Susan's Shanghai Blog - Week 104

Day 2 in Chiang Mai, we visited a handicraft area, I think it was Creative City. This is an area setup by the city where there are a large number of handicraft stores/factories (jewelry, silverware, celadon and other forms of pottery, textile, etc.)

The first stop was a celadon pottery story. Celadon pottery is named for its distinct glazing process. The clay is treated with a special additive and then it is crafted into the object. In the case of these pictures, the two craftsmen were making vases and pots using spinning wheels. They then dry the objects in the shade and then an initial firing is done. The special glaze is applied and a second firing is done, giving the pieces a distinctive look.

This was nice .. our guide spoke to the 2nd craftsman and he started a pot from scratch and allowed us to watch through the entire making of the pot, from a lump of clay, to measuring to ensure it was the right size, to the finished pot ready to dry and then be glazed.

Next up was umbrella-making. To be correct, they are called Oil-paper umbrellas, and they date back around 200 years in Chiang Mai (they originated in China).

The umbrella paper is made from the bark of the Saa tree. It is cooked until it is soft, then smashed with a hammer (shown). Then it is put into a vat of water and ladies strain the water through a frame and the fibers get trapped. They then dry it to make the paper.

The frame is made of bamboo (which is plentiful there). There were a set of women there that were taking the bamboo and cutting and shaping (by hand) into the different parts of the frame.

We got to watch this lovely lady putting it altogether. She has the frame and the dark grey pot on the left-side of the picture is glue made of sticky rice. She opens the frame and then, using her hands and the sticky rice glue, glues several layers of the paper to the frame. It is trimmed, oiled, and dried before the patterns are painted on.

The umbrellas at this little "factory" are all hand-painted. They will also paint a design on basically anything (shorts, shirt, jacket, camera case, or backpack). So I decided to get an elephant painted onto my vacation backpack. I took a set of pictures as he went along ....and the finished product (with the artist).

We then stopped at a lacquerware store. Lacquerware includes boxes, tableware, buttons (and even coffins, yuck!) painted with lacquer. These are very typical in Eastern Asia although I had really only thought of them as Japanese. The lacquerware that is done in Thailand originated from Burma and was brought over during the Burmese occupation of Chiang Mai. As the lady showed us, the sap from the tree that is used is black (well, straw-colored when in the tree but turns black when it is exposed to air). When brushed in or coated on, it forms a hard glossy smooth surface, resistant to moisture or heat.

They have a set of different techniques that they use. The first is gold leafing. Here you can see two different plates. They coat the plate with the black lacquer and then, using a white "paint" (I call it paint but it washes off) they paint what she called a negative, leaving what is going to be gold leafed not painted. Then they apply a little bit of lacquer to make things stick and then the gold leaf, and then a coating. They then can remove the white part so you just have the black and the gold leaf.

They also do crushed egg shells using both white and brown egg shells. The last picture of an artisan hand-painting the white "negative" onto an elephant prior to gold leafing (if you look closely next to his forehead, you can see a finished gold-leafed elephant).

Of all of the handicrafts, the first one that had come to mind was Thai Silk. Thai silk is produced from the cocoons of Thai silkworms that are raised on a steady diet of mulberry leaves. The production of Thai silk begins with the Bombyx mori, a small silk worm that comes from the eggs of a silk moth (which lays 200-500 eggs, and then dies).

These worms eat mulberry tree leaves, growing from pretty tiny worms to sizeable ones, before building a cocoon.

In its original cocoon form, raw silk is bumpy and irregular. Thai weavers soak the cocoons in boiling water to separate the silk thread from the caterpillar inside the cocoon. Here you can see the cocoons in water. What you don't get a good view for in a picture is that a tiny tiny tiny little strand comes from out of each cocoon and is put together to form the single strand that you can see.

The silk thread is then soaked in hot water and bleached (to remove the natural yellow color) before dyeing. Once washed and dried, the silk is then woven using a traditional hand operated loom.

We then stopped quickly by a place that did silver, including hand-hammering.

The one I think Tom enjoyed most was the wood carving and wood furniture. Some of these wood carvings are very intricate and can take up to 6 months to do. Tom spent alot of time looking at all of them. They also had alot of wood furniture which was really nice, but not something we were going to look to buy and ship back to the US.

