Nan: The Whispering Mural and the Town Around It

One painted couple on a temple wall became the symbol of a whole province. Wat Phumin is worth the trip, and Nan is worth staying for.

The painting is smaller than the postcards suggest.

A man leans toward a woman with his hand cupped near her ear, both of them tattooed, both in Tai Lue dress. The rest of the wall carries a whole social world around them — traders, monks, foreigners, women at work — but this is the panel everyone comes for.

Wat Phumin

Wat Phumin is the temple at the centre of Nan town. It was founded in the late 16th century and substantially rebuilt in the mid-19th, when the murals were painted. The building is unusual before you even look at the walls: a cruciform hall with four entrances, each guarded by naga that pass right through the structure, and four Buddha images seated back to back at the centre facing the four doors.

The murals wrap the interior with scenes from the Jataka tales and from local life in Nan at the time they were painted, which makes them a record of clothing, tattooing and trade as much as a religious work. Look at the sleeve tattoos on the men. Look at who is in the crowd scenes and what they are wearing.

The whispering couple — known locally as Pu Man Ya Man, the grandfather whispering to the grandmother — is on the west wall. What he is saying has never been established, which is why people have kept looking at it for a century and a half.

Entry is free. There is a donation box and twenty baht is normal.

The rest of the old town

Nan's centre is small and walkable, which is most of its appeal. Wat Phra That Chang Kham sits directly opposite Wat Phumin.

The Nan National Museum, in a former royal residence, holds the province's famous black elephant tusk and gives you the history the temples assume you already know. It is 100 baht for foreign visitors, 20 baht for Thai nationals, and it is closed Monday and Tuesday — which catches out a lot of weekend arrivals.

Wat Phra That Khao Noi, on a hill west of town, has a standing Buddha and a view over the valley. Best in late afternoon, and it takes twenty minutes.

Beyond the town

Nan province is mountains and river valleys, and the roads through them are the reason a lot of people come at all.

Doi Phu Kha National Park is a few hours north, and the villages between grow tea, coffee and rice on terraces that turn gold late in the year — the same seasonal logic that governs the terraces at Ban Pa Bong Piang, on a road with considerably less traffic.

Doi Samer Dao in Si Nan National Park, about two hours south toward Na Noi, is the province's sea-of-mist viewpoint and its camping spot. Entry is around 100 baht for foreign visitors, 20 for Thai, plus about 30 baht to park. Sao Din Na Noi, a separate formation of eroded soil pillars, is nearby.

Getting there

Nan has a small airport with direct flights from Don Mueang, around an hour and a quarter, with three or four departures a day.

By bus, Mo Chit 2 to Nan runs roughly ten to thirteen hours overnight. From Chiang Mai, buses leave Terminal 3 and take around six hours via Den Chai.

The road in from Phrae or Chiang Rai is mountainous and slow. Budget more time than the distance suggests — that is true of the whole province and it is the main thing people get wrong when planning a Nan trip around a two-day window.

Practical notes

The murals are dim by design. Do not use flash, and check whether photography is permitted on the day, because it varies. Dress as for any temple — the usual rules apply, and Wat Phumin is an active temple rather than a museum.

Nan is quiet, and that is the point of it. Accommodation fills during the cool season and around festivals, so book ahead if you are coming between November and February.

If you want to read the building as well as the paintings, the Lanna vocabulary is worth ten minutes first — Wat Phumin breaks several of the standard rules deliberately, and that is only interesting if you know what the rules are.