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

Part of Ancient Chiang Mai

'Jamahey is very a Fair and Great Town'

Ralph 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" (probably Lan Chang, "one million elephants", or Laos). He was not long in Lan Na-at best 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.

David Henley / CPA

Monks on early morning alms round, Chiang Mai.

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. 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. 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, they shew 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 are as 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 recently published and very excellent work by Volker Grabowsky and Andrew Turton, The Gold and Silver Road of Trade and Friendship (Chiang Mai: Silkworm, 2003), it is stated that Fitch's report is 'widely regarded as unreliable' and that is has to be 'read with particular caution'.

David Henley / CPA

Tattooed northern men in a parade, Bo Sang, Chiang Mai.

Yet is seems to me that the proof is in the pudding. For a report that is more than four centuries old, 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 Hai Ya. 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 meritorious, which persuade me to doubt him. In my opinion, Ralph Fitch was here, in late 16^th century Chiang Mai, beyond reasonable shadow of doubt!

Text by Andrew Forbes, images by David Henley. © CPA Media, 2005