Samphanthawong District

In 1782, following a coup d’état, Chao Phraya Chakri seized power and reigned as Rama I. He founded a new capital on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River. A TeochewChinese dialect group originating from the Chaozhou area, in eastern Guangdong, southern China. It forms the largest component of the Chinese community in Thailand. community was then living on the land chosen for the future Grand Palace. The new king had it moved to Sampheng, an area lying outside the walls of the city under construction. This relocation gave rise to Bangkok’s Chinese quarter, which thus took shape at the same time as the capital itself.¹⁰

The reasons for this decision remain difficult to establish. One explanation links it to the political loyalties of the day: the relocation was probably connected with Teochew support for Taksin, whereas the new sovereign had ties with the HokkienChinese group originating from the south of Fujian province, many of whose members emigrated to Southeast Asia, notably as merchants.. This reading remains a hypothesis. It nonetheless reminds us that the place of the Chinese in the city was, from the outset, a matter of choice by the royal authorities, and not simply a spontaneous grouping.¹⁰

A small road linked the new Chinese settlement to the walled city. It became Sampheng Lane, the first street of Chinatown from its foundation, and it remained its main axis until Yaowarat Road was cut through a century later. Now called SoiThai word for a lane or side street branching off a main road; soi are often numbered after the main street from which they branch. Wanit 1, it is still a narrow, pedestrian street given over to wholesale trade. The name of Sampheng has survived these changes: it still designates the lane.¹⁰

Set apart at first, the quarter did not remain so for long. By around 1785 the western end of Sampheng was already almost surrounded by the city, and by around 1850 the area was fully integrated into the inner city. Within a few decades, the Chinese quarter thus passed from the periphery to the centre of Bangkok, as the capital spread around it.²

Several names are used for it. ‘Chinatown’ is merely a nickname; the name Yaowarat, that of the thoroughfare cut at the end of the 19th century, is commonly used for the quarter as a whole, while Sampheng refers to its oldest layer. The administrative name, Samphanthawong, comes from a temple, as we shall see below.⁵

In 1864, the construction of Charoen Krung Road facilitated import-export activity and the development of wharves and warehouses along the river.¹⁰

In the second half of the century, Sampheng became a very dense area of makeshift buildings. Fires were frequent there. These repeated destructions cleared the way for new roads, laid out on the orders of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V).¹⁰

Yaowarat Road, the main thoroughfare of Chinatown, dates from this period. At the end of 1891, Chulalongkorn ordered the creation of numerous roads, this one among them. Accounts differ as to its construction: one places it between 1891 and 1900, another dates it to 1892.¹¹

Just over one and a half kilometres long, the road crosses the district and ends in the neighbouring district of Phra Nakhon. It was first called ‘Yuppharat’, before taking the name ‘Yaowarat’, meaning ‘young king’, in honour of a prince. According to one tradition, its winding course evokes the body of a dragon, which is said to be auspicious for business. Along this thoroughfare and the streets that accompany it — Charoen Krung, Mangkon, Song Sawat, Ratchawong or Chakkrawat — some houses still retain an original structure dating from the reign of Chulalongkorn.¹¹

Song WatBuddhist monastic complex that brings together, within a single enclosure, several religious buildings, monks’ quarters and ancillary buildings; the word does not refer to a single building. Road, too, was born of a disaster. Chulalongkorn had it built after a great fire in Sampheng: a first section was completed in 1892, and a second, extending it to Charoen Krung, in 1907. Over some 1.2 kilometres, it runs alongside the Chao Phraya River for almost its entire length and provides access to river transport, with alleys linking it to the wharves.¹⁴

One tradition relates that the king himself traced the route in pencil on the map, and that the name Song Wat would mean ‘drawn by the king’.¹⁴

Several of the district’s temples existed before the founding of the capital, in the era of the Ayutthaya kingdom that preceded Bangkok. The most important for the history of the quarter was then called Wat Ko, the ‘island temple’, because it was surrounded by canals. These canals were later filled in to create or widen roads; the one that separated it from Wat Pathum Khongkha is now lined with shophousesA narrow, deep urban house built in a row, whose ground floor serves as a shop and upper floor as living quarters, typical of the trading towns of South-East Asia..¹

The temple was restored under the direction of Prince Samphanthawong (Chui), a nephew of Rama I. During the reign of Rama IV, it received the name Wat Samphanthawongsaram WorawihanTitle borne by certain royal temples in Thailand, indicating their rank in the hierarchy of royal monasteries., in tribute to this prince. It belongs to the ThammayutReformed Thai Buddhist monastic order, founded in the 19th century by the future King Rama IV, which advocates strict observance of monastic discipline. order. The district in turn took its name from the temple, which stood near the first district office: the name of Samphanthawong District thus goes back, through the monastery, to a member of the royal family.⁹

The temple did not stand aloof from the commercial life around it. Wat Samphanthawong had shophouses built, which it rented out to Chinese traders. The Chia Tai company began in this way, renting one of them to sell vegetable seeds.⁴

The strong Chinese presence around the temple also attracted American missionaries, who rented a plot of land near Wat Ko to set up a dispensary. The Buddhist monastery, the Chinese shop and the Christian mission thus stood side by side in the same neighbourhood.⁴

Wat Traimit Witthayaram Worawihan, in the sub-district of Talat Noi, was formerly called Wat Sam Chin Tai, the ‘southern temple of the three Chinese’. It was a temple of little importance when, in 1935, it received the Golden Buddha. This solid gold statue is depicted in the MaravijayaPosture of the seated Buddha, the right hand touching the ground to call the earth to witness his victory over Mara. posture.¹⁶

Under Rama III, the statue, still covered in stucco, served as the principal imageIn a Thai Buddhist monastery, the most important statue of the Buddha, around which worship is organised; it is generally installed in the monastery’s main building. of Wat Chotanaram, or Wat Phraya Krai. It was cast in gold using the lost-wax technique, with a thickness of gold of one to one and a half centimetres. Some link it to a ‘gold Buddha imageIn Thai Buddhism, a devotional representation of the Buddha, most often a statue, venerated as an object of worship.’ mentioned on a stele in central Sukhothai; this connection remains an interpretation.¹⁵

On the north-western edge of the district, near the river, Wat Chakkrawat Rachawat WoramahawihanTitle borne by certain royal temples in Thailand, indicating a high rank in the hierarchy of royal monasteries. likewise dates from the Ayutthaya period, when it was called Wat Sam Pluem. A local legend attaches to it a one-eyed crocodