Rattanakosin and Wat Suthat

Since I've started tutoring students on Saturdays now and my weekend is cut in half, my new goal for the year is to try to do something fun and new every weekend. So far I've done very well and haven't had an idle weekend yet. This past weekend however, I was afraid that I wouldn't do anything. Still tired after my family's departure back to the USA, I had accepted that I would just spend a quiet weekend at home resting. I was excited however to receive a message from my friend Ja (with whom I visited Ko Kret) asking if I wanted to hang out on Sunday. I had mentioned to her that I was interested in learning more about Thai history, so she suggested we go to the Rattanakosin Exhibition Hall, a high-tech interactive history museum about the development of modern Bangkok.

The exhibition hall is next door to Loha Prasat in (appropriately) the Rattanakosin district of Bangkok. Neither the MRT nor BTS go to that area, and since I'm not too familiar with the bus lines, the only way I know how to get there is by khlong boat. I met Ja without incident, and we caught the first tour group. All of the tours, exhibitions, and videos are in Thai, but I was given an audio guide, and the tour guides were really accommodating at explaining some things in English to me as well.

The exhibitions walked us through the history of Rattanakosin and its development from a tiny riverside village to the center of Siamese power after the fall of the Ayutthaya Kingdom and the foundation of the Thonburi Kingdom. One room was dedicated to highlighting the different craft districts of the neighborhood and featured presentations on the "Monk's Bowl Village" (where alms bowls are still made with the traditional methods), the incense quarter, the firework quarter, and areas where they made golden jewelry, scented water and oils, among other traditional crafts.

Royal Siamese War Elephant

After leaving the museum, it was lunchtime. We went to a famous pad-Thai restaurant nearby, which is said to serve the best traditional pad-Thai in Bangkok. Remembering that I liked the Khanom Jeen from Ko Kret, Ja told me that I would like this restaurant, as the pad-Thai was sweet to fit my American taste. It did taste good. I thought I heard my friend say the word "goong" (shrimp) to the waitres, but there didn't seem to be any shrimp when the food arrived. I asked her what kind of pad-Thai this was. Shrimp? "It's from inside the heads," she answered. Shrimp brain! Top it with some chili and peanuts, and it's a delicoius lunch.

Wat Sutat

Rattanakosin holds most of historical Bangkok's most famous landmarks, among these Wat Suthat. Known colloquially as the "Giant Swing," Wat Suthat is one of Bangkok's ten royal temples of the first grade. It houses a golden Buddha image brought to Thonburi from the ancient capital Sukothai, then moved across the river to its current home in Bangkok. Construction began in 1807 during the reign of King Rama I, and was completed under Rama III in 1847.

This temple is special in many ways. The main wat building is surrounded by twenty-eight Chinese-style pagodas representing the lives of twenty-eight different Buddhas, and features a number of unique Buddha images. Wat Suthat is really known for one thing, however: the Giant Swing.

the appropriately named Giant Swing

Though Thailand is a Buddhist kingdom, even today all royal rituals and ceremonies are officiated by Bhramin priests. The Giant Swing, or Sao Ching Cha, was the site of one of these important rituals, which involved participants swinging from ropes to grab a bag of coins tied to one of the pillars. This ceremony lasted for ten days, and marked the Bhramin New Year by re-enacting a Hindu creation epic. The ceremony was stopped in 1935; after several deaths, it was considered to be too dangerous to continue. The Giant Swing now serves as a famous landmark in historic Bangkok, and has been submitted for consideration as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Parts of the temple's decorations showed a distinct Chinese influence, especially noticeable in the surrounding pagodas and red lanterns hanging near the entrance to the main wat building.

After we left Wat Suthat, Ja wanted to take me to try a special Thai dessert, but the restaurant wouldn't open for another half-hour. We walked around Rattanakosin for a while while we waited. First, we passed the Democracy Monument. Until just a few months ago, this area had the yellow-shirt "home base" for several months. I hadn't been over here before, as I had been deliberately avoiding this area last year during the city shutdown. I definitely recognize the monument though. I saw it every day on the television and in the newspapers last year, as yellow-shirt leader Mr. Suthep made speeches surrounded by flag-waving supporters.

the (in)famous Democracy Monument

The next monument we saw was a memorial dedicated to an event in the turbulent 1970's, when a student uprising went wrong and resulted in several deaths. This event was the catalyst which eventually led to the re-structuring of the Thai political system and the introduction of a new constitution. Unlike in neighboring countries (Vietnam, Kingdom of Cambodia, Kingdom of Laos), the Thai Kingdom never fell to communism. It's been a strong country that has resisted outside forces through much of its history, and is the only southeast Asian country that was never colonized by a foreign power.

For dessert we had soft white bread dipped in green Thai-custard - aroy maak (very delicious). I was happy to learn more about the history of Bangkok, of its growth from a tiny river-side fishing village in the shadow of Thonburi, to its emergence as one of the biggest and most important cities in the world.  Leaving Wat Suthat, we passed a statue of the man to whom Bangkok, and Thailand, owes much of its modernization to: the beloved King Chulalongkorn the Great, Rama V.

HM King Chulalongkorn Rama V