popular purchases for
Bangkokians visiting Chiang Mai is the ka-tip khao, a lidded
basket for carrying sticky rice, the Lanna staple. Unlike their
simple, flat-bottomed Isan counterparts, Lanna rice baskets are
footed and feature elaborate lids.
Coconut palm leaves are also torn into
strips and used to fashion temporary, whimsical totems for temple
festivals. In rural areas of Chiang Mai Province, you may see coconut-leaf
animal figures standing alongside fields to frighten birds away
from the crops.
WOOD-CARVING
ornate
wood-carvings
Photo
© Tourism Authority of Thailand |
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Thailand's forested north offers Lanna
craftspeople a resource with which to practice their unparalleled
skills as wood-workers. Teak is the most popular choice of material,
but one also sees items carved from the wood of the jackfruit, and
other fruit trees.
Every imaginable figure, whether animal
or floral, human or divine, finds its way out of the wood-carver's
hands. Wooden elephants are particularly popular among Chiang Mai's
Thai visitors, who buy them to use as offerings at temples and spirit
shrines.
Among antique wooden items worth investigating
are ham yon, intricately carved ventilating transoms inserted
over windows and doors in traditional wooden homes. Wooden versions
of the tung -- a vertical flag traditionally woven of cotton
threads and bamboo strips, and hung in temple grounds during Buddhist
festivals -- also make a beautiful addition to any woodcarving collection.
ABOUT
THE AUTHOR
JOE CUMMINGS
Joe Cummings began travelling in South-East Asia shortly after finishing
college, serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand and teaching
English in Thailand, Malaysia and Taiwan. Joe later earned a master's
degree in Thai language and Asian art history from the University
of California at Berkeley, and was a scholar in residence at the
East-West Center in Hawaii. Joe has contributed to over 35 guidebooks,
maps, atlases, phrasebooks and photographs, including his bestselling
Lonely Planet Thailand and Buddhist Stupas of Asia: The Shape of
Perfection. He is also a regular contributor to periodicals such
as the International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Condé
Nast Traveler and Wall Street Journal. Joe has twice been honoured
with the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Award for his work on Thailand.
In 2002 he earned the Peace Corps Best Travel Writing award for
Lonely Planet Bangkok. Joe makes his home in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
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