Thread: Memory Lane (In my own language)

Originally Posted by panama hat

Beautiful . . . imagine this by the sea, the breeze flowing through the rooms . . .

Indeed...

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Something light for a change...

How Siamese officially dressed in the historian's imagination:

Reign of King Paputtayodfa Chulalok (Rama I; 1782-1809)




Reign of King Paputtalerdla Napalai (Rama II; 1809-1824)




Reign of King Nungklao (Rama III; 1824-1851)




Reign of King Mongkut (Rama IV; 1851-1868)




Reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V; 1868-1910) - Starting the era of welcoming the western style




Reign of King Wachirawut (Rama VI; 1910-1925)




Reign of King Prachatipok (Rama VII; 1925-1935 (abdicated))




Reign of King Anantamahidol (Rama VIII; 1935-1946 (Reign under Regency until his death in 1946 / never crowned))




Reign of King Phumipol Adulyadej (Rama IX; 1946-2016)

A peek at the Royal Kitchen inside King Rama V’s Royal Palace (Dusit Palace).

I bet it looked different from the west, say in "Downton Abbey"!

(These ladies seen were not ordinary ladies. The head chef was the King’s Royal Consort. The rest, some were the King’s Royal Concubines, some were female royalties. The lowest class ones seen scattering here and there in the kitchen were from noble and/or rich families, say 'someone'. The food they made is now called as "Kub Kao Chow Wang". You might have heard that.)

Chalermla 56 (known commonly as ‘Hua Chang (= elephant’s head)) bridge, in the area later called ‘Ratcha Taywee’ (sited between Ratcha Taywee and Patumwan Intersection and close to Mckenna movie theater and Asia Hotel for example), was built in the reign of King Rama V to commemorate his 56^th year of age.

A tale from little birds

Historians speculate that ‘royal words’ has started to be used since the 8^th reign in the Ayuthaya Kingdom (circa 1448).

Most words were derived from Khmer language since around that time they always fought with Khmer people and brought them in, royalties and peasantry, as captives and learned how they communicated to each other.

At first there were not many ‘royal words’ and used within close circle. New ones were invented more and more through time...

In the beginning of the Chakri Dynasty who has ruled the Ratanakosin Kingdom, the first king named King Rama I or King Praputtayodfa Chulalok (1782-1809).




In brief because the little birds are not talking about him, the King’s original name was Nai (= Mr.) Tong Duang. He was a close friend to Nai Sin. Together in 1767, the buddies led his people defeating the Burmese who at that time was ruling Siam.

After the conquest, they made declaration of independence and built the new city since the old one, Ayuthaya city was damaged beyond restoration.

Nai Sin was chosen to become the king named King Taksin and his new city, Thonburi was established on the west bank of the Chao Praya River.


“We think you have already told this part”

“Yes, I know. It’s just a prelude. Can I continue?”

“Okay”


As said before, King Taksin had not started the line of his dynasty yet the throne was changed hands to Nai Tong Duang, his close friend who became King Rama I, the first ruler who established the Chakri Dynasty of the new kingdom, Ratanakosin Kingdom. He also built his new city on the east bank of the Chao Praya River and named it Bangkok.

King Rama I had a wife named Nak ...


"Finally..."


... The couple had lived together through thick and thin since the era of the old Kingdom, Ayuthaya.

Nak was born in 1737. Around 1760, She married the King who at that time was a brave soldier with high rank in Ratchaburi Province. The reason was to avoid being taken as a court lady to the last king of Ayuthaya Kingdom.

When King Taksin took the throne and declared the new kingdom as Thonburi Kingdom, Nai Tong Duang was granted a higher title as “Somdet Chao Praya” in 1776.

In 1779, Nai Tong Duang as Somdet Chao Praya went on his campaigns against Vientiane, Laos. There, he took a daughter of the ruler’s as his mistress.

The Princess daughter of the ruler of Vientiane named Kum Waen became Somdet Chao Praya’s favorite, much to the dismay of his ‘through thick and thin’ wife, Nak.

The dissension concerning ‘#1 vs #2’ which had started long back since the two ladies lived together under one roof became worse and worse until, one day, the thin line snapped when Nak beat Kum Waen with a wooden stick. With her head bleeding, Kum Waen ran and cried to Somdet Chao Praya for help.

Enraged with what happened, Somdet Chao Praya threatened to kill Nak with a sword but the tragedy was saved by the help of her son who was to become the future King Rama II.




While Nak was hiding inside a bolted room and her husband was trying to break it, her son sneaked her out of the house through a window and led her to King Taksin’s Palace and stayed there with one of the King’s Royal concubines who was her own daughter.

