the province was taken. Taksin ordered the building of another hundred warships for future battles.
A sailor image marks the jetty for those visiting the Bangkok Naval Hospital.
During the reigns of Rama II and Rama III, with China trade fuel-ling Siam’s growth, junks were the most widely built vessels in Siam. The reign of Rama IV saw the new era of steamships, and the beginning of Western trade. The first steamship was built in Bangkok in 1865, 22.8 metres (75 ft) long and 9.14 metres (30 ft) wide, with a 15 horsepower engine. Warships in the reign of Rama IV also started using steam propulsion, first with side paddle wheels then with rear propellers. Eventually, the hulls were also changed from wood to iron. As the nineteenth century progressed, and the volume of Western shipping increased, shipbuilding and repair was undertaken on both sides of the river. During this period the Siamese military forces were regrouped along British lines. Before, there had been no navy. The fighting forces were regarded as soldiers, whether they went by land or water. Now, under Rama V, the Royal Navy was formed. (Language clings stubbornly to the old ways: the Thai word for soldier is taharn, and for sailor is taharn rua, or “boat soldier”. (A member of the Royal Thai Air Force is a taharn agaht, or “air soldier”.) Early in 1890, Rama V officially designated the land directly to the south of Wat Rakhang as the Thonburi Naval Dockyard, and a decade later Taksin’s palace was brought into the Navy complex, being designated in 1906 as the Royal Thai Navy Academy. After World War II it became apparent that Thonburi was no longer large enough to build and maintain modern fighting ships, and other Navy bases were opened at Samut Prakharn and Sattahip, near to Pattaya. This part of Thonburi, however, remains dotted with Navy buildings, including the Department of Naval Engineering, the Bangkok Naval Hospital, and the Royal Thai Navy Crematorium, which is attached to Wat Khrua Wan, a temple noted for having the most complete and best preserved set of Jataka paintings in Thailand.
When Rama I moved the capital across the river and Wang Derm ceased to be a royal palace, the two temples that had previously been encompassed in the compound by King Taksin were released to become public temples once more.
Wat Molilokkayaram stands at the mouth of Taksin’s moat, tucked in beside Wichaiprasit Fort, but to casual visitors it is almost invisible and indeed takes some effort to actually find. Approaching by road over the bridge across Klong Bangkok Yai, the temple is visible fleetingly as a huddle of red roofs, and a U-turn is required to enter the tiny lane that takes its name from the temple and which will lead the visitor over the moat and into the compound, which is surprisingly large, covering five acres of land. When Taksin established his court, this temple was already here. It was known as Wat Tai Talat, which means “the temple behind the market”, so there must have been a market here right against the walls of the fort. Taksin incorporated the temple into his palace boundary. Under Siamese tradition no monks are allowed to reside in a temple in a royal compound between dusk and dawn, the religious activities being reserved for the monarchy, but when Rama I moved the capital across the river he allowed monks to take up residence. The oldest building in the compound is the wiharn, which, oddly, Taksin used for storing salt, and the building is still known as Phra Wiharn Chag Klua. The wiharn is a mix of Thai and Chinese styles, with ceramic roof tiles, and gable spires and ridges decorated with stucco. Rama I built the ubosot, which has very fine Siamese painting on the interior walls and the ceiling, and beautifully carved and lacquered door and window frames. A library was later added, an unusual construction with masonry on the first level, a wooden structure at the second, and a chedi at each end. There are deep alcoves around the base housing statues in military uniforms, although they have badly deteriorated. The building is now living quarters for the monks.
The temple, which was upgraded to second tier royal status in the reign of Rama VI, has been a significant one for the Chakri dynasty. Rama II, III, IV and V all made additions and renovations, and Rama VI elevated it to the royal second tier. Most of the sons of Rama II, including the future kings Rama III and IV and Second King Pinklao, had their elementary study here. Wat Molilokkayaram has evolved over the years to become a study centre for the Pali language and in 1991 was appointed as the monastic educational institute providing Dharma education. Temples from elsewhere in Bangkok and other parts of Thailand send students here, where there are twenty teachers and up to two hundred monks and novices studying each year.
Wat Arun, of course, needs little introduction. It is one of Thailand’s best-known symbols, and its Khmer-style prang decorates the logo of the Tourism Authority of Thailand. To most visitors it is just a dramatic spire, and those who puff their way to the upper terrace are certainly rewarded with a gorgeous view of the river and the city beyond, but the temple is a complex place with deep symbolic meanings and a beauty that continues to reveal itself, no matter how often one visits. No one knows when Wat Arun was founded, but it dates back to the Ayutthaya era, when it was known as Wat Makok, denoting that this area was used for growing the type of plum that the Thais call makok, and lending weight to the theory that Bangkok, or Bang Kok, or Bang Makok, gained its name from the surrounding plum orchards. The temple appears to have had little significance until General Taksin, on his way back to Ayutthaya with his fleet intent on driving out the Burmese, arrived here as dawn was breaking. When he became king and established Thonburi as the capital, he had the temple incorporated within his royal compound, renovated it, and gave the name Wat Chaeng, which means “Temple of the Dawn”. In 1779 the Emerald Buddha was brought back from Vientiane by General Chakri and enshrined here for five years until being transferred by Rama I across the river to the purpose-built Wat Phra Kaeo. The mystique and holiness of the Emerald Buddha was conferred upon Wat Chaeng, which has continued throughout the Chakri dynasty. Wat Chaeng was the crown temple of Rama II, who renamed it Wat Arun, after the Hindu god of the dawn, and whose ashes are buried under a Buddha statue in the ordination hall, the face of the image believed to have been moulded in the king’s likeness.
The temple appears to have had a very modest-sized prang during its early days, thought to be less than two metres high, and construction of its present structure began only in the time of Rama II, who passed away when it was still in the foundation stage. Rama III completed construction, and although there is some dispute as to how high the prang actually is, the generally accepted figure is 67 metres (219 ft), with a circumference around the base of 234 metres (767 ft). Whatever the height, it is the highest prang in Thailand. A prang symbolises Mount Meru, the mountain that stands in the middle of Hindu-Buddhist cosmology, and in the case of Wat Arun it rises from the fabulous region of Himavant, which is covered in forests and lakes and is the home of sages, imps, demons and dragons, represented here by carved and moulded figures against a background of porcelain flowers and leaves. The main prang is called the phra prang, and there are four smaller prangs at the base, known as prang thit, symbolising the four continents and housing statues of the gods within alcoves. The phra prang has four terraces, and four mondops, or pavilions bearing images, are located on the second terrace.
There are sixteen structures of importance within this large site, which covers thirteen acres, and many of them have been built or changed during successive reigns. The wiharn was built in the reign of Rama I, and rebuilt in the reigns of both Rama II and III. Inside the wiharn is the principal Buddha image, brought from Vientiane in 1858 and named Phra Arun. The ubosot dates from the time of Rama II and is distinctive with its yellow and green tiled roofs, with the eight metal statues of elephants near the entrance having been cast in 1846. Seated inside the peripheral gallery are 120 Buddha images, and there are 144 stone lions, 112 soldiers, and 16 noble-men, all Chinese in style. The eight boundary markers, the sema, are housed in marble porches and intricately carved. There are six riverside pavilions, all Chinese in style, built from green sandstone and dating from the reign of Rama III, and the mondop housing the Buddha footprint also dates from this period and was designed with a Chinese-style roof.
Those in search of history rather than symbolism should visit the old ubosot, which dates back to the earliest days of the temple and is located in front of the prang. The Siam Chronicles record that King Taksin lived in this ordination hall for a brief period before his execution, and his bedstead, a modest teak
