Northern Thailand

• 1. Introduction

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  Northern Thailand, also called Lan Na, is the part of the country where the winters actually turn cool. Most of Thailand has a tropical savanna climate, and the north shares it. But the north sits higher and at a higher latitude than the other regions, so its temperatures swing more from season to season. Mountain ranges run through it, continuing from the Shan Hills of neighboring Myanmar toward Laos. River valleys cut between them. Three questions run through this documentary. What older kingdoms rose in those valleys? How do you decide where a region like this begins and ends? And why does one of its smaller provinces out-earn its much larger neighbors?

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• 2. Kingdoms Before Thailand

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  In the 7th century, the Hariphunchai Kingdom emerged as a powerful state in the north. It was related to Dvaravati, a culture that existed from the 6th to the 11th centuries. Hariphunchai left a mark that lasted. Its culture later influenced the Lanna Kingdom, which emerged in the 13th century and lasted until the 18th century. The name Lan Na, still used for the region today, comes from that later kingdom.

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• 3. Rivers and Ranges

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  The Salween River marks the western edge of the region, and the Mekong marks the eastern. Between them, four rivers called the Ping, Wang, Yom and Nan flow from north to south. All four are tributaries of the Chao Phraya, and their basins are mostly very wide. The basins cut across two great ranges. The Thanon Range lies in the west and the Phi Pan Nam in the east. Their highest summits stand a little above 2,000 metres. Many of these mountains were once forested and are now denuded.

  The Dawna Range forms the western border of Thailand between Mae Hong Son and the Salween River. Parallel ranges extend north to south from the Daen Lao Range, in the southern part of the Shan Hills. In the east, the Thanon Thong Chai, Khun Tan and Phi Pan Nam ranges stand together with the western part of the Luang Prabang Range. Together with the western ranges, they form the natural region known as the Thai highlands.

  The Nan, Ping, Wang and Yom run through steep mountain valleys and join in Nakhon Sawan Province, in the central region, to form the Chao Phraya. Sirikit Dam holds back the Nan River in Uttaradit Province. The northeast drains the other way, through rivers such as the Kok and the Ing, which flow into the Mekong basin.

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• 4. Parks and a Tunnel

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  Some sixty national parks lie within the northern region. Chiang Mai Province alone has nine of them. One is Doi Inthanon National Park, which holds the highest mountain in the country. Another is Op Luang National Park, known for a scenic river canyon, waterfalls and caves.

  Doi Khun Tan National Park sits midway between the two provincial capitals of Lampang and Lamphun. It is best known for a railroad tunnel 1,352 metres long, the longest in Thailand.

  The largest park in the north is Doi Phu Kha National Park, in Nan Province.

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• 5. Drawing the Borders

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  In 1978, the National Geographical Committee defined the northern region as nine provinces. That definition follows Thailand's six-region system and takes in most of the mountainous Thai highlands. The nine are Chiang Mai, Lamphun, Lampang, Uttaradit, Phrae, Nan, Phayao, Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son.

  The four-region system draws a larger map. It adds eight provinces from the upper central region: Kamphaeng Phet, Nakhon Sawan, Phetchabun, Phichit, Phitsanulok, Sukhothai, Uthai Thani and Tak. That brings the total to 17. This larger area also takes in the northern parts of the central plain and some mountainous areas along its western and northeastern limits. Its total forest area is 90,228 square kilometres, or 52.5 percent of the whole.

  By 2019 it had become common to split the region into nine upper provinces and eight lower ones. The websites of those eight lower provinces all state that they are "located in the lower northern region." The numbers show how Chiang Mai dominates the map. At 22,135 square kilometres, it is the largest of the 17 provinces by area. Phichit has the highest density figure on the list, at 124, while Mae Hong Son has the lowest, at 23.

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• 6. Money by Province

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  For the 2018 fiscal year, Northern Thailand had a combined economic output worth US$40.8 billion. That was 7.7 percent of Thailand's GDP. The upper provinces produced 669,284 million baht for about 5.9 million people, which works out to 112,655 baht per person. The lower provinces produced 597,377 million baht for roughly 5.5 million people, or 109,010 baht per person.

  The surprise sits at the top of the upper ranking. Lamphun produced 84.395 billion baht, or US$2.7 billion. Per person, that is 211,489 baht, or US$6,822. This is half again as much as Chiang Mai in second place, and double Lampang in third. Chiang Mai still has the biggest total output of the upper provinces, at 247,831 million baht. Mae Hong Son sits last, with 58,370 baht per person.

  The lower provinces have their own leader. Kamphaeng Phet produced 117,705 million baht, or US$3.8 billion, and 150,783 baht per person, or US$4,864. That is half again as much as Tak. Nakhon Sawan came very close to it in total output, at 116,147 million baht. At the bottom of the lower ranking is Sukhothai, with 82,147 baht per person.

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• 7. Languages of the Hills

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  Roughly six million people speak Northern Thai, the main language of the Lanna area. It is a southwestern Tai language. The hills hold more voices than that. The source lists hill tribe languages from several families: Lolo-Burmese, Karenic, Mienic and Palaungic.

  Central Thai is the only official language of Thailand. Within the nine provinces of the Lanna area, it is also the second largest native language. About two hundred thousand people speak it, in the lower part of Uttaradit Province.

  The four-region map adds another layer. In the southern part of that larger region, called the Northern cities, Central Thai is the primary language. There it appears as a group of dialects known as Ner.

  The list of hill languages ends with a surprise: Southwestern Mandarin, spoken in the same mountains as the Karenic and Palaungic tongues.

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