The Pillar of Chiang Mai City
Posted on August 18th, 2007 by P@E
The Pillar of the City
The city pillar was re-erected when King Mengrai founded Chiang Mai in 1296. Now located in front of Wat Chedi Luang and enshrined in a small Thai chapel, the pillar is made of teak and kept underground. The Sao Inthakin or city pillar celebration is held annually in May.
The Pillar of the City is a real pillar, usually made of wood, but sometimes of stone (this Pillar is made of teak). This pillar is an ancient Thai totem that is still highly significant today. Exactly when and how it originated is not known. There is a legend that a spirit came down from the heavens and gave the people a pillar to protect them,
but a more likely explanation is that the pillar was erected as a ritual center for agrarian fertility rites in ancient Thai towns and kingdoms. Many old city pillars have been unearthed in recent decades, and all have been located in the center of the old cities and adjacent to the seat of power in a kingdom or chiefdom. Numerous city pillars have been found at the sites of the ancient Tai Nanzhao Kingdom, near Dali in Yunnan Province, China. It is believed that the Tai's brought the tradition with them when they migrated southward into Southeast Asia.
In the North, these fertility rites are called "Inthakin", a term from the ancient Pali Buddhist language, which literally means: "City Pillar." In central Thailand this ceremony is called: "Sao Lug Muang," meaning "Pillar of the City," but in the North, people more often use the term: "Sa-Deu Muang," which means "The Belly Button of the City."
The center of the North's Inthakin rite is Chiangmai. It is a momentous event, held at the site of Chiangmai's City Pillar on the grounds of Wat Chedi Luang, because the temple itself marks the exact center of Chiangmai. In the 14th century, the original structure of Wat Chedi Luang was actually four separate and smaller Buddhist temples, all situated within 50 meters of the original site of the first Chiangmai City Pillar, which was erected in 1296 A.D. That pillar was located in the exact epic enter of old Chiangmai ,just beyond the present north wall of Wat Chedi Luang.