Thread: Memory Lane (In my own language)

In 1936, the Siam government at that time gave order to the Department of Corrections to explore an area to establish a vocational training settlement for the inmates of serious crimes.

Tarutao Island in the province of Satune down south of Thailand was chosen.

As a large island far away from the shore and in the middle of the deep sea with strong waves and strong winds, also surrounded by abundant of sharks, moreover, along the canals within the island being full of crocodiles (or alligators??), these created a natural prison wall which was very protective of prisoners who tried to escape.

Firstly, the Department of Corrections set up a survey group comprising of chief authorities and some well-behaved inmates as pioneers to construct buildings such as a warden’s bungalow, prisoners’ bungalows, a vocational training school and etc. in the areas called Talo Wao Bay and Talo Udang Bay.




When everything was ready, the first 500 prisoners of serious crimes were sent there in 1938 and more were continued to be sent in at a later time.

After the policy of establishing a vocational training settlement for the inmates became successful. It appeared that though being convicted of serious crimes, these inmates could learn how to socialize in harmony. Tarutao Prison expanded its plan to accept political prisoners.




In 1939, the government sent 70 political prisoners to Tarutao Prison and being kept detained at Talo Udang Bay.

These political prisoners were people involved in political conflicts such as rebellions. Most of them were politicians, royalty, high ranking nobles from various positions or people with higher education and some were even from foreign countries. Different from the first group, these people were treated with less strictness and did not have to work as hard as the former group.




Their confinement’s area was around 16,000 sq. meters surrounded by red flagged poles marking its territory, so as not to mingle with other kinds of prisoners.

Record tells roughly about the punishment by ordering them to work hard and increasing gradually. Reducing food was also applied including exposing them in the sun all day for 10-15 days and etc. Any prisoners who took risk of escaping if being caught, their resistance will be shot and killed.

However, it is not specific whether these punishments were applied to both or only inmates with serious crimes.




The most serious type of punishment recorded was tying the prisoner (don’t know which part; might be an ankle) to a heavy chain. The other side of the chain fixed in the ground with a large metal peg. The prisoner’s shoulders were attached to a heavy log.

While the chain was long enough to give the prisoner a space to stretch but when he moved, he had to carry along that heavy log attached on his shoulders.

Later on, that big log was changed to a cement block because it was likely that the prisoners would scrape off the wood to reduce the weight of their logs.

Anyway, freedom has always been sweet for people who crave for it for not long, a group of political prisoners, one later becoming the Minister of Education of the Government of Field Marshal Poh in 1947, along with four other nobles managed to be able to escape from Tarutao Prison on October 16, 1939 by bribing the guards, hiring a villager’s boat and fled to the shore.

It was revealed later that this mission was well schemed and cost 5,000 baht which at that time was considered extremely high.

Everyone carried only a pocket knife and vowed to die if being caught. After hiding within a net on a fishing boat all the way to Malaysia's Lungkawi Island which at that time was a British colony, they declared for defection and asked for a political asylum there.

After the incident for just four years, on April 21, 1943, the rest of the political prisoners were removed to a new detention at Koh Tao, Surat Thani Province instead. Thus, ended of the story of the political prisoners at Tarutao Prison.

But the reputation of this prison had not yet been lost because the rest of the prisoners who were now those of serious crimes, together they turned themselves into savage pirates.

Starting from the minority, then the group became larger even some officers joined the gang.

The reason was at that time, it was the time of WWII which affected the life of the people (everyone) there directly because being so far away from the mainland, Tarutao Island was completely cut off from the outside world.

Famine, lack of medication supply, diseases spread around especially malaria resulting in the deaths of more than 700 prisoners. People had nothing to eat so they decided to join head to plunder any passing ships. It was so frightening that no one, if not necessary, dared cruising through this area.




The behavior of the Pirates of Tarutao was frightening and ferocious. After plundering, they killed and threw the victims’ bodies into the sea then they made holes in the ships to sink them down.

The spirit of the Pirates of Tarutao had increased as time and success went by until one day, they plundered a ship on her mission to the British government at Malay Peninsula.

The British in Malay sent an official letter to the Thai Authorities requesting for permission to send troops to Tarutao Island.

