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Nan is a major town in the Nan Valley on the Nan River in Nan Province [ once the Kingdom of Nan ]. The Nan Kingdom was formed in 13th C. Nan is distinguished by the presence there of the Tai Lao and Tai Lu whose presence there has influenced the forms of art and architecture.
These significant sites are marked on the map below and itemised below as follows:
- The National Museum which was once the Palace of the local ruler
- Wat Phumin
- Wat Phra That Chang Khan Vora Viharn [ the monastery of the relic supported by elephants ]. This was originally built in 1406.
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Mention Thailand's northern provinces, and for most people whether Thai resident or foreign visitor images of Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Doi Mae Salong and the Golden Triangle come readily to mind. In recent years, even remote Mae Hong Son has become popular with visitors.
Few people, by comparison, think of the North's northeastern provinces of Nan and Phrae as popular destinations. Long off the beaten track, and formerly made dangerous by communist insurgency, these provinces have still to be fully discovered. Yet in today's peaceful conditions, provided with an excellent and ever-expanding road network and good air services, Thailand's little-known northeast has much to offer and is more accessible than ever before.
For most travellers to the north, Phrae is little more than a name on the map. Located 25 kilometres northeast of the small station of Denchai on the Bangkok Chiang Mai railway, and similarly well to the east of Route 1, the main highway linking Bangkok with the north, it receives relatively few visitors. For those intent on discovering some of the less well-known reaches of the ancient Lan Na Kingdom, however, the city and province are well worth a visit.
Phrae is quite prosperous from tobacco and, until recently, from logging. The town is well-known for its beautifully manufactured rattan furniture, though this is too heavy a souvenir for most visitors to consider buying. More popular and universally recognised throughout Thailand are the province's famous seua maw hawm, the distinctive indigo-dyed farmer's shirt worn all over the country. Today, even university professors, bank managers and politicians like to sport this "symbol of solidarity" with rural Thai life.
One of the attractions of Phrae is the unusual blending of temple architecture. Here one can find not only traditional Lan Na temples, with their sturdy, multi-tiered roofs, gracefully curved eaves, and prominent portico, but also fine examples of both Shan and Lao temple architecture. Reasons for this diversity of style are not hard to find. The Lao connection is directly attributable to the proximity of Laos and former associations with the 15th century Lao Kingdom of Lan Xang. By contrast, Burmese influence present in nearly all Phrae temples dates mainly from the mid 19th century, when the province emerged as a major logging centre, attracting labour from the nearby Shan States. Even earlier, there was a Burman enclave left behind from the Burmese occupation of the Lan Na Kingdom.
The most interesting Shan-style temples are Wat Chom Sawan and Wat Sra Bo Keo, both of which boast fine Burmese influenced chedis. Contrasting Lao influences can be seen at Wat Si Chum and Wat Phra Non, amongst several other Lao-style temples. In a town of temples, perhaps the best-known Buddhist place of worship is Wat Phra That Cho Hae, built on a hill eight kilometres east of the town centre. Five separate flights of stairs lead up the teak covered hill. The stairs on the right are guarded by Burmese style lions, whilst those on the left are flanked by more familiar nagas. At the top of the right hand stairway is a widely revered Buddha image, the Phra Chao Tan Chai, which is believed to have the power to grant wishes.
Phrae itself is an ancient town, though traces of its past history beyond the old moats and the remains of Old City fortifications are few. Attractions close by Phrae include the village of Thung Hong, just three kilometres north of the city centre along Route 101 to Nan. This is the main centre for Phrae's famous indigo blue seua maw hawm, and is well worth a visit. So, too, is the nearby Ban Prathup Jai, a large northern-style wood house which required more than 130 teak logs in its construction.
Seven kilometres beyond Thung Hong on Route 101, a side road on the right just before the kilometre 143 marker leads, via a dusty dirt road, to Muang Phi, or "The City of Ghosts". Here, through a strange geological phenomenon, erosion by wind, rain, and the passage of time has created bizarre rock pillars in a variety of weird and uncanny shapes. The overall impression is rather unworldly like visiting an asteroid, or the surface of the moon and, hardly surprisingly, the area is widely held to be haunted.
National Highway 101 continues beyond Muang Phi towards Nan, one of Thailand's most remote provinces, and until about fifteen years ago considered dangerous to visit because of the activities of PLAT ( People's Liberation Army of Thailand ) communist guerrillas in the region. Happily, that problem has long since disappeared. One positive spin-off from the period is an excellent all weather network of roads which has opened up the length and breadth of the province to visitors.
The road between Phrae and Nan winds up, through, and over some of the lovely, unspoiled hills of the North's northeastern borderlands. At kilometre 187 Huai Rong Arboretum and Waterfall make a worthwhile diversion five kilometres to the west of the highway. The stream, which is fresh and cool, cascades into a clear pool in a valley of tall jungle trees. Swimming is both possible and pleasurable in this magical, little visited place.
