Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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Event of the Month: Nan’s Longboat Regatta

Once a year, the people of Nan, one of Thailand’s oldest kingdoms, celebrate one of their biggest festivals - the Longboat Regatta.

The festival coincides with the end of the Buddhist rains retreat, in October or early November. This year the festival has been divided into two parts, running from the 13th - 19th September and 18th - 19th October, the former featuring preliminary races with teams from all over the province, while the latter is the competition of the best teams for the trophy donated by His Majesty the King.

The races, taking place on the Nan River, are spectacular affairs, with boats crewed by as many as twenty paddlers, and back-up members taking the total to 50 or more men. The women play no small role too, supporting their men not only with logistics like food, but doing spectacularly vigorous dances on the river banks to urge their teams on. The ritual background is also important. During the earlier section of the races there’s a Buddhist ceremony involving donations to temples known as salakapat, but the local spirits are also honoured and propitiated, most especially Phaya Nak, who is believed to control the rising and falling of the river waters, and the rains that feed them. The boats themselves, made from single tree-trunks, have elaborately-fashioned serpent’s heads, and have to be ritually prepared for the fray.It’s calculated that something like 100 - 120 boats race in the two periods, and the race for honours and rewards is fierce.

Altogether, visiting Nan in the middle of the month and taking in the racing is well worth while.

More information available through:

the Educational Department, Nan Municipality,
054-771626

and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Northern Region 2,
053-744674-5, 717433.