Once the handicraft tour was over, we had them drop us at for lunch. We had written down a place from the NY Times (36 Hours in Chiang Mai) but went ahead and had the guide give us a recommendation. Interestingly enough, it was the same restaurant! The reviews for this place are somewhat hit and miss. Frommers gave it 2 out of 3 stars saying it is probably the best place in town to sample authentic Northern Thai food. However, the community reviews on TripAdvisor range from excellent to terrible. There was a waiting list that we added ourselves to, and waited probably 15 minutes for a table. We were seated across from a couple (who were finished and leaving) on a long table with another group at the other end. Plain white tables and cushioned chairs, nothing extravagant but that was exactly what we had expected as we had said that we wanted "local" food.

We ordered a set of things including (we think) Khao soi, which is supposed to be a very local dish. It is a soup-like dish made with a mix of deep-fried crispy egg noodles and boiled egg noodles, ground chillies fried in oil, and meat in a curry-like sauce containing coconut milk. The curry is somewhat similar to that of yellow or massaman curry but sthinner. It came with a plate of pickled cabbage, shallots, and lime on the side.

We also did a local sausage, a couple veggie plates (no pictures of the veggies), and sticky rice (which you can see at the top of the picture, also in the lidded-weaved basket). I wasn't a big fan of the sausage (personally) but the rest of the items were all quite good .. we'd go back again if we make it to Chiang Mai again.

After lunch, we headed out for our own Old City walking tour. We had found a couple on the web, merged them and then threw out the items that didn't seem like we wanted to see. First up, Wat Chedi Luang, or the Temple of the Big Stupa. The first that that we came across was the large Sermon Hall, built in 1928. It is decorated with lots of gold and the interior has large columns decorated with black and gold patterns. Even the doors have the same black and gold decoration.

At the front of the Sermon Hall is the Phra Chao Attarot (or Eighteen-cubit Buddha), the large standing Buddha, which was made in the late 14th century. This was one of the first temples that we had seen actual monks in prayer with followers. We saw this in a couple of the temples during our little tour, where followers would bring the monk alms (gifts) and the monk in return would pray for them.

In the front was this Buddha statue, which was all in gold. This one was a bit more interesting, as you could give a donation to the temple in return for a small sheet of gold leaf, that you then could attach to the statue. If you look closely, this is why the statue looks a but "fuzzy", from the sheets of gold leaf that have been haphazardly added.

The temple entrance is guarded by these large Naga. The Naga represents the night, the Luna world. The importance of this is reflected in the Cambodian mythology of their creation and the tradition of Khmer Kings of being praised for unifying the solar and lunar races of kings and of associating a lineage with the sun or moon .. the tradition came from India. In Thailand, Nagas are parts of Thai folklore and are represented in many Buddhist temples as architectural elements.

The important part of this picture is the tree. It is a gigantic Gum tree, which towers over the building. It is said that as long as this gum tree stands, the city will have good fortune.

Heading around the side of the Sermon hall, we got our first view of the Great Stupa for which the temple is named. The original pyramid-shaped stupa was built in 1391 to house the ashes of the father of King Saen Muang Ma. It was added-to by other kings over the next 84 years, including 3 silver-plated walls and topping it with a large spire to house an Emerald Buddha Statue (moved to the stupa in 1468). As you can see, it has been partly destroyed but at its' peak, it was 275 feet tall, 184 feet wide, and covered with bronze plates and gold leaf. The spire and a huge part of one side was brought down in 1545 by an earthquake, reducing it to its' current height of 197 feet. You can again see the Naga's that guard the large staircases.

Perhaps a little hard to see, but on the eastern side of the stupa, in a niche near the top, is a black jade buddha, which is a larger-sized replica of the original Emerald Buddha (which was moved to Laos and is today in the Grand Palace in Bangkok).

Half-way up, you can see the row of elephant statues, which used to go all the way around but now you can see just on one corner.

Another small temple out back, which contain another thing that we saw a bit in Chiang Mai that we don't remember seeing before .. that being statues (perhaps wax?) of important monks who we assume were part of the temple but have now died. For example, this one had the sitting statue of the venerable Acharn Mun Bhuridarto, who was the supreme mentor of forest monks. The sign said that his teaching led to an emergence in the mid-buddhist era of a considerable number of genuinely meritorious monks. There was also a nice reclining buddha there.

And out back there are also little white statues with each of the Chinese zodiac. We grabbed a picture of Tom in front of his zodiac, the rabbit.