After kilometre 210 Highway 101 comes down out of the hills into the Nan Valley. The sleepy town of Sa, close by the main road, provides a reminder of the proximity of the Laotian province of Sayabuli, just over the next range of hills. Lao influence is clearly evident in Sa's lovely old temple Wat Bun Yuen, with its three tiered roof and particularly fine doors and guardian statues.
Nan itself is a large and prosperous town, with several notable temples and one really remarkable national treasure in the celebrated Wat Phumin. Until the first decade of the 20th century Nan was the capital of a semi autonomous principality, far removed from Bangkok and sharing close ethnic and cultural links not only with Lan Na and Luang Prabang, but also with the Tai Lu people of Sipsongpanna in southern China.
First founded in 1368, Nan fell under Burmese control two hundred years later and remained linked to Ava until 1786. Two years later, shortly after the establishment of the Chakri dynasty, the principality pledged its allegiance to Bangkok. The ruling princes retained a high degree of autonomy, however, and the area did not come under the full control of central government until 1931. Subsequently Nan was troubled by communist insurgency, and remained a peripheral province, officially designated "remote", until recent times.
Today, as a confident and expanding commercial centre currently establishing new trade links with neighbouring Sayabuli, Nan is emerging as a gateway to Laos. The prosperity shows, not just in the city's shops and markets, packed with consumer goods of all kinds; but also in the rich and fertile countryside, where farmers toil over mechanical planters in the verdant rice paddies, or listen to stereo systems in the new pick-up trucks as they carry goods to market.
An Irish surveyor working in Nan just over one hundred years ago described the city thus:
The walls are in an excellent state of preservation, and are about two miles round. The rice fields are cultivated to their full extent, there being an excellent system of irrigation, which is not allowed to fall into decay. There are thousands of emigrants from Sip Sawng Panna, Khamus from Luang Phabang, and a growing population of Meo and Yao, for Nan is popular, and their government has been just.
Today, sadly, the city walls are gone demolished to make way for new buildings in 1900 but Nan retains much of its historic character, especially in the open, gardened southern district around Mahaphlom and Suriyaphong Roads. Here one can find the National Museum, formerly a palace, which makes an excellent starting point for any tour of the city. Built in 1903 by the ruler of Nan, Phra Chao Suriyaphong, the museum offers an excellent display of well presented pictures, photographs and textual descriptions of the city's past. Also of interest, and considered a provincial treasure, is a famous black elephant tusk, supposedly presented by a ruler of Kengtung in Burma more than three hundred years ago.
Wat Chang Kham Vora Viharn, directly opposite the museum, was first founded in 1406, but has been restored several times since. Of particular interest in this temple is a 145 centimetre high image of a walking Buddha made of solid gold. This treasure had been artfully concealed beneath a plaster covering, perhaps to protect it from the Burmese, and the golden image was not discovered until as recently as 1955.
About 100 metres away, on the opposite side of the road, stands Nan's greatest treasure the temple of Wat Phumin. Originally established in 1597 by Phra Chao Chetabutra Phromin, Lord of Nan, the building is remarkable on several counts. Firstly, the viharn itself follows an elegant cruciform pattern, with steps leading up to exquisitely carved doors on all four sides. The stairways of two opposite entrances are flanked by guardian naga balustrades with the tail at one doorpost and the head at the other.
Secondly, the interior of the temple is dominated by a giant central carving comprising four large Sukhothai style Buddha images seated in the marawichai ( victory over Mara, the embodiment of evil ) posture and facing the cardinal points of the compass. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Wat Phumin is remarkable for the many soft pastel murals depicting tales from the Jatakas, or Buddha life cycle stories, as well as from mundane life. It is these latter paintings which make this temple so fascinating, portraying, as they do, scenes of everyday social activities in and around Nan. Here are lovers whispering, Tai Lu ladies weaving cloth, men and women playing bowls, and children climbing in trees. One interesting social observation is that everybody, young or old and regardless of sex, appears to be smoking.
Nan has many other temples, several of which are of artistic merit and historical interest. One, in particular, which deserves closer inspection is Wat Phra That Chae Haeng, located southwest of the town on the opposite bank of the Nan River. The golden viharn is a wonderful structure, 55 metres high and showing very clear Lao influence. Inside, on a fine altar of stucco, is a large seated Buddha with five smaller Buddha images in front.
Nan's other great attraction is the annual dragon boat race, held to celebrate the end of Buddhist Lent each October or November. Staged along a stretch of the River Nan close by the governor's residence, these races are a colourful affair involving swift longboats propelled at high speed by crews of up to sixty oarsmen.
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| Tai Mural Art at Wat Phumin in Nan |
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