History
Although Lampang Province was inhabited as far back as the 7th century in the Dvaravati period, legend says Lampang city was founded by the son of Hariphunchai’s Queen Chama Thewi, playing an important part in the history of the Hariphunchai Kingdom (8th to 13th centuries).
Like Chiang Mai, Phrae and other older northern cities, Lampang was built as a walled rectangle alongside a river (in this case Mae Wang). At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries Lampang, along with nearby Phrae, became an important centre for the domestic and international teak trade. A large British-owned timber company brought in Burmese supervisors familiar with the teak industry in Burma to train Burmese and Thai loggers in the area. These well-paid supervisors, along with independent Burmese teak merchants who plied their trade in Lampang, sponsored the construction of more than a dozen impressive temples in the city. Burmese and Shan artisans designed and built the temples out of local materials, especially teak. Their legacy lives on in several of Lampang’s best-maintained wats.
Lampang
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