Thread: Memory Lane (In my own language)

In the early Rattanakosin period, the kings did not allow farang who came here on ‘whatever’ missions to set up their residences in the center of Bangkok.

They were allowed to go down south along the Chao Praya River where a large and rich ancient civilization was originally there.

It was the Mon community of which the girls were so beautiful that those farang were attracted to them, married them and finally settled down there.

There came a time when a German with a camera came to visit this community. He took a lot of photos including this one shown below.




He was surely told of the name of this Wat but it was certainly hard for him to adjust his tongue according to the genuine pronunciation. So, he just recorded the name in simple German. Later, that set of photos went worldwide.

Later on, this photo was brought back to Thailand. Tons of historians joined their heads together and tried to figure out the actual name of the Wat and where it exactly was but they all failed.

Time went by until one day (don’t know when), a local happened to see this photo and could tell simply that this Wat is named ‘Paichayon Polasep’ which is located in Pra Padang District, Samut Prakarn Province.

According to the tome, Wat has been mentioned (though back then its name was a simple one) since the reign of King Rama I (1782-1809).