Our second route through the European district takes us to an offshoot of Chinatown and one of Bangkok’s oddest temples, and on to the final resting place of so many of those early expatriates.
Duration: 2 hours
Directly next to The Oriental, separated from it only by the narrow thoroughfare known as Oriental Avenue, and occasionally floated as a “wouldn’t it make a wonderful extension” idea, is the old headquarters of the East Asiatic Company, which grew out of Andersen & Co, founded by Hans Niels Andersen around the time he was purchasing The Oriental. Along with the hotel, Andersen had also purchased The Oriental’s retail store, ship chandlery, ice factory, bakery, and aerated water factory. Some of this land was used for his own company, which encompassed shipping, logging and sawmills, and when the East Asiatic Company was founded in 1897 this prominent riverfront site was chosen for the offices. The building was completed early in 1901 and is designed in a neo-Palladian style, with a balustraded staircase leading to the first-floor entrance, arched fanlights over the shuttered windows, and the company logo of an anchor embellishing the pediment. The building has stood empty for many years, although it is in a reasonable state of preservation. East Asiatic’s warehouses, huge arched structures built with concrete frames and brick infill (the bricks were imported from
Middlesborough, in England), located further along Charoen Krung Road, have recently been brought back to life as part of the Asiatique leisure and shopping complex, a commendable venture that combines conservation with modern needs, and opens up the riverfront to the public.
Headquarters of the East Asiatic Company, whose founder also built The Oriental.
Asiatique is operated by the same people who operate OP Place, a lovely old building dating from 1905 that stands on the remnants of Chartered Bank Lane, and which houses antique shops, art galleries and boutiques. Elsewhere in this little parcel of land there is a graceful villa from the reign of Rama VI, which houses The Oriental’s China House restaurant, and some original shophouses, one of which is home to Tongue Thai, a restaurant noted for its Thai food and Old Bangkok ambience. The area is, however, disfigured by the expanse of tottering corrugated fencing that encloses the land behind Thai Home Industries, a series of handicraft shops housed in former monks’ quarters. This has been here for countless years. Why it cannot at least be tidied up, I really do not know.
The East Asiatic Company building is divided into two blocks, connected by an enclosed bridge, and passing through the passageway one is in a tiny and completely enclosed township, that of the Catholic community that has grown up around Assumption Cathedral. Here is a beautifully proportioned square such as might exist in any French cathedral city, as Assumption owes its origins to French missionaries. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok can be traced back to 1662, when the Vicariate Apostolic of Siam was created. The first French missionary active in Siam had been a Franciscan, Bonferre, who had sailed up to Ayutthaya from Goa on board a Portuguese ship in 1550. A small Catholic community grew and after the granting of the Vicariate Apostolic by Alexander vii, Siam, which by this time was a great power in the East, gave shelter to Vietnamese, Japanese and other Christians fleeing their own countries. In 1673 a bishop, Father Louis Laneau, was appointed, and the church entered the spiritual care of the Society of Foreign Missions. Father Laneau was head of the Roman Catholic mission for Indochina, and was based at Ayutthaya, where King Narai was sympathetic to the Catholic Church. Despite the uprising against the Europeans in the wake of the 1688 Siege of Bangkok, and the destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese almost a century later, the Catholic Church maintained a status in the country, the community being an integrated part of Siamese society.
