Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide

It's no secret that royal authority in Southeast Asia has historically been vested in remarkable possessions. Competition over ownership of white elephants could lead to war: damage to or loss of the lak muang (phallic pillar) at the centre of the kingdom could result in the downfall of a dynasty. That the Emerald Buddha now housed in Wat Phra Keo in Bangkok should have had such a chequered history then is not surprising, and neither is the veneration accorded it - as Southeast Asian culture specialist Reinhard Hohler shows in the account that follows.

Three times a year, King Bhumibol Adulyadej changes the robes of the Emerald Buddha in Bangkok's Wat Phra Keo. At a height of only 66 cms, the image is the most revered Buddhist icon in Thailand, yet its origins and its sculptor are unknown.

The green image is venerated as the palladium of the Kingdom of Thailand and is expected to protect and bring prosperity to the country. It is also the guarantor that the annual rains will fall on which the rice-growing cycle depends. It is also intimately connected with Suwannaphum - the fabulous Golden Land visited by Indian merchants, Brahmins and adventurers since ancient times.

Just what the connotation of `Suwannaphum' is, is a moot point. In Sanskrit it is a geographical term that encompasses the landmass between India and Southern China, which now incorporates Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The modern Greater Mekong Sub-region, promoted nowadays as an integrated tourism destination, is also a central part of the Golden Land. And it is within the Suwannaphum area that the Emerald Buddha has travelled so extensively during the centuries past. These wanderings of the image have played an important part in the history of Thailand and its Southeast Asian neighbours.

According to one of the palm-leaf manuscripts that are part of Chiang Mai's heritage, the Chronicle of the Emerald Buddha - translated in 1932 by the French Consul Emile Notton - the image made its first appearance in India some 2,000 years ago. Later, its legendary wanderings took it to Sri Lanka, Bagan, Angkor, and the ancient Thai capital, Ayutthaya. These sources have it resurfacing miraculously in Chiang Rai in 1434, and traveling thence to Lampang and Chiang Mai. From Chiang Mai it was taken to Luang Prabang and Vientiane and subsequently to Thonburi in 1778 and finally Bangkok.

While the earlier part of its existence and movements are legendary, the history of the image begins to be firmer in 1391, when it was carried from Kamphaeng Phet to Chiang Rai. That it really was located in both towns is attested to by the fact that the towns each have monasteries named Wat Phra Keo. During the reign of King Sen Muang Ma of Chiang Mai (1386 - 1401), the Emerald Buddha in Chiang Rai was encased in stucco to hide and thus protect it from enemies.

In 1434 a monk discovered the Phra Keo Morakot (as it is also known), after its temple in Chiang Rai was struck by lightning. When word got out, huge numbers of people flocked to the temple to admire and venerate the apparently long-forgotten image, and two years later the Phra Keo was carried by order of the King of Chiang Mai to the Lanna capital. But when the procession reached the crossroads between Lampang and Chiang Mai, the elephant carrying the Emerald Buddha refused to turn to the designated destination, repeatedly trying to take the road to Lampang. The King, feeling that to counter what was clearly an omen would bring bad luck, allowed the image to be taken to Lampang, where it was housed in a temple named Wat Phra Keo Don Tao for 32 years.

Subsequently, the ruler of Chiang Mai under whom Lanna enjoyed its Golden Age, King Tilokarat (1441 - 1487), decided that the image must be brought to his own capital. Here it was set into a niche on the eastern side of the pyramidal stupa of Wat Chedi Luang. It was in this location that it remained for some 80 years.

The next move was to Luang Prabang, in what is now Laos. King Chai Setthathirat, a son of the King of Luang Prabang and a Chiang Mai princess, ruled the Lanna capital from 1546 - 47. On the death of the ruler of Luang Prabang, this son returned to take his father's place, and the Emerald Buddha went with him, according to chronicle accounts staying twelve years before continuing to Vientiane. Then followed a residence of 218 years at the Ho Phra Keo, before the victorious Thai General Chao Phraya Chakri subdued the Lao and took the image to Thonburi, where it was installed in King Taksin's Wat Arun on the bank of the Chao Phraya River.

