I had come across this museum when we were visiting nine Wats as part of Gaun’s birthday, blog entry HERE. The museum is in a lovely Wat called Ket Karam, which I recommend visiting, but we didn’t have time to explore it with another seven Wats to cover that day! GPS N18 47.552 E099 00 141.
The reason why GPS often struggles to find any names when you search is shown here. The sign on the Temple is Wat Ket Karam. The museum has translated the Thai to English phonetically in the second photo as Wat Gate Khar Rnam!
The museum is almost immediately on the left as you come in through the back gates to the temple from the 106 Chiang Mai – Lamphun Road running parallel to the River Ping.
The building was once a monk’s residence – one Phra Khru Chaisiwimon who lived 1886 – 1957. The museum was established to house various items donated by the local community to record the history and artefacts of the area.
The museum is divided into several separate rooms each having a sort of theme. The entry area has a large Buddha shrine in a Myanmar style.
Many of the displays have items of no great significance or very specialised but there are some great glimpses into Chiang Mai history.
I start to feel old when I visit a museum and then related to some of the exhibits. Black and white TVs, fax machines and manual typewriters all displayed here.
Of most interest to me were the many old photos of the local area. I hope they have copies as these ones slowly fade and history is lost.

The museum has done a good job of labelling some of the displays with an English translation. This relates to the photo above.
Some of the explanations were in Tinglish:
Entry to the museum is free and it is open from 9.00 am to 4.00 pm every day. If you are visiting the Wat then make sure you pop in and experience a bit of Chiang Mai history.
Thanks for reading.
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