In 1809, in the year that Rama II ascended the throne, and with Bangkok taking shape as a great and prosperous city, a missionary named Father Pasquale Gallo obtained permission from the king to build a cathedral. Designed by a French architect and built with materials imported from France and Italy, the cathedral was completed in 1821 and named Assumption to commemorate the passing of the Virgin Mary to heaven. As Christian missionaries began arriving in Bangkok in considerable numbers from the middle of the nineteenth century, the community around Assumption grew. Early in the twentieth century the cathedral was rebuilt, being largely fionded by a Catholic Chinese philanthropist named Low Khiok Chiang, a Teochew immigrant who founded a trading company named Kiam Hua Heng, on Charoen Krung Road. One of his early ventures was the import of Singer sewing machines, which had been invented by an American named Isaac Merritt Singer in 1851 and which a few years later appeared in Siam, when Anna Leonowens arranged for a machine to be brought in from Singapore and presented to Rama IV. So successfiol did Singer become after Kiam Hua Heng took on the distributorship in 1889 that it was spun off into a separate company and remains on Charoen Krung Road today as a publicly listed company and a leading retailer of electrical appliances. Groundwork for the new cathedral started at the beginning of 1910 and work was completed in 1918. Extensive repairs had to be undertaken when Allied bombs fell in the area during World War II.
Tall and rectangular, the cathedral is constructed of red brick, a striking contrast to the stucco-clad eighteenth century churches in Bangkok. The architectural style is Romanesque, with a symmetrical structure that has two 32-metre (104-ft) towers flanking the entrance, the pitched roof of the nave between them reaching a height of 25.6 metres (83 ft). The corners of the building are reinforced with limestone bricks, the white stone forming a contrast with the glowing red of the bricks, and the semi-circular arches over the doorways and windows are supported by non-structural Romanised pillars. The main doorway is multiple layered, the door itself deep inside the vestibule. Inside, the rich decor blends neoclassical and French colonial themes and is lit by stained glass windows set behind domed arches supported by Romanised pillars. Fresco paintings and bas reliefs adorn the walls, statues of saints line the altar, and the barrel-vault ceiling is set with golden stars in blue panels.
Outside in the square, the Annunciation Convent and the Catholic Centre face the cathedral. To the right is Assumption College, a boys’ school founded in 1885 and the third oldest school in Thailand, and to the left is the building of Assumption Printing Press, looking completely unlike a printing works, with its magnificent classical portico and its colonial colonnades, but which has played a very significant role in the affairs of the diocese since the nineteenth century and inside which can be found an intriguing collection of antique printing machinery. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok today ministers more than 80,000 souls. Pope John Paul II visited the cathedral in May 1984, a visit that is commemorated by a statue in the grounds.
Tucked in behind Assumption, on a lane that is opposite the foot of Silom Road and which runs down to a public river pier, is a Buddhist temple that is of the tourist trail, oddly enough given its location, but which has some remarkable old timber architecture. Wat Suan Plu can be reached via an alley off Charoen Krung or through
The imposing white gate almost opposite the Shangri-La Hotel. The ubosot is traditional, although more richly embossed than many temples and with exquisite panel paintings and large and finely detailed naga and angel figures on the gable ends of the three-leaved roof, but it is the monks’ quarters and the other buildings in the compound that really capture the interest because they are all made from wood with a clapboard effect, and have been stained cream and red. Follow the lane that runs alongside the Shangri-La, and you come out opposite the Ban Oou Mosque, founded by Muslims from Java who came to Bangkok in the time of Rama IV. Within this small area of land on the riverbank, therefore, within one minute’s walking distance of each other, we find three religions living peaceliilly together.
Dr Dan Beach Bradley, writing in 1835, at a time when Western influence was minimal in the affairs of Siam, commented that there was not one square-rigged ship in the Chao Phraya River. The entire trade of Siam was carried out by Chinese junks, of all sizes from fifty to five hundred tons. The larger vessels plied between Bangkok and Singapore, Batavia and Canton, while the smaller ones traded along the eastern and western coasts of the Gulf They were carrying rice, timber and gemstones on the outward-bound journey, and bringing back tea, silk, paper and fancy goods from China, or fabrics, glassware and European products from Singapore and Batavia. Junks running the China trade would make only one voyage a year, taking advantage of the southwest monsoon in June to sail from Bangkok, and of the northwest monsoon to return late in January. Bradley writes of a flotilla of sixty to eighty junks moored in the river from February to June, forming two lines in a huge floating bazaar. Each of the ships was freighted with the goods of several merchants, who would display their products on the deck until everything was sold.
