8 Best Sights in Nan, Northern Thailand

Formerly the home of the granddaughter of Nan's sixth ruler, this traditional teak house framed by bamboo and cotton flower trees is a museum, showroom, and retail shop displaying Lanna culture. Visitors can watch local weavers stretch cotton on a spinning wheel---one of the first steps of a technique called pha lai nam lhai, or "flowing water"—to produce sarongs with wavy patterns (available on-site from B800). The museum is home to a display of French-Indochinese silver coins from AD 1840--1919, as well as a collection of ancient knives and swords.

Nan has one of the region's most unusual and beautiful temples, Wat Phumin, whose murals alone make a visit to this part of northern Thailand worthwhile. It's an economically constructed temple, combining the main shrine hall and viharn (ordination hall), and qualifies as one of northern Thailand's best examples of folk architecture. To enter, you climb a short flight of steps flanked by two superb nagas (mythological snakes), their heads guarding the north entrance and their tails the south. The 16th-century temple was extensively renovated in 1865 and 1873, and at the end of the 19th century murals picturing everyday life were added to the inner walls. Some have a unique historical context—like the French colonial soldiers disembarking at a Mekong River port with their wives in crinolines. A fully rigged merchant ship and a primitive steamboat are portrayed as backdrops to scenes showing colonial soldiers leering at the pretty local girls corralled in a palace courtyard. Even the conventional Buddhist images have a lively originality, ranging from the traumas of hell to the joys of courtly life. The bot's central images are also quite unusual—four Sukhothai Buddhas locked in conflict with the evil Mara.

To get a sense of the region's art, visit the National Museum, which occupies a mansion built in 1923 for the prince who ruled Nan, Chao Suriyapong Pharittadit. The house itself is a work of art, a synthesis of overlapping red roofs, forest-green doors and shutters, and brilliant-white walls. There's a fine array of wood and bronze Buddha statues, musical instruments, ceramics, and other works of Lanna art. The revered black elephant tusk is also an attraction. The tusk, about a meter (3 feet) long, weighs 18 kg (40 pounds). It's actually dark brown in color, but that doesn't detract at all from its special role as a local good-luck charm.

Also known as Curve Number 3 or Road Number 3, this serpentine road near the Laotian border that winds through a verdant hillside is the spitting image of the number three. Originally named Highway 1081, the road is about an hour's drive from Nan's city center, depending on how frequently you stop to take pictures of the seemingly endless valley below.

Small yet spectacular, the rather gaudy Wat Hua Wiang Tai has a splashy naga snake coiled along the edges of its roof and boldly colored murals painted across the exterior of the viharn (assembly hall). Come by in the morning to experience the hustle and flow of a nearby market as well.

With its all-white exterior Wat Ming Muang strikes a dramatic pose offset slightly by the exterior's surfeit of intricate carvings (photo ops galore). The wat contains a stone pillar erected at the founding of Nan, some 800 years ago. Take a look at the interior murals, some of which depict life here in the past.

This 14th-century temple draws worshippers from all over Thailand, particularly those born in the year of the rabbit; Lanna people believe that traveling to pay respect to the Phra That of their lunar year of birth brings great prosperity. Others are attracted to a hillside location that looks down on the town of Nan and its main river, an iconic reclining Buddha image, and a tall gold chedi said to store a holy Buddha hair that once belonged to King Lithai.

One of Nan's oldest and most historically significant wats, Wat Phra That Chang Kham was built at the turn of the 15th century, right across from what is now the National Museum. True to its title, the "Elephant Temple," its large chedi is propped up by 24 stone pachyderms, protecting the country's largest ho trai (scripture library) and a rare solid gold Buddha image from the Sukhothai period.