Chiang Mai between Empire and Modern Thailand

A City in the Colonial Margins
Erscheinungsjahr 2024
ISBN: 978-94-6372-646-7
Verlag: Amsterdam University Press

Buch, Englisch, Band 19, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 156 mm x 234 mm

Reihe: Asian Cities

Urban histories tend to be dominated by large, global cities. But what does the history of the modern, colonial era look like from the perspective of smaller cities? By shifting the focus from the metropolis to the secondary city of Chiang Mai, this study provides an alternative narrative of the formation of the modern Thai state that highlights the overlap between European, American, and Siamese interests. Through a detailed analysis of Chiang Mai’s urban space, the power dynamics that shaped the city come into focus as an urban-scale manifestation of colonial forces—albeit an incomplete one that allowed sacred space to become a source of conflict that was only resolved in the years before WWII. Today, as the city confronts the challenge of overdevelopment, the legacy of the colonial era, and the opportunity of heritage preservation, this deep, multi-layered history of the power of (and over) urban space is vital.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Easum, Taylor M.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Kolonialismus, Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Architektur Städtebau, Stadtplanung (Architektur)
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Asiatische Geschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgements

Note on Transliteration and Sources

Table of Contents

Introduction: Living in the City

The Urban Space of Chiang Mai

Organization of the Book

1 The City Founded: A Deep Urban History of Chiang Mai

Urban Genesis in the Mainland

The Foundation of the “New City”

Center, Hinterland, Region

Conclusion

2 The City Stabilized: The Kawila Restoration and Chiang Mai in the Nineteenth

Century

Chiang Mai Abandoned

Chiang Mai Rebuilt

The Nineteenth Century Logic(s) of Chiang Mai’s Urban Space

Conclusion

3 The Region Transformed: Forests and Foreigners and State Formation in Chiang Mai and “The North”

Lanna’s “Second Golden Age”

Shifting the Balance

Siamese State Formation in the North – A “Silent Revolution”?

Conclusion

4 The City Reshaped: Power and Urban Space in Micro-Colonial Chiang Mai

Spaces of Power – The Old Town

Chiang Mai and the development of a “Dual City”?

Spatial Transitions

Conclusion

5 The New City and the New State: Chiang Mai’s Sacred Space and Siam

The Decline of Sacro-Spatial Legitimacy in the Chiang Mai State

Khruba Siwichai, the State, and the Restoration of Sacred Space(s)

Conclusion

Conclusion: The Heart of the City

Bibliography

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Easum, Taylor M.
Taylor M. Easum is Assistant Professor of History at Indiana State University with research interests in Southeast Asian, urban, and colonial history. Recent publications include articles on contested urban networks, the construction of Thai and Lao ethnic identity, monuments and historical memory, and ongoing questions of urban heritage in Southeast Asia.