Who Was The First Farang In Chiang Mai?

[CMHomeboy78]

TV members knowledgeable about Lanna Thai history may be able to help shed some light on the circumstances surrounding the first visits by Europeans to Chiang Mai.

Ralph Fitch, Thomas Samuel, Cesar Fredrick, and Mendez Pinto are names often mentioned as possible early visitors.

What are the original sources for accounts of these visits; and has anything been published recently on the subject?

This is something of interest to me and quite possibly others,

Thanks for any information.

[uptheos]

I'm sure there will be one or two TV members claiming they were.

[OldGringo]

Who was the first farang in Chiang Mai?

I think it was me.

In October 1977 I came up from Bangkok to play a small part in a Thai movie that was being shot on location here.

Getting 1000 baht a day with a tee-rahk and a poo choo-ay tee-rahk. It was the time of my life.

Chiang Mai was the best place I had ever seen by a factor of ten.

News of the discovery spread quickly and I was soon followed by hordes of other farangs.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai

[CMHomeboy78]

Who was the first farang in Chiang Mai?

I think it was me.

In October 1977 I came up from Bangkok to play a small part in a Thai movie that was being shot on location here.

Getting 1000 baht a day with a tee-rahk and a poo choo-ay tee-rahk. It was the time of my life.

Chiang Mai was the best place I had ever seen by a factor of ten.

News of the discovery spread quickly and I was soon followed by hordes of other farangs.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai

You have no place in a serious discussion.

I don't need your good ol' boy wisdom and your lame attempts at humour fall flat. Don't tell me again how long you've been here. I've been here almost as long, and you remember little or nothing about Chiang Mai in the 70's that I don't. So save that rap for the greenhorns.

Probably the biggest difference between you and I is that my young family has, to a large extent, kept me from living totally in the past and turning into a horny old goat like you. OK, TIT, do your own thing. I'm all for that. But what do Thais think when they see an old farang with a girl less than half his age? Screw 'em. Sure, you can say that, but we have to live among them and their opinions of us do matter. We're not like the birds of passage who live in their own little expat world and can bag out fast if things get rough.

Too bad they don't sell Mehkong anymore. If they did, I'd hoist a glass to you. Bogart and Bergman always had Paris. If you were more congenial I'd say "We'll always have Chiang Mai".

R.I.P. Gringo

[Tywais]

You have no place in a serious discussion.

Getting a bit testy I see. This topic will have a short shelf life if continuing that route.

[OldGringo]

Who was the first farang in Chiang Mai?

I think it was me.

In October 1977 I came up from Bangkok to play a small part in a Thai movie that was being shot on location here.

Getting 1000 baht a day with a tee-rahk and a poo choo-ay tee-rahk. It was the time of my life.

Chiang Mai was the best place I had ever seen by a factor of ten.

News of the discovery spread quickly and I was soon followed by hordes of other farangs.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai

You have no place in a serious discussion.

I don't need your good ol' boy wisdom and your lame attempts at humour fall flat. Don't tell me again how long you've been here. I've been here almost as long, and you remember little or nothing about Chiang Mai in the 70's that I don't. So save that rap for the greenhorns.

Probably the biggest difference between you and I is that my young family has, to a large extent, kept me from living totally in the past and turning into a horny old goat like you. OK, TIT, do your own thing. I'm all for that. But what do Thais think when they see an old farang with a girl less than half his age? Screw 'em. Sure, you can say that, but we have to live among them and their opinions of us do matter. We're not like the birds of passage who live in their own little expat world and can bag out fast if things get rough.

Too bad they don't sell Mehkong anymore. If they did, I'd hoist a glass to you. Bogart and Bergman always had Paris. If you were more congenial I'd say "We'll always have Chiang Mai".

R.I.P. Gringo

Like so many people with over-inflated egos you get carried away with your own rhetoric. You have rambled way off topic. Let me get you back on.

Since you seem to reject my claim to being first on the scene, I'll give you some alternative possibilities.

European mercenarys, mostly Portugese, serving with the armies of Pegu, Ava, and Ayudhya in the early 16th cent. were most probably the first, but no credible records survive.

Mendez Pinto's 1548 account of the Ayudhya campaign against Chiang Mai

[Beechboy]

Who was the first farang in Chiang Mai?

I think it was me.

In October 1977 I came up from Bangkok to play a small part in a Thai movie that was being shot on location here.

Getting 1000 baht a day with a tee-rahk and a poo choo-ay tee-rahk. It was the time of my life.

Chiang Mai was the best place I had ever seen by a factor of ten.

News of the discovery spread quickly and I was soon followed by hordes of other farangs.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai

You have no place in a serious discussion.

I don't need your good ol' boy wisdom and your lame attempts at humour fall flat. Don't tell me again how long you've been here. I've been here almost as long, and you remember little or nothing about Chiang Mai in the 70's that I don't. So save that rap for the greenhorns.

Probably the biggest difference between you and I is that my young family has, to a large extent, kept me from living totally in the past and turning into a horny old goat like you. OK, TIT, do your own thing. I'm all for that. But what do Thais think when they see an old farang with a girl less than half his age? Screw 'em. Sure, you can say that, but we have to live among them and their opinions of us do matter. We're not like the birds of passage who live in their own little expat world and can bag out fast if things get rough.

Too bad they don't sell Mehkong anymore. If they did, I'd hoist a glass to you. Bogart and Bergman always had Paris. If you were more congenial I'd say "We'll always have Chiang Mai".

R.I.P. Gringo

How nasty.

I found Gringo's contribution both serious and interesting in what is hardly the most rivetting of topics.

Edited December 16, 2011 by Beechboy

[OldGringo]

Like so many people with over-inflated egos you get carried away with your own rhetoric. You have rambled way off topic. Let me get you back on.

Since you seem to reject my claim to being first on the scene, I'll give you some alternative possibilities.

European mercenarys, mostly Portugese, serving with the armies of Pegu, Ava, and Ayudhya in the early 16th cent. were most probably the first, but no credible records survive.

Mendez Pinto's 1548 account of the Ayudhya campaign against Chiang Mai

Mendez Pinto's 1548 account of the Ayudhya campaign against Chiang Mai is thought to be taken from soldiers who took part in it and not his own experience.

Ralph Fitch coming from Pegu around 1585 mentions being in Chiang Mai and that is generally accepted as the first documented visit. Followed in 1613 by Thomas Samuel coming up from Ayudhya on a trade mission.

That's a summary of what I know about the subject. I'm always interested in learning more and would like to hear other people's views.

[Xangsamhua]

Not sure how long Pinto, Fitch and Samuels stayed in CM, but Dr and Mrs McGilvary arrived in 1867 as missionaries. Dr McGilvary, a medical doctor, stayed in Chiangmai for the rest of hus life, dying there in 1911.

http://www.chiangmai-thai.com/missionaries.htm

[CMHomeboy78]

Not sure how long Pinto, Fitch and Samuels stayed in CM, but Dr and Mrs McGilvary arrived in 1867 as missionaries. Dr McGilvary, a medical doctor, stayed in Chiangmai for the rest of hus life, dying there in 1911.

http://www.chiangmai...issionaries.htm

Thanks for the input.

Missionarys, mostly Americans, and people working in the teak industry, mostly British, settled in Chiang Mai in the 19th cent. and put down roots here.

That's a very interesting subject in itself and would make a good topic.

[craigt3365]

A post discussing moderation has been removed from view.

[craigt3365]

Another post has been removed from view. Maybe it's best to review forum rules for some of our newer members:

Per forum rules:

In using Thai Visa I agree:

1) To respect fellow members.

4) Not to flame fellow members.

Flaming will not be tolerated. 'Flaming' is defined as posting or responding to a message in a way clearly intended to incite useless arguments, to launch personal attacks, to insult, or to be hateful towards other members. This includes useless criticism, name-calling, swearing and any other comments meant to incite anger.

Here's a link to all the forum rules, which I would highly recommend members to review:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?app=forums&module=extras&section=boardrules

[hellodolly]

Don't know any thing about the earliest people here.

Might be a bit more interesting to look for the earliest to settle here.

The foreign cemetery has some older dates and I believe some one has written a book about them.

Sorry for the sketchy information it has been a while and I am going to claim old age as the reason for not remembering it all.:jap:

Be interested in seing what you come up with.

[Tywais]

Two sites indicate that Ralph Fitch was the first recorded westerner to Chiang Mai.

