led by a soldier whose name is no longer known, but who may have been in charge of a small garrison here. Temple legend says that woodland on this bank provided cover for troops and that shallow water on the far bank drove boats close to the wooded shore, where if they were enemy boats they would be attacked. The settlement was known as Bung Ying Rua, which means, “to hide and shoot at boats”. The name was later corrupted to Bang Yi Rua, which means “Boat Village”, and as rural temples usually took their name from the locality, this was the early name of the temple.
During the Thonburi period, one of Taksin’s closest allies was a general named Phraya Pichai, who was also the governor of Uttaradit province, in the north of the country. Within this province is a village named Namphi, and nearby is mined an ore that goes into the making of a very tough steel traditionally used to forge swords for Siamese nobility. During one of the battles to drive the Burmese out of the country, Pichai confronted the enemy with a sword made from Namphi steel in his left hand and an ordinary sword in his right. The right-hand sword snapped during the fighting, but Pichai fought on two-handed with the Namphi sword and the broken blade. He won his battle, and entered into Thai history as Dap Hak, or “Broken Sword”, a heroic figure who is also revered as one of the great masters of Thai boxing. Pichai renovated and enlarged Wat Mon as a way of making merit for the men who had died during the battle.
Although Rama I made subsequent additions, Dap Hak’s chapel still remains, and carries his name. The artificial mountain near the temple wall dates from his time and is clad in seashells and rocks taken from the beach; there is a Buddha footprint on the top. Next to the temple gate is a small chapel containing an image of the Buddha lying flat on its back, symbolising the time immediately before cremation, the pose being known as Tawai Phra Ploeng. The image is about two-and-a-half metres long, almost filling the room, and is wrapped in a gold sheet, with an angel at the foot of the bier. Installed by Dap Hak, the image is the only one of its kind in Thailand. Pichai, 41 at his death, was cremated and his ashes interred here at Wat Mon, in the stupa. Devotees leave offerings at a small altar in front of a portrait, and next to the stupa is a topiary of Pichai in a fighting stance.
Longtail boats ply between communities alongside the Thonburi canals.
There were three temples at Bang Yi Rua that were so close they all bore the same name, being differentiated by the suffix Nai (inner), Klang (centre), and Nok (outer). While Phraya Pichai was renovating Wat Bang Yi Rua Nai, King Taksin found peace at Wat Bang Yi Rua Nok, where he would rest and meditate. He became fond of the temple and decided to adopt it as his own, carrying out extensive renovations and naming it as a royal temple. The temple became the most splendid of those along the canal bank, and an important place of worship for the noblemen and courtiers who were building homes alongside Klong Bangkok Yai. As befits Taksin’s Chinese ancestry, the architecture is a mix of Chinese and Thai. Inside the chapel, or wiharn, carved from a single piece of wood and flanked by four pillars and flower curtains, is the seat upon which the king would sit cross-legged in meditation. In front of the wiharn are two stupas, shaped like lotuses, and here is the final resting place of this great king. After Taksin’s death, his body was cremated and his ashes brought here and interred in the stupa on the right, the ashes of his queen being buried in the stupa on the left. Rama III bestowed the temple’s present name, Wat Intharam, when the temple was enlarged. The statue of the king upon his horse, sabre held high in his right hand, horse and king alike freckled with gold leaf, is a recent one, and a far more modest monument than the one at Wong Wian Yai. Sculpted life-size, it was commissioned soon after the end of World War II., when several miniature models were made by prospective sculptors and it was left to the public to decide which they liked best. Wat Intharam is today a place of pilgrimage for the Thais, especially those of Chinese descent, who in addition to coming here on the anniversary of Taksin’s coronation also pay homage at Chinese New Year. The third of the Bang Yi Rua temples, incidentally, still exists and is known as Wat Chantharam.
Wat Intharam’s compound backs directly onto the canal bank, where a frequent longtail boat service whisks visitors along Bangkok Yai and out to the Chao Phraya River. Next to the pier is a fine old two-storey wooden house whose front entrance uses a traditional Teochew method for securing the building against intruders. Erected inside the doorway are three or four wooden pillars. To get in or out, a person inside the house needs to remove a pillar. The pillars cannot be lifted from outside. As long as there is someone waiting at home, and as long as you don’t severely upset that person, it’s a pretty good system, as there is no key to be lost.
WALK 2
BANGKOK YAI
The Old Harbour
This quiet stretch of riverbank contains remnants of Thonburi’s original communities along with temples, shrines, mosques and churches, and even a pagoda that affords a magnificent view.
Duration: 3 hours
The reason why the Wong Wian Yai terminus of the Mahachai-Mae Klong railway is such a modest little affair is that it was never actually built as a terminus. It was originally the penultimate station, with the line tootling on towards the river and terminating at Klong San ferry pier. From here, the produce was loaded onto boats and floated straight over to the piers that served the commercial heart of the city, which in those days was Charoen Krung Road and Chinatown. The railway had been built and operated under a forty-year concession by the Tha Cheen Railway Company, headed by Celestino Xavier, one of the most influential members of the Portuguese community in Bangkok, who served at the Siamese ministry of foreign affairs and was awarded the title Phraya Phiphat Kosa. When the concession expired in the early 1940s, the line was bought by the government and eventually became part of the State Railway of Thailand. In 1961, the traffic around the Klong San-Wong Wian Yai area having become congested, military dictator Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat decided to axe the section of line that ran through the increasingly busy streets. He had wanted to cut the line a few stops down, at Wat Singh, but the residents and traders persuaded him that Wong Wian Yai would be more appropriate.
Today, crossing over Somdet Phra Chao Taksin Road from the Wong Wian Yai terminus, it can immediately be seen where the railway line used to run, for concrete slabs have simply been laid over the course of the track. On the corner of Charoen Rat Road, along which the line had passed, is one of Bangkok’s leading leather markets. Further along this road there are some attractive old houses, one of them being home to the Thonburi Full Gospel Church, a conspicuous pink landmark with a huge red cross on its frontage. Keep walking, following the ghost of the line, and Klong San Market comes into view. At first sight this looks like any other small urban market in Bangkok, but look a little closer and it becomes apparent the market has been laid out exactly on the site of the old Klong San station, and consequently has a long, linear footprint. Although there is a wet market off to the left, the main attraction is the garment market, which occupies the site of the line and the platforms, and is one of the best-known markets for young Thais to shop for inexpensive fashion. Klong San is, for compulsive non-shoppers (I think you know who I mean), a rather tedious market to negotiate, because much of the thoroughfare is a single alley: you go up and you come down the same way. At the end of the market, next to the steps that lead up to the river pier, there is a long, single-storey timber building that housed the ticket office.
Klong San is today an almost forgotten corner of Bangkok, important only to those who live here or the ferry passengers passing through. But in the days of Ayutthaya and subsequently the Thonburi kingdom, the entire bank of the river, starting from here, was the port where the ships moored to offload their produce onto smaller vessels or into warehouses, and for the captains to pay their taxes and tea money. This continued into the Rattanakosin era, with the old harbour busy with the produce of the rice mills and timber yards located along the Thonburi bank, and remnants can be found today. Turn northwards at Klong San Market, and an enormous marine mast can be seen towering above the rooftops.
