Thailand: King Luang Viranga , Lawa hero, at Ban Muang Kha, Mae Had Valley, near Chiang Mai, northern Thailand

Viranga was the last independent ruler of the Lawa who, according to legend, ruled over the Chiang Mai area around one thousand years ago. Oral history relates how Viranga fell in love with Chama Thewi (Chamadevi), the Mon Queen of Lamphun, who rejected his advances. Viranga tried to win the queen's affection by performing the extraordinary feat of hurling a javelin from the summit of Doi Pui to the walls of Lamphun—a distance of some thirty kilometres.

According to legend, Chama Thewi weakened Viranga's supernatural powers by presenting him with a cap dyed with menstrual blood, thus sapping his strength. The unsuspecting Lawa king, after two failed attempts to hurl his javelin to Lamphun, threw the weapon high in the air and allowed it to pierce his own breast as it fell to earth. He was buried on a nearby hilltop, facing his beloved's Lamphun.

The Mae Had Valley lies in the northern part of the greater Chiang Mai Valley. The small Mae Had River runs through the valley.

The people of the Mae Had Valley are overwhelmingly Khon Muang. Their whole lifestyle is a celebration of flatland, wet-rice paddy culture. Their attitudes are conservative, restrained, old-world.

Copyright:

CPA Media Co. Ltd.

Photographer:

David Henley

Credit:

Pictures From Asia