Chiang Mai

The city's great age came under Tilokaraj, who seized the throne from his own father in 1441 and spent much of his reign fighting Ayutthaya for the old Sukhothai lands. He finished the vast chedi of Wat Chedi Luang, then the largest building in Lan Na, and set the Emerald Buddha in its eastern niche, and in 1477 monks gathered near the city for a Buddhist council to recompile the Tripitaka.

After his death, quarrels among the princes left Lan Na open to its neighbours. An earthquake in 1545 brought down the top of the great chedi, the Emerald Buddha soon left for Luang Prabang, and in 1558 the Burmese king Bayinnaung took Chiang Mai. Burmese rule, broken by revolts, lasted more than two centuries, until Kawila of Lampang and the Siamese drove the Burmese out in 1775. The wars that followed emptied the city, and from 1776 until 1791 Chiang Mai stood abandoned, its temples falling into ruin.