Khum Chao Luang Building

Address: Khum Chao Luang, near [unspecified temple complex], Thailand

Khum Chao Luang is best reached by road from the nearest regional center (often via Highway 11 or local provincial roads). Depending on exact location, regional buses or songthaews serve nearby towns; hire a local taxi or motorbike taxi for the final leg.

• If possible, visit during a festival day to see the temple courtyards full of local ceremony - Khum Chao Luang is active and community rituals reveal more than the architecture alone.
• Ask permission before photographing monks in close-up; a discreet smile and nod usually suffices.
• Timing mid-morning avoids the heat and offers softer light for photographing gilded elements.

Like nearby Vongburi House, Khum Chao Luang is a rambling mansion of many rooms equipped with period furnishings, its walls covered with fading black-and-white photos of old Phrae. The most obvious difference is that this building is painted green rather than pink, and a prominent statue of Chao Luang Piriya Theppawong, the last independent ruler of Phrae, stands in the attractive garden out front.

It is worth wandering all the rooms here, soaking up Phrae’s history and pausing to admire the views from the windows. One room you probably won’t want to linger in is the windowless basement, so low you need to stoop; shackles on the wall and accompanying images show that it was once used as a prison and torture chamber. For some reason Thais consider it bad luck to step forwards into this dim room, so don’t be surprised to see local visitors going in backwards.