1941 photos of Thailand..Mostly Chiangmai

[Derek M]

The bridge in Pai is part of the old iron Narawat bridge.....Don't know how they got it there.....

Couple of volkswagens?

[dotpoom]

What a great insight. I just showed it to my wife (Thai), "why people not touch",... she asked me.... I could have spent the next 3 days trying to explain how too much of a good thing would make it (them) become invisible.... so instead I pretended not to hear her. She never knew they went topless all those years ago in her own country, I told her in parts of Africa it still exists.... Just imagine, now they will do a lady for showing something through a wet T-Shirt. Are we progressing or regressing? 555

[khunPer]

Thanks for sharing - great old pictures.

Chiang Mai railway station looks (almost) same as now - well, in my memory from a decade ago, when I was there by train...

[MESmith]

On my first trip to Tham Lod, west of Pai in 1991, the local women bathed in the river, around sunset. Sarongs only, topless & no inhibitions. And no "fried eggs"

[mamborobert]

Something to keep Dave2 busy with the before and after shots,,,,,,or others to spend some hours.

CMU has a searchable (in English) database of over 100o photos of CM at :

http://library.cmu.ac.th/ntic/en_picturelanna/search_form.php?page=1&keyword=&searchby=1&click

[lj cm]

In my experience, native Chiang Mai girls have nice size boobs and many of them nice long legs; although I don't understand, why they not shave them (the legs), but maybe the Thai men don't care!?. On the negative side, some girls show signs of inbreeding; but you cant get it all. Maybe in Bangkok you can!?

The girls at "Falang Entertainment Places" might claim, they are from Chiang Mai, but most of them are not. And it really doesn't matter!.

[Jools]

These photos are a surprise. I had always thought the custom of women going topless ended before the turn of the last century. Must have been way out in the boonies.

[luther]

These photos are a surprise. I had always thought the custom of women going topless ended before the turn of the last century. Must have been way out in the boonies.

You would be correct in your original thinking. These photos span almost an 80 year period.

[Tarteso]

old lovely pics. thanks for share!

[fitnesspm]

If this was published in the west, the Feminist media would cracked the shits and this would have gone viral regarding the naked photos of women, specially the young ones.

It would have made front page news by tomorrow!

I love living in Thailand

[HansIsaan]

These photos are a surprise. I had always thought the custom of women going topless ended before the turn of the last century. Must have been way out in the boonies.

You would be correct in your original thinking. These photos span almost an 80 year period.

Well, if the temperature is right (not too cold, but also not too hot) you can see topless women work in the fields in the Central ( e.g. Kanchanabur, where I lived till a few years agoi) and in the Isaan (e.g. Kalasin, where I live now). The bad news is that those women are all over 50 years of age...

And after work they just sit topless in front of their homes...weird isn,t it?

[Aforek]

These photos are a surprise. I had always thought the custom of women going topless ended before the turn of the last century. Must have been way out in the boonies.

The women in the OP are Indonesian ( the most beautiful at least ); some videos on youtube about Bali , before tourisme invasion

for Thailand, from Wikipedia :

"In Thailand, the government of Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsonggram issued a series of cultural standards between 1939 and 1942. Mandate 10 issued on September 8, 1941 instructed Thai people to not appear in public places "without being appropriately dressed". Inappropriate dress included "wearing no shirt or wearing a wraparound cloth."^[9][10] Before the westernization of dress, Thai women were depicted both fully clothed and topless in public. Until the early 20th century, women from northern Thailand wore a long tube-skirt (Pha-Sin), tied high above their waist and below their breasts, which were uncovered.^[11] In the late 19th century the influence of missionaries and modernization under King Chulalongkorn encouraged local women to cover their breasts with blouses."

[HerbalEd]

As for all those then young semi naked girls in the photos. Appears that we have missed the best times to have been in Chiang Mai. They really were the grand old days.

Grand old days indeed ... with diphtheria, polio, malaria, small pox, no antibiotics, etc.

[DaamNaam]

As for all those then young semi naked girls in the photos. Appears that we have missed the best times to have been in Chiang Mai. They really were the grand old days.

Grand old days indeed ... with diphtheria, polio, malaria, small pox, no antibiotics, etc.

Killjoy...

[Furfoxsake]

For anyone who likes to see old pics of Thai life when in CM go have a beer or something to eat at Mad Dog Pizza on Moon Muang Rd they have one tv in there that just constantly shows old pics of Thailand, I love going there to watch them, word of warning tho, don't ask the miserable git who owns the place if the disc is for sale, I made that mistake once assuming it was a commercially available disc they were running, nearly got my head bitten off just for asking, not the friendliest of owners to be honest, but the food and staff are great.

[lj cm]

After (carefully) studying the Dutch pictures from Bali, I can see that the CM girly pictures, are a fraud.

The Dutch always knew where to go!.

I like the picture, with the girl holding a mirror, for the guy shaving. My wife has never done that for me.

[Beetlejuice]

Back about 30 years ago, I met a 91-year-old American gentleman named Richard (Dickie), he did not mention his surname, who lived in a small community off the Tung Hotel Road in Chiang Mai. Did any of you long timers know of him?

Dick explained to me that he was an American journalist sent over to what was then Siam during the 1920s to write an article about the country for an American magazine. After a couple of months he met and fell in love with a beautiful 17 years old village girl, got married and decided to base himself in Chiang Mai, Siam. At the time the girl`s family already had a lot of land that one could buy for a pittance in those days, practically give away when land was not considered as an asset of value and he just plonked himself on there, built a home and then traveled back and forth to the States to maintain a living. Having to travel by ship he would be away for long periods at a time. He told me that as a young handsome white guy, the Thai girls were flocking to be his girlfriends, before and after he was married, with the parents and families actively encouraging their daughters to flirt with the farang. He never bothered with visas back then as farangs were considered a rarity and a novelty; the Immigration formalities were hardly implemented and something he never concerned himself with. Dick told me that Thais from all over the city would turn up just to introduce themselves to him, sometimes suggesting they have a nice niece if he`s interested.

