Oub Kham Museum, Chiang Rai

I was the only tourist to visit the museum this morning. Maybe because it costs 300 baht (six pounds!) The museum is dedicated to the Lanna Kingdom, which covered a large swathe of southern China, northern Vietnam, Laos, northern Thailand, northern Burma and northern Assam. It was a federation of tribal states, each with their own king or queen, who wore clothes of gold cloth and sat on thrones covered with gold leaf. The kingdom lasted nearly two thousand years.

The museum was built by a private antique dealer, who spent his whole life travelling the length and breadth of the ancient Lanna kingdom, buying and selling antiques from the region. He managed to accummulate a goodly collection of silver, gold plated, bronze and lacquer objects and several tribal costumes, which are all housed in poorly lit glass-fronted cases, in brick built rooms with corrugated iron roofs, round a couple of courtyards.

The courtyards are decorated with old pieces of wooden sculpture, tree ferns, plastic orchids and hideous modern clay figures. Waterfalls and fountains provide a background sound , together with a tape that sounds like the soundtrack to a bad movie.

All the objects are fussily intricate. There are far too many of them in each room and the overall effect is kitch.

Lanna means a million rice fields. The Lanna kingdom originated in Chiang Saen some time before the seventh century. Chiang Saen is rich in Lanna history, archeology and art. But it was not until King Meng Rai (1239-1317) became king in 1259 that the warring tribes of the area were quelled and the kingdom united. All the kings and queens continued to rule their small principalities, under King Meng Rai. He used Chiang Saen as his northern defensive outpost. By the fourteenth century Chiang Saen had eight watch towers and eleven gates. It was one of the best planned cities in the world and a centre of Buddhist thought.

The Lanna kingdom fell apart in 1568, after an economic crisis caused by building too many temples. Then the Burmese took over.