Wat Nong Kham - Chang Moi - Chiang Mai

DavidFL

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In a quiet enclave off busy Chang Moi road in downtown Chiang Mai is an unusual, but interesting, beautiful temple - Wat Nong Kham.

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Wat Nong Kham is a temple in Pa Oh style & the architecture is unlike other Thai temples.

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The temple was built in 1837 by Pa Oh people, originally from Myanmar; & the story goes that the Pa Oh, traders, sold 7 elephants to finance the construction of the temple.

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In Myanmar the Pa-Oh, number about 600,00 people & are the 2nd largest ethnic group in Shan state. Sometimes known as the black Karen, they are related to Karen ethno linguistically.

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The first Pa-Oh in Thailand were probably slaves captured by the Karenni and sold into Siam in the mid and late 1800s.

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Chaos ruled in the Shan states between warring princes in the 1880s, & scores of Pa Oh fled to Thailand. Many of these were traders of cattle & herbal medicines.

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Check it out sometime.