A Zine for the Sleuthing Traveller

A hand-illustrated guide to Chiang Mai's five historic city gates, built on real archival research and told for travelers who want more than a plaque can offer.

Coming soon

References

Hello, fellow traveller. I hope you enjoyed A Zine for the Sleuthing Traveller, or you're in the middle of it right now. Here are the references and links behind it.

Inspiration

• The overall idea was inspired by a YouTube video by ประวัติศาสตร์นอกตำรา, where historians and archaeologists broke down the timelines and history of the gates in detail. It gave me a foundational understanding of the walls across different periods and shaped how I structured each gate's story.

Maps

• McGilvary's Among the Siamese and the Laos
• The title page's market scene was inspired by page 275 of the same book
• The regional map of the Laotian state in the South Gate spread comes from page 327 of the same book
• Individual gate layouts came from ประวัติศาสตร์นอกตำรา

Mangrai's story

• Ideas drawn from this Blockdit post
• This chronology on bytelife.altervista.org was especially helpful throughout, recommended if you want to read more about Chiang Mai's history

Chang Puek, North Gate

• The statues, their auspicious meaning, and the myth mainly came from this Matichon article
• Procession details from a Pantip thread and a Silpa-mag article

Tha Phae, East Gate

• The caravan and Chin Haw merchants were built from pages 204 to 216 of Carl Bock's Temples and Elephants
• Gate functions and visuals from bytelife.altervista.org

Chiang Mai, South Gate

• Whether people usually traveled by elephant, from this piece
• Travel speed estimates also came from Temples and Elephants, in the details between its Chiang Mai chapters
• Early reading on the Wua Lai neighborhood started with this Pantip thread
• This Matichon piece went deeper into the silversmiths and their effect on Lanna culture
• This Blockdit post on the Mon community's history inspired the later speech comic

Suan Prung, South West Gate

• The funeral procession was the hardest to research. McGilvary's Among the Siamese and the Laos, from the death of Kawilorot onward (p.131), was the strongest source available
• The sketch and coloring are credited to the rough sketch in Chindapol, Sumavalee and Arkarapotiwong, Piyadech (2024), "Chiang Mai's royal crematorium: Siamese influence evident in Lanna cremation heritage," NAKHARA Vol. 23, No. 1, DOI: 10.54028/NJ202423406
• Basic understanding of Northern Thai funeral culture from this Fine Arts Department page
• Lua clothing reconstructed from details on this CMRU page
• Whether the hatsaling prop was actually present at Kawilorot's death was debated in this Matichon piece
• Phi Phong came out of reading this ACCL article
• A big thank you to REAL on YouTube for a genuinely comprehensive video on Thai spirits. It's what made the whole concept click for me, and showed just how deep spirits run through the culture

Suan Dok, West Gate

• Foraging around Suan Dok, from this ACCL page
• Suan Dok before Mangrai's founding, from Wikicommunity and Silpa-mag
• Phayom flowers in Suan Dok, from this Siamganesh page