The Portuguese had been in treaty relations with Siam since 1820, but very little came in direct: most of the trade was with Portuguese territories such as Goa, Macau and East Timor. A community of
Muslim merchants was shipping between Bombay and Bangkok under the British flag, but only at the rate of three or four ships a year. Twenty years after Bradley’s observations, the situation and the riverscape were to change dramatically Foreign trade now flourished, as did foreign fashions. Now the junks rode at anchor beside tall-masted sailing ships and the early steamers. Godowns and sawmills were built at the river’s edge, their memories enshrined in names such as Soi Rong Luey Misglug (Klugg’s Sawmill Lane) and Soi Rong Luey Asiatic (East Asiatic Sawmill Lane), which survive today.
Rama lll, who reigned from 1824 to 1851, foresaw that the supremacy of the Chinese junk was not going to last for ever. The king had in his youth been given responsibility for foreign trade and relations, and when he became king he devoted much of his time to both the politics and the mechanics of international trade. He is known to Thai history as the Father of Trade. Steamships were faster and more efficient than sailing vessels. China under the Qing Dynasty was weakening, and the strength of the Western countries was growing. The king felt that a reminder of how Siam’s prosperity was achieved was needed for the generations to come. On the bank of the river, shortly before ships reached Bangkok, was a village named Ban Thawai, or Tavoy Village. Populated by people originally from Tavoy, in Burma, the settlement had a market for trading water buffalo. There was a temple here of unknown age named Wat Khok Kwai, which translates as “Temple of the Buffalo Pen”. During the reign of Rama I the temple was accorded royal status and renamed Wat Khok Krabue, krabue being a more formal word for buffalo. In the temple grounds, directly on the riverbank and visible to all passing ships, Rama III built a chapel that is a stone replica of a Chinese junk. Yan in Thai means “craft” or “conveyance”, and nawa is a vessel or boat, and so the temple was renamed yet again, this time as Wat Yannawa.
The building of Charoen Krung Road had the odd effect of turning Wat Yannawa around by 180 degrees. Whereas the temple had originally faced the river, now a large gate was built on the new road and this became the main entrance. The ubosot, dating back to the renovations of Rama I, was originally the front of the temple with the later junk wiharn looming behind it: now, the huge Chinese junk obscures the view of the bell tower and ubosot to the rear. Built of concrete, the junk chapel measures 43 metres (141 ft) from end to end and is 5 metres (16 ft) high in the centre. Two chedis stand on the deck, representing the masts. These structures have given the temple its local name, sampao chedi, which means “junk with chediS" (the word “junk” entered the English language in the sixteenth century via the Portuguese word junco). Narrow stone steps inside the hull lead up to the deck, and the wheelhouse at the rear is the altar.
On the northern side of Wat Yannawa, right up against the red-painted iron fence of the temple, is an area of riverbank that has played a significant role in Bangkok’s history, and in particular that of the Chinese community. Labelled prosaically as “Soi 52”, it is known to the locals as Soi Wang Lee. When the southern half of Charoen Krung was built, this stretch of the road between the legation district and the Western residential district at Bang Kolaem became an extension of Chinatown. Consequently, many Chinese immigrants landed at the pier next to the temple, and were absorbed into the community. The landing was not without its hazards. A ship sank here and many were drowned. The wreckage remained a danger to navigation for several years, Captain Loftus noting the position on his map and commenting that “several anchors have been lost here”. Near to this spot the Jiew Eng Biew shrine was built by Chinese immigrants for a group of Hainanese who had set sail from their homeland bound for Bangkok, only to be mistaken for pirates of the coast of Vietnam and slaughtered.
