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The
best place to capture this still unfolding drama
is the north-eastern plateau. Although prehistoric
finds are being made all over the country, this
region offers the greatest variety combined
with easiest access. Just 50 kilometers from
Udon Thani, for example, lies the world-famous
village of Ban Chiang with its marvellous pottery.
Many other similar sites have been found.
Similarly, just a short drive to the south in Kalasin and Khon Kaen
provinces, Thailand's own "Jurassic Parks" are taking shape especially
at Phu Wiang National Park. Star exhibit is Siamotyrannus isanensis
(Isan is the local name for the region) smaller than Tyrannosaurus
rex, but by 20 million years the oldest example of the fierce,
meat-eating tyrannosaurs ever found.
Isanensis already
has a local cousin. Phuwiangosaurus sirindhornae, a new species
of plant-eating dinosaur, was found at Phu Wiang in 1984. It
is named in honor of Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri
Sirindhorn.
Cave paintings
are all over the place. Perhaps the most famous are at Pha Taem,
Amphoe Khong Jiam near Ubon Ratchathani, but others can be seen
at Phu Tham Maholan in Loei, Phu Pak Lek in Sakon Nakhon, Phu
Phra Bat in Udon Thani, and Khao Khuen Lan in Nakhon Ratchasima.
An interesting theory links all these sites.
It seems that
traders and cattle herders, following well worn routes towards
mountain passes to the central lowlands, passed their time depicting
life around them. Cattle are favourite subjects, but fish, birds,
turtles, and even humans appear too.
Few of these
sites have been dated but they are of course much more recent
than the many sites around Thailand where flint tools have been
found. If you care to visit Nong Bua Lamphu, one of Thailand's
newest provinces, they even have a 150-million-year-old fossilized oyster bed and some rather more recent pottery and utensils similar
to those at Ban Chiang.
City
Pillar
Magic in every step
All Thai cities
are magical. This is true whatever may be happening in them.
They have been conceived, designed and laid out, at least in
the first instance, according to powerful and pervasive cosmologies.
While this does not guarantee success in this imperfect earthly
sphere, it certainly enables and encourages it.
This benign
alignment is strengthened by a wide-ranging code of behavior that governs the way things are done and the way people act,
both spiritually and in daily life. Its purpose is to see that
the promised wealth and well-being are actually achieved. The
importance of this system of custom and practice has only begun
to fade with the arrival of modern ideas about administration
and town planning in the last 50 to 100 years.
Before that,
cities meant very much more to Thai's than they did to, say,
Westerners. In those days a Thai city was similar to a mediaeval
city-state in Europe. Both were largely autonomous. But the Thai
city's power did not depend just on arms and trade. As we have
seen, it was a spiritual center as well as a material one. The
spiritual realm underpinned the material one and gave it life.
These concepts
are still vibrantly alive. All cities, for example, take great
care to preserve their lak muang. Many have additional rites
and beliefs that are equally important. It must be emphasized that these are not preserved as quaint, outdated customs but
as serious matters of public welfare in a modern city. In this
view, the spiritual heart of the city must be tended before all
else, otherwise what hopes can realistically be held for it?
A lak muang is, literally, a City Pillar. Although
its grandeur may differ dramatically from city to
city, every inhabitant knows exactly where his or
her city's pillar is.
Its importance
has many senses. At heart it can be thought of as a kind of umbilical
cord between the material world and the cosmos. In this sense
it supports the city. Everything, all cosmic influences, all
spiritual vigor, flow through it to the community. It is therefore
in an important sense its center, and it is also where the city's
spirits dwell.
Lak muang are
not Buddhist and are rarely found in temple compounds. But the
concept is coherent enough with the three realms of the Buddhist
cosmos to exist quite happily alongside it. And a much more direct
link delves back into Hindu cosmology to determine how towns
and temples should be laid out.
In this view,
any formal structure should be aligned four-square with the four
cardinal points: north, south, east, west. City or temple, its
streets or paths together with the necessary gates through its
crenellated walls, should lead off clean and straight in the
four directions. You can see this arrangement, which aligns the
structure with the cosmos and therefore promotes good fortune,
all over the country.
