Doi Mae Salong (ดอยแม่สลอง)

Thai. Name of a mountain village in Chiang Rai that was founded by former Chinese Kuomintang on land given to them after they arrived as refugees from China and assisted the Thai government in their battle against communist insurgents in the sixties and seventies (fig.), drawing on their experience when they fought communism in China under Chiang Kai Shek (fig.), the then leader of the Nationalist Party of China and the political opponent of Mao Zedong (fig.), the then chairman of the Communist Party of China. For their support they were also granted Thai citizenship and now live in an area also inhabited by several hill tribe minority groups (fig.), many themselves refugees from Myanmar. Located at an elevation of ca. 1,350 meters, Doi Mae Salong has an ideal climate to grow tea and due to its Chinese population is today known for its many tea plantations (fig.), as well as tea factories and teashops, both around the original mountain top village as in some of the valleys below. Doi Mae Slaong later on also became known as Santikhiri  (สันติครีรี), literally ‘Peaceful Mountain’, a name that also occurs in that of the pagoda located on the top of the highest mountain in Doi Mae Salong, at an altitude of 1,500 meter and called Phra Borommathat Chedi Sri Nagarindra Sathit Maha Santi Khiri (พระบรมธาตุ ศรีนครินทรา สถิต มหาสันติคีรี) and built in 1996 in honour of and to make merit for the Queen Mother, who in 1995 had passed away and as a special royal patron spent a lifetime improving the living conditions of the local hill tribe people, who called her Mae Fah Luang (แม่ฟ้าหลวง), literally ‘Royal Mother from the Sky’, as she often travelled by helicopter to visit the many remote villages of this region. There are similar Chinese communities founded along the Thai-Burmese border, usually by Chinese refugees and often on land donated to them, such as Ban Rak Thai (บ้านรักไทย - fig.) in Mae Hong Son (fig.) and Ban Yang (บ้านยาง) in Chiang Mai. See also TRAVEL PICTURES (1), (2), (3), (4), (5), (6), (7), (8) and (9), and WATCH VIDEO (1), (2), (3), and (4). 回