Sukhothai

Sukhothai was a provincial centre of the Khmer empire before Tai chiefs took it in the 1230s and set up a kingdom of their own. Its best-known ruler, Ram Khamhaeng, reigned in the late 13th century, and a stone inscription attributed to his time — describing a prosperous, lightly taxed country where a subject could ring a bell at the palace gate to petition the king — became a foundation text of Thai national history, and the source of a claim that he devised the Thai script. Later scholars have debated the inscription's date and authorship, but its picture of Sukhothai as the first Siamese kingdom has held its place in the national story.

The kingdom's power was brief. It reached its greatest extent under Ram Khamhaeng, declined through the 14th century as the rival state of Ayutthaya rose to the south, and was absorbed by Ayutthaya in the 15th century. Its satellite city of Si Satchanalai up the Yom River shared its art and supplied the Sangkhalok kilns, whose glazed stoneware was exported across Southeast Asia. The old city was abandoned when a new town was founded on the river 12 kilometres to the east in 1793, and the ruins were left to the forest.

Restoration began in the 20th century and a major programme, supported by UNESCO, ran through the 1970s and 1980s; Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet were inscribed together as a World Heritage Site in 1991. The modern town, Sukhothai Thani, grew as the provincial capital beside the Yom, and the ancient city became a park that supports most of the local tourist economy.

Sukhothai carries an unusual symbolic weight for a small province: it is where Thai schoolchildren are taught the nation's story begins, and its art is the reference point for a distinctly Thai style. The walking Buddha of the Sukhothai period — a smooth, elongated figure in mid-stride with a flame finial — is considered one of the great achievements of Southeast Asian sculpture, and the lotus-bud chedi is the period's architectural signature.

Ceramics are the other inheritance. The kilns at Si Satchanalai and Sawankhalok produced celadon and underglaze wares from the 13th century, traded as far as Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia, and modern potters in the area still work in the Sangkhalok tradition. Other local crafts include gold and silver work in the Sukhothai style, with fine granulation, and textile weaving in the villages of Si Satchanalai, where Tai Phuan and Tai Lue communities keep distinct patterns.

Loy Krathong is the town's great occasion. The festival is popularly said to have begun here, though historians treat that origin story as a literary invention of the Bangkok period; Sukhothai marks it with lights on the ponds of the historical park, processions, fireworks and performances among the ruins over several evenings. Otherwise life follows a provincial Buddhist calendar of temple fairs, ordinations and merit-making, and manners are those of the lower north: unhurried, formal with elders, and quieter than Bangkok.

The new town is small, with a population in the tens of thousands, while the province holds around 600,000 people spread through farming districts along the Yom. Rice is the main crop, with sugar cane, maize and tobacco, and much of the province's work is agricultural or in the offices, schools and hospital of the provincial capital. Tourism concentrates in the old town, where guesthouses, restaurants, bicycle hire and guiding support many families.

Daily rhythms are those of a rural province: markets before dawn, alms rounds at first light, office and school hours that begin early, and quiet streets after dark apart from the evening market. Many younger people leave for Bangkok or Chiang Mai to study and work, returning for Songkran and family occasions.

Flooding is the recurring problem. The Yom has no large storage dam — a mega-dam at Kaeng Suea Ten was proposed in 1991 and abandoned, and smaller dams are still argued over — and heavy rain in the northern watershed has repeatedly inundated Sukhothai town and surrounding districts. Drought in the dry season, smoke from field burning in the hot months, and the steady drift of young people to the cities are the other concerns residents raise.

Sukhothai has given its name to a noodle dish found across Thailand: kuaitiao Sukhothai, thin rice noodles in a clear, slightly sweet pork broth with slices of roast pork, chopped green beans, crushed peanuts, coriander and dried chilli, often eaten for breakfast in small family shops. It is the one thing visitors are most often told to try here, and the versions sold in the two towns differ from shop to shop.

Otherwise the cooking belongs to the lower north, a meeting point between central Thai and northern styles. Sticky rice and plain rice are both eaten; freshwater fish from the Yom is grilled whole in salt, fried crisp, or made into sour curries; and chilli pastes served with raw vegetables are a staple, alongside stir-fried greens, spicy salads and grilled pork. Sai ua, the northern herb sausage, appears in markets, as does the tomato and pork relish nam phrik ong.

Sweets and drinks follow the season: mango with sticky rice and lychee in the hot months, tamarind, bananas and palm sugar sweets year round, and iced Thai tea and roasted-rice drinks sold at every market. Local shops also sell the province's crisp fried bananas and sticky-rice cakes grilled in banana leaf, and pottery from the Sangkhalok tradition is used to serve food in some restaurants near the ruins.