As is well known, it was General Chao Phraya Chakri who succeeded Taksin when he was adjudged insane and executed, and on his accession to the throne the first king of the Chakri Dynasty had the Emerald Buddha carried across the river to his new capital, and installed in the temple in which we find it today - Wat Phra Keo. Now within the Grand Palace, and officially known as Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram (The Residence of the Venerated Holy Jewel), the temple and its image are watched over by huge guardian figures. Seated in the meditation posture known as virasana, the image is located under a canopy, on a high-tiered pedestal decorated with gold leaf. Among the other restrictions circumscribing the Emerald Buddha, the taking of photographs is not allowed.

One of the benefits the image confers is the warding off of evil influences and epidemics. Thus, in the cholera epidemic of 1820, the Emerald Buddha was taken from Wat Phra Keo and carried in land and water procession throughout Bangkok. However, King Mongkut (1851 - 1868) brought an end to what had become a tradition, for fear that the invaluable image might suffer damage. It was King Mongkut also who determined that the image was carved from jade. At the end of its wanderings, in other words, it is from this location that the palladium both of the Chakri Dynasty and Thai society continues to watch over and protect the kingdom.

From the various accounts of the creation and wanderings of the image it appears there was once a source document to which all refer. Similarly, it is also possible that the current Emerald Buddha, making its historical appearance at Chiang Rai, is a copy of a now-lost original. Whatever the truth in this matter, there can be little doubt that the prestige of the Emerald Buddha predates its Chiang Rai appearance. Far more than a mere spoil of war, it was a hugely-valued icon coveted by men of power and prowess. As a result of its wanderings between such figures, the image was seen as the reason for their success, the good fortune that followed its acquisition guaranteeing the kingdom's prosperity and legitimizing the power-holders. This too was its effect on the Chakri Dynasty, marking the beginning of the rise and consolidation of rule of the royal house.

It is not the monarch alone though who sought the legitimacy conferred by possession of the image. In 1932, when the power of the king became constitutional rather than absolute, the many holders of political supremacy made sure they were known to have gone to the Grand Palace to pay their respects to the image. During World War Two, Phibun Songkram came close to taking the Emerald Buddha from Bangkok to a new capital at Saraburi - which by no coincidence was his birthplace.

Today, the most significant of the ceremonies associated with the Emerald Buddha is the changing of its robes, which since the reign of Rama III (1824 - 1851) has taken place at the onset of the hot, rainy and cold seasons (in March, July and November respectively). On these occasions, the king climbs up behind the image on its grand pedestal and carefully cleans away the accumulated dust and changes the headgear. Following this, while the king pays his silent respects, one of his officers ascends the pedestal and changes the intricately jeweled garments that cover it.

The hot season robes include a pointed crown of gold and a set of jeweled garments appropriate to a royal prince. The rainy season robes are those of a monk, and include a flaming topknot headpiece made of gold and decorated with sapphires. This is of course the rice-growing season, when monks keep to their monasteries to avoid damaging the young plants. The final set of robes, for the cool season, incorporates the monk's headgear but introduces a mesh garment composed principally of gold globules which cover the Emerald Buddha's entire body.

It was in Chiang Rai that the Emerald Buddha most clearly emerged from its legendary past, so it is appropriate that in celebration of the 90^th anniversary of the birth of the King's mother, a nearly identical image made of Canadian jade, crafted by Beijing carvers, was installed in Wat Phra Keo in that northern city. King Bhumibol Adulyadej presided at the consecration of the image in 1991, and the highlight procession preceding installation was seen not only by many Thai people but also a number of foreign visitors. There is no prohibition on approaching or even touching this copied image.

This then is an abbreviated account of the wanderings of this remarkable palladium, and it is to be hoped that with its journeys at an end, together with the facsimile in Chiang Rai, it will inaugurate a prosperous future for the Kingdom of Thailand.

Text � Reinhard Hohler 2006
(Reinhard Hohler (the author of the film, �The Jewel of Suwannaphum') is a GMS media travel consultant and can be contacted by e-mail at sara@cmnet.co.th. He is expected to lecture and show his film on the Emerald Buddha at a meeting of the Informal Northern Thai Group on the 21st of this month (see What's On for details).