Chapter 23. ANCIENT CITY - WIANG KUN KAM

A short distance outside Chiangmai lies an ancient city, that was just recently discovered in the 1980s. We were very much interested in ruins and everything ancient that we knew we had to visit this place.

Main Gateway

The ancient city is about 15mins drive from central Chiangmai. Before the 1980s, not much was known about the city except for the name that appeared in chronicles of long ago. The term "Kun Kam" translates to "area of royal residence".

Our guide + transport

The entrance fee is 200Baht per person and includes a horse ride that brings you around the entire ancient city. The journey takes about 1 hr.

Wat E-Kang

Local experts indicate that Wiang Kun Kam was established in 1286 by King Mengrai. It belonged to the ancient Lanna Kingdrom that ruled this regions before it became known as Thailand.

Wat Nanchang

In 1558, the River Ping rose and swell abnormally due to an extremely large amount of rain fall. The entire area was flooded and was such a catostrophe that the entire city was covered in mud and rain.

Wat Thatkhao

Blind-folded Horse

Our transport for the day was Singlam, a 10 years old horse. It was quite nerve wrecking to be sitting on a blind-folded horse. We asked the driver why? But we couldn't really comprehend what he said due to english-thai communication barrier.

This one was slightly different from the others

With a Buddha statue

Another one of the ruins

Wiang Kun Kam was meant to be a lost city. Until the 1980s, through archaeological efforts, research and hard work they managed to discover the location of the ancient city and started digging.

Cam-whoring with Singlam

Trust me, he loves the spotlight. The guide was slighty jealous. ;p

Beautifully decorated signs indicate the different ruins

The location of Wiang Kun Kam is right smack in the middle of a modern day village. It's quite surreal to see these magnificent ruins together with modern day houses. Luckily it's in a village, so the entire area still maintains a very low paced and tranquil atmosphere.

Peaceful

We could go near some of the ruins but for others, we could only take pictures from afar. The only indication is a nod or a shake of the head from our non english speaking guide.

None of the ruins have barriers but there is ZERO grafitti and no spotting of children playing around these ruins. This shows how much respect the Thais have for their history and culture.

Pagoda

As mentioned before, the entire city was buried under mud and rumble. Except for this temple which was one of the buildings that miracleously survived the flood.

Lady no enter ??

I've no idea why ladies aren't allowed to enter. Maybe they have something sinister inside not meant for the eyes of the ladies? Or it's just a unequality in sex? Actually there's nothing inside that can't be seen by standing outside.

Amazing architecture

Despite its age, the structure was still intact and the fine stone carvings were still very much visible. The sheer height of it must had made it a "mega-structure" in those days.

Temple next to Pagoda

Fresh coat of paint

This temple was just recently given a new coat of paint. If a 800 years old building looks so new, I would had definitely fleed the scene as there was surely something ghostly going on.

Be sure to touch the gold prosperity tree

And ring the Gong for good luck

Like a paddy field

Although it was uncovered almost 30 years ago, a large part of Wiang Kun Kam still remains underneath the modern day village. The government couldn't just relocate an entire village and conduct a large scale excavation.

Could this been a house? A school? Or even a cinema?

But the one thing that mystified me was that some of the ruins appeared to be on level ground. But if was dug out of the mud, shouldn't it be at least 1-2 levels below ground level?

Some of the ruins only had bricks and rubbles left and appeared to be recently re-arranged. But how did they know the original structure and how it's all supposed to stack up together?

Bodhi Tree

Another ruin

To be frank, most of the ruins look strangely similar after the 3rd or 4th one. I've given up taking notes of the names of the ruins after all I see are dark reddish bricks. ;p

Description of one of the temples

Looks like a phoenix

Traditional Northern House

After the tour, we returned to the main entrance to visit one of the traditional northern houses that once housed ancient Lanna villagers who used to roam these hills.

Walking up


Bamboo & rattan

The house is made entirely of bamboo and rattan and creaks frenziedly whenever anything moves in the house. The house reminds me of our Sarawak Longhouse, except the fact that our strangely shaped staircase beats the hell out of their normal ones.

The interior

Normal household items

Dining table

They try to make it as realistic as possible by placing normal household items such as clothing, cookery, tables that were used during the ancient civilisation. The only thing amiss is an actual 1200s Lanna villager. ;p

Pots, plates and cooking utensils

Ancient Lanna Handwriting

I flipped through the book and it appeared to be in near-pristine condition. I enquired with Mr. Korn why such an artifact would be just left in a village house and not in the local museum. He said, "Oh, the museum have too many of these".

Not very big

The house isn't very big and there's no clear division of rooms. The dining room, living room, kitchen and everything else seems to be linked together in a big space. Opened single room concept.

Pretending to cook

To remove the shells from the rice


Mr. Korn

This is Mr. Korn. He looks very young doesn't he? Overall we had an enjoyable time and was glad that we partook in his sight-seeing services. We'd probably be unable to visit so many places in the short time span by ourselves.

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