March 2003

Updated July 2006

Which raises the interesting question: didn’t any of the people involved in the once thriving teak industry foresee the impending catastrophe and why weren’t steps taken to preserve the teak forest? Didn’t anyone ask: “Gee, every year there are less and less trees and soon we and all our employees and elephants will be out of work. May be we should do something?”

Well in fact, the government did start programs to protect the teak forest. However as is often the case in Thailand and other countries, sometimes, the people who were appointed and entrusted to take care of the forest to do the control were influenced by more immediate and pressing concerns. The program didn’t work. Now the teak industry has moved to surrounding countries.

Nevertheless, the legacy of the one thriving teak business is evident everywhere in Lampang and shows particularly in its architecture. Lanna style architecture uses ornately carved wooden designs that are used on roofs, panels and walls. Supporting beams are not hidden but are rather used as a sort of exo-skeleton and are adorned with symmetrical designs. The style is reminiscent of the simplicity of a Swiss chalet combined with the very intricate, almost baroque carvings in Victorian buildings. Teak wood is normally unpainted and this emphasizes its natural beauty.

Teak wood, in general, is highly valued because of it’s quality of being extremely weather durable, enduring, and its quality of being very strong and soft at the same time. This last quality is what makes it so ideal for intricate carvings, other woods would crack and break.

One of the other tourist attractions of Lampnag is the Talat Jeen”, meaning the Chinese market. The Talat Jeen is a walking street closed off to traffic on Saturday and Sunday evenings and becomes a sort of festival atmosphere where people shop, eat and congregate. The street runs adjacent to the Wang River. Historically, the market was the originally the place where the teak logs well loaded onto boats going downstream. As a central trading destination, the market included traders from various corners of the world including Burmese, European and Chinese. The legacy of these traders is in the unique wooden architecture on the walking street hosting the cruising the Talat Jeen. The street includes some beautiful architectural examples in a variety of styles.

There were only a few non-Thais present at the Talat Jeen when we went and the whole effect was that we were almost discovering a pristine location, unlikely the tourist ridden standbys like Ko Samui and Chiang Mai. Our resort also seemed to be almost deserted.

If you are travelling solo, we ran into a very interesting guest house that was smack in the middle of town and ran alongside the Wang River. The guesthouse is the Riverside, and is run by an friendly Italian lady who is a long term resident of Thailand. The place is very tastefully decorated with an artistic touch. The Riverside also have a Western style restaurant and pizzeria. Nice.

 

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