After the traumatic incident, Nak and Somdet Chao Praya had never come into reconciliation.

After Somdet Chao Praya had become King Rama I and established the new capital, Bangkok, on the opposite site of the Chao Praya River, the east, Nak set her feet into the Royal Palace only to visit her children and would leave before the Palace’s gate closed in the evening.

All of her life, Nak never used royal words to any royalties, not even to her husband, the King. It is not that she was not respectful but she deemed it unnecessary. She had never received any royal titles from her husband during his kingship not even being elevated to his “Queen”.


“Let us add something... Actually, in those ancient times, there were no official royal titles for the wives. Even the title “Queen” was not official but only known among the people.

Those fancy royal titles for wives plus important royalties including those who already passed have started in the reign of King Rama IV and became boomed in the reign of King Rama V.

Because before that it was the time of ‘establishing’ the country which was just liberated from Burma plus wars with neighbors were still on so, they did not have time to take care of those minor things.

Okay… You can go on”

“Thanks”


After her husband died and her son took the throne as King Rama II, Nak was asked to come back and stay at the Grand Palace with him but she refused. Until around the end of her son’s reign, she was softer and agreed to move back.

Queen Amarinta died in 1826 in the reign of her grandson, King Rama III. The first royal title given to her by her son, King Rama II, was the ‘Queen Mother’.

They said her character of being so determined and strong headed is considered the very first woman ever recorded in Thai history that started the “women lib”.

A (more) tale from little bird


“I think your readers might wonder what would happen to the King’s concubine from Vientiane, Kum Waen ...”


Kum Waen was a daughter of the ruler of a city which was later known as Konkan (now, Konkan Province in Thailand) which at that time was under the Kingdom of Vientiane.




In 1778, Somdet Chao Praya (not the name but the noble rank given to Nai Tong Duang or the future King Rama I of the Kingdom of Ratanakosin by King Taksin of the Kingdom of Thonburi) by the assignment of King Taksin went up to defeat the Kingdom of Vientiane.

Along with the Emerald Buddha statue and many more valuable things, he took its people as captives including Kum Waen.

Before they reached the capital city, Krung Thonburi, Somdet Chao Praya already had Kum Waen as his mistress.

After Somdet Chao Praya took the throne ruling the new Kingdom of Ratanakosin as King Rama I and with the estrangement between him and his wife, Nak, he had never elevated anyone as his 'Queen'. So, Kum Waen who was the King's favorite mistress unofficially acted as his queen.

Kum Waen was very religious thus considered a good person. She had a reputation of being very straightforward. She could talk straight to the King about any stuff that no one dared.

Instead of getting her harmful, the King favored her. That was because she was reasonable and diplomatic.

Anyone who had problems and feared to tell the King would come to seek consult about ‘how to’ with Kum Waen.

Because of her ‘good intention’, the King was optimistic of Kum Waen even sometimes she got yelled for doing none of her business.

One night, the King had bad dreams and talked frighteningly in his sleep. All the court chamberlains did not know what to do. Kum Waen stepped in and bit the King on his toe, hard enough to wake him up.

The King was surely angry, but after considering why she did it, instead, he rewarded her.

Kum Waen was also considered an effective caretaker. She took care of every internal affair. Having no children of her own, she volunteered raising other royalties’. Since she was a very strict person, the children fearfully named her (behind her back, of course) “Koon (= Mrs.) Suea (= tiger)”.

Kum Waen died at 40s in the reign of King Rama II. She was recorded as the first Royal Concubine in the history of the Chakri Dynasty.

During the 27-year reign of King Nungklao (King Rama III), trades between Siam and China became very prosperous. His royal merchants constantly set sail for China and did business which was profitably successful.




Old story (told by our good old little birds, of course) tells that the King kept his profits in red bags beside his bed, so his money became known widely as the 'Red Bag Money'. The King regarded the Red Bag Money as reserve capital to be spent once emergency came such as to buy land back if it was to fall to a foreign power.




After Siamese vessels reached China, the trades began. Goods like rice, spices and more were sold and in return, Chinese tea, silks, paintings and etc. were bought back to the Kingdom of Siam.

On the way back, in contrast to Siamese goods, the Chinese goods on board these vessels were too light to provide the desired stability so the Siamese traders usually bought the agalmatolite images which costed cheap and loaded in the bowels of the ships as ballasts. Those images were very heavy, thus, good to provide stability to the vessels.

After reaching Siam and all business was done, the ballasts were useless so they were donated to Wats to make decoration. Those ballasts, we call them "Ub-Chao".



(Complaining, today the website was so skittish. It kicked me out several times....)

