Very brief note on Chiang Rai Universities

Three years after first visiting the campus, I briefly toured Chiang
Rai's "Mae Fa Louang University", and also "CRU" --also called
Rajabhat University-- located 8 km down the same highway.

I have basically nothing to report, but this type of non-report puts
my more positive (and lengthy) descriptions of other institutions here
in context.

Mae Fa Louang has a cultural studies program that covers Burma, Laos,
Lanna, and the adjacent part of China.

I had learned about this three years ago, and so decided to investigate.

I spoke with a very nice fellow, who has just completed a years-long
study of chicken-slaughtering rituals in Akha villages.

Unfortunately, their cultural studies do not in any way include
manuscripts, nor epigraphy, nor Pali --neither of the two universities
here have activities in these fields.

As I say, there is thus nothing to report, except to put my other
"reports" into a kind of context, as, for every institution that has a
portion of its research dedicated to this area, there are dozens that
don't --and, often, the only way for me to discover which is the case
is to ride my bicycle up to the campus and ask.

E.M.