There was virtually nowhere to obtain western type foods, hardly a motor vehicle to be seen, no proper concrete roads as such, no one had a telephone and most communities did not have electricity and the only water supplies were from small lakes or communal wells where people went with their buckets to draw out the water. There were small bar type brothels everywhere in mostly bamboo spit and sawdust type buildings.

Later during the 1960s Dick was sent to Vietnam by the US military as a journalist to cover events of the war. He was already way too old to do active service by then. After that he returned to Thailand, retired and stayed for good. Throughout the years in first Siam and then Thailand, Dick had fathered over 25 children with several different women. Most of the younger village generations were related to him. He told me that he had so many grandchildren and great grandchildren, that he’d lost count of them and forgotten their names. Towards the end of his days, Dick ran low on finances and his village kinfolk supported him. Even at the end of his life, Dick never bothered obtaining a visa, even his passport had expired many years previous.

Sadly only 11 months after I first met Dick he died at the age of 92, healthy right up to the end. I can say he was one of the most intriguing and interesting characters I had met in my life. Only wish someone would have made an initiative to write his life story that I’m sure would have made a most interesting read

[Microwave]

You were quite fortunate to have met Dickie.

I knew the grandson of Dan Beach Bradley, a missionary/doctor who lived in Bangkok during the 1800's. His grandson (Dan Bradley) was in his late 80's by the time I met him (around 1978) and had little to do with religion or medicine, just interested in getting on with his life. He was an extremely amiable person who was a fountain of knowledge about his heritage and of Thailand. Like Dickie, "the younger" Dan Bradley was someone whom one doesn't forget meeting and I've always considered myself fortunate for having known him. Dan Bradley "the younger" also passed away roughly 30 years ago.

Fwiw, here's the wiki on Dan Beach Bradley:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Beach_Bradley

[Happy Grumpy]

Fine melons.

[Mapguy]

A lovely reminiscence.

[Mapguy]

Not melons!!!! But Beatlejuice's post. For the rest of you who seem mesmerized by the female chest, may you dream tonight of Pamela Anderson or Helen Miran in her salad days!

[uptheos]

It's the foreigners fault for making them modest

[kalbo123]

These photo's where also shared on a Facebook page, unfortunately FB had asked the poster to remove them because it was pornography, can you believe that? If I had FB shares I would sell them on the spot!

[CMHomeboy78]

It's the foreigners fault for making them modest

You're making funny, I know. Nevertheless, it's quite true.

It was the American Protestant Missionaries, led by the Rev.Daniel McGilvary - the first farang to take up residence in Chiang Mai in 1867 - that are to blame.

McGilvary and his wife Sara began teaching the children of the Chiang Mai chaos as well as commoners as soon as they became established here.

In 1879 a schoolhouse was built that quickly expanded and eventually enjoyed the patronage of Princess Dara Rasami. It exists to this day as Dara Academy.

The British railway surveyor Holt Hallett made several visits to Chiang Mai in 1876 and wrote extensively about the people, their customs and traditions.

Here is one of his observations of Chiang Mai girls:

"It is a pretty sight in the early morning to watch the women and girls from the neighbouring villages streaming over the bridge on their way to the market, passing along in single file, with their baskets dangling from each end of a shoulder-bamboo, or accurately poised on their heads. The younger women move like youthful Dianas , with a quick, firm, and elastic tread, and in symmetry of form resemble the ideal models of Grecian art.

The ordinary costume of these graceful maidens consists of flowers in their hair, which shines like a ravens wing, and is combed back and arranged in a neat and beautiful knot; a petticoat or skirt, frequently embroidered near the bottom with silk, worsted, cotton, or gold and silver thread; and at times a pretty silk or gauze scarf cast carelessly over their bosom and one shoulder. Of late years, moreover, the missionaries have persuaded their female converts and the girls in their schools to wear a neat white jacket, and the custom is gradually spreading through the city and into the neighbouring villages."

If the missionaries introduced prudery where none had existed before, they also introduced many beneficial things to the Kohn Muang. Quinine to treat Malaria; Smallpox vaccination; modern methods of sterilized surgery, and much more that helped bring Lanna T'ai into the 20th century.

[cmth]

If the missionaries introduced prudery where none had existed before, they also introduced many beneficial things to the Kohn Muang. Quinine to treat Malaria; Smallpox vaccination; modern methods of sterilized surgery, and much more that helped bring Lanna T'ai into the 20th century.

Should have stayed with the boob thing. These other minor issues would fix themselves later.

[Pompey50]

For those interested in history here is a really good read

Consul in Paradise

Sixty-nine years in Siam. W.A.R. Wood. .

As the sub-title suggests, this is not a recent publication, but is readily available for those wanting to read up on the early days of Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand.

The author was sent to Thailand as a student interpreter in 1896, during the reign of Queen Victoria. He stayed on for sixty-nine years, and his book is filled with interesting chapters of his experiences there. For those interested in the British influence in such regions, or the early days of Thailand in the 1900s, it makes an interesting read. British Burma was next door, and thus there were many British subjects in the region, requiring consular assistance.

Marriage tangles, foreign colleagues, Thai boxing, ghosts and elephants all mingle with fascinating anecdotes and information about the history and social customs of the tribes which make up Thailand.

Published in 1965 in the UK and in Thailand in 1991

Pinched the review from Amazon but I can highly recommend the book as a good read, for all history lovers!