Burma / Myanmar: Lua children at Wat Ban Saen, Kyaing Tong (Kengtung), Shan State

Wat Ban Saen is a remote forest temple situated in a ‘Tai Loi’ (‘Mountain Thai’) or Lua inhabited border region of easternmost Burma. The temple, which is located near to an ancient trade route between Sipsongpanna or Xishuangbanna in China and Kengtung in Shan State, is thought to be about 300 years old and to have been built on the orders of the Thai Khoen rulers of Kengtung (or perhaps the lords of Chiang Saen in Thailand, then under Burmese rule) to serve the needs of travellers on the old trade route. Today it is considered to be an unusually fine (if very isolated) example of Chiang Saen temple architecture. There are few or no Tai peoples living in the area, and the temple now serves the local Tai Loi community, who believe that their ancestors built it.