Celestino Xavier (1863-1922) was a Portuguese descent from Macao who was born in Siam. After educated from England, he came back to Siam and worked as a diplomat in the reigns of King Rama V and VI.

As the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, he was chosen as a part of the Siamese delegation to the League of Nations General Assembly, 1920.

After WWI and the defeat of the German Empire, a radically new organization came into being via the Treaty of Versailles: the League of Nations. This was the world's first go at creating an international organization for maintaining peace of which one of its founding members was the Kingdom of Siam.




For all of his achievements, Celestino Xavier was granted a noble title as Praya.




Apart from working as a diplomat, he was also a skillful businessman. He owned a big rice mill in Bang Pakok area (in Thonburi Province, back then) and also ventured in land business.




After participating in making See Praya Road, he established his own business. He improved a vacant area between Silom Road and Satorn Road. When finished, he made a small road (known later as Convent Road) joining those two then developed the land around for sale.

All the clients of his were rich people i.e. noblemen, businessmen and etc. They were both Siamese and farung who bought these developed lands and built on them elegant houses.

One of Xavier’s children named Margaret Lin Xavier known colloquially as Dr. Lin, was a Thai physician. She was the first Thai woman to receive a degree in medicine (She was graduated from London School of medicine for women).

A highlight of her career occurred on 12 August 1932, when she delivered Mom Ratchawong Sirikit Kittiyakorn who would become Queen Sirikit, Queen Consort of King Rama IX and Queen Mother of King Rama X.


(Participating in an all-male play (‘lakorn nok’) titled ‘Sung Tong’, a part of the welcoming ceremony for King Rama V who came back from his first grand European trip in 1897. The trip that took him away from his homeland for 9 months. Celestino was cast a female leading role named “Rojana”. You can easily figure out where he is)

Corpse’s castle

The making of the corpse’s castle for the Buddhist people in Lanna Kingdom is said to begin at the end of the Mengrai Dynasty that ruled the Kingdom around during 1292-1558.




When someone is dead, they held the funeral ceremony in order to mourn the dead with the best. The funeral ceremony of Lanna people is different from other regions. That is the decoration of the corpse’s castle is full of fresh or dried flowers to look beautiful. This symbol means to honor the dead in order to send them to heavenly world. The funeral was categorized into:

For monks: The castle built on a mythical creature looking somewhat like a bird with the head of an elephant. The Lanna people call this creature Nok Hasadeeling.

After the ceremony, the castle is pulled to the cremation site through the streets with all the devotees in procession. Villagers and followers of the monks will come from all over to participate in the ceremony.

On the day of the cremation, a community of monks and novices will join with the populace for the procession to the crematorium, believing that by doing so they will make immense merit for their present and future lives.








For common people: A kind of wood called Mai Sob is used to build a house around the coffin of the deceased. On cremation day, villagers will carry the house along with the coffin to the cremation ground, and both are burned.

Parts of the festival held for the public opening of the, now unused, bascule bridge named the Memorial Bridge (or locally called as ‘Sapan (= bridge) Put’) that connects the provinces of Pra Nakhon and Thonburi.

The bridge was opened on 6 April 1932 by King Rama VII in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Chakri Dynasty and the foundation of Bangkok, shortly before the Siamese coup de tat of 24 June 1932.

It was considered the last bridge opened during the monarchy era.


















On 14 April 1945, as part of the bombing of Bangkok in WWII, the RAF Liberator bomber aircraft of Strategic Air Force, Eastern Air Command, bombed the Thai Government electric power plant in daylight. This very heavy raid had seriously disrupted the city's transport. The plant supplied the whole of the south side with light and power besides the tramway network and had an output of 19,000,000 units per year.

The RAF bombers were making a 2,200 mile round trip to Bangkok and going in to attack singly from several directions loosed eighty 1,000 lb. bombs in a dense concentration on the power house which was sited on the east bank of the Chao Praya River. A 5,000 ft. column of smoke was visible to the crews thirty miles away from the city.

Because the power plant was very close to significant spots such as Wat Leab, schools and more, they all were caught in the crossfire.






(Poh Chang Academy of Arts)


All including the Memorial Bridge even though the bridge was left opened for the duration of the war which was considered ‘not a target’.










(Below: The view of Sapan Put, heading to Pra Nakorn Province, in the 60s which looked like this every day as it was the only bridge around there)

Leisure styles of the Kings

Rama V's

Rama VI's








Rama VII's












Rama IX's

An interesting observation (pictures not included) made by Ernest Young, B.Sc., Head Master of the Lower School of John Lyon, Harrow, England published in 1908 (= the reign of King Rama V)

How Bangkok was called Venice of the east

Bangkok, the present capital of Siam, has been called "the Venice of the East," on account of its innumerable waterways. The whole place is threaded with canals of every possible size and description.