Accordingly, the founders of the Levant Company determined to finance an expedition to the Indies and beyond. A group of five trusted associates were selected, under the leadership of the Arabic-speaking John Newbery. His companions included John Eldred-who had already lived in Baghdad for two years-William Leedes, James Story, and Ralph Fitch. Little enough is known of Fitch, but he alone of the four men proceeding beyond Basra would return safely to England, and he would also become the first European known to have visited distant Chiang Mai.

cpamedia.com

An Englishman, Ralph Fitch, the first recorded Westerner to reach Chiang Mai, journeyed there from Pegu, Burma, in 1587. He wrote: "Hither to Jamahay (Chiang Mai) come many merchants out of China and bring great store of muske, silver and many other things of China worke."

Chiang Rai Guide

[ARISTIDE]

If you're talking about a real expat in Chiang mai then how about Rev. David Ghromley Collins the first Principal of the PRC over a hundred years ago.

[zippydedodah]

Two sites indicate that Ralph Fitch was the first recorded westerner to Chiang Mai.

Accordingly, the founders of the Levant Company determined to finance an expedition to the Indies and beyond. A group of five trusted associates were selected, under the leadership of the Arabic-speaking John Newbery. His companions included John Eldred-who had already lived in Baghdad for two years-William Leedes, James Story, and Ralph Fitch. Little enough is known of Fitch, but he alone of the four men proceeding beyond Basra would return safely to England, and he would also become the first European known to have visited distant Chiang Mai.

cpamedia.com

An Englishman, Ralph Fitch, the first recorded Westerner to reach Chiang Mai, journeyed there from Pegu, Burma, in 1587. He wrote: "Hither to Jamahay (Chiang Mai) come many merchants out of China and bring great store of muske, silver and many other things of China worke."

Chiang Rai Guide

thanks for that link... some very interesting reading there.

[Beetlejuice]

Who was the first farang in Chiang Mai?

I think it was me.

In October 1977 I came up from Bangkok to play a small part in a Thai movie that was being shot on location here.

Getting 1000 baht a day with a tee-rahk and a poo choo-ay tee-rahk. It was the time of my life.

Chiang Mai was the best place I had ever seen by a factor of ten.

News of the discovery spread quickly and I was soon followed by hordes of other farangs.

R.I.P. Chiang Mai

You have no place in a serious discussion.

I don't need your good ol' boy wisdom and your lame attempts at humour fall flat. Don't tell me again how long you've been here. I've been here almost as long, and you remember little or nothing about Chiang Mai in the 70's that I don't. So save that rap for the greenhorns.

Probably the biggest difference between you and I is that my young family has, to a large extent, kept me from living totally in the past and turning into a horny old goat like you. OK, TIT, do your own thing. I'm all for that. But what do Thais think when they see an old farang with a girl less than half his age? Screw 'em. Sure, you can say that, but we have to live among them and their opinions of us do matter. We're not like the birds of passage who live in their own little expat world and can bag out fast if things get rough.

Too bad they don't sell Mehkong anymore. If they did, I'd hoist a glass to you. Bogart and Bergman always had Paris. If you were more congenial I'd say "We'll always have Chiang Mai".

R.I.P. Gringo

.

[Beetlejuice]

The first Europeans to set foot in Thailand were probably medieval Portuguese Jewish merchants who dominated trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages and travelled as far as Tang dynasty China.

Many of them actually settled in China and there is sizeable Population of Chinese Jews in China today.

An article here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_European_exploration_of_Asia

[DaamNaam]

Whoever he or she was I wonder if they were charged double even way back then....

[Thaihog]

Gymkhana golf club was formed back in 1898, so some of the founding British Expats obviously lived in Chiang Mai for a numbers of years prior to forming the club.

[dru2]

Ralph Fitch.

Check out 'Ancient Chiang Mai Volume 1', US$4.99, Amazon Kindle, Cognoscenti Books. There's a link to this (and the first four volumes of Ancient Chiang Mai) at:

Contents for Volume 1 includes two articles on Fitch:

'Ralph Fitch, an Elizabethan Merchant in 16th Century Chiang Mai' and 'Ralph Fitch's Account of Chiang Mai in 1856-1857'.

Pinto, Samuel and the others are in the pipeline with Silkworm Books - pm me if you want more info.

Edited December 17, 2011 by onthedarkside
commercial link removed

[dru2]

Sorry, Beetle Juice, but there are very few Jews in China today.

Basically there were two main communities - the one I believe you are referring to at Kaifeng, which was established well over a thousand years ago via the Silk Road but has since all but disappeared, and the former Shangai Ghetto, which was established for Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany in the 1930s, but disappeared in 1945-49 after the Nazi defeat and the establishment of Israel. There's a historic synagogue in Kaifeng, and a couple of functioning synagogues in Shanghai used mainly by Western Jews. But actual ethnic Chinese Jews are numbered in the hundreds at most.

If you want more info, please let me know.

The first Europeans to set foot in Thailand were probably medieval Portuguese Jewish merchants who dominated trade between the Christian and Islamic worlds during the early Middle Ages and travelled as far as Tang dynasty China.

Many of them actually settled in China and there is sizeable Population of Chinese Jews in China today.

An article here:

http://en.wikipedia....oration_of_Asia

[CMHomeboy78]

Ralph Fitch.

Check out 'Ancient Chiang Mai Volume 1', US$4.99, Amazon Kindle, Cognoscenti Books. There's a link to this (and the first four volumes of Ancient Chiang Mai) at:

Contents for Volume 1 includes two articles on Fitch:

'Ralph Fitch, an Elizabethan Merchant in 16th Century Chiang Mai' and 'Ralph Fitch's Account of Chiang Mai in 1856-1857'.

Pinto, Samuel and the others are in the pipeline with Silkworm Books - pm me if you want more info.

Thanks for the most cogent and informative reply yet received.

Ralph Fitch seems to be the one generally accepted as the first European in Chiang Mai. Doubtless there were others before him but their accounts haven't been found, if they ever existed at all.

What are the earliest sources of information on Fitch? I've always thought it was Hakluyt. He was a contemporary and his Voyages and Discoveries include Fitch's travels and a mention of Jangomay [Chiang Mai] and a few odd facts, notably sexual, about the inhabitants.

Do you know any other reference to Ralph Fitch and Chiang Mai? If not, perhaps another TV member might.

Thanks again for your reply.

[WinnieTheKhwai]

Odd sexual facts? You have my attention now. Can you elaborate on that?

[CMHomeboy78]

Odd sexual facts? You have my attention now. Can you elaborate on that?

Rest assured Winnie, there was no mention of beastiality.

[dru2]

I used Hakluyt.

Sorry about the layout - I just coped and pasted from my book.

Accounts of Chiang Mai to 1900

Ralph Fitch (1586-87)

An Elizabethan Merchant in 16th Century Chiang Mai

'Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tyger'

First Witch, Macbeth, William Shakespeare, 1605.

It seems unlikely, to say the least, that any association might exist between that most celebrated English playwright, William Shakespeare (1564–1616) and the Chiang Mai of King Nawrahtaminsaw (1578–1607). And yet, surprisingly, it does.

In 1581 a group of businessmen of the City of London received letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I establishing 'The Company of Merchants of the Levant', a forerunner of the Honourable East India Company, which sought to establish direct commercial links with the Near East effectively ending the monopoly over the immensely valuable Spice Trade at that time enjoyed by Spain, Portugal and Venice.

Initial clandestine explorations by John Eldred and John Newbery were successful, with the latter reaching the Persian port of Ormuz – then the gateway to India – and returning safely to London in 1582. The logical next step was a secret investigation of trade and conditions in India and beyond, a perilous enterprise sure to be vigorously opposed by the Portuguese if they got wind of what was afoot.

Accordingly, the founders of the Levant Company determined to finance an expedition to the Indies and beyond. A group of five trusted associates were selected, under the leadership of the Arabic-speaking John Newbery, for the task. Newbery's companions included John Eldred – who had already lived in Baghdad for two years – William Leedes, James Story, and Ralph Fitch. Little enough is known of Fitch, but he alone of the four men proceeding beyond Basra would return safely to England, and he would also become the first European known to have visited distant Chiang Mai.

On 12 February 1583, the travellers boarded the merchant ship Tyger and set out from the Pool of London, bound for Aleppo – the great Syrian emporium of Haleb – and all points east. In Fitch's own words:

'In the yeere of our Lord 1583, I Ralph Fitch of London marchant being desirous to see the countreyes of the East India… did ship my selfe in a ship of London called the Tyger wherein we went for Tripolis in Syria and from thence we tooke the way for Aleppo which we went in seven dayes with the Carovan'.

