Chiang Mai has been centre of lowland Northern Thai culture that is as distinct from the ethnic traditions in the hills as it is from the Mon-Khmer heritage of Bangkok and the central Siamese Thai. Located at the foot of a sacred mountain at the heart of a culture based on wet-rice cultivation, Chiang Mai was the capital of a kingdom called Lan Na that rivalled Ayutthaya, the Siamese precursor to Bangkok, for 200 years. However, with an inland location unable to take advantage of maritime trade, and with a cultivable land area too small to support the manpower required for large armies, Lan Na was to disappear in the struggle between Burma and Siam, and was ultimately eclipsed by the rise of Bangkok as the metropolitan heart of the Kingdom of Thailand. Chiang Mai, however, was to remain the centre of Northern Thai culture.
With the expertise of a resident, Oliver Hargreave first presents Chiang Mai as a historical city with traditions that have evolved into a thriving modern culture. Then he takes the city as a starting point for journeys into the picturesque landscape of the surrounding valley and mountains.
This is the first international edition of this guidebook, first published in Thailand in 1997, and revised as a second edition in 1998.
