placeLanna

ล้านนา · lan na

A million rice fields. Chiang Mai 1296, and its own script, language and law.

กสิณธร ราชโอรส · CC BY-SA 4.0

18.7883, 98.9853 · OpenStreetMap

What it is

The northern kingdom — Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Lamphun, Lampang, Phrae, Nan, Phayao — founded by Mangrai and independent of Ayutthaya and Siam for most of its history. Its people call themselves Tai Yuan.

The long version

It matters here for three reasons, and they are separable.

One: the earliest writing. The Mangrai law of 1296 carries the oldest recorded muay anybody can point to, in Northern Thai, on palm leaf.

Two: the claimed origin. The Thai-language history of the sport begins the craft with jerng, the Lanna martial dance — not in Ayutthaya, not in the south.

Three: the drum. The sabatchai drum is beaten with the elbow, the knee and the head, and the oldest one found is bronze, from Hot district in Chiang Mai.

Inference — and then the national story goes elsewhere. The four canonical schools are Korat, Lopburi, Chaiya and Thasao: northeast, centre, south, and the northern edge at Uttaradit, which is below Lanna proper. Lanna is in the origin and out of the canon. A kingdom annexed late and awkwardly does not get a line in the rhyme.

Connected to

• Fon jerng The dance.
• The Mangrai law, 1296 The law.
• The victory drum The drum.
• Chiang Mai The city.
• The four lines, and the rhyme that ranks them The canon it is outside.
• Muay Thasao The nearest line to it.

Named here by

• Top maphap Where it is from.
• Fon jerng Where it is from.
• The victory drum Whose drum.
• Kham Kaiwai Where.
• Manop Yarana Where.
• The hermit's school Who is in the room.
• The Mangrai law, 1296 Whose law.
• Khom, and the scripts it is not Where a different alphabet is used.

This record as JSON