The party stayed in Aleppo for 10 days before setting off for Baghdad and then Basra, where John Eldred elected to remain. The others turned east to the Portuguese enclave of Ormuz, where they were arrested and sent by ship to Goa. For a while it seemed as though the expedition was doomed, as Goa was in the grip of the Inquisition, and the fate of English protestant 'heretics' would quite probably be execution by burning alive at the barbarous auto-da-fé. Fortunately for Fitch and his companions, however, an English Jesuit, Father Thomas Stevens, took his fellow-countrymen under his protection and arranged bail for them. At this point James Story decided 'partly for fear and partly for want of a means to relieve himself' to become a Jesuit, and left the party. The three remaining travellers used a hunting expedition as a cover to break bail and slip away to the north, into the territories of the Great Moghul, Akbar.

Fitch, Newbery and Leedes arrived at the city of Fatehpur Sikri, Akbar's newly-constructed capital, sometime in July 1585. They remained in the city for about two months, and were apparently well treated by the emperor – at that time perhaps the most powerful ruler in the world. In September, however, the fellowship of the travellers came to an end, with Leedes staying on in Fatehpur Sikri as a pensioner of Akbar, Newbery heading north-west towards home by way of Lahore and Constantinople, and Fitch turning east to Bengal.

Of Newbery nothing more was heard. Like his former companions, Story and Leedes, he disappears from the pages of history and nothing is known of his fate. Fitch, however, pressed on eastwards, proceeding via Varanasi to the port of Sripur in Bengal, where he took ship for Chittagong, Pathein and then Syriam. He arrived at Pegu, the Burmese capital, in the middle of December 1586.

Fitch was clearly impressed, albeit in a quiet way, with the wealth and splendour of Burma. Of the great Shwedagon he writes: 'It is the fairest place, as I suppose, that is in the world'. Pegu he found an impressive city, recently rebuilt by King Bayinnaung (1551–1581), the Burmese monarch who had conquered Chiang Mai in 1558. Bayinnaung had been succeeded by his son Nandabayin (1581–1599), and it was this ruler who sat on the Burmese throne, styled 'Lord of the White Elephant', at the time Fitch entered Pegu. The Englishman records that there were two towns, the Old and the New. The former was surrounded by a high stone wall and a substantial moat, while the latter was also surrounded by a high wall and 'a great ditch… with many crocodiles in it'. Fitch continues:

'Pegu is a citie very great… In the olde towne are all the marchants strangers, and very many marchants of the countrey. All the goods are sold in the olde towne which is very great, and hath many suburbs round about it, and all the houses are made of Canes which they call Bambos… In the newe towne is the King and all his Nobilitie and Gentrie. The streets are the fairest that I ever saw, as straight as a line from one gate to the other, and so broad that tenne or twelve men may ride abreast through them… The houses be made of wood, and covered with tiles. The king's house is in the middle of the city, and is walled and ditched round about: and the buildings within are made of wood very sumptuously gilded, and great workemanship is upon the forefront, which is likewise very costly gilded. And the house wherein his Pagode or idole standeth is covered with tiles of silver, and all the walles are gilded with golde'.

At this time links between the Burmese capital, Pegu, and the Lan Na capital, Chiang Mai, were strong. Fitch may not have known it, but Nandabayin's palace, built by his father, Bayinnaung, was the great Kambawzathadi (now under reconstruction by the Burmese authorities) where King Mae Ku (1551-1564), the last independent ruler of Lan Na's Mangrai Dynasty, lived out his days as a prisoner in a gilded cage, a royal residence with a double-tiered roof provided as a courtesy by his conqueror, King Bayinnaung. Nor was Fitch likely to have known that a section of the New City wall, as well as one of the New City's twenty gates (the easternmost gate of the southern wall) had been built with funds subscribed by the City of Chiang Mai, and that as a consequence it was called Chiang Mai Gate.

Fitch did know, however, of Chiang Mai's existence, though he styles the city 'Jamahey'. At the time of his visit to Pegu, Chiang Mai was ruled by King Nawrahtaminsaw (1578–1607), son of the deceased King Bayinnaung and younger brother of King Nandabayin. The intrepid representative of London's Levant Company set out for Chiang Mai in late 1586. His report, albeit relatively short, is the earliest description we have in English of the Lan Na capital. As such, it merits recounting in full, and some comparison with what we know both of Chiang Mai in the time of Nawrahtaminsaw and the city as it is today.

Fitch apparently stayed some days in Chiang Mai before returning, in January 1587, to Pegu. From here he sailed down the Tenasserim Coast to Melaka, a Malay port seized by the Portuguese in 1511. He arrived on 8 February, quite possibly the first Englishman to set foot in Malaya and to see the great entrepot through which the Portuguese channelled the rich spice trade of the Indonesian Archipelago and the fabulous luxuries of China. Fitch had reached his goal, and it was time for him to return home, as swiftly and as discreetly as possible, taking with him information which would, within a few short decades, help see the Portuguese displaced by the Dutch and the English as the dominant European trading powers in Asia.

He first retraced his route to Pegu, then took ship from the Burmese port of Pathein to Bengal. From here he took another ship – and another risk, for the vessel was Portuguese – to Goa, via Colombo in Sri Lanka and Cochin in the present-day Indian state of Kerala. From here he sailed to the Persian Gulf, disembarking at Basra before proceeding, overland, to Tripoli in northern Lebanon. Here he 'found English shipping' and, safe from the Portuguese for the first time in years, 'came with a prosperous voyage to London, where by God's assistance I safely arrived the 29th of April 1591, having been eight years out of my native country'.

The England Fitch returned to was both different to, and more confident than, the one he had left. In 1588 the English had defeated the Spanish Armada and no longer needed to fear any power at sea. The route to the Indies lay open, and Fitch's hard-won information was of inestimable value. The Levant Company asked him to submit 'an ample relation of his wonderful travailes', from which our existing account of Fitch's travels, entitled The Voyage of Master Ralph Fitch, Merchant of London, to Ormus, and so to Goa in the East India, to Cambaia, Ganges, Bengala; to Bacola and Chonderi, to Pegu, to Jamahay in the Kingdome of Siam, and backe to Pegu, and thence to Malacca, Zeilan, Cochin, and all the coast of East India: Begun in the Yeere of our Lord 1583, and ended in 1591, is clearly derived.

As a consequence of his travels and subsequent report, Ralph Fitch became quite a celebrity. It is probable that William Shakespeare read of his travels and from this derives the reference to the Tyger in Macbeth.

In 1600 Queen Elizabeth I issued a Charter for the formation of the East India Company, and it was 'ordered that Master Eldred (safely returned from Basra) and Master Fitch shall… confer of the merchandise fit to be provided for the first voyage'. Later, in 1606, Fitch was again consulted by the company to provide the correct titles for letters of introduction to various eastern dignitaries, including the King of Cambay and the Governor of Aden. Records of wills lodged at Somerset House in London indicate that Fitch died between 3 October and 15 October 1616, apparently both celebrated and respected. His biographer, Michael Edwards, claims with some substance that 'largely as a result of his travels, the East India Company came into being'. In Chiang Mai, however, he will be better remembered as the first Westerner to leave an apparently authentic account of this ancient city.

Ralph Fitch's Account of Chiang Mai in 1586-87

'Jamahey is a very Fair and Great Town'

Raph Fitch, Hakluytus Posthumus, or Purchas His Pilgrimes.

As we have seen, Ralph Fitch was an Elizabethan merchant of London, England, who travelled to 'the countreyes of East India' on behalf of the then recently established (1581) 'Company of Merchants of the Levant' between 1583 and 1591, visiting en route Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Persia, India, Burma, Lan Na and Malaya, before returning via Sri Lanka, safely, to his native England.

Of all the kingdoms and fiefdoms Fitch visited, none was as remote as Jamahey (Chiang Mai) in the "Langeiannes" (possibly Lan Na). He was not long in Lan Na – at most a couple of weeks towards the end of 1586 or early in 1587, during the reign of King Nawrahtaminsaw (1578–1607), the first Burmese ruler of Chiang Mai – but he left us a fascinating and useful account of the city and the customs of its inhabitants more than four centuries ago. The following is a full and unabridged version of Fitch's account of Chiang Mai, taken from 'The Voyage of Master Ralph Fitch' first published by Richard Hakluyt in his collection The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English Nation (London: 1599):

'I went from Pegu to Jamahey, which is in the Countrey of the Langeiannes, whom we call Jangomes; it is five and twentie dayes journey Northeast from Pegu. In which journey I passed many fruitfull and pleasant Countreyes. The Countrey is very low, and hath many fair Rivers. The houses are very bad, made of Canes and covered with Straw. Here are many wilde Buffes, and Elephants.

