Our First Visit to Naan
in Northern Thailand
(Dec 29, 2012 - Jan 1, 2013)

Day Three (Part 3)

Mon. Dec 31, 2012 (B.E. 2555)   After Wat Sri Pan Ton– :

Somehow we returned to the area near Khuang Mueang Intersection and Wat Hua Khuang ("วัดหัวข่วง") was the next stop. The name means a "wide courtyard", and it did have a wide one. This wat  was at least 779 years old! (See more history at Wikipedia: Thai version   English version)

(Original photos by Sompote, resized by me.
The same for the rest of the pictures below.)

Wat Suan Tan (วัดสวนตาล ) or "Palm Grove Monastery", was just a few blocks away. It could have been established in mid 15th Century. See its legend (in Thai only) at danpranipparn.com.   The King and the Queen paid a visit to this temple in 1958 (bottom left picture below).

At Wat Suan Tan we saw some signs in a "foreign language". One example was the big sign with two rows of letters (above, middle right). The first row in a larger font was in Thai: "We love the Thai culture". The second row was totally incomprehensible for me. Could it be the language of the Thai Lue or Tai Lue people? Were they the ones who built these fabulous temples? For me, "we love the Thai culture" sounded rather awkward - as if "Thailand" and its culture were foreign to the people who wrote this. Nevertheless, this is understandable to some extent as Nan had not really been under the rule of Thailand (Siam) before 1931. In addition, not all the Thai Lue were here for many generations. Some came to Thailand during WWII:

Who are the Thai Lue people?

More at: joshuaproject.net

Many beautiful wats  in Nan were mostly old and were located very close to one another! Even nowadays, none of the houses were as grand as any of these ancient wats ! It made me wonder why the Nan rulers and their people spent so much efforts in building and decorating them.

See the photos above in bigger sizes at Facebook : Naan2012Dec31(C)-1

Our next stop was Nan Riverside Art Gallery. Some of the art works displayed at this gallery were the replicas of the murals in Wat Phumin. Some were the original works of the contemporary artists.

The Great Whisperers and what not:

Most interesting was a bench with painted "shadows" on the floor and the walls. That explained why I had no shadows while in that room:

There were many excellent works including the replicas of the murals in various ancient temples around town. It was impossible to take all the pictures.

A short stop at the gift shop before we left:



See these photos taken at Nan Riverside Art Gallery in bigger sizes at Facebook: Naan2012Dec31(C)-2 and this: Naan2012Dec31(C)-3

Next :   Lunch, Ticklish tree, Old Thai Lue Temple, Doi Phuka Dec31(D)