The old silversmiths??quarter centred on Baan Wua Lai (Spotted Cow Village) stretches along both sides of Wua Lai Road, to the south of Chiang Mai's old city. This long-established, prosperous community of artisans maintains a tradition that stretches back more than two centuries, to the time of Chao Kawila??? re-establishment of Chiang Mai in the years after 1797.

Silversmiths have long been valued and held in high esteem by Southeast Asian royal courts from Burma to Java, and in times past the Lan Na Kingdom was no exception.