Jamahey is a very faire and great Towne, with fair houses of stone, well peopled, the streetes are very large, the men very well set and strong, with a cloth about them, bare headed and bare footed: for in all these Countreyes they weare no Shooes. The Women bee much fairer than those of Pegu. Heere in all these Countreyes they have no Wheat. They make some cakes of Rice. Hither to Jamahey come many marchants out of China, and bring great store of Muske, Gold, Silver, and many other things of China worke. Heere is great store of Victuals: They have such plenty, that they will not milk the Buffes, as they do in all other places. Heere is a great store of Copper and Benjamin [benzoin].

In these Countreyes when the people bee sicke they make a vowe to offer meat unto the Divell, if they escape: and when they bee recovered they make a banquet with many Pipes and Drums and other Instruments, and dauncing all the night, and their friends come and bring gifts, Cocos, Figges, Arrecaes and other Fruits, and with great dauncing and rejoicing they offer to the Divell, and say, they give to the Divell to eate, and drive him out. When they bee dauncing and playing they will cry and hallow very loud: and in this sort they say they drive him away. And when they be sicke a Tallipoie [buddhist monk] or two every night doth sit by them and sing, to please the Divell that hee should not hurt them.

And if any die hee is carried upon a great frame made like a tower, with a covering all gilded with gold made of Canes, carried with fourteene or sixteene men, with Drums and Pipes and other Instruments playing before him to a place out of Towne and there is burned. He is accompanied with all his friends and Neighbours, all men: and they give to the Tallipoies or Priests many Mats and Cloth: and then they returne to the house and there make a Feast for two dayes: and then the Wife and all the neighbours Wives and her friends, goe to the place where he was burned, and there they sit a certaine time and cry, and gather the peeces of bones which be left unburned and burie them, and then returne to their houses and make an end of all mourning. And the men and the women which bee neare Kin doe shave their heads, which they do not use except it be for the death of a friend: for they much esteeme of their hare'.

Fitch also comments, apparently with reference to both Chiang Mai and Pegu:

'In Pegu, and in all the Countries of Ava, Langeiannes, Siam, and the Bramas, the men weare bunches or little round balls in their privie members: some of them weare two and some three [penis balls]. They cut the skinne and so put them in, one into one side and another into the other side; which they doe when they bee five and twentie or thirtie yeeres old, and at their pleasure they take one or more of them out as they thinke good. When they be married the Husband is for every Child which his Wife hath, to put in one untill hee come to three, and then no more: for they say the women doe desire them. They were invented because they should not abuse the Male sexe [sodomy]. For in times past all those Countries were so given to that Villanie, that they were very scarce of people.

It was also ordayned, that the Women should not have past three cubites of Cloth in their nether clothes, which they bind about them; which are so strait, that when they goe in the streets, theyshew one side of the legge bare above the knee. The bunches aforesaid bee of divers sorts: the least be as bigge as a little Walnut, and very round: the greatest areas bigge as a little Hens egge: some are of Brasse, and some of Silver: but those of silver bee for the King and his Noblemen. These are gilded and made with great cunning, and ring like a little bell. There are some made of Lead, which they call Selwy, because they ring but little: and these bee of lesser price for the poorer sort. The King sometimes taketh his out, and giveth them to his Noblemen as a great gift: and because hee hath used them, they esteeme them greatly. They will put one in and heale up the place in seven or eight dayes.

The Bramas which bee of the Kings Countrey (for the King is a Brama) have their legges or bellies, or some part of their body, as they thinke good themselves, made blacke with certaine things which they have: they use to pricke the skinne, and to put on it a kind of Anile or Blacking, which doth continue alwayes. And this is counted an Honour among them: but none may have it but the Bramas which are of the Kings kindred.

These people weare no Beards: they pull out the haire on their faces with little pinsons made for that purpose. Some of them will let sixteene or twentie haires grow together, some in one place of his face and some in another, and pulleth out all the rest: for he carrieth his pinsons alwayes with him to pull the haires out as soone as they appeare. If they see a man with a beard they wonder at him. They have their teeth blacked both men and women, for they say a Dog hath his teeth white, therefore they will blacke theirs'.

