Photo: Part of Chiang Mai's old wall and moat

Chiang Mai has an history of more than 700 years. Oddly enough, it doesn't begin in what is today Northern Thailand but the Southern Chinese province of Yunnan, a few hundred kilometers to the north. There, the well developed Thai kingdom of Nanchao existed from the middle of the 7th until the middle of the 13th century (for 604 years to be exact). In 1254, however, the Nanchao Kingdom was conquered by Kublai Khan, resulting in the southward migration of a large number of Thais. Most of these Thais settled in what is today northern Thailand.

A result of this influx of Thais from southern China was the founding of several towns and principalities in what is today northern Thailand. Among the towns founded and the principalities established in the second half of the 13th century was Chiang Mai.

However, a predecessor of Chiang Mai was Chiang Rai, some 180km (113mi) to the north. There, a prince of the Nanchao Kingdom who had migrated south with his people, Mengrai, established in 1262 the Lannatai principality (commonly translated as Kingdom of one Million Rice Fields). If one prefers to speak of a Lannatai Kingdom instead of a Lannatai Principality at that early stage, one of course has to upgrade Mr. Mengrai's rank to that of King. However, one must be aware that Mengrai was of course designated in Thai and with a Thai title, and ranks of nobility in Western and Thai history are not equivalent to each other. Certainly, Mengrai was an independent and absolute ruler, but his realm just had the size of what would be considered as a principality in European history.

In the 30 years after the founding of Chiang Rai, Mengrai's realm indeed grew to a size of what one may consider a kingdom. The development was aided by Mengrai's close alliance to the ruler of Sukhothai, King Ramkhamhaeng who conquered a territory larger then present day Thailand but did not touch the considerably smaller neighbor in the north. Therefore, two fairly strong Thai kingdoms existed at the end of the 13th century, Sukhothai and Lannatai. Chiang Mai was founded by King Mengrai as his new capital in 1291. The new city was completed with a surrounding moat and wall in 1296. The name it was given reads in full as "Nophaburi Si Nakhonping Chiang Mai".

The good relations between the Lannatai Kingdom and the southern Thais didn't last for long. After the Sukhothai period which ended in the 14th century, the southern Thai's approach to the Lannatai Kingdom was characterized by repeated attempts to degrade it to a vassal principality rather than accepting it as an equal Thai kingdom. And for the roughly 600 years from 1291 to 1774, the Lannatai Kingdom was a willing ally of the Burmese at least for as long a time as it sided with Ayutthaya. Actually for more than 200 years, from 1556 to 1774, it was a Burmese vassal state, just as the Shan principalities to the west of Lannatai. Due to its location in between Burmese and Siamese spheres of influence, Chiang Mai was not only repeatedly subdued by one of the two but also several times destroyed.

Chiang Mai became an integral part of Siam only in 1774 when the city, in preceding decades under strong Burmese rule, was conquered (or liberated) by King Taksin.

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