Ban Huai Tom Royal Project

Ban Huai Tom Royal Project sits at roughly 500m elevation in Li district, Lamphun province, where the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej founded a Karen development centre after visiting the community in 1978. Entry is free, open daily 8am–4:30pm, and the draw is watching a living craft tradition rather than touring a museum.

The Karen Handicraft Research Centre is a bamboo-built workshop where S’gaw Karen and Pwo Karen weavers sit at backstrap looms, dyeing cotton with barks, roots, and leaves gathered locally rather than synthetic colour. Silversmiths hammer out jewellery a few metres away, and basket-weavers work coiled bamboo into trays and containers. Staff are used to visitors trying the loom themselves for a few minutes — ask, rather than assume it’s hands-off. Finished textiles, silver, and baskets are sold on site at prices lower than in Chiang Mai’s night bazaar, with the money going directly to the makers.

Insider Tip: Come before 10am. Artisans work the looms in the cool morning hours and the centre quiets down by early afternoon, especially outside weekends.

The village around the centre, Ban Phrabat Huai Tom, is a working Karen Buddhist community — not a re-enactment. Most households keep a vegetarian diet in observance of the teachings of Luang Pu Kruba Chai, the monk who established the nearby temple. A short walk from the handicraft centre, Wat Phra Phutthabat Huai Tom houses a Buddha footprint shrine and a pagoda said to enshrine roughly 84,000 small Buddha images — modest in scale next to Lamphun’s larger temples, but rarely crowded. The project also runs experimental highland plots of vegetables and flowers as part of its original agricultural remit, though these are working fields rather than a visitor garden.

Watch out: Photographing inside the weaving workshop is fine, but ask before photographing individual villagers going about daily life in the surrounding streets — it’s a lived-in community, not a staged attraction.

Getting there means driving Highway 106 south from Chiang Mai (about 90km, 1.5–2 hours) through Li district; there’s no reliable public transport link, so a private car or rented vehicle is the only realistic option. Dress modestly — covered shoulders and knees — given the active Buddhist community and temple visit.

See also the nearby Mae Kanard Karen Village for another Karen hill community in Lamphun province, or browse more of Lamphun’s temples and highland sites.