So just how reliable is Fitch as a source? Did he really visit Chiang Mai in 1586/87? Some have doubted it. For example, in the scholarly work by Volker Grabowsky and Andrew Turton, The Gold and Silver Road of Trade and Friendship (Chiang Mai: 2003), it is stated that Fitch's report is 'widely regarded as unreliable' and that is has to be 'read with particular caution'.

Yet is seems to me that the proof is in the pudding. For a four centuries old report Fitch's account of Chiang Mai seems surprisingly accurate. Where indeed are the obvious errors? His account of the exorcism and burial rights of the people of Chiang Mai still hold true to a surprising extent down to the present day. Buffaloes and elephants remain much in evidence. The locals still grow rice rather than wheat, and there remains great plenty in this most fortunate of lands. The houses have doubtless improved, while the undisputed beauty of the women of Chiang Mai remains peerless. The head and hair are still esteemed, tattooing is much in vogue, and beards remain unfashionable. Cremations are still performed outside the walled city, beyond Suang Prung Gate, in the vicinity of Pratu Haiya. Monks are honoured and receive gifts, while tube skirts remain a popular traditional fashion. Merchants and goods from China still abound in the market, while 'penis balls' remain de rigeur, albeit amongst the prison population rather than the aristocracy. Only betel chewing has disappeared as a habit, except amongst the very old–and that within living memory.

It seems clear that Fitch was in Pegu, so why not Chiang Mai? To me, at least, Fitch's account of 'Jamahey' rings true, and I have seen no convincing reasons advanced by other scholars, however learned and erudite, which persuade me to doubt him. In my opinion, Ralph Fitch certainly was here, in late 16th century Chiang Mai, beyond any reasonable shadow of doubt!

[dru2]

Odd sexual facts? You have my attention now. Can you elaborate on that?

Mr Winnie:

‘In Pegu, and in all the Countries of Ava, Langeiannes, Siam, and the Bramas, the men weare bunches or little round balls in their privie members: some of them weare two and some three [penis balls]. They cut the skinne and so put them in, one into one side and another into the other side; which they doe when they bee five and twentie or thirtie yeeres old, and at their pleasure they take one or more of them out as they thinke good. When they be married the Husband is for every Child which his Wife hath, to put in one untill hee come to three, and then no more: for they say the women doe desire them. They were invented because they should not abuse the Male sexe [sodomy]. For in times past all those Countries were so given to that Villanie, that they were very scarce of people.

The bunches aforesaid bee of divers sorts: the least bee as bigge as a little Walnut, and very round: The greatest are as big as a little Hen's egge [ouch! - that's me, not Ralph]: Some are of Brasse, and some of Silver: but those of silver bee for the King and his Noblemen. These are gilded and made with great cunning, and ring like a little bell. There are some made of lead, which they call Selwy, because they ring but little: and these bee of lesser price for the poorer sort. The King sometimes taketh his out, and giveth them to his Noblemen as a great gift: and because hee hath used them, they esteeme them greatly. They will put one in and heale up the place in seven or eight dayes.

FYI: The practice continues in Chiang Mai and the North today, but generally only among the criminal classes. Some prison inmates grind the base of a soft drink bottle against the concrete of their cell floors until they have produced a small, round, smooth ball. They then make an incision in their foreskin using (generally) a sharpened toothbrush handle made by the same process. Insert and - voila!

Don't ask me how I know this.

Dru2

[hellodolly]

DRU2

Great stuff much appreciated.

[CMHomeboy78]

I used Hakluyt.

Sorry about the layout - I just coped and pasted from my book.

And thank you yet again.

Especially since my edition of Hakluyt [Penguin 1972] omits any mention of Jamahey [or any of it's other 1001 variations in spelling] whatsoever. In that edition Fitch's account is edited or abridged to exclude that part of his trip. I was vaguely familiar with the Chiang Mai part through other reading. Your contribution completes the trip for me. I will definitely get all the books you refer to.

All the best to you, and the work you are doing.

Edited December 17, 2011 by onthedarkside
Long long quote cut down

[dru2]

Thanks indeed.

If you have the inclination, sign up to our blog at Word Press: ...

Also, you might be interested in reading: Michael Edwardes: 'Ralph Fitch: An Elizabethan Merchant in the Indies' (London: Faber & Faber, 1973).

I have a copy somewhere which you would be welcome to photocopy.

Edited December 17, 2011 by onthedarkside
blog URL removed as per forum rules