One Saturday we rented a car and took a day-trip to Lampang, an ancient town about 60 miles south or Chiang Mai. It dates from the 7th C., and was originally a Mon fortified town with the traditional oval moat and city wall fortifications located on the Wang River. In addition it had four strategically fortified outer settlements [ wiang ]. Lampang formed part of the Haripunchai Empire. During the 19th and 20th Centuries it was an important center for the teak trade, and the British-owned timber companies brought in many workers from Burma. Hence, the style of the temples seen in Lampang show Burmese influence in their design.
The most impressive site is Wat Phra That Lampang Luang. The Viharn is reported to be the oldest existing wooden building in Thailand and was built around 1476. This was one of the four wiangs and the site of numerous battles. It became a Burmese garrison in 1729. The Viharn was originally constructed in the 13th C and rebuilt in 1802 and the Chedi was enlarged in 1449 and 1496. Both are spectacular and are set in a walled wiang, high on an earthen mound of medieval appearance. The Lan Na art and architecture is outstanding and the fortification remains of three ramparts and two moats are impressive as well.
Wat Chedi Sao, the temple of 20 Burmese chedis, was peaceful and interesting too.
Temples in Thailand seem to collect all kinds of statues and other gifts so you might find anything around the temple. There was also a small temple with a solid gold Buddha statue in the grounds.
We enjoyed a nice walk through the Saturday market on the Old Market Street. Lots of beautiful old houses and guest houses,made of wood and decorated with lovely carvings,lined the streets.
Lampang is now a "sleepy" town with not the development seen in Chiang Mai and it made a lovely day-trip.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Friday, November 28, 2008
Red shirts VS yellow shirts
Politically things are crazy but we are fine. Airports closed etc but life goes on. Went to a New Years celebration for a ethnic group called the Thai Yai or Shan who live in Burma and NW Thailand. The Shan are fighting the Burmese military to have their own land but are out gunned for sure. More Shan links Here and Here. We were going out for Thanksgiving dinner with friends when we found out that the people we were sharing a ride with were going to a temple where the Shan new year celebration was taking place. So after our Indian curry and garlic nan Thanksgiving dinner we went back to see what was going on. They sure didn't seem to be worrying at their temple fair! We had to buy a 90 cent entry ticket and the police were frisking for, I assume, alcohol at the gate. There were many, many, many food booths and also people selling Shan clothes, music and video CDs. There was a live stage show with modern Shan and traditional dances. The competing sound systems were deafening and unintelligible. (All of the announcements etc were in the Shan or Burmese language - I think - I know it was not Thai) This was all taking part in a Shan temple which we will revisit as it looked very interesting and had an unusual stupa. Lots of candles and offerings all around the stupa too.
The political situation is another matter; the politicians,their parties and followers are all jostling for power. Basically there are two players: the PPP - People Power Party or red shirts (the supporters of this party wear red T-shirts) who support the current government. This government is the remnants of the over thrown government from the last coup and which the opposition says is a puppet of the former prime minister, Taksin. He is in exile both because of the coup and because he has been convicted of tax evasion. The first prime minister of this government was forced to resign because he was guilty of working privately while in office. The job he had was doing a cooking show on TV. The current prime minister is the brother-in-law of Taksin.
On the other side of the ring is the PAD - Peoples Alliance for Democracy or the Democratic party. They are the yellow shirts. They have been demonstrating for months to try to get the current government to call a new election. They have been trying to bring down the government by occupying the parliament and other tactics. The government has tried to crack down and a month or so ago very ineptly sent in riot police and used excessive force and 7 people died. This has only increased the determination of the PAD to force a new election. Since the government couldn't work at the parliament they moved to a temporary location at the old airport. The current tactic of the PAD was to demonstrate at both airports to again try to force a new election. However, the PPP or current government closed the airports, probably to create a crisis, and to allow the police and military to clear the demonstrators. The PAD claim they were demonstrating and there was no need to close the airports. Closing the airports is causing huge financial losses both for the airlines and the tourism business which is already down due to the negative news from here.
There have been some incidents of grenades lobbed into the PAD demonstrations and people have died as a result. The PAD claim they are shot from the police head quarters and there is some reason to believe this.
On Thursday the prime minister returned from Peru to Chiang Mai (his home town and Taksin's too) and had a cabinet meeting here instead of Bangkok. Now he has declared a State of Emergency at both the Bangkok airports to give the police and some military the power to end the demonstrations.
There is a lot that we don't know and lots and lots of rumors flying everywhere. I guess the advantage of being an expat is our ignorance and detachment from the political process. Our Thai friends have hardly slept the last month following the situation. It has affected us in that we had planned to go to Bangkok to a funeral of a good friend who died suddenly last Sunday. We had air tickets :-(
Well that is all for now. We are well and volunteering at Kids Ark and many of you will get a "appeal" request for Kids Ark this year as we are setting up a 501c3 foundation so donations will be tax deductible.
Help if you can - that is all anyone can do.
