The Closing Ceremony of The U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) 2019 “Conservation of Traditional Lanna Architecture in Chiang Mai”

On January 28, 2022 Chiang Mai University’s the Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture,  organized the Completion Closing Ceremony of the U.S. Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) 2019 titled “Conservation of Traditional Lanna Architecture in Chiang Mai” at CMU Lanna Traditional House Museum.

Chargé d’Affaires Michael Heath presided over the Closing Ceremony along with the U.S. Consul General Chiang Mai Sean O’Neill and the Vice President Associate Professor Rome Chiranukrom, the representative of the CMU President, Clinical Professor Niwes Nantachit, M.D. attended the ceremony at the CMU Lanna Traditional House Museum.

Assistant Professor Vilawan Svetsreni, Director of the Center for the Promotion of Arts and Culture, CMU and Project Director gave a report that the U.S. Ambassadors fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP) 2019, "Conservation of Traditional Lanna Architecture in Chiang Mai" at this CMU Lanna House Museum, has now been successfully completed.

The amount of the grant is 150,000 U.S. dollars –This project first and foremost aimed to preserve, restore and strengthen traditional Lanna architecture at this CMU Lanna Museum  (7 houses and 2 rice granaries-out of 10 existing structures and 4 rice granaries) in this House Museum's collection, which have now been completely restored and strengthened all according to the project’s plan.

This could provide opportunities for students and visitors to participate in observing and learning methods and techniques for the preservation of historic wooden architecture from the actual site, and from the actual operating area. Sadly, due to the pandemic situation we could not implement the onsite workshop as planned for the last year 2021. However, we decided to adapt presentation materials prepared for the onsite workshop and utilize them to conduct the workshop training and activities through an online digital platform instead.

For our final stage we had curated an onsite exhibition named “Local Wisdoms of Traditional Lanna Architecture” which act as a knowledge database and publicize the project conclusion and had the official opening ceremony together on this event.

The project is incredibly beneficial in helping to preserve Lanna architecture in northern Thailand at this Chiang Mai University’s Lanna House Museum, also supporting the arts and cultural academic services. Knowledge of traditional practices from the implementation of this project will help to ensure that Northern Thai culture be preserved and inherited sustainably by future generations.