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Chiang Mai might be listed as world heritage site next year


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Chiang Mai might be listed as world heritage site next year

 

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CHIANG MAI, 26th November 2018 (NNT) - Chiang Mai World Heritage Listing Project’s working group disclosed that it is revising the complete document after receiving suggestions from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) working group. 

Asst. Prof. Dr. Channarong Srisuwan, the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Chiang Mai University, a member of the working, said the working group is expediting revision of the document so that the complete proposal for listing Chiang Mai as a world heritage site can be submitted to the World Heritage Center in Paris in February 2019. 

The working group has also organized Chiang Mai Heritage Walk, which offers people a tour to observe the proposed World Heritage Site. 

The UNESCO will convene a meeting to consider whether or not to list Chiang Mai as a world heritage site in June 2019.

 
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-- nnt 2018-11-26
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What piece qualifies? Even most of the temples have irrelevant new buildings and renovations that do not fit in with appropriate specifications. Most of the wall and gates are not really old and you will be hard pressed to find a building over 60 years old.

 

Is it year of the goat ...  or did I miss something? I suppose that is a rhetorical question!

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I'm not a builder but if you take a close look at a lot of these 'ancient sites' in Bangkok and elsewhere it looks like modern bricks and mortar has been applied. Are they really several hundred  years old ?? Obviously not in Bangkok .

Alot of old Siam  was trashed by Burmese armies not long ago which is why they moved the capital down to BKK.

Alot of sites are falling to bits not because they're so old but because theyre pooly built with crusty little red bricks.

Some so called 'ancient sites' have the same decay as modern Thai houses and soi buildings.

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On 11/26/2018 at 12:49 PM, cmsally said:

What piece qualifies? Even most of the temples have irrelevant new buildings and renovations that do not fit in with appropriate specifications. Most of the wall and gates are not really old and you will be hard pressed to find a building over 60 years old.

 

Is it year of the goat ...  or did I miss something? I suppose that is a rhetorical question!

Agree

There is a few old birds in loi kroi (howsoever its spelt) who o might qualify ...anyway i hate the place, ex wife lives there not set foot in it or will again since 2003

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there a few weeks ago, and see they had a team trying to rebuild one of the corners of the Old City...

 

looks like a bigger effort needed than repainting the sydney harbour bridge  i.e. the job needs to repeated every year

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On ‎11‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 10:21 AM, Loaded said:

If Georgetown, Penang got it, I don't see why Chiang Mai can't get it.

That's for sure.

Chiang Mai had been in existence for almost 500 years when Georgetown was founded in 1786.

It's a shame that so much of Chiang Mai's past has been lost, neglected or destroyed. But there is a lot that still remains. Chedi Luang is a good example. Begun in 1391 during the reign of King Saenmuangma, it was completed in 1481 by King Tilokarat. According to the Chiang Mai Chronicle it was 41 fathoms [91 metres] high and 27 fathoms [54 metres] square at its base. The famous Emerald Buddha, now to be seen in Wat Phra Kaew, was brought to Chiang Mai in 1470 and placed in Chedi Luang's eastern alcove even before the chedi was fully completed. It remained there until 1547 when, during a period of turmoil it was taken to Luang Prabang and subsequently Wiengchan [Vientiane] until 1779 when King Rama I took it as a spoil of war to Bangkok. Chedi Luang lost its upper and southern part during an earthquake in 1545. It underwent a controversial restoration in 1991-92 that encased some of it in concrete and added decorative elements in Central Thai style.

The history of Chiang Mai has been recorded in local sources - notably the Chiang Mai Chronicle - and by Europeans since 1587 when the Englishman Ralph Fitch came overland from Pegu to "Jamahey" - variant spellings are numerous, some beginning with an "X" or "Z".

Fitch's remarkable travels as related in Purchas' His Pilgrims and Hakluyt's Voyages and Discoveries are generally accepted as fact.  From England he went through Europe and the Middle East, then by ship from Basra to Goa where he was imprisoned by the Portuguese as an heretic and probable spy for the government of their arch-enemy, the English Jezabel. He was freed after about a year and continued his journey across India to Bengal, then took ship to Pegu where he attached himself to a Burmese army that besieged and entered the city of Chiang Mai.

Fitch's life is a fascinating study and he can be regarded as the first farang on record to visit Chiang Mai. His description of "property, riches, and women, has a somewhat contemporary ring to it" according to Ian Bushell in a recent talk on local history. Maybe Chiang Mai hasn't changed that much after all,

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