The journey from Nan city to Bo Kluea district by car takes about 2 hours. It is surrounded by the valleys, who will definitely like the green travel so it’s your answer… Bo Kluea is one of the only rock salt in the world which is more than 800 years old which back in the past, salt was a tribute to Nan must deliver to Chiang Mai, considered a valuable resource and has many medicinal properties in that era.
Nanthaburi or Nan sent this rock salt to sell to Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, Chiang Tung, Luang Prabang, as well as Xishuangbanna, Southern China. But until now, there are only two ponds remaining at Ban Bo Luang. Ban Bo Luang village has 2 public ponds, the villagers will call it the northern pond and the southern pond. Villagers will close the pond and stop making salt during the rainy season and will start doing it again at the end of Buddhist Lent.
Nowadays, villagers still cook the rum in a traditional way. In which salt water will be scooped from the well, passed along the bamboo trunk to the reservoir salt making of Bo Kluea. Villagers Bring 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, keep doing this until the water in the pan is dry, then draw the brine from the well and put it back into the new. The salt here has beautiful salt crystals unlike other salts and secretly knew that this salt contains mountain minerals that are packed with many medicinal properties. But this salt is not iodized like sea salt.
Surprise !!! Well, why is there salt on the high mountains? From additional studies and from Bo Kluea District Office It is said that the ancient salt pond at Ban Bo Luang contains geological evidence and it is assumed that this area contained seawater precipitation during the Permian period, the last of the Paleozoic Era ( Paleozoic Era) (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 flavor coming out of the underground resulting in the production of salt from this saltwater. Well which is currently only a few ponds remaining And this pond still has water sprinkled up all the time which has never dried up. It is really a miracle, isn’t it?
To bring salt from the well to boil and make salt is not easy to do, the villagers will have to do the ritual of the Muang Ghost Ritual and Chao Sang Kham each other first, which is done every year on Aril. In the past, it used to be done for 7 days, but now it is reduced to only 3 days. Bo Kluea District will make salt for household use but when the road is more convenient, the villagers therefore brought salt from here to sell to various villages, in addition it has been processed into various products such as spa salt, body scrub, foot bath salt, flower soap, so that tourists can buy it to take home as well.
Thank you for the source of travel information from TRIPWALKERS “NoomSao Tour”.
