My Chiang Mai

Every year, the people of Chiang Mai celebrate their artistic and cultural heritage with a special event in the city.

The Chiang Mai Arts and Culture Festival is centred around the Tom Payom Market near the city’s university and is an annual highlight of the social calendar in the region.

This year’s festival runs from April 9th to 13th and is likely

to be on the itinerary of many people using Thailand hotels.

Features of the celebration include musical performances, dance exhibitions and art installations, as well as children’s puppet shows, traditional street food and handicraft displays.

The festival exists to maintain the customs of Lanna, the former Thai state that is now northern Thailand.

First held in 1996, it has been growing in popularity every year and is viewed by many people as a perfect introduction to this area of the country.

Located about 700 kilometres north of Bangkok, Chiang Mai stands on the Ping River and is one the country’s most culturally significant cities.

People staying in Chiang Mai hotels during the festival may also like to enroll on a course at one of the city’s many Thai massage schools.

Chiang Mai – Some kids were apparently puzzled when they joined a Children Day celebration held under sponsorship of former prime minister  Thaksin Shinawatra at the Waroros Grand Palace Hotel.

They were told to recite a motto given by Thasksin in exchange for prizes.

They were told to recite “To have bright future, children must learn technology” but some kids recited the motto of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajva, which says: “Be creative, be diligent in studying and uphold morality”.

A lot of red-shirt people took their children to join the celebration. Prizes given by Thakin included a BlackBerry phone, 60 bicycles and many sports equipment.

Read the full story in The Nation

SEVEN artists from Myanmar are now teaching at a Master Classes in Asian Puppetry course being held in Chiang Mai.

Puppeteers U Daung Yin and Daw Nan Tin and puppet makers U Aung Than Tun and U Khin Maung Htwe, who are all from the Htwe Oo Myanmar traditional marionette troupe, are now participating in the program, as well as poet U Maung Maung Thein, composer Parimi Shunn and Ms Kit Young from Gitameit.

The program began on December 26 and will finish on January 17. It is being held at Chiang Mai’s Empty Space Arts Centre.

Under the program, puppetry experts from across the region are teaching students from US-based institutions, including Sarah Lawrence College, Barnard College, Long Island University and the California Institute of Arts.

The leader of the Htwe Oo Myanmar troupe, U Khin Maung Htwe, said the program presented a good opportunity to spread knowledge about all aspects of the country’s traditional marionettes.

“I am proud the organisers have invited us to take part in this and given us the chance to spread our art to interested students,” he said. “I’m also hoping to learn a lot from the program.”

He said the program would culminate with the production of a contemporary opera, a joint project between marionette experts and students.

The Chiang Mai Puppetry Program aims to provide students with the opportunity to study with master artists from a variety of Asian puppet traditions, according to the Empty Space Arts Centre’s website.

“The importance of puppetry to Asian cultures cannot be overstated,” the website says. “In the US however, no such premium is placed on puppetry. This means that US artists working in puppetry are left to borrow, reinterpret and adapt forms and techniques from other cultures to create their art. For students of theatre, puppetry and interdisciplinary art, this means studying with masters of the craft from all over the globe.”

The Governor of Chiang Mai province has promised the Prime Minister that he will be safe when he visits the city on November 29th.

PM Abhisit Vejajiva is due to attend a national meeting of Thai Chambers of Commerce, here in the epi-centre of the ‘red shirt’ pro-Taksin Shinawat faction.

Today, Governor Amornphan Nimanand said: “The red-shirt anti-government group in Chiang Mai has now turned to non-violent demonstrations to avoid giving the city a bad image.”

The meeting of the many regional Chambers is intended to attempt to solve economic problems and help rehabilitate the economy.

Editor’s Note: Many of the PM’s recent visits outside the capital, Bangkok, have featured helicopters and big military and police operations after demonstrators attacked his mini-bus last month and managed to pull open a door.

If you are Thai and want a big say in how Chiang Mai should be run, now is the time to throw your hat into the ring. Or rather, get along to the Election Commission and fill in the forms. Polling day is Sunday, October 4th.

Applications opened today for the vacancy left by the disqualification in April of Dr Duentemduang na Chiang Mai. She was disqualified on a technicality involving her residency within the city boundaries. She has expressed her intention to fight to regain her seat.

Editor’s note: While Thai Provincial Governors are appointed by central government, city Mayors are elected by their constituents. Dr Duentemduang won the last election by a landslide, as did her predecessor, Khun Boonlert, for 2 terms. One of Khun Boonlert’s family is said to be contesting this year’s race.

Tasanai Buranupakorn is seen to represent previous Mayor Boonlert

Our former lady Mayor and the cables she wants removed!

When it is a Cornellage, of course!

Collages by Cornelis Hoek are the subject of a most unusual exhibition opening at 116 Art Gallery, Chiang Mai, on September 5th.

Using scissors rather than a paint brush to create his art, the multi-talented Cornelis brings together pictures of buildings in a variety of imaginative ways.

A Dutch expat now resident in Chiang Rai, Cornelis was an operatic tenor soloist for many years, and later became the first concert director to take Chinese classical dance to Europe. As a weaver he has produced over 250 fine tapestries.

The 116 Gallery is at 94-120 Charoen Muang Road, Chiang Mai, where gallery director Khun Pool Nganpeerapong is becoming a collage artist in his own right, having created an amazing likeness of Cornelis himself to promote the show.

LATE NEWS
The exhibition has drawn so much interest, the gallery have extended it to October 10th. Unsold work will then be exhibited in Bangkok and later overseas.

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

Dr Jack Green from Texas and his wife Nala have opened the first Baptist church in Chiang Mai city at the rear annexe of Boss Hotel near the railway station.

With degrees in theology and philosophy, Dr Green is a gifted and often very amusing preacher in the usual informal and friendly Baptist style.

He met his Lahu wife Nala through the church, as she worked for many years with a Baptist mission here, helping hill tribe people to export their handicrafts.

Everyone is welcome to the services at 11.00am every Sunday, with a special welcome for a much-needed pianist and song leader.

LATE NEWS
The venue for services has been changed to the Grand View Hotel, Superhighway, each Sunday at 11.00am, starting September 27th.

More information on e-mail: jgreen@landmarkministries.org

From November 2nd, three of Chiang Mai’s newest golf courses – the Chiang Mai Highlands, the Alpine Resort and the Khuntan Golf Club – will host the Asian Ladies Invitational Interport.

The event will attract an estimated one hundred and seventy golfers from Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.

Ms Rae-vadee T Suan, the president of the Ladies Asian Golf Tour said “I am sure the tournament will be a big draw in many ways and it will play a major role in promoting tourism in Chiang Mai”.  She added that lady golfers make excellent shoppers!

Golf arrived in Thailand during the reign of King Rama V one hundred years ago. It was first played by nobles and other elitists of high society but over the past decade or so, the popularity of golf in Thailand has escalated, played both by local Thais and visiting foreign tourists and expatriates.

There are an average of 400,000 foreign golfers coming to the Kingdom annually, golf in Thailand has turned into a huge local industry with new courses constantly being developed. Golf alone is annually bringing an income of 8 billion baht into the local economy. The country has been given the nickname ‘The Golf Capital of Asia’.

Chiang Mai is already a popular destination for golfers, it has a great climate and some great golf courses.

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

Elephants have always been flexible and adaptable animals, some can even paint pictures.

At a charity event near Chiang Mai, visitors have witnessed a demonstration of a team of elephants ploughing a rice paddy.

The demonstration was supported by Nok Air and  a total of eight elephants were put to work on an eight-rai rice paddy.

The event took place at the Baan Saen Resort and Spa which is in the Night Safari area, funds for the event are expected to be raised by the sale of bags of rice at 1000 baht for a two-kilo bag, the bags of rice should be ready some time in December.

Using elephants to pull a plough is nothing new and Karen villagers north of Chiang Mai have been doing so for generations.  An elephant is four times stronger than a buffalo so they are more suited to pulling a plough in difficult and rocky terrain which would be problematic using buffalo.

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.

The national four wheel drive rally circus arrives in Chang Dao, north of Chiang Mai city on September 5^th-6^th where stars fro Thailand and Japan will compete for fame, fortune and prize money.

Rally fans had a taste of things to come at Thapae Gate on August 14^th when the previous round of the Asia Cross Country Rally championship ended with the usual splashing of champagne and Singha Beer.

The No 15 Isuzu D Max of Atchiki Srimongkol and Tadamisu Nihori had been the fastest over the high speed off-road stages since the Bangkok start, and took top honours, while maximum credit goes to the disabled Takura Aoki who got his similar truck to 12^th place on hand controls. Takura was an engineer and racer for a professional bike team in Japan, until a crash cost him the use of his legs.

Watch this space for details of the Chang Dao event with times and places to see the best of the action!

This article is Copyright © MyChiangMai 2009, no reproduction without prior permission.