The birth of Chiang Mai

To the Thai, a city is a living body that can get sad, angry, happy, bored, sick... it is a cooperation of its inhabitants akin to the collaboration of cells in a human body. After the kings of Lampun and Sukothai came to the aid of Mangrai, the king of Chiang Rai to repel the invading Burmese, the three kings from Chiang Rai in the north, Sukothai to the south, and Lampun in the east, decided to band together. They looked for a site between their kingdoms to build the Capitol of their new country.

The three kings were strong idealistic young men, each sovereign to kingdoms already old enough for pride in their traditions, in Lampun originated the beautiful celadon ceramics of delicate translucent green glazes whose roots are in China. Sukothai represents much of Thai culture known to the West, the folk dances, apparel and most importantly, the enamelled gold and incredibly intricate linked chain jewellery they still make today, originated here, while Chiang Rai makes beautiful women.

The Kings met bare-chested and gold crowned, along with their parasol wielding, fan waving entourages, in the verdant and fecund valley which is now the Rose of the North: Chiang Mai. At 300 metres above sea level it was cool and had water tumbling from the surrounding mountains into the Mae Ping, or Ping river. Here they agreed would be a sublime city representing a perfect friendship and the first unification of northern Thailand. They designed a the town within a square moat a little over one kilometre to a side with four fortified entrances each half-way between two corners. If a city is a living body, however, it must be conceived instead of simply built, and so, along with their soothsayers, the auspicious date was decided and on the 8th day of the waxing moon, the month of Visakha, the year of the monkey, or April 24 1296, at exactly four a.m. Chiang Mai was born.

At the northern wall its head, whose opening was called the White Elephant gate, a lucky symbol, through which good things like a visiting sovereign or a celebratory parade might enter the city. The southern entrance is the other end of the body out of which the bad like the dead, the exiled and the sewage are expelled. At this southern point also is the prison, while to the east, where the river runs outside the walls, the rising sun lights the mind with schools and library. To the west: workshops for jewellery, arms, furniture. All around the outside of the moat the rice paddies and finally, at its centre, its navel, spiritual and physical health, temples and grain storage.