Art and Culture

Physical Geographers have never placed the Chao Phraya River on the list of the world’s longest rivers like the Nile, or on the list of rivers with the highest volume flow like the Amazon. They have never included the Chao Phraya on the list of rivers with the most spectacular viewpoints like the Colorado River inside the Grand Canyon or idyllic, picture postcard like scenery like the Rhine in Germany.

However, at the top of the list of the most commercially valuable, agriculturally abundant and culturally important rivers is the Chao Phraya or, as it is sometimes referred to, the River of Kings. Historians have surmised that the Thais have always lived in river valleys. On their emigration Southwards from China into what is now the Chao Phaya River basin several millenniums ago the Thais found a perfect place to encamp and call it home. There were other ethnic groups living in the Chao Phraya River basin when the Thais appeared, but these groups were all either displaced or forced to move to the surrounding mountains by the growing numbers of more numerous Thais who continued to flood into the whole area. These minority tribes and their descendants are the hill tribes live that in the outer areas today. The Thais found themselves in the perfect place for growing paddy rice crops and vegetables plus tending orchards. It is also an important source of fishes and edible water plants. The grey coloured, fine silt like soil carried into the Gulf of Thailand is the world’s most ideal rice growing region, a title it has held for centuries. The Chao Phraya has made the whole country richly bountiful and prosperous.

The river’s head starts at Nakhon Sawan, at the Northern edge of the Central Plains. This is where the Nan and Ping Rivers meet to form it. It slowly meanders South for 265 kilometres before ending up in the Gulf of Thailand. It is interesting to note that the Nan and Ping are actually both longer, 555 and 590 kilometres respectively. The Chao Phraya watershed is the largest watershed in Thailand. It covers approximately 35% of the nation’s land. It drains an area of 157,924 square kilometres.

Some modern geographers believe the original Chao Phraya River was much longer than it is today. Th river is believed to have actually originated in the Tibetan Himalayans and flowed into the Gulf of Thailand. But tens of thousands of years ago it was “beheaded” by the Salween River in Burma, being much younger and faster flowing. Whatever the true geological origins of the river are, there is no question that the Chao Phraya River has played a primary role in the historical development of the Thai kingdoms located in the central river valley. For centuries until now, the river has served as the primary means of transportation and communication with the outside world. It made Ayutthaya and Bangkok prosperous cities.

For centuries, “farang” visitors have always wondered where the river’s original name came from, since Thais call all rivers “Menam” or “Mother of Water” that sowed a lot of confusion as in all western countries every river, stream, branch and waterway has its own name. It was King Mongkut (King Rama IV), who spoke English, offered the first credible explanation in 1850 when he was interviewed by Dr. Dan Beach Bradley for the Bangkok Courier newspaper. King Mongkut explained that Menam is a generic word like the word river is in English. The Thais attached the name of the largest town or village along it, so the name would have been “Menam Bangkok.”

Like all other rivers that flow from a low elevation headwaters with a heavy silt load, like the Mississippi, Niger and Yellow Rivers, the Chao Phraya moves slows and meanders forming sinuous loops along the way. To speed the time of transportation and shorten the distance the Thais cut canals between the loops. In 1538, a three kilometre long canal was dug at the order of King Chairachathirat called “Khlong Lat”. It shortened the route to Ayutthaya by 13-14km for ships from the Gulf of Siam. In 1542, another two kilometre canal was cut called “Khlong Lat Bangkok.” The Chao Phraya then diverted along the new canal. It’s old course became part of Khlong Bangkok Noi and Khlong Bangkok Yai. It shortened the river route by 14km.

The Chao Phraya River remains at the heart of the Thai civilisation.

I remember exactly when I heard the story when and how the solid Gold Buddha image was discovered at Wat Trimitr for first time. I was in the 5th grade. It was a beautiful spring day back in April 1962. And I was reading about how and when the priceless statute was found in a world geography textbook that had interesting vignettes from countries around the world, including Thailand.

The story went that an old temple in Bangkok was being moved to new quarters in the mid 1950s. Among the items to be moved was an old, large plaster or stucco-covered Buddha statue. It was late in the day when the workers hooked the statue up to a crane and tried to hoist it up onto a truck bed, but the restraints unexpectedly broke. The statue was dropped, being too heavy to lift and the covering was cracked. The workers just left the statue where it was since it as getting too dark to work any longer. However, that night there was a terrific rainstorm.

When the workers returned, the next morning, they saw something glittering beneath the cracked covering which had been partially washed away in the rainstorm. Upon further investigation it was discovered that inside the outer covering was a gold Buddha image. The rest of the covering was quickly removed. They found it was a solid gold Buddha worth millions of dollars that had sat on the temple grounds for several decades, unbeknownst to everyone. The explanation said that the Buddha statue was covered up to prevent it from being melted down during the Burmese invasion of Ayutthaya in 1767. I was fascinated to hear about this very exotic land.

