Ancient Salt Ponds

Bo Kluea is a district in Nan Province. Located about 80 kilometers from Nan city, it is famous for producing mountain salt like no other. Since it is a naturally occurring saltwater pond Among the only valleys in the world Which is more than 800 years old.

Ancient Salt Ponds has been around since ancient times and was sold to Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, Chiang Tung, Luang Prabang, Sipsongpanna, and southern China. But now it’s all dry. There are only two ponds left at Ban Bo Luang. In this area, there will be a total of 8 villages, Ban Bo Luang, which has two public ponds. The villagers will call it the northern pond and the southern pond, the Northern ponds located along the River Mang. The southern pond is about 500 meters away. With Bo Kluea District, there is a beautiful landscape surrounded by green mountains. Bo Kluea is a tourist attraction of Nan province where travelers come to experience the smell of nature and the legend of salt making on the highlands. By making salt will stop doing it during Lent and will do it again during the Buddhist Lent.

Today villagers still traditionally boil the salt. By scooping saltwater from the well, passing it along the bamboo trunk to the reservoir. Salt making of Bo Kluea villagers. Brings the brine from the well to boil in the pan for 4-5 hours to evaporate the brine dry. Then it will bring a spatula to scoop salt into a basket that is hung over the pan. To let the brine flow down the pan, do this and so on. Until the water in the pan is dry, then draw the brine from the well and put it back into the new After that, put the bag on sale in front of the house Nan city salt There is no iodine like sea salt, so iodized must be added before reaching the consumer.

To bring salt from the well to boil and make salt is not an easy task, the villagers will have to do the reincarnation ritual of the city spirit and the salt well treatment is Chao Sang Kam. Which will be boiled every year on the waning days of the 8th lunar month. In the past, it took time to perform the ceremony for 7 days, but now it has been reduced to only 3 days. In the old days, villagers in Bo Kluea District would make salt for their household use. But when The road is more convenient, the villagers then brought the salt from here to sell to different villages, also it has been processed into products such as spa salt, body scrub, foot bath salt, flower salt soap for tourists to buy home.

Ancient Bo Kluea, Ban Bo Luang There is geological evidence and it is assumed that this area was the precipitation of the Permian period. This is the last period in the Paleozoic Era, between 250-299 million years ago, which likely had an underground rock salt layer or a rock salt dome in this area. And may accidentally dig into a well with a salty taste coming out of the underground. Causing salt production from this saltwater well, Which is currently only a few ponds remaining, and this well still has water rising all the time, which has never dried up. It is a Wonderful Thing.