Learn the Lanna Script from Zero: Course Map

Learn the Lanna script from zero, right here. Tua Mueang (ต฿วฯเมิอฯง, Kham Mueang reading tua mueang) is the Lanna Dhamma script, the letters people in Lanna used for centuries to inscribe scriptures, compose poetry, write medical texts and record the history of their towns. This article is the course map for Moradok Lanna's Tua Mueang course: what you will learn, in what order, and how to start practising today with free tools on our website.

What is Tua Mueang?

The Moradok Lanna dictionary describes Tua Mueang as "the script used in the Lanna kingdom since ancient times". It served religious purposes, such as tham (ธัม์มฯ, read tham), scriptures inscribed on palm leaves (bai lan, ไบลานฯ) and in pap sa (พัปฯสา, read pap sa), folded mulberry-paper books. It also served secular purposes: literature, astrology and medical texts. You can still see Tua Mueang all over Northern Thailand today, on temple signs, street signs, government buildings and monument inscriptions.

Lanna has its own names for the parts of writing. The dictionary explains that pian ja-na (พยัญชฯน, read pian ja-na) means consonants, and each consonant is called a tua ("letter"), for example tua ka (ก, read tua ka), the letter k. Vowels are called mai (ไม้, read mai), for example the signs for short a and long a are called mai ka (ไม้ก๋ะ) and mai ka (ไม้ก๋า). We use these two terms throughout the course.

Khai hian tua mueang tae wa: the course motto

In the dictionary, tae wa (แท้ว่าฯ, read tae wa) means "earnestly, truly, really" and usually comes at the end of a sentence. The example the dictionary gives makes a perfect motto for this course.

Khai hian tua mueang tae wa · ไฅ่ รยฯร ต฿วฯเมิอฯง แท้ว่าฯ · "I really want to learn the Lanna script" (example from the dictionary)

You may not be able to read this sentence yet, and that's fine. The course teaches one step at a time, from consonants and vowels to final consonants, and one day you will read every letter of it yourself.

How the course works: 6 levels, 42 lessons

The course has 6 sections, from easy to hard. Each lesson is short enough to read in one sitting, and every example is a real word from the Moradok Lanna dictionary.

1. Beginner: consonants, vowels, tones and final consonants
2. Intermediate: the writing system, stacked letters, clusters, abbreviations, numerals and punctuation
3. Reading practice: province names, temple signs, street signs, your own name and short verses
4. Advanced: reading palm leaves, copying scriptures and other scripts of Lanna
5. History and culture: where Tua Mueang came from, and who could read and write it
6. Tools: typing Tua Mueang and practising every day

Course map

Lessons not yet published are marked coming soon. When a lesson goes online, its title in the table becomes a link.

Beginner: letters and sounds

Intermediate: the writing system

Reading practice

Advanced: palm leaves and scriptures

History and culture

Tools

Practise today: free tools on Moradok Lanna

While new lessons are on the way, you can start to read (an, อ่านฯ) and write (khian, ขยฯร) Tua Mueang right now with these tools (pages in Thai).

Read more: Tua Mueang in Lanna literature

Tua Mueang has carried Lanna's most important writing. Scribes used a stylus (lek jan, เหัลฯกจารฯ) to inscribe (jan, จารฯ) letters onto palm leaves. You can read about these works in our published articles:

• Pap Sa and Palm Leaves: the books and scriptures that recorded Lanna literature
• Khao: Lanna chain-rhyme verse, khao so and khao ham
• Hong Hin: Lanna's famous khao so
• King Tilokarat: the golden age of Lanna (ล้านฯนาฯ, read lan na)

Summary

• Tua Mueang is the Lanna Dhamma script, used for both religious and secular writing, and still seen all over Northern Thailand.
• In Lanna, consonants are called tua and vowels are called mai.
• This course has 42 lessons in 6 sections, from consonants to reading palm leaves.
• You can start practising today with the typing tool, the typing tutor, games and the word of the day.

Look up any word and its Lanna spelling in the Moradok Lanna dictionary, and read more about Lanna's books and scriptures in Pap Sa and Palm Leaves.

Sources

• Moradok Lanna dictionary: ตั๋วเมือง · เปียนจ๊ะนะ · แต๊ว่า · ใบลาน · จ๋าร
• Moradok Lanna. วิธีพิมพ์อักษรธรรมล้านนาด้วยฟอนต์ LN TILOK (สรุปแบบง่าย) [How to type the Lanna script with the LN TILOK font (easy summary)]. Summarised from the manual by Phichai Saengbun, Art and Culture Promotion Center, Chiang Mai University