Tom and Bev
The political situation is another matter; the politicians,their parties and followers are all jostling for power. Basically there are two players: the PPP - People Power Party or red shirts (the supporters of this party wear red T-shirts) who support the current government. This government is the remnants of the over thrown government from the last coup and which the opposition says is a puppet of the former prime minister, Taksin. He is in exile both because of the coup and because he has been convicted of tax evasion. The first prime minister of this government was forced to resign because he was guilty of working privately while in office. The job he had was doing a cooking show on TV. The current prime minister is the brother-in-law of Taksin.
On the other side of the ring is the PAD - Peoples Alliance for Democracy or the Democratic party. They are the yellow shirts. They have been demonstrating for months to try to get the current government to call a new election. They have been trying to bring down the government by occupying the parliament and other tactics. The government has tried to crack down and a month or so ago very ineptly sent in riot police and used excessive force and 7 people died. This has only increased the determination of the PAD to force a new election. Since the government couldn't work at the parliament they moved to a temporary location at the old airport. The current tactic of the PAD was to demonstrate at both airports to again try to force a new election. However, the PPP or current government closed the airports, probably to create a crisis, and to allow the police and military to clear the demonstrators. The PAD claim they were demonstrating and there was no need to close the airports. Closing the airports is causing huge financial losses both for the airlines and the tourism business which is already down due to the negative news from here.
There have been some incidents of grenades lobbed into the PAD demonstrations and people have died as a result. The PAD claim they are shot from the police head quarters and there is some reason to believe this.
On Thursday the prime minister returned from Peru to Chiang Mai (his home town and Taksin's too) and had a cabinet meeting here instead of Bangkok. Now he has declared a State of Emergency at both the Bangkok airports to give the police and some military the power to end the demonstrations.
There is a lot that we don't know and lots and lots of rumors flying everywhere. I guess the advantage of being an expat is our ignorance and detachment from the political process. Our Thai friends have hardly slept the last month following the situation. It has affected us in that we had planned to go to Bangkok to a funeral of a good friend who died suddenly last Sunday. We had air tickets :-(
Well that is all for now. We are well and volunteering at Kids Ark and many of you will get a "appeal" request for Kids Ark this year as we are setting up a 501c3 foundation so donations will be tax deductible.
Help if you can - that is all anyone can do.
Tom and Bev
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Loy Krathong 2008
We had Loy Krathong celebrations for the past 3 nights, Nov 11-13. A Krathong is a circular boat made of banana leaves and decorated with flowers, candles, and incense in it. They can be of all sizes, and last night we went to see the parade of the "big" krathongs. These are the floats and they were amazing. The traditional ones made of leaves and flowers were beautiful, but they were some fancy huge ones with built in lights and a generator for the lights and a sound system that leaves you deaf. Those were not really beautiful - just garish! See the video below to see what we mean. This time in the parade there were lots of traditional drummers which was fun, and a lot of floats being "pulled" by boys.
This is a big holiday here with fireworks and firecrackers all over the place for much of the day and night! People line the streets with small candles lit in front of their stores or homes, and the night sky is full of small hot air type cylinders glowing in the sky - very very beautiful, though dangerous for aircraft. The flame is created by a circle of wax-coated cardboard that will burn for quite a while
Actually these "kum loys" are not so small -2-4 ft high and 2-3 feet in diameter. Sometimes fireworks are also attached to the launch, and there is a "competition" to see how many can be attached. If you attach too many you get "failure to launch" and things start exploding on the ground! You will see this in the first section of the video.
The sights and sounds of the parade are a challenge to the senses - sometimes very bright and flashy floats, and at other times, dark but exotic designs using plant leaves and flowers etc. The huge sound systems assault the ears with music or an announcer describing the theme of the float. Oh! and let's not forget the fire crackers that are being exploded in the side streets and temple grounds. People here are much more willing to have them explode at their feet than we are! Also we see quite young kids being allowed to "play" with them.
Photos of the event below
Videos from the parade
This is a big holiday here with fireworks and firecrackers all over the place for much of the day and night! People line the streets with small candles lit in front of their stores or homes, and the night sky is full of small hot air type cylinders glowing in the sky - very very beautiful, though dangerous for aircraft. The flame is created by a circle of wax-coated cardboard that will burn for quite a while
Actually these "kum loys" are not so small -2-4 ft high and 2-3 feet in diameter. Sometimes fireworks are also attached to the launch, and there is a "competition" to see how many can be attached. If you attach too many you get "failure to launch" and things start exploding on the ground! You will see this in the first section of the video.
The sights and sounds of the parade are a challenge to the senses - sometimes very bright and flashy floats, and at other times, dark but exotic designs using plant leaves and flowers etc. The huge sound systems assault the ears with music or an announcer describing the theme of the float. Oh! and let's not forget the fire crackers that are being exploded in the side streets and temple grounds. People here are much more willing to have them explode at their feet than we are! Also we see quite young kids being allowed to "play" with them.
Photos of the event below
Videos from the parade
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