Lampang

Lampang is Thailand's last stand for horse-drawn carriages. Introduced in 1916 by Burmese workers who came for the teak logging boom, these vehicles went extinct elsewhere but survived here—a technology preserved by tourism after its original purpose vanished. The city calls itself "mueang rot ma" (horse carriage city), branding what elsewhere would be anachronism as heritage.

Founded in the 7th century as Khelang Nakhon under the Hariphunchai Kingdom, Lampang is one of Thailand's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Queen Camadevi's son Anantayot first ruled here; Burmese kings controlled it for two centuries; modern Thailand absorbed it in 1892. Each era left deposits: Mon temples, teak-era colonial architecture, and over 200 ceramic factories exploiting the region's kaolin and ball clay deposits. Lampang ceramics—rooster bowls, plant pots, tiles—are considered Thailand's finest quality.

The province's economic geology extends further. Southeast Asia's largest coal-fired power plant operates in Mae Mo District, burning local lignite. The same logging industry that brought horse carriages employed elephants whose descendants now perform at the Thai Elephant Conservation Center. Lampang converts geological and biological inheritance alike into economic activity—kaolin into ceramics, coal into electricity, elephants into education, horses into nostalgia. The carriage horses trot daily because somewhere, a century ago, someone chose not to replace them.