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Life in Chiang Mai |
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A lesser-known museum, well-worth a visit
By Paul Surtees
Situated in the middle of Chiang Mai’s walled and moated old
city, the Treasury Museum is sometimes overlooked – but is well worth a
short visit.
It is located at Rajdamnoen Road, Tambon Sri Phum, and is just opposite
the fine old Northern Thai house which is the Lanna Archecture Centre:
itself displaying interesting models of many traditional local building
styles.
Not far away at 50/1 on that same central road is the lovely Tamarind
Village resort hotel, to which you can repair for delectable
refreshments before or after your museum visit.
The Treasury pavilion presents the whole history of money in this part
of the world, with numerous ancient examples on display. Their extensive
collection includes the old Chinese coins; bracelet money; flower money;
pod dung (a bent silver bar, adorned with insignia- called bullet
money); plus a wide variety of old and modern gold and silver coins.
A visit, which is aided by them having the display cabinet labels in
both Thai and English, will take you through this rich and varied
history of local coinage, taking you from ancient times right up to the
special commemorative coins of the present day.
They also have an attractive range of souvenir items on sale. These
include individual, a complete mounted set of medallions bearing
pictures of the Chinese signs of the zodiac; gold coins; commemorative
medals; and much else besides.
The museum staff there are unfailingly helpful and gracious. By mistake,
I bought the wrong zodiacal sign as a gift for someone: they readily and
kindly exchanged it for the correct one, without any difficulties.
This is not an over-large collection of display galleries, so you will
not get ‘’museum feet’’ by perambulating their halls!
A visit there will provide insights to the reign history of this part of
Thailand, as well as an appreciation of the imaginative range of items
used down the centuries as metal coinage. A visit is therefore
recommended.
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