A translation from Dai Yuen of one of the major versions of the Chronicle of Chiang Mai, a major city in northern Thailand, which was the capital of Lanna Thai, a former kingdom in northern Thailand.

For seven centuries, Chiang Mai has been the center of a lively culture and civilization in the hills of what is now northern Thailand. "The Chiang Mai Chronicle," one of the most important histories of the region, was written in 1827 to explain the growth and strength of the Kingdom of Lan Na which Chiang Mai dominated, and to foresee a glorious future after a generation of warfare. This translation of "The Chiang Mai Chronicle" was prepared from a palm-leaf manuscript. Extensive indexes and annotations have been added, and maps have been drawn especially for this edition. David Wyatt is the John Stambaugh Professor of History at Cornell University, and Aroonrut Wichienkeeo teaches at Chiang Mai Rajabhat Insitute.

History of Northern Thailand.

Cover; TABLE OF CONTENTS; PREFACE; ABBREVIATIONS; INTRODUCTION; The Nan Chronicle and its Sources; 1. Main Manuscript (MS.1); 2. Shorter Version (MS.2); 3. Reliquary Chronicles; 4. The ""History of the Founding of Nan; 5. The ""Old Chronicle; 6. The ""Royal Genealogy; 7. The ""History of Nan and Treatise on Medicine; 8. Miscellaneous Manuscripts; The Lineage of the Texts; The Language of the Texts; Editing Procedures; Romanization; Possible Future Directions; ÂRAMBHAKATHÂ; INVOCATION; CHAPTER ONE -- ORIGINS OF THE MÜANG; CHAPTER TWO -- THE THAI KAO RULERS, CA. 1300-1448.

Chronicles of Chiang Khaeng goes far beyond a mere annotated translation of four Lu chronicles. The polyglot co-authors, Grabowsky and Wichasin, take the annotations out of their meticulously researched footnotes of the translation proper and deftly integrate them into a history not only of a principality in northwestern Laos but a panorama of the jostlings for power among other chiang and their respective chao in the upper Mekong region. This geographic area outlines a cultural realm that shared Buddhist ethics and dhammic writing while also subscribing to the notion of hierarchy reinforced by demands for tribute, the display of regalia and pomp, and the brutal armed removal of local populations in incessant wars over human resources. Myth and history merge in these chronicles, which document sibling and spousal rivalries in networks of intermarriage and political alliances among the elite of the region. All of this was taking place at a time in history when the British and French arrived on the scene to engage China and newly emerging Siam in a mapping exercise that brought an end to centuries of regional rule by previously fairly autonomous city states. In this careful study, Chiang Khaeng emerges as a paradigm of a Southeast Asian tributary state with more than one overlord. Chronicles is a model of translation skill and historical acumen at its finest.

The first full history of a great commercial and political center that rose in Asia over almost five centuries.

The Legend of Queen Cāma ( Cāmadevīvaṃsa), an early fifteenth-century Pali chronicle written by Mahathera Bodhiraṃsi, recounts the story of the founding of the kingdom of Haripuñjaya in the Chiang Mai valley of Northern Thailand in the seventh century C.E. Similar to other Theravāda Pali chronicles, the legend integrates religious and political stories, namely, Queen Cāma's founding of a dynastic lineage and the fortunes of Buddhism within it. The Legend of Queen Cāma offers revealing insights into the nature of Buddhism as a living tradition during one of the greatest periods in the history of Thai Buddhism. These insights include the symbolic structure of Buddhist cosmology, the close association of Buddhism and the founding of city states, the interrelationship of popular Buddhist ethical teachings and devotional religion, and the inherently syncretic nature of Buddhism as presented in a text indebted to the folkloric traditions of Northern Thailand. One of the most striking features of the book is the parallelism between the text's dominant narratives--the Buddha's journey to Northern Thailand and his prediction of the discovery of a Buddha relic by King Adittaraja (eleventh century C.E.), and the founding by Queen Cāma of a lineage destined to govern Haripunjaya for five hundred years. The Buddha and Queen Cāma are equal partners in this creative, cosmically significant act. Both plant the seeds that mature into a Mon Buddhist politico-cultural center that predates the advent of Thai suzerainty in Northern Thailand by five hundred years.

Ten-year-old Tua—Thai for "peanut"—has everything she needs at home in Chiang Mai, Thailand, except for one thing she's always wanted: a sister. In the market one day, Tua makes an accidental acquaintance—one with wise, loving eyes, remarkable strength, and a very curious trunk. And when Tua meets Pohn-Pohn, it's clear this elephant needs her help. Together, the unusual team sets off on a remarkable journey to escape from Pohn-Pohn's vile captors. From the bustling night market to the hallowed halls of a Buddhist temple and finally, to the sanctuary of an elephant refuge, this clever girl and her beloved companion find that right under their noses is exactly what each has been searching for: a friend.

When British diplomats McLeod and Richardson set out on their missions to the Tai states in December 1836, their aim was trade and friendship. Captain William Couperus McLeod and Dr. David Richardson, both of the East India Company Madras Army, traveled from Moulmein on elephants, horses, and in the caravans of traders, to the present-day regions of the Shan States in Burma, northern Thailand, and Sipsong Panna in China. As the first Europeans to officially visit the region, they experienced some extraordinary social and cultural encounters. McLeod and Richardson had been in action in the first Anglo-Burmese War (1824-6) and had experience of other missions in Burma and Siam. They were fluent in Burmese and had a basic knowledge of Tai. They wrote superbly of their journeys and diplomatic exchanges. Their journals are published here in full, with detailed notes, for the first time. The richness of their narratives, their records of scientific, social, and cultural detail, their engaging insights, and some prejudices, make this engrossing reading for the enthusiast of travel and adventure literature. More than this, it is an essential new resource for scholars of many kinds-historians, anthropologists, geographers, and botanists, to name a few. Grabowsky and Turton provide an analytical commentary on the journals, and on the conditions and contexts of their writing and subsequent use. The authors set the information in the journals in the context of indigenous Tai language sources. They also present completely new research on the British settlement in the Tenasserim Provinces of peninsular Burma, along with the biographies of McLeod and Richardson, who appear, for the first time, as three-dimensional individuals. This volume is a state-of-the-art example of how to make archival material like these journals, which are among the finest of the period, accessible to a broad audience. Volker Grabowsky is professor of South East Asian history at the Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitut Munster. Andrew Turton is reader in anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.