In 1908 a group of Chinese merchants formed the Chino-Siam Steam Navigation Company in an attempt to break the Western monopoly on passenger and cargo shipping between Bangkok,
Singapore, Hong Kong, Shantou and Haikou, and they made their port at the land around the Chinese jetty. It became known as May Cheen Port, after the Thai name of the company. Three rice mills were founded in the immediate vicinity, adding their smoke and clamour to the din from the sawmills and the general hubbub of commerce, and this became one of the most congested parts of Bangkok. It also became an area noted for its revelry, particularly after the Wang Lee family, successful Chinese immigrants who made a fortune from rice mills, acquired the land and, in 1927, erected two rows of elegant shophouses at right angles to the river, flanking the port. The development included the Prasitiphon, a bar with Thai and Western hostesses, a band playing dance music, and the raucous atmosphere of a portside saloon. After World War ii it faded, and became a noodle shop. Sadly, in a controversial piece of vandalism, this area has recently been cleared, but right up to the end it was still possible to see the faded lettering above the interior doorway, saying: please ENTERTAIN HERE.
On the southern side of Wat Yannawa is a row of shophouses, one prominent establishment making and selling vendors’ carts, and several others dealing in marine engines, paint and tarpaulins. At a gap in the row, through a modest gateway, and unexpected in this urban setting, is a large dockyard. British entrepreneurs founded the Bangkok Dry Dock in 1865, Captain Bush being one of the shareholders. Built to service sea-going cargo vessels, the dock was conveniently sited for all the foreign ships coming into Bangkok, and it became one of the most prominent businesses along the riverbank. The dock was requisitioned by the Thai Royal Navy during World War II., and subsequently badly damaged when bombed by Allied forces. After the war the dock was handed back to its British owners, but the 45.7-metre (150-ft) timber-built No 1 dock had been almost completely destroyed. A ferro-concrete replacement more than twice the length was built and there are now two docks, handling vessels up to 4,000 dwt. The company shares were gradually bought up during the 1950s by Thai interests, which explains the name: The Bangkok Dock Company (1957) Limited.
The end of the line for this tram at the former terminus of Thanon Tok.
And so you trudge on down Charoen Krung Road, beginning to realise what a long road it is, and no doubt a spiffing place to drive one’s horse and carriage. Over Klong Bang Kolaem you go, where until the early 1940s, until it was washed away in serious flooding, there was a thriving floating market. We are now in the old Western residential district of Bang Kolaem, an area that grew up even before Charoen Krung Road was laid because (a) everyone travelled by boat, and (b) there was nowhere else. But there is nothing left of this now, except for a blank iron door set in a high wall.
The Protestant Cemetery, the final destination for so many members of the Western community, owes its beginnings to Colonel William Butterworth, formerly of the Madras Army, who became Governor of the Straits Settlements in 1843. Butterworth had become friends with Rama IV before the king had ascended the throne, and in those days before the Bowring Treaty and the appointment of a British consul, much of the dealings between Siam and Britain were done through Singapore. In 1851, Butterworth wrote to the king, pointing out that there was no burial ground for Christians of the Protestant faith who died in Bangkok. The king himself had been aware of this, and he readily acceded to Butterworth’s request that land be provided. A man named Nai Muang had owned a site by the river, and had absconded when he got into debt. The land had passed into the hands of one of his creditors who, although the record isn’t clear, appears to have been related to the Scottish merchant Robert Hunter. The Western community felt the site would serve their needs perfectly. Measured out by the traditional Siamese units, it was 5 sen and 8 wah long, and with a width of 1 sen 1 wah and 2 sok. A wah, which is still used today, is the fingertip-to-fingertip measurement of a man’s outstretched arms. A sen is equal to 20 wah, while a sok is an elbow length. Converted into metric, the land is 216 x 43 metres (708 x 141 ft). The price was 10 chang, or 800 baht, and the king paid for the land out of the royal coffers. The burial ground was presented to the foreign community on 30th July 1853.