The Pirates of Tarutao were completely defeated on March 21, 1946.

In 1948, Thai Authority officially announced the cancellation of the Tarutao Vocational Training settlement ending the Tarutao nightmares for good.

Now Tarutao Island is a national park. Everyone, both Thai and foreigners, considered it a paradise for tourists. They come to savor the beauty of the world-class nature.

But if the Island could talk, what tale would it tell?

A documentary (photos not included) titled American Missionaries

The first group of Christians to visit Siam was Catholic missionaries from Portugal who arrived in the capital city of Ayutthaya in the old Kingdom of Ayutthaya. Protestant Dutch traders followed them in 1598, then the British began pursuing business deals in 1612.

The Catholics were once again on track when King Louis XIII of France sent missionaries to the court of King Narai, the Great (1632-1688) in 1662.




They met with no success proselytizing monarch and his courtiers but were allowed by King Narai to establish two churches and a religious school, the first school for commoners in Siam, to spread Christianity. Most of the 700 students were boys from the families of Chinese immigrants.

By the time of Ayutthaya’s collapse, there were estimated 5,000 Christians in Siam. Most were Chinese and Portuguese.

In the Rattanakosin period that followed, the Protestant missionary movement found a foothold in Bangkok in 1828 under Karl Gutzlaff, a Prussian Lutheran. He was succeeded in turn by John Taylor Jones, the first American Baptist missionary on these shores. He settled in Bangkok in 1833.




The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions began sending their emissaries in 1834, and the next year brought Dr. Dan Beach Bradley, the most famous of them all in Siam/Thailand's history.




Bradley was the first foreign physician to settle in Bangkok, and he was keen on both the medical sciences and engineering. The first surgical operation in Siam, and the first newspaper, were his initiatives (His story can be read on page 25/610 & 611).

The Protestant missionaries from America arrived in Bangkok with a strong will to create a better world, and that meant that besides teaching people to be good Christians, they wanted to spread knowledge.

The Catholic proselytizers in Siam, led by Jean Baptiste Pallegoix, were busy teaching their faith to some 4,000 souls in the city and 3,000 elsewhere in the country, according to the French preacher’s chronicles. Pallegoix was King Rama IV’s English and Latin tutor and a talented inventor, photographer and linguist. Nevertheless, he had little influence as a purveyor of the “new knowledge”.





(His funeral at the Conception Church in Sam-sen area)

But Dr. Bradley and his fellow American Baptists were meanwhile shaking Siam with the new revelations of science and technology. Their role reached its peak while King Rama IV was on the throne. During the first five years of his reign, they performed many tasks for the court and even made proposals to the monarch about state bureaucracy. Female missionaries including the wives of Dr. Bradley and his colleague Dr. House were invited to teach English to the ladies of the royal court.

Their considerable influence gradually faded, however, after the King began listening more to hired foreign counselors, whose realms of interest lay beyond “mere” religion.

Chao Praya (noble title granted by the king) Ma-hin-ta-ra-sak-di-tam-rong (name given by the king.... feel free to forget it!) was born with the original name as Peng Penkul in 1819. His father was an official working for King Rama III. He was a Siamese government official from 1851 to 1894.




When he was twelve years old, his father put him in service with Prince Mongkut when the Prince was ordained as a monk.

The monk Prince was very kind to Peng. He treated him as his own child. After the monk Prince ascended the throne, becoming King Mongkut (King Rama IV in 1851), Peng followed him and became a royal official.

In 1857, Peng was assigned by the King to go to England as a group of Siamese ambassadors and royal visitors of Queen Victoria.




At that moment, he had not yet been appointed with the title Chao Praya. He was still known as a chamberlain of King Rama IV.

While being in England with a group of other ambassadors, the chamberlain had an opportunity to see several theater performances, might it be the operas, the pantomimes and etc., in London and in other cities.

The man spent almost three months in England as a royal visitor. He acquired new knowledge and experience, not only of newer theatrical performance styles and techniques, but also of industrial and manufacturing practices.

The Birmingham Daily Post reported the visit of the Siamese ambassadors:

‘They observed the manufacturing of brass and metal. They were curious and delighted to experiment with and learn about new things, and they were convinced that it would benefit Siam’s development’

In 1858, the ambassadors and their group returned to Siam and Peng was promoted to the status of “Praya” by King Rama IV, and then, finally during King Rama V’s reign, he was granted the highest rank for commoner as “Chao Praya” with name given as “Mahintharasakdithamrong” or for short, Chao Praya Mahin.

Chao Praya Mahin had great artistic talent; he was a producer with his own dance troupe, a writer, and a theatrical director.

In the past, Siamese nobility believed that having a dance troupe was guarantee of high honor and superior status. Therefore, it was a popular trend among the nobility to have their own private dance troupes, taking pride in the skills of their ‘prima-donnas’. Dancers and musicians were usually domestic servants.

Before Chao Praya Mahin went to Europe, he too had his own private dance troupe. Sometimes his dance troupe was asked by the King to perform at court on special royal occasions.

After Chao Praya Mahin returned from Europe in 1858, he was inspired to create a public theater, which had never existed in Bangkok before.

He established a public theater at his home and named it The Siamese Theater. However, the exact date and year of The Siamese Theater's establishment cannot be ascertained but later, in 1882, the name of the theater was changed to the Prince’s Theater.

This was the first commercial theater in Bangkok. The Prince’s Theater was named after Chao Praya Mahin’s grandson whose mother was one of King Rama V’s Royal Concubines. Thus the grandson was a prince.

Before the twentieth century, public theaters were not fashionable among Siamese. The custom of going to a public theater and buying a ticket in order to watch a performance deviated from the Thai tradition whereby Siamese people could watch a performance for free on special occasions and at a gambling hall.

Initially the Prince’s Theater was not a public theater. Chao Praya Mahin wished to use this theater for creating and rehearsing new pieces and had his dance troupe perform for his personal entertainment and for special guests.




Chao Praya Mahin created a new performance style, different from that of other dance troupes. He made his troupe perform foreign stories and Thai traditional plays. He also employed dancers skilled in other performance styles, such as Chinese opera, to teach his own dancers and to perform in a mixed dance-drama style.

People who had watched Chao Praya Mahin’s performances at his theater were very impressed and asked him to arrange another performance for which they were happy to pay an admission fee.

Chao Praya Mahin eventually decided to open his theater as a public theater and to charge an admission fee, imitating the Western custom, which he had witnessed in Europe.

The Siamese Theater which later had its name changed to the Prince’s Theater was located in the commercial area called Ta Tien, which was a prominent riverside market and a port of trade on the east bank of the Chao Praya River in Bangkok. Audiences could reach the theater by boat and by road.




The interior of the Siamese Theater was decorated simply, but it was functional. There was no elevated stage. The performance area was marked out on the floor by mats. The audience sat on the floor close to the performers.

At the back of the stage a small seat or small platform was raised for the dancers who performed the queen’s and king’s roles.

The two exit doors for performers to enter and leave the stage were drawn in the form of the Western pillars. The backdrop was built in the form of a Thai palace wall and small lanterns were hung on the ceiling




On the other hand, the interior of the Prince’s Theater was more richly decorated and more modern than that of the Siamese Theater’s. Electric lighting was used on the stage and in the theatre. A large chandelier and small electric lanterns were hung on the ceiling.

The upper parts of the stage doors were decorated with a Thai gable. Small clocks were placed on the upper part of doors. On the upper backdrop scene, written in Thai, was a sentence that roughly means ‘To present the spectacle of performances’.




Coats of arms were placed on poles, and in addition, seats for the audience were arranged in the theater and ticket prices differentiated among seats' position. The ticket system not only changed the old tradition of watching theater performance among Thai people, but also marked a class distinction as described in one the newspaper printed in English (Samuel Jones Smith; The Bangkok Recorder)

‘This entertainment (performances at the Prince’s Theater) is a performance for ladies and gentlemen. The seats are an exclusive space and uncrowded with lower class people, who wear dirty clothes or are naked from the waist up. Poo Dee (high-class people) dislike seeing lakhon bon (dance-drama at a gambling hall … 1) and lakhon nguan pleak (a temporary performance arranged for special occasions … 2) which admission fees are not required. They do not want to mingle with poor people. So they prefer paying for a performance at the Prince’s Theater.’

(Note:

1 - Lakhon bon was arranged after the person bribes a deity to help him with something and it was finally accomplished; ‘bon = bribe’.

2 - I think the term ‘nguan pleak’ he mentioned above actually means ‘klang plang’ which could be implied as 'open air or public’)




The Prince’s Theater offered a wide variety of performances in both dance-drama and non-narrative dance.

From the ‘Memoirs of King Rama V’s daily activities’ saying that in 1880, Chao Praya Mahin’s dance troupe was asked to perform for the King on a royal occasion. After the five-day event, King Rama V gave a reward to Chao Praya Mahin.




In addition, Henry Norman, a British journalist, describes his experience when he went to a Siamese theater, saying that Siamese people spent the whole night from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. watching the ‘same play, rather a portion of a play’.

The actors were mostly young girls, aged between seventeen to eighteen years, who had been practicing Thai dance-drama from an early age. The costumes and dresses were to Norman’s eyes very ‘exotic’ and beautiful, and differed from those of other dance troupes in Bangkok.

The performances at the Prince’s Theater became an attractive form of entertainment for both foreign and Thai audiences, who were bored with the old classical style.

The Prince’s Theater offered a performance one week a month during the time of full moon and later on, Chao Praya Mahin extended the period of the performance to two weeks a month.

Then, the Prince’s Theater regularly housed performances during the time of the waxing moon and was closed during the waning moon period.

This arrangement was for the convenience of the audience so that they could go to the theater and easily return home late at night after the performance had finished.

The ending of Chao Praya Mahin drama troupe came when he died in 1894. His dance troupe and the theater were taken over by his son (related articles on page 30/742 and 34/842).

During the change of hands, many of the theatrical artists of Chao Praya Mahin drama troupe moved to be dance teachers in other drama troupes.

Hence, Chao Praya Mahin’s theatrical performance has been continuously inherited and developed into valuable performance of the Fine Arts Department until present day.

The Bangkok Protestant Cemetery is located on the banks of the Chao Praya River just south of the Menam Riverside Hotel, and 1.75 km south of the Saphan Taksin BTS station along Charoen Krung Road. It is very close to the Asiatique night market.

In the beginning, when a Protestant farang passed away, it was quite difficult to hold the funeral because there was no special burial ground provided like the Catholic farang’s (such as at Santa Cruz Church by the same river not far from the Memorial Bridge, and Conception Church in Samsen).

So, once a Protestant died, his/her family had to ask a favor from some acquainted Chinese to perform the funeral on their land which was very uncomfortable.

After Lord Butterworth, the governor of Singapore and Penang, who was familiar with King Rama IV submitted a letter requesting him to grant them a land, the King was willing to support.

On 29^th July 1853, the King used the money valued 10 chung (= 800 baht at that time) to purchase a land and give as a gift for the Protestant farang. That caused them so grateful for the King’s grace.


(Old view of the Protestant cemetery in Bangkok, Thailand. By Catenacci, publ. on le Tour du Monde, Paris, 1863)


Up to date, the cemetery has over 1800 interments (around 1100 names are legible on extant gravestones), and it is still accepting burials on a limited basis. The burial register is kept by Christ Church Bangkok on 11 Convent Road.








Inside this cemetery buried the lifeless bodies of many Protestant farang from the old days who were merchants, missionaries and more. A lot of them came to serve Siam wholeheartedly and faithfully such as:

Dan Beach Bradley; the renowned medical doctor and missionary (story on page 25/610 & 611)




William Henry Adelbert Feilding; general of the Coldstream Guards

Sir John Bush; Admiral - Harbour Master (related story on page 25/617)




Henry Alabaster; advisor to King Rama V and the origin of the surname ‘Sawet Sila”.






John Fennell Belbin, Captain of the SS Bangkok, who died at his post at the age of 34

Albert Jucker, Consul of Italy

Sungkas Thongborisute M.D. FACS; founder of the Paolo Memorial Hospital

Friedrich Schaefer, M.D., founder of and surgeon at King Rama V Memorial Hospital, who died from an infection acquired when operating 1914-05-15.

Hamilton King, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the U.S.A.




Moreover, there are also a number of Jewish graves here, since before 1997 there was no other place in the city for the small Jewish community to bury their dead. This changed with the opening of the Jewish Cemetery, in a separate property and different entrance adjacent to this cemetery.

Grand Palace’s private section was exclusively for female and very young royalty. These photos were taken, apparently by one of the female royalty, in the reign of King Rama V.

Because it was private, all of them, including His Supreme Queen Consort, can be seen in casual styles (ta sa-bye, sa-bye).

King Rama VII vs Hitler




Queen Rumpaipannee (King Rama VII's) 'tum num prig'

Henry Alabaster (1836 –1884) was a British-born diplomat.




After graduated from King’s College, London, Alabaster came to Siam in 1856 as an interpreter in British service, during the reign of King Rama IV. He later became the acting consul, during which time he worked closely with the King.

His standout works included the construction of the first modern road in Siam/Thailand named Charoen Krung Road (New Road) in 1861, the 8.5 km. road that linked Grand Palace to the foreign embassies and residences by the Chao Praya River.

Sometime after 1868, Alabaster resigned from the consular service after a dispute with the Consul, Thomas George Knox, and returned to Britain, where he completed his 1871 book titled The Wheel of the Law, a study of Buddhism inspired by his visit to Wat Phanan Choeng, Ayutthaya Province, in 1868 on the way to the Phra Phuttha Bat (Footprint of the Buddha) in Sara Buri Province.



Read the text here:
https://archive.org/details/wheellawbuddhis00ibgoog/mode/2up


Alabaster returned to Siam in 1873 to serve as a private secretary to King Rama V. He oversaw many modernization efforts at this time, many of Siam/Thailand’s firsts.

These included the designing and directing the garden at Saranrom Palace (located opposite the Grand Palace, on Sanam Chai, Charoen Krung and Rachini Roads in Pra Borom Maha Ratchawang Subdistrict) as a place for the public to relax and study plants and animals.


(Shot in 1954)


He helped to start the Survey Office in 1875, trained the first Thai surveyors and plotted together the route for a land telegraph cable from Bangkok to Battambang and mapped the Gulf of Thailand and administered the first Thai lighthouse.

Alabaster also started the first museum in Siam, at Concordia Pavilion inside the Grand Palace. He catalogued the royal library and instructed the Siamese how to classify books.




Moreover, he started the Post and Telegraph Office, trained the staff and arranged the first postal deliveries.

Alabaster died in 1884, at the age of 48, three days after suffering paralysis of his lower jaw. He remained in his position until his death. He was buried with the full honors in Bangkok Protestant Cemetery (story on article 969 of this page).

His monument there, erected by the order of King Rama V himself as him being the King’s favorite, is considered the finest in the cemetery.




A noble with high rank of Praya serving in the reigns of King Rama IV and V once described him as:

“Until the beginning of the reign of King Rama V, it appears that there is an English foreigner named Mr. Henry Alabaster who used to serve for England as vice consul in Siam then resigned and comes back to be an officer working for Siam royal court.

When I worked for the government in 1882, he used to be my mentor. I know him well and also his family. His sons also work with the Ministry of Interior.

Mr. Alabaster is a genuine British with medium height and little squinted eyes. He has very good knowledge. His skills are so various. The King always seeks for his advice for almost all of royal duties.

I’ve noticed that the King is very fond of and also respects Mr. Alabaster. I've seen that every time when the King’s royal parade passes by in front of his office, Mr. Alabaster is always there waiting to pay respect and the King always stops in order to greet and talk to him casually.

It is an honor which I have never seen the King give to anybody”

While well-regarded by the Siamese, Alabaster was disparaged by the British Foreign Office as "A good for nothing fellow who was dismissed," likely due to his efforts at keeping Siam from becoming a British colony.

Alabaster married Palacia Emma Fahey in 1865. They had four children.

He also married a Thai woman, Perm, during his second sojourn in Siam. They had two sons, both of whom, later, held the noble rank of Praya.

His descendants were given the Thai surname of Savetsila, meaning "white stone" (analogous to the meaning of the word "alabaster").

He was the paternal grandfather of Air Chief Marshal Siddhi Savetsila (locally pronounced as ‘Sit Sawate Sila’ – 3^rd generation) who was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1980 to 1990.