There are canals that are like great broad thoroughfares, where huge boats may be seen carrying to and fro rice, fruit, and other products of the fields and orchards; and tiny little water-lanes, where the broad fronds of the graceful coco-nut palm sweep down over the sluggish stream, where green parrots scream at you from amongst green branches, and ugly dark crocodiles lie asleep in the thick and sticky mud.




Along the sides of the "streets" there are long lines of floating houses in which the people live. Each house floats on a big raft, made of separate bundles of bamboo.




Thus, when the floating foundation begins to rot, the bundles can be replaced one by one without disturbing the people on the raft. The raft is loosely moored to big wooden stakes, which are driven deep in the bed of the river, so that the houses rise and fall with the tide.

In front of the house there is always a little platform or veranda, on which the people pass most of their time, and where, if they pretend to keep a shop, they display the goods which they wish to sell. It is on this platform that all the members of the family take their bath. They dip a bucket or can into the water, draw it up, and then pour the contents over their heads.

When the occupant of one of these floating dwellings wishes to move, he sends for no furniture van or cart; but he simply shifts his house, his furniture, and his family all at the same time.

If he be fairly well-to-do, he hires a steam-launch, and the little vessel goes puffing and screaming up or down the river or the canal, as the case may be, dragging behind it the miniature Noah's ark, while on the platform the little ones of the household are to be seen, bubbling over with merriment at the novelty of their experience.

If the owner of the house be too poor to hire a steam-launch, he calls to his aid a number of muscular friends and relatives, and then, with the aid of great shovel-shaped paddles, they coax the home away to its new locality.

Some of the people who live on the water do not inhabit floating houses, but boats, and in these they can travel about from time to time as fancy or business may direct.

Many people spend the whole of their lives on boats. They are born on a boat, reared on a boat, get their education neglected on a boat, go a-courting on a boat, get married on a boat, and never forsake the water till life is over and they set out on that long mysterious journey, from which no boat or carriage will ever bring them back.

There is not much room in a boat, but the inhabitants thereof seem perfectly contented with their lot; in fact, the Siamese seem to be always and everywhere perfectly happy and contented: they are one of the merriest and most cheerful people upon the face of the earth.




The water population is quite complete in itself, and does not depend upon those who dwell upon the land for any assistance whatever. The water population has its own market-place upon the broad bosom of the great river that sweeps through the center of the capital.

In the market the buyers and sellers are chiefly women, for the women are much cleverer and much more energetic than men. The market begins soon after midnight, and lasts till seven or eight in the morning.




During the dark hours of the night the boats are massed together in such a way that scarcely an inch of water can be seen.

They are laden with fish, eggs, rice, and fruit. Each boat has a little lamp at the prow, and in the soft yellow light that twinkles above the polished surface of the stream, you can catch glimpses of the black-haired, dark-skinned women busy with the vending of their merchandise, and all the time laughing and chattering with the glee of a carefree people. They are just like a party of merry children out on a big picnic.




As soon as the sun rises, off home they go, leaving a broad and empty expanse of river where formerly there was a dense crowd of little boats and busy women.

It very seldom happens that anyone falls overboard; and even if a person does fall into the water it matters but little, for there is no Siamese who cannot swim.

When the children are ever so tiny, their mothers fasten under their arms a big tin float. Then they throw the babies—for they are nothing more—into the warm waters of the canal or river, where they bob up and down like so many animated bits of brown cork upon the surface of the stream.

John Thomson (14 June 1837 – 29 September 1921) was a pioneering Scottish photographer, geographer, and traveler.

He was one of the first photographers to travel to the Far East, documenting the people, landscapes and artifacts of eastern cultures.

In 1865 Thomson sold his Singapore studio and moved to work in Bangkok, Siam. He started his work as a photographer by undertaking a series of photographs of King Rama IV and other senior members of the royal court and government including here and there in Bangkok.

In 1875, he published a book ‘The Strait of Malacca, Indo-China and China'. For a long section inside the book, he told about his adventure in Siam. Below shows a part of his work:










The photos show one of the most elegant Royal Barges named Anantanakkarat. It is a traditional styled boat with the bow carved in the form of 7 headed naga.

The first version of the boat was built in the reign of King Rama III (estimated 1840-1851, the one seen in these b&W photos).

The recent version was built in the reign of King Rama VI and having been renovated through time, it stays proudly until today.

Note: Since the boat is very long, around 43 meters, Thomson could not capture it in one frame. Later on those 2 photos were modified into one panorama as seen in photo #4.

If you notice, the boat was staying still so, that was a posture made for photo shooting.