Passing through the iron door, the traffic noise dimmed by the high wall, the visitor is in a peaceful spot that could easily pass for an English churchyard. Administered by the Protestant Cemetery Committee, with the burial register kept at Christ Church on Convent Road, the cemetery is maintained entirely by voluntary contributions. A stroll amongst the graves here will reveal the resting place of many of the earliest foreign settlers. The grave of Dr Daniel Beach Bradley, with its tall obelisk and forbidding black lettering, evokes an image of the man himself, who died in 1873 at the age of 69. Next to him lie his two wives, Emelie and Sarah. This part of the cemetery is in fact given over to the American missionaries: the Reverend Samuel Jones Smith, John Taylor Jones, John Carrington, William Greenstock, the Reverend Cyrus Chilcott, Alanson Reed; names familiar to us from
Bradley’s own writings. George Bradley McFarland, compiler of the Thai-English dictionary that is still a standard work today. Jennie Neilson Hays, whose grieving husband built the Neilson Hays Library on Surawong Road in her memory. Hamilton King, American ambassador, who died in 1912 and has an old-established restaurant in the Dusit Thani Hotel named after him. There is an impressive tomb for Admiral Sir John Bush, who died in 1905 at the age of 86, the monument erected by Rama V himself. Nearby lies Bush’s son George, buried beneath a large monument with a skull and crossbones relief, also erected by the king. His Majesty was particularly benevolent in commemorating those of his foreign servants he felt had given a long and devoted service. Henry Alabaster, who died in 1884, a diplomat who had helped in the surveying and construction of Charoen Krung Road and who had become a trusted advisor to the king, has the largest and most imposing memorial of them all.
On one of my recent visits as I stood contemplating the monument erected “In Memory of the Deceased Members of Club Concordia”, a woman emerged from the small chapel on the riverbank. Reassuring me that her dog wouldn’t bite me, she apologised for the length of the grass. She was in charge of routine maintenance, and having watched me taking notes had probably assumed I was an official. Nam tuam tuk wan, she explained. The ground was flooded every day now because we were in the rainy season, and the grass could not be cut. I assured her I was just looking round, and she retreated behind her chapel to await the dry season. The ground was indeed waterlogged. Anyone venturing of the path would in all possibility sink down to prematurely join the sleepers under the long grass. Doubtless, however, those laid to rest under these white stones have long since dissolved into the marshy water, their remains sucked into the river and born downstream, over the bar and into the ocean.
Not far below the cemetery, Charoen Krung ends at Thanon Tok; the point where, as the Thais, totally unused to the concept of roads, pointed out that had the road continued, it would have fallen into the water. Although this was largely a residential district, there was still plenty of commerce here. Thai Tobacco, its factory backing directly on to the cemetery but now empty and its fate uncertain, was originally built to process tobacco leaf sent down by river from the plantations around Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. There used to be sawmills and woodyards down here, and there is an old-established fireworks factory still in existence. A Chinese undertaker has his business on a corner site, the opulent walnut-wood coffins with their distinctive lotus-bloom shapes stacked up at the frontage (I wouldn’t be seen dead in one of those) and the surrounding buildings decorated with feng shui mirrors to reflect the bad luck back at him. There are several small Muslim communities, marked by the green domes of their mosques, and there is a large hospital.
The trams had rattled down this road all the way from the City Pillar to Thanon Tok, the oldest and longest of all the Bangkok tram routes. The line had started out as a venture by the indefatigable Captain Loftus, who in 1887, along with Danish naval officer Andreas du Plessis de Richelieu, gained a royal concession to run horse-drawn trams along this route. The concession was later transferred to a Danish company that electrified the line in 1894, the first electric tramway in Asia and predating Copenhagen’s own electric trams by about ten years. The line was closed in 1963. A lone yellow tram now sits in front of the offices of the Metropolitan Electricity Authority’s Yannawa branch, close to where the trams performed a U-turn. A restaurant named The View now occupies the site where the offices of the Siam Weekly Advertiser stood and next to this are the two floating docks of Wangchao Shipyard. At the point where the river bends sharply there is the Krung Thep Bridge, a steel truss structure that opened in 1959 and is modelled after the Memorial Bridge. This too is a bascule bridge, still in working order, the leaves operated by electric motors.
World History
