Lanna Folklife Centre

This guide to the Lanna Folklife Centre in Chiang Mai follows Inthawarorot Suriyawong, the eighth ruler of Chiang Mai, who held the throne here for nine years after 1901 while Bangkok's government had already stripped Lanna kings of real power. It traces what became of his palace after his death in 1910, when the halls were turned into a courthouse where Siamese law was handed down under a flag no longer his, judges deciding guilt and innocence under that same white colonnaded porch facing you now. Notice the Three Kings Monument still watching the square from across the way.