Next door is Wat Phan Tao, or the Monastery of a Thousand Kilns (so named because it was onced used as a factory to produce hand-made buddha statues). You enter through this intricately carved red sandstone archway, which leads to the large, teak-wood Sermon Hall. This was moved here in 1875 by King Inthawichayanon and is one of the only remaining all-wood temple buildings in the city. It has been part of the royal residence of the king prior to being moved here (each new King, according to Lanna tradition, built a new palace). The front panel of the building displays a mirrored mosaic of a peacock standing over a dog, representing the astrological year of the former royal resident�s birth. Inside, it was quite simple although still very beautiful, with a large Buddha statue and tall columns holding up the roof.

As we walked around the side, there were lots of these yellow flags (no idea what their significance was).

Then out back, there is a tulip pond with a Buddha statue and then these very interesting buildings (which our walking tour says is the Monks' laundry mat although I'm not believing it). The roofs are made of dried leaves!

I don't actually remember which temple this is from, but we thought that the murals on the wall were really nice.

We quickly walked by Wat Tung Yu, which had an interesting roof design. There was the main hall, and then behind it, a little hall with these really great red doors. In front of the small building, there was a large, white seated (meditating) Buddha and then a group that has a golden parasol in the middle flanked by a gold monk on the left and a silver monk on the right.

Wat Phra Singh was built in 1345 by King Phayu to house the ashes of his father (are you seeing a pattern here?) The large building that can be seen from the street has this great architectural detail above the door.

The main temple building is again guarded by Nagas, these gold encrusted with jewels. The name means Temple of the Lion Buddha but really, the statue seems to look like the rest of the Buddha statues. This one is said to be the holiest in Chiang Mai as it came from a temple in India where Buddha gained enlightenment.

Here again they had statues of previous (now dead) monks.

Behind the Sermon Hall is a large white Chedi along with a few other smaller buildings.

The road name here is not what I was trying to get a picture of, but how gorgeously decorated the street signs were!

We headed back to the hotel but passed by Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang on the way. In Thailand, an inthakhin is the name of the "city pillar", which is made of wood or stone and is often located at the geographical heart of the city. There is an ancient legend that tells the story of how the original site of Chiang Mai was a town plagued with demons. A hermit asked the god Indra for help and from the heavens came the Inthakin pillar to protect the town and the people from the demons. However, in time the people neglected the pillar and the demons returned and the town was left in ruins. In 1296, King Mengrai chose the site of Chiang Mai to be the new capital of the Lanna kingdom. King Mengrai found the old city pillar amongst the ruins of the town and was told the legend about the demons. He placed the pillar at the geographical centre of the new city in a temple called Wat Sadue Muang. There is a museum of that Wat, and then what looks like a NEW Wat Inthakhin in front of the museum. Inside this new-looking Wat was this really nice white Buddha statue. The other interesting thing here was a set of these little monk statues with pots, which we assumed was where you would put your donations.

The old city of Chiang Mai was, as many old cities, a walled city. The city was surrounded by a moat and a defensive wall, since nearby Burma was a constant threat as well as the armies of the Mongol Empire which only decades earlier had conquered most of Yunnan, China, and in 1292 overran the bordering Thai L� kingdom of Chiang Hung. Most of the wall itself is gone today, torn down by the Japanese in WWII. The gates themselves were rebuilt in the 1970's based on photos from 1899. This is the Tha Pae gate, the Harbor of Floating Houses Gate. This was the main entrance into the city as it faced the Mae Ping River and the trade routes.

Dinner was at a restaurant called The Riverside, which was (as you guessed it) on the river.

We ordered a bunch of smaller plates to get a nice cross-section of Thai food. This included deep-fried Thai-style meatballs (1st picture) and fried bread topped with minced pork (2nd picture).

Then deep-fried sour pork ribs and garlic. For this one, I assumed pork with a bit of garlic but if you look at the picture, there is almost as much garlic (light brown) as there is pork ribs (dark brownish-red). It was REALLY good, and I can guarantee no issues with vampires!

We like a couple of the soups from Thailand, and tonight we tried the Tom Ka Gai, which is chicken and lemongrass in coconut milk. Great flavor and not spicy (which means we both got to share it). And then deep-fried chicken in pandan leaf. Not the easiest thing to eat, as you have to unwrap it from the leaves, but tender, juicy, and flavorful.

And lastly, a view from the bridge over the river as we headed back to our hotel, a short walk away.