Chiang Mai National Museum: Significantly less crap than i expected
Thailand is known for a lot of things and museums certainly isn't one of those things. That being said I have to say that even though I am a bit of a cynical and jaded jerk in relation to this country that I was relatively impressed by this museum...and can recommend it to other people for sure.
The Chiang Mai National Museum is a collection of things from all over Thailand although they focus very heavily on artifacts that were collected from the northern part of the country.... which makes sense considering that Chiang Mai is the most populated city in this portion of the country (the north.)
One of the main things that i really liked about this place is that it has no dual-pricing scheme and if you have never been to this part of the world you likely don't know what I am referring to: It simply means that everyone pays the same amount to get into the place. At 100 Baht ($3,) it is a very fair price considering the collection.
They have very strict rules here such as no flash photography which is a rule that I immediately (and accidentally) broke after buying my ticket.... in front of the staff...... who quickly reprimanded me. It was an honest mistake.
It should come as no surprise that everything in this collection is Buddhism related, but if you know nothing about the religion (and I presume most Westerners do not) this place actually spells it out on the walls in a much better (and understandable) way than pretty much any other example I have seen.
Almost everything in the collection is a Buddha relic of some sort, and almost everything in the collection is from the 13th to the 19th century. There was one piece that was from the 4th century (estimated) but that piece was not from Thailand because Buddhism didn't exist here at that point.
I did enjoy seeing all of these pieces in one place and it is evident from the.... urmmm... pretty much just the overall ambiance that these pieces are well-looked after and the entire establishment had very powerful air conditioning... which is always a welcome addition to any structure in Thailand.
halberds..... just to mix it up a bit
After seeing the entire collection over the course of 2 hours I can say that if you are in Chiang Mai and you are interested in (for the most part) really old Buddhist relics then this place is definitely worth visiting especially when you consider the low price of admission.
one of the main pieces... and this one is meant to be more than 600 years old!
The only downside that I can see is that the overall collection is rather small and primarily focused on relics related to Buddhism. I don't mean this in a negative way but let's be honest here... once you have seen 35 separate Buddha heads from statues of unknown origin , you've pretty much seen all of them.
I have a background in New York City and also Washington D.C.. Both of which contain arguably some of the best museums in existence on the planet Earth. Despite this, I was impressed with the Chiang Mai National Museum because of the pieces, the price of entry, the staff....basically the entire experience.
They have strange hours as they close for just about any holiday (this was my 3rd time attempting to visit) so it is a good idea to check beforehand if you are planning on visiting.
You are right as I would enjoy it but not necessarily want to see everything Buddha related. We went to Washington 4 years ago just to spend 3 days going around their museums. I know you like war stuff so you have to or may have been already to the Imperial War Museum in London.
That is a museum that I have dreamed of visiting for a very long time. I have friends in London... i think i may have to hit them up.
The Smithsonian is really something else. I don't remember ever paying anything to get into any of them but this was a long time ago.
They are all still free which is a rarity today. You need a full day for the Imperial War museum as there is just so much to see. Unfortunately I think you have to pay for this one but it is worth it. When I was over in France there was a great one at Eperleques which houses the V2 Rocket sites and they did the space race between Russia and the States concentrating on the German scientists who were involved. What amazed me was it belonged to a farmer who then handed it over to the Government as it was too important and most likely expensive to do properly.
Verry good post traveled, and BUDHA
I can only imagine how those long swords where use for battles.
Since is all relic artifacts.
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Very cool! Three dollars does seem like a really good deal for a museum tour. We have a small museum near where I live and you can't get in for even twice that. They bring in exhibits from all over the world and one year they brought some of the Terracotta Warriors in. It was really awesome. For the A/C alone this sounds like it would totally be worth it :)
Wow! I never knew there’s a museum there! This one must be newly renovated! Normally museum is left to get old and forgotten in the past!
Glad to as a nice collection there!
Would love to see more photos!
I am about to visit here within few hours so am gonna mark this museum on my to do list, and surely would contact them before visiting because you mentioned about their odd hours.
Keep flourishing!
I love places like this. It's always interesting to see how different countries integrated the teachings of the Buddha into their cultures. Kind of like Jesus; everyone kind of gives him a look that matches their idea of what a perfect holy master should look like.
Of course the Buddha lived 2500 years ago, so no one really knows what he looked like, but it's interesting what different people see as being idea. The chinese, for instance, portray him as being morbidly obese, since that means you're happy and getting plenty of food. (which ironically misses the point of non-attachment, which is the primary point of buddhism)
I think the Thai interpretations are at least more in line with what he probably looked like, if it even matters. But it makes sense, being that Thailand is primarily Theravada Buddhist, which is the closest you can get to the original teachings. I was amazed to find out that there so many practicing Buddhists who never meditate at all (especially Mahayana Buddhists) being that it's sort of the fundamental teaching.
Okay, sorry I'm rambling now. hehe. Nice post dude.
not rambling, you seem to know quite a lot. I hadn't really thought about it but yeah, I don't hear much about Buddhists meditating over here. hmmmm
Yeah, I am hugely into Buddhist meditation. I've done several 10 day silent retreats. It's pretty deep stuff. You start seeing all the madness that your head makes up about reality that has no bearing on anything. Highly recommended!
I love museums.. but not really this type. Living and lifestyle in the past is more fun :D
i like war museums. There is a pretty terrible one in Songkla that i went to years ago. I remember we argued with the staff because we had work permits and tax ID's and refused to pay the 100B entrance fee because it was 10 B for Thais. They eventually let us in for 10B and then we felt bad when they gave us a rather nicely-produced full color brochure explaining the artifacts in English that definitely cost well over 10 Baht to produce :)
Oh.. you as well, could have told them, no need English brochure, I read Thai
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This was many years ago, one of my first years in this country. I barely spoke Thai back then, let alone read it :)