m the north and east, and by Burmese, Shans and Siamese from the west
and south. It is, moreover, the centre of the teak trade of Siam, in
which many Burmese and several Chinese and European firms are engaged.
The total value of the import and export trade of the Bayap division
amounts to about L2,500,000 a year. The Siamese high commissioner of
Bayap division has his headquarters in Chieng Mai, and though the
hereditary chief continues as the nominal ruler, as is also the case in
the other Lao states of Nan, Pre, Lampun, Napawn Lampang and Tern, which
make up the division, the government is entirely in the hands of that
official and his staff. The government forest department, founded in
1896, has done good work in the division, and the conservator of forests
has his headquarters in Chieng Mai. The headquarters of an army division
are also situated here. A British consul resides at Chieng Mai, where,
in addition to the ordinary law courts, there is an international court
having jurisdiction in all cases in which British subjects are parties.
The population, about 20,000, consists mainly of Laos, with many Shans,
a few Burmese, Chinese and Siamese and some fifty Europeans. Hill tribes
(Ka) inhabit the neighbouring mountains in large numbers.
Chieng Mai was formerly the capital of a united Lao kingdom, which, at
one time independent, afterwards subject to Burma and then to Siam, and
later broken up into a number of states, has finally become a provincial
division of Siam. In 1902 a rising of discontented Shans took place in
Bayap which at one time seemed serious, several towns being attacked and
Chieng Mai itself threatened. The disturbance was quelled and the
malcontents eventually hunted out, but not without losses which included
the commissioner of Pre and a European officer of gendarmerie.
CHIERI, a town and episcopal see of Piedmont, Italy, in the province of
Turin, 13 m. S.E. by rail and 8 m. by road from the town of Turin. Pop.
(1901) 11,929 (town), 13,803 (commune). Its Gothic cathedral, founded in
1037 and reconstructed in 1405, is the largest in Piedmont, and has a
13th century octagonal baptistery. Chieri was subject to the bishop of
Turin in the 9th and 10th centuries, it became independent in the 11th
century. In 1347 it submitted voluntarily to Count Amedeus VI. of Savoy
to save itself from the marquis of Monferrato, and finally came under
the dominion of Savoy in the 16th century. In 1785 it was mad
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