Lampang, like the capitals of so many of the northern principalities, is an ancient town older, for example, than Ayutthaya and even Chiang Mai, though little enough evidence of that past survives. Legend recounts that a son of Queen Chamadevi of Lamphun founded the city in the 9th century AD; as such it was a Mon tributary statelet. As far as we know, Lampang itself was at that time called Klang Nakhon, or “Central City”, and it had four fortified dependencies, one of which Phra That Lampang Luang survives to the present day.