Ghost Chiang Mai

The south road outChiang Mai Gate ประตูเชียงใหม่

The south road out

Not the corpse gate — that is two hundred metres west — but the road beyond it runs to Haiya and the burning grounds

Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Where
Middle of the south moat, at the head of Wualai · 18.78136, 98.98898 from OpenStreetMap
Open
Market from dusk; the gate itself any hour
Cost
Free
Who is dead
Not the corpse gate — that is two hundred metres west — but the road beyond it runs to Haiya and the burning grounds
On
On foot, By bicycle

The south gate, the market at its foot, and the silversmiths' road running away from it. The Saturday walking street starts here.

Included on this route for the geography: the living city faced north and east; the dead went south and west, and everything on the far side of this line was once field, grave and cremation ground.

What is said to be there

Not the corpse gate — that is two hundred metres west — but the road that runs out of it goes to Haiya and the burning grounds, and it did that job for centuries. A crossing where the dead went out is where misfortune is still set down and left: a tray at the kerb, a raft, a little figure standing in for somebody. Outward, always. Look down when you cross.

The kind of dead this kind of place holds, in northern reckoning

Making merit here

The rescue-foundation station on this side of town keeps a box. Ask for ศพไร้ญาติ.

Chiang Mai Gate
Hartmann Linge · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Commons
Chiang Mai Gate
NaN Peacock · CC BY 4.0 ·
Chiang Mai Gate
NaN Peacock · CC BY 4.0 ·

Yours would be better

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Sources for this stop

WhatWho published itNote
ผี ไม่ได้มีแค่สยองขวัญ เมื่อ 'ผีล้านนา' คือการปกปักรักษาLannerthe Lanna split between ผีดี and ผีร้าย, and what เสื้อบ้าน เสื้อเมือง are
คำเรียกผีและความเชื่อเรื่องผีในภาษาไทยถิ่นเหนือVeridian E-Journal, Silpakorn Universitythe northern names for the dead, collected and classified