A different
approach to the same basic idea uses the astrological mandala,
which is a formal representation of the underlying reality of
whatever is being studied. A city's mandala will have a regular
pattern which guides the layout of streets, squares, and intersections.
Another approach,
this time animist rather than Buddhist or astrological, takes
a rough egg shape as the appropriate outline. This is why most
old Thai cities are shaped the way they are. Lop Buri and Lamphun
are examples. In this case the city could be much freer in form,
more like an overgrown village than a formal city.
Rattanakosin Island
Recreating
the centre
It must have
been a terrible time. The old capital had been razed. A million
people had been killed, captured or put to flight. A kingdom
to which the center was all important had none any more.
But a majestic
new dynasty would grow out of this tragedy. After 15 years of
turmoil, work was begun to create a new center. Such is the urgent
sense and significance of Rattanakosin island, the heart of Bangkok
that contains the Grand Palace, Pramane Ground, and many other
public symbols. It is surrounded by water, with the Chao Phraya
River on one curved side and the Bang Lamphu and Ong Ang canals
on the other.
The goal was
to continue the cultural heritage of Ayutthaya. The most obvious
sign of this is the Golden Mount (Wat Saket). Like its original
near Ayutthaya, it stands just outside the old city walls.
Among many other
indications of the same intent, the art and architecture of temples
and palaces initially followed Ayutthaya styles quite deliberately.
The great literary works of Ayutthaya, including the country's
historical records, almost all of which had been destroyed, had
to be recreated. The early Rattanakosin kings seized the opportunity
to revise and update the country's legal system.
But the first
priority was to build the Grand Palace. Though it is now used
only for ceremonial occasions, its first buildings were completed
in 1785, three years after the beginning of the Chakri Dynasty.
Most Chakri monarchs lived there.
The most public
and visited part of the palace today is the Temple of the Emerald
Buddha. The Emerald Buddha, only 75 centimeters high, is the
most revered Buddha image in Southeast Asia. It has a remarkable
history.
Another crucial
concern was to endow sufficient royal temples. Significantly,
of the six first-class royal temples in the country (out of some
200 royal temples and some 31,200 temples altogether), three
are on Rattanakosin island. All were either completely rebuilt,
begun or completed during the first reign.
They are Wat
Phra Chetupon (Wat Pho), Wat Mahathat, and Wat Suthat. Wat Pho
is the biggest temple in Thailand and the most important of the
three. Quite apart from its religious significance, it is a mini-university.
The principal works of Thai literature, archaeology, astrology,
and traditional medicine are kept there. It also serves to this
day as the best school of traditional medicine in the country.
This brief resume
of the wonders of Rattanakosin has not mentioned the lak muang
or the City Pillar, nor the universities, the government ministries
that superseded the Great Officers, and the museums. The Pramane
Ground has recently been restored to its original purpose, namely
to serve as a cremation site for royalty, quite properly at the center
of the Thai world.
Mae
Hong Son
City of three
mists
When you sit
by Mae Hong Son's central lake with a cool drink in your hand,
try to imagine the whole delightful area as an enormous watering
hole for elephants. That is how Mae Hong Son first came into
existence.
The town was settled in the mid-1800s when Thai demand for elephants
to work the teak forests around Chiang Mai made a permanently
camp necessary. It is in a way the Thai equivalent of an American
cow town, yet what a difference! Mae Hong
Son lies in a valley between deep, green mountains, which at
certain times of the day, are wreathed in mist, giving this serene
upland area its unique, magical appearance. Early in the morning,
dense mist hides the hills in a hushed, white cloud. Later, as
the sun makes its presence felt, the mist becomes a veil gently
shrouding the higher peaks. Then as the day goes on, the wood
smoke from the fires of the hill tribe villages rises to mingle
with the remaining clouds and forming the third mist of Mae Hong
Son.
As you look
across the central lake with its playing fountain and the magical
silhouettes of the Burmese-style temples against the horizon,
it is Shangri-la. Leave the sleepy little
town in any direction and you are immediately surrounded by some
of the most dramatic scenery in Thailand. There is still true
back country here, with breathtaking views and plenty of wildlife
in its steep twisting valleys. One popular excursion route takes
you out westward to Pai by road and then back by river.
