Northern Thailand straddles one of the most important historical crossroads of Southeast Asia, a mountain-meets-rivers nexus where peoples from China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand have traded goods and fused cultures for centuries. Financed by the criss-crossing of trade routes between China and the Myanmar coast, the area eventually developed into a powerful, far-reaching kingdom called "Lanna Thai" (Million Thai Rice Fields), today shortened to "Lanna". Lanna's explosion of art, culture and religions begining in the 13th century fuelled the creation of the Thai national identity as we know it today.
However, after the north was annexed to the kingdom of Siam in the early 20th century, Lanna's influence faded quickly, as Bangkok and central Thai culture came to the fore. By the end of century the ex-Lanna provinces were widely perceived to be cultural backwaters.
All that is now changing as artists, designers and architects from Bangkok, London, Paris and beyond are increasingly looming towards northern Thailand for inspiration. Chiang Mai in particular has become the focus of a passionate rebirth of everything Lanna, from art to lifestyle. Projects with an eye firmly fixed on Lanna's glory days have taken their rightful place in hotel and restaurant design, for example, as pride in things northern Thai has become the new norm.
To understand why and how Lanna is regaining cultural significence in the contemporery world, we must first look at its beginnings as a culture and as a political entity. Not Surprisingly, there are vivid connections between the arising and expension of Lanna as a kingdom in the middle of the second millennium, and its rebirth as a cultural force in recent times.
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