Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai was founded in 1296 by King Mangrai as the capital of Lanna, the kingdom of a million rice fields, after he had taken the Mon city of Hariphunchai at Lamphun and abandoned his earlier capital at Wiang Kum Kam to flooding. The new city was laid out as a square with a moat and brick wall on the plain beside the Ping River, under the protection of the mountain now called Doi Suthep. The 15th century was its golden age: monasteries here produced Pali scholarship of international standing, and a Buddhist council met at Wat Chet Yot in 1477.

Decline followed. Burmese forces took the city in 1558, and Lanna remained under Burmese rule for about two centuries, during which Chiang Mai was fought over, depopulated and for a time abandoned altogether. It was recovered in the 1770s with Siamese help and resettled under the Chao Kawila, whose descendants ruled as princes owing allegiance to Bangkok. Teak logging drew British Burmese firms and missionaries in the 19th century, leaving the riverside quarter its mixed character.

Siam absorbed Lanna fully around 1900, and the railway from Bangkok reached the city in the early 20th century, ending its isolation. Chiang Mai University opened in 1964, the first government university outside Bangkok. Since the 1970s tourism, handicrafts, education and health services have transformed the city, which has spread far beyond its walls; airport expansion, new suburbs and a large population of foreign residents and remote workers have followed.

Chiang Mai regards itself as the capital of Lanna culture rather than a provincial Thai town. The northern language, kham mueang, is spoken at home and in markets, and older manuscripts use the Tai Tham script still seen carved and painted in temples. Lanna architecture is distinct: low tiered roofs, teak panels, carved gables and small guardian figures, quite unlike the tall ordination halls of the central plains.

Crafts remain a living trade rather than a museum subject. Silver is beaten in Wua Lai, umbrellas painted at Bo Sang, silk and cotton woven at San Kamphaeng and Lamphun, and lacquer and woodcarving sold across the city. The festival calendar is unusually rich: Yi Peng fills the November sky with lanterns beside Loy Krathong on the river, Songkran is kept as Pi Mai Mueang with processions and sand chedis, and Inthakin, the city pillar rite at Wat Chedi Luang, is observed with flower offerings around May or June.

The city has long attracted outsiders — missionaries and teak traders in the 19th century, artists and writers later, and since the 2000s a large community of foreign residents, retirees and remote workers concentrated around Nimmanhaemin. Students from the university and the art schools give the same district its nightlife. Northern manners are quieter and more formal than in Bangkok, and visitors who lower their voices and their expectations of speed tend to get on well.

The city municipality holds about 127,000 people, but the built-up area spreading across the Ping valley and neighbouring districts comes to about 1.2 million, and most residents live outside the walls in suburbs such as Santitham, Nong Hoi, San Sai and Hang Dong. Tourism, education, health care, handicrafts and services dominate the economy, alongside agriculture in the surrounding valleys, and the city has become a national centre for hospitals treating both Thai and foreign patients.

The day starts early. Markets open before dawn, monks walk the alms round through the lanes soon after, and offices and schools begin by eight; the heat slows the middle of the day, and the evening belongs to food stalls, night markets and the walking streets. Motorbikes outnumber cars, and traffic congests the moat roads at rush hour.

Two issues shape local conversation. The smoke season from February to April regularly gives Chiang Mai some of the worst air quality in the country, closing schools in bad years and prompting protest at the burning of crop stubble and forest. The second is growth: rising land prices, condominium building, pressure on water, and the effects of floods along the Ping River, which inundated riverside districts in recent years. A large resident foreign population, drawn by cost and climate, is part of the same debate.

Northern food is the city's strongest claim on visitors. Khao soi, the dish most associated with Chiang Mai, is egg noodles in a coconut curry broth with chicken or beef, topped with a nest of crisp fried noodles and eaten with pickled mustard greens, shallots and lime; its roots lie with Muslim Chinese traders from Yunnan, and several long-standing shops on the eastern side of the river built their reputation on it. Sai ua, the coarse grilled pork sausage packed with lemongrass, galangal, turmeric and chilli, is bought by weight at Warorot Market.

Meals here centre on sticky rice, khao niao, rolled into a ball by hand and dipped into chilli pastes: nam phrik num, made from roasted green chillies, garlic and shallots, and nam phrik ong, a milder pork and tomato relish, both served with raw vegetables and kaep mu, crisp pork rind. Gaeng hang lay is a rich pork curry with ginger, tamarind and peanuts, a Burmese inheritance; khanom jeen nam ngiao is fermented rice noodles in a pork and tomato broth with dried flowers. Khao kha mu, stewed pork leg over rice, is an evening staple at the northern gate.

Coffee is the modern addition. Beans grown in the hills around Doi Chang and Doi Saket supply roasters across the city, and Nimmanhaemin has become a district of cafés. Sweet stalls sell khanom wan of coconut and palm sugar, mango with sticky rice in season, and cold drinks of Thai tea and butterfly-pea flower.