Thailand's teak-mansion town — Lanna old city walls, zero tourists, and the wood that built a kingdom
Phrae is the city that teak built. Northern Thailand's forests produced the most prized hardwood in Southeast Asia, and Phrae's merchant elite — many of them Shan (Tai Yai) traders — built extraordinary teak mansions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries that still stand in the old city quarter. Vongburi House and Kham Yom House are among the finest wooden mansions in all of Southeast Asia, made possible by the extraordinary wealth generated by logging contracts with the British Bombay Burmah Trading Corporation. The old city is surrounded by remnants of a moat and brick walls; the night…
Phrae was a Lanna principality that came under Burmese domination in 1558 and remained nominally so until Siamese control in the late 18th century. Its prosperity in the 19th century was entirely teak-driven — British, French, and Siamese interests competed for logging rights across the northern forests, and Phrae's merchants positioned themselves as brokers and suppliers. The complete collapse of the teak industry (Thailand banned logging in 1989) left the mansions standing as monuments to a wealth that no longer exists here.