La Na

I may be beginning to learn a bit about Thai history just as I begin to feel attracted to South America again.

Lanna is a name given a large section of the north of Thailand. Petchaboon, where I am now may mark the southern boundary of Lanna. However my guess is that it lies south of that boundary. There is a mountainous area not far north of Petchaboon which seems to mark that boundary pretty well

I see a way to make a home for myself here in Petchaboon, but do not find myself strongly attracted to the idea. I may move back to Chaing Mai before the end of the year. There I may have some more work don on my eyes and prepare for a move to .....perhaps Manizales, in Caldas Colombia.

The beginnings of Lanna  fairly well coincides with the beginning of modern Thailand. I'm not very confident of any understanding of Thai history yet, but I'll do the best I can at the moment. Lanna became influential in Siam at about the same time as Mongol-Chinese influence was on the upswing in SEA. The people of Lanna with their King Mengri were among the few to successfully resist that powerful influence.

Southeast Asia which had long been strongly Indianized became so Sinicized that has been called Indo-China.

I guess that what must Thais learn is that Mengri successfully resisted a Mongol led Chinese encroachment on the area and with two friendly kings went on to found Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, and other important cities which exist today and began a culture well recognized today.

More Thai History Notes

I seem to have misplaced many posts on Thai history. Among those posts on Thailand were two or three which were the beginning of an extensive timeline of the very early history of Thailand.

Below are a series of dates related to more recent Thai history which I intended to add to the more inclusive time-line:

1238 AD: Sukkothai city founded. It was the capital of the Thai Empire for about 140 years.

1262: Chang Rai founded in the north by King Mengrai. This city has been the home of the famous jade Buddha, sometimes called the Emerald Buddha.

1296: Chang Mai became the capital of the Lana Kingdom after Chaing Rai.

1327: Sanskrit was used in Ankor until about this year.

1331 - 1351: Plagues, which may have killed as many as half of all living Chinese* at the time, seems not to have reached Lanna or Sukuthai.

1350: From this date onward there seems to have been continuous contact between Siamese and Cantonese.

1374: Armies of Ayurveda firs invaded Sukhothai. Ayudhaya was a natural port.

1409 - 1424: King Itaracha recieved the Ming admiral Cheng Ho(Jung Huh).

1441 - 1487: reign of Tilokaracha, called the greatest of Lanna kings.

1500 - 1560: Ayudahaya was a great sea trading capital of more than a million inhabitants.

1570: Ayudahaya had expanded to 'boarders' roughly those of modern Thailand.

1765: A Burmese army with Shan troops and contingents from Lanna moved into Ayudhaya.

1767: The Ayudhaya Kingdom was destroyed after dominating mainland South East Asia for nearly 400 years.

1782: Bangkok became the capital of Siam. The walls of Bangkok were made, in part, of bricks from Ayudhaya.

1782 - 1932: The Rattanakosin Kingdom or Kingdom of Siam was the fourth Thai Kingdom and was centered on Bangkok.

1800s: Early in this century of English colonialism John Crawford, governor of Singapore, praised the justice system of Siam as superior to other Asia countries and comparable western countries.

1900s: Not a colony.


*Chinese were estimated at 65 million persons.