Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Nature Lover

Text : Alison Swann
Images : Apirak

At home in Chiang Mai

Dr. Hans Bänziger has been a mainstay of Chiang Mai University’s Entomology Department for over 34 years, so what brought the Italian-born Swiss to Chiang Mai all those years ago and what made him stay?

In the midst of all the clipped and well-tended lawns in and around Chiang Mai there is one garden, punctuated by enormous old lychee trees and rambling greenery, which grows free and wild, making it a welcoming home for insect and animal life. This is the garden of the home of Dr Hans Bänziger and his wife Aj.Saengdao.

Hans, who was born in Italy but retained the Swiss nationality of his parents, began his adventures in Thailand with an unusual Thai scholarship within the UNESCO program, studying entomology [insects] at Kasetsart University, Bangkok. It was 1965 and the 24-year-old student was soon on his way to Chiang Mai for a short research trip: “I was not that impressed by Chiang Mai at first, because I came here to work for a very short period, possibly a couple of weeks.” But research-wise the city was very suitably located and by year end he was back, researching for his Masters and Doctorate and delighting in the rich source of wildlife on hand for his study into moths that drink animal tears.

“It [moths drinking tears] had been known in other areas but very little study had been done. The difficulty was that, moths being nocturnal, I had to work at night, not in town, but out in the field, with cattle-rearing farmers, especially near or in the forest, so that was a little bit challenging. It was very difficult to get to these places even during the day because of lack of transportation facilities, but I had to go out at night - this was a time when many of the roads were still dirt roads, motorcycle-taxis not yet invented and even getting around town was a big challenge!”

It was very romantically beautiful, but very dusty, boiling hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, and part of the roof irreparably leaked when it rained. I loved it.

At the time, his work was divided between the zoo, the then Thai-German Dairy Farm, and various northern Thai villages, where large mammals were hosts to the moths he was studying. “I had very little money with my grant. I had B.40 a day to live on. Of course, this was 45 years ago, so it worked out differently. Eventually, I managed to buy a second-hand motorcycle, which was great. It made me very mobile.” By the second year he began to feel as though Chiang Mai was his home.

“The first thing I had to do was to learn the Thai language. Without that you could not survive because no one spoke any other languages. Fortunately I already knew four languages at this time, so I was used to learning languages. I was born in Italy so I was brought up speaking Swiss-German at home, Italian with friends and German and Italian at school. However, my first foreign language was French, the second English. The best help I had for learning Thai was from a little German booklet, which graphically explained the tones. The trouble is if you have Thai lessons from a teacher who has not been trained to teach Westerners then it is a big problem, because he does not realize how difficult it is for us to master the tones, the sine qua non of the Thai language. The other part is that for exact pronunciation it is best you learn the Thai script, not just the English version. This helps a lot when you are living here because you learn by yourself by reading things. Thai is very special in that the script also tells you the tone of the words; the Chinese script doesn’t tell you the tones.”

One of the main reasons Hans decided to stay in Chiang Mai is because it is a particularly rich area for wildlife, with elephants and birds, plants, insects and smaller animals, in the vicinity of the town.

“In those times Doi Suthep was not a national park, so you could go there and collect anything without anyone worrying about it. Back then everything was different. The food was northern Thai; if you went out to the villages it was all original and there was very little foreign influence. After two years I went back to Switzerland to finish my studies and was away for five years. I came back with funding to do a post-doctorate, well financed, not like the first time.”

“I came back to study, more deeply, the moths that drink tears, but also the moths that drink blood - like a mosquito. I found this out at the end of my first stay when I went to Malaysia. So, I came back and first spent one year in Malaysia because that is where I discovered its unusual moth feeding habits, and then another year in Chiang Mai. The moths that drink tears and the ones which drink blood, are related and never far from the forest so I was dependent on forests. Also now, pristine habitats are where I carry out research on pollination of orchids and other rare flowers.”

He eventually settled at Chiang Mai University, where he has been researching and lecturing in entomology for 34 years, and even though he is now retired he still returns frequently. When he started at Chiang Mai University he was very lucky with his accommodation.

“For many years I lived in the old way. I was extremely lucky to find an old house; possibly one of the oldest wooden houses in the region, a historical house from the late 1800s. It was built by Louis, the son of the controversial former royal governess, Anna Leonowens. He had a teak concession and this enabled him to build this extraordinary house, in colonial and Thai style.” The building is in fact one huge bungalow, atop 137 supporting pillars, with wide, balustrade verandas reminiscent of merchant trader days.

“It was first built on the western side of the Ping River, then it was moved to the other side and Leonowens lived in that house maybe five years. Then he had financial problems and had to go back to England. At this point the then manager of the teak concession, a Mr Bain, bought the piece of land from the company and the so-called Bain Compound was born.”

“I rented one of the houses in the Bain Compound and lived there for 25 years until they sold the whole thing, and I can say that I am the person who lived there longer than any of the other residents apart from Mr Bain who lived there only a few years longer than me. The house is still there, and is now being renovated. It was very romantically beautiful, but very dusty - boiling hot in the summer, very cold in the winter, and part of the roof irreparably leaking during rain. I loved it. And this was right in the centre of the town. I could walk to the markets; there was no need to take a car. Where we live now, I do walk to the University sometimes; it takes about an hour so you can’t always do it. Or I walk halfway and then get on the little bus within the University.”

Fourteen years ago he married Aj.Saengdao, who works in the same faculty in the administration department of the University. He probably holds the record of the bachelor resisting longest – 26 years – the charms of the northern Thai beauties without getting married. Later on, the family home in Italy sold, Hans inherited the money which enabled him to buy the land he and his wife now live on. They employed an architect to design the house just how they wanted it.

As he sits on his veranda with Saengdao, looking out on their beautiful wilfully overgrown garden, butterflies and birds dance around in delight, the earth buzzes with life and Hans can be sure he has truly made a home from home – right here in Chiang Mai.