There are hill
tribes, mainly Lisu, Lawa, Meo, and Karen, in their colorful traditional dress, and there are the Padong women with their
unusual neck bangles. You can travel to their villages if you
wish, but just as authentic is to see them mingling with the
townspeople at the early morning market each day.
There are still
the caves, the trekking, the Burmese border, the handicrafts,
but actually Mae Hong Son is for just lying back and letting
go. And quietly marveling the play of the mist on the mountains.
Nakhon
Ping Chiang Mai
Glorious
city of the North
Chiang Mai(New
Town) must be one of the oldest new towns in the world. Established
702 years ago by King Mengrai as a substitute for the fever-ridden
Wiang Khum Kam just to the south of the city, Chiang Mai's chequered
history has made it host to a profusion of amazing cultures and
legends.
One can enjoy
the culture just by walking down the street. Here at Wat Pa Pao
in Chang Phuak (White Elephant) district, for example, are gorgeous
examples of Burmese and Shan temple architecture. These remind
us that for more than 200 years Chiang Mai was in Burmese hands.
At a restaurant
one can savor the region's unique khan toke dinner - a set meal
of seven or eight Burmese and Lanna dishes served on your own
personal tray (the toke) to the accompaniment of traditional
northern dances.
A short walk Southeast of the old town are the
weather-worn earthen ramparts erected by Chao
Kavila, the warrior who in 1776 drove the Burmese
out and restored the city to its former glory.
By the central
market are members of the numerous hill tribes of the region,
come down from their villages in work-a-day costumes to sell
their goods. Culture does not come any more authentic.
Lift your eyes
westward and you enter a world of legend. There is Doi Suthep,
a mountain named after the hermit whose modest cave is just above
Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. The temple is one of the finest anywhere
in Thailand. From its terrace you can see the whole Chiang Mai
valley.
At the southern
foot of the mountain is a small foothill where in legend the
hermit was born to cannibalistic giants. The temple there is
simple, solid, thick-walled-the real temple of the rural north.
Look further
south and you may just be able to see Lamphun, which the seer,
a Lawa, laid out according to Lawa principles. Paradoxically, Mengrai, a historical person, had to subdue Lamphun before he
could build Khum Kam. When his queen died of fever there, he
knew he had to move.
So New Town,
a no-nonsense name from a bereaved king. But this time he considered
it carefully and consulted his friends and advisers. It has survived
its many trials, though he was killed here by a bolt of lightning.
Phetchaburi
Diamonds
and gold
Phetchaburi
(Diamond City) is named for the precious stones that are said
to have once been found in its river bed. The stream now runs
through a modern city, but an equally apt name for the old one
could have been "Craftsman's City".
Throughout its
long and glowing history it has consistently earned a reputation
for the outstanding quality of its handicrafts. These include
the finest inlaid and lacquered wood cabinets, as well as some
of the most delicate and evocative religious wood carving in
Thailand, examples of which can still be seen.
The city is
also well known for traditional goldsmiths. Often working as
small family concerns in simple surroundings using traditional
equipment, they produce gold necklaces, bracelets, pendants,
and earrings of exquisite workmanship.
Particularly
eye-catching example of their patience and dexterity is the traditional
six-stranded necklace that looks and handles as though it has
been hand-knitted. In fact it consists of hundreds of tiny intertwined
gold rings. Each ring must be made and threaded separately.
A more showy
necklace called pawalam consists of up to five intricately worked
golden beads on a single much heavier chain. The workmanship
of the pendants is simply breath-taking. And, yes, they can incorporate
diamonds too.
Quite a few
of the "craftsmen" are actually women. Perhaps not
coincidentally, Phetchaburi was the site of one of the first
women's vocational colleges in Thailand. By then, the mid-1800s,
gold had ceased to be used exclusively for royal regalia. Consequently
an increasing number of Chinese craftsmen, using gold leaf imported
from their homeland, were establishing the new tradition.
Phetchaburi
is indeed a city of traditions. Before the founding of Ayutthaya,
it was a strategic point on a central trade route linking many
early Thai towns with other parts of Asia. Once Ayutthaya had
replaced it as the country's premier port, it became the first
of many royal resorts along the nearby coast.
In the Rattanakosin
period, King Mongkut (Rama IV), a keen and hugely competent astronomer,
equipped his hilltop palace with an observatory that can still
be seen.
But it is the goldsmiths in the city below who are
now carrying tradition forward. You will never
forget the sheer brilliance and delicacy of their
work.
Nakhon Si Thammarat
The seat
of order
Some say this
beautiful city 800 kilometers south of Bangkok was the capital
of the ancient and still mysterious Srivijaya civilization. Though
it now seems more likely that the quiet site at Chaiya to the
north holds this distinction, there is no doubt that Nakhon Si
Thammarat was its religious center and that the strong Indian
influence that inspired Srivijaya may well have come ashore here.
Such anyway
is the legend, backed by actual shrines to Vishnu and Shiva,
not to mention Brahman artifacts such as the city's own Giant
Swing. Significantly, water from this city is still used in the
annual Ploughing Ceremony in Bangkok.
As further evidence,
the city's ancient ramparts, little of which now survive, followed
the classic Hindu plan of a strict rectangle. The Indian connection
could hardly be more obvious.
Perhaps the
city's chief glory came later when it became the seat of Buddhist
order, dhamma, in the south. This concept rings through the name
of its founder, Phraya (Lord) Si Thamma Sokarat, and the name
of the city itself.
In fact the
profusion of temples in the city gave rise to a popular name
for it: Muang Phra, the priests' city. A Mon noble is supposed
to have endowed an entire temple. But the city seems to have
been able to defend itself, too, not least against the Thon Buri
warrior King Taksin who expelled the Burmese after the sack of
Ayutthaya. Significantly, Ayutthaya granted Nakhon Si Thammarat
the status of "second city" during its era even though
both were ports.
Still largely
isolated from the rest of the country as late as the 1970s, Nakhon
Si Thammarat is now a superb base from which to explore the delightful
countryside nearby. There are many unspoil beaches on the Gulf
of Siam to choose from , as well as some superb waterfalls in
the national parks of Khao Luang and Nam Tok Yong waterfall.
Nan
The fair
frontier
Until quite
recently, communist insurgency made Nan officially "remote".
Now entirely safe, this gentle land was paradoxically saved as
a haven for otherwise vanished ways by its own troubled history.
Most famously,
a large group of otherwise unnoticed Thai Lue have been living
here for the past two centuries or so. This fair-skinned, slender
people, originally from the lowlands of Sipsong Panna in Yunnan
province of China, have unwittingly preserved rites and ceremonies
long banned and lost in their Communist homeland.
They hold unique
three-day ceremonies once every three years to honor their ancestors.
They also produce dramatic three-meter-long strip flags and superb
woven and embroidered cottons whose most popular design portrays
a rippling stream.
Reflecting a
sturdy common sense, Thai Lue marriage customs require newlyweds
to spend the first three years in the bride's household and the
next three years in the groom's. Only after all the early temptations
and misunderstandings have been safety navigated can the family
set up on its own.
Nan is of course
much older than the Thai Lue presence. Its history reaches back
about 700 years and is as chequered as that of the rest of Lanna.
But because it has always been remote, it has also been able
to go its own delightful way.
Its boat races
are a riotous example. They are held on the Nan river each November
in large but graceful canoes with snake-like naga figureheads.
The whole population turns out either to row or cheer. But spare
a thought for those figureheads.
Although the
naga is ubiquitous in Asian myth and turns up even on balustrades
and in the finials of temple roofs, its presence is particularly
apt here. For at the deepest folk level, it is an immense serpent
that lives beneath rivers. When it moves, the river changes course
and the whole landscape is affected.
Here in the
boat race they are driven through the water by flashing oars.
With the whole of nature at play like this, no wonder there is
so much excitement.
If in a quiet moment you can visit Wat Phumin you will see a
third instance of Nan's uniqueness. This is one of only a few
temples in Thailand with a cruciform plan. No doubt it was dictated
by the four-fold Buddha image but perhaps only Nan could bend
Buddhist cosmology so much and get away with it.
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