The solid gold Buddha is known in Thai as Phra Phuttha Maha Suwan Patimakon. This Gold Buddha statue is the world’s largest. Like almost all of Thailand’s history, the solid gold Buddha’s origins are obscured in myth or legend. As the Thais left no written records, what records they did have were religious tracts. Almost all of them were burned, did not last or lost in centuries past. Art historians and experts believe that the statue dates from the 13th or 14th century being crafted during the Sukhothai period. The statue shows Indian influences from the egg shaped head that was typical of the statues made at the time.

Most probably the statue was moved from Sukhothai to Ayutthaya in 1403 when Thailand’s seat of power was moved. Art scholars believe the statue was covered in either stucco or plaster, painted over and then inlaid with coloured glass to disguise it when Burmese invaders attacked and overran Ayutthaya in 1767. So, it escaped the fate of all the other gold and gold covered statues that were melted down and taken away when the city was sacked.

After moving the capita to Bangkok in 1782, King Rama I started to construct many temples in Bangkok. He ordered any Buddhas that still could be found in the ruins of Ayutthaya to be brought to Bangkok for installation. During the reign of King Rama II, the solid gold Buddha was first installed at Wat Chotanaram in Bangkok and later moved to Wat Trimitr when Wat Chotanaram was closed down. Originally called War Sam Chin Tai, Wat Trimitr and is one of the oldest temples in Chinatown. There were three Chinese men who were friends that helped construct this temple for the purpose of merit making. In 1939, the temple was renamed Wat Trimitr Witthayaram literally means three friends.

When the big Gold Buddha statute was moved to Wat Trimitr, the grounds were small and there was no place to display it. So, it as kept under a simple tin roof in storage and forgotten about for some 20 years. About 1954 a Viharn building had been constructed to house the big Gold Buddha. It was moved on 25 May 1955, then the Gold Buddha was discovered. It was found there were actually nine parts that could be disassembled using a key hidden in the base to allow for easier transport.

The statue is 3.01 metres wide, 3.91 metres in height and weighs 5,500 kilograms. On 14 February 2010, a large new building was opened at the Wat Trimitr Temple to house the Gold Buddha. The image remains one of Bangkok’s most visited tourist sites. It remains very fascinating.

Bangkok saw a slow expansion to the north and east after New Road was opened in 1864, then a rapid expansion started in the 1880s. Soon land speculators and property developers started looking at buying plots in this area. After Klong Silom was excavated by the government in 1858, three more parallel klongs, or canals, were eventually dug for public transportation. However, these were private initiatives paid for by land developers. They were permitted to sell the land on either side of it to private buyers. In 1888, what would become Sathorn (or Sathon) Road, first started out as Klong Pohyom or Pohyom canal. It connecting Klong Hua Lampong canal (later Straight Street and finally Rama IV Road) and the Chao Phaya River. After the developers had excavated the canal and built a roadway on top of both earthen banks.

Originally Klong Sathorn was named Klong Pohyom (or ‘Mr. Yom’s Canal’) after the Chinese man who owned the company that excavated the canal. He started selling plots of land upon completion. He was later ennobled by King Chulalongkorn (King Rama V), with the name Luang Sathon Racha Yut, for his accomplishment. The canal became to be known by an element in his title, Sathon or Sathorn.

Rows of trees were planted on both sides of the two roadways giving the thoroughfare a shaded appearance. Spacious homes were the first to be built on both sides of Sathorn Road or along the adjacent side sois. There were offices of French, English, Danish, German, and American doctors, including many Thai medical hospitals and medical practitioners in the immediate area. At the junction of Klong Sathorn and the river, the area was filled with docks and various rice mills. It was also the location of the Chinese port to transport goods and passengers to Singapore, Hong Kong, and China.

The first foreign hospital was the British Nursing Home (BNH) established on Convent Road in 1898 under royal patronage. Initially a small wooden building, it served the needs or resident expats who needed higher quality medical care as a non-profit facility. Later it was renamed the Bangkok Nursing Home and finally just BNH. Also in 1898, St. Louis Hospital was founded as a non-profit French medical treatment facility. Later St. Louis Church was established next to the hospital. The Chinese Chamber of Commerce built an impressive edifice in 1915 to serve as a meeting place for the richest Chinese-Thai merchants and businessmen in the country. Eventually some foreign embassies started to be established along the roadway, including Russia after formal diplomatic relations were started in 1897.

Several wats were already in the general area. These include Wat Yannawa, a temple dating back to the Ayutthaya period and Wat Don, built in 1797. However, in the 1970s the trees were all cut down and the canal was confined to a narrow concrete channel so the roads could be widened, a far cry from the original.