Chiang Saen
Chiang Saen is a small town in the jungle and upland country at the northernmost tip of Thailand. It stands on a big loop of the majestic Mekong, which in places further south forms the border between Thailand and Laos, with the Laotian
hills on the other side of the river.
Chiang Saen can be visited as part of a tour around the Chiang Rai district based on Chiang Mai (regular daily bus services from Chiang Mai, which also has the nearest railway station).
By car: Highway 110 from Chiang Rai to Mae Chan and then on 1016 (58 km (36 mi.)).
Once the capital of the Chiang Saen kingdom, probably the first Thai kingdom in present-day Thailand, the place then faded into obscurity, despite having acquired a certain fame for its Chiang Saen style. Finds of prehistoric tools have confirmed the theory that the area was already inhabited in Paleolithic times. A settlement in its own right over two thousand years ago, Chiang Saen had its heyday in the 10th-13th c. and under the rule of King Saen Phu. In 1238 it was the birthplace of King Mengrai who established his capital in Chiang Rai in 1261 and in Chiang Mai in 1297. Numerous wars with the Burmese and the King of Ayutthaya left their mark, and from the mid 16th c. to the late 18th c. Chiang Saen was under Burmese rule. King Rama I, the first king of the Chakri dynasty, had it razed to the ground so that it would no longer provide a target for enemy attack, and the town only came to life again under King Rama V (Chulalongkorn).
The course of the 8-km (5-mi.) wall that once encircled the town can still be traced from the ruins and ditches buried under grass and trees. Parts of the wall have recently been restored leaving the rest as grassy mounds. The Chiang Saen of today covers only a small section of the area once within the walls. Numerous remnants of temples, some of them very old and not all as yet accurately dated, serve as reminders of the town's past importance.
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