Nan was an independent kingdom for roughly two centuries before it was absorbed into Siam in 1931, and the province still carries the evidence. It is the least visited of the seven, roughly a seven-hour drive from Chiang Mai, and the reward for that distance is a town that has kept its own scale.

Community and culture

Nan's temples are unlike anywhere else in the Lanna world. Wat Phumin carries the early Lanna chedi on its viharn, and its distinctive snake-tail finials are so particular that art historians treat the temple as a dating marker for the period. Wat Phra That Chae Haeng and Wat Hua Khuang add a Shan-Burmese layer, and the town's everyday craft is black pottery from Nong Bua, fired in the open in a yard rather than a modern kiln.

Nature and landscape

The route to Bo Kluea crosses the ridge where Doi Phu Kha rises into cloud, and at its top the "sky of Nan" opens out. Na Noi's terraced rice fields are worked by hand in the same way they have been for centuries, and Sirikit Dam holds a large, quiet stretch of water under the hills.