Art Styles and Concepts of Shui Wei Sheng Niang Shrine, Chang Khlan Sub-district, Mueang Chiang Mai District, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand

Abstract

The Shui Wei Sheng Niang Shrine, in the Chang Khlan Sub-district of Chiang Mai, is a historic and famous Chinese-beliefs shrine under the patronage of Hainam Association Chiang Mai, an association of the Thai-Hainanese people - the Thai descendants of a Han Chinese group originally from Hainan Island in China and who ultimately resided in Chiang Mai Province. This research examines the art styles of the shrine as well as the concepts and influences in the architectural construction of Thai-Hainanese people in Mueang Chiang Mai. The research found that the Hainanese have different architectural styles from other Chinese groups in Southern China such as the Cantonese, the Hakka, and the Teochew, a style referred to as the Guangfu Architecture School in Hainan. Some characteristics of this unique architectural style in the ancestral land of the Thai-Hainanese have been transplanted to this Shui Wei Sheng Niang Shrine in Mueang Chiang Mai. However, the shrine also shows contemporary construction techniques, an influence taken from the art styles of other Overseas Chinese groups in Thailand, as well as the declination of their own traditional art styles, and resembling the architectural styles of the other Chinese shrines in Mueang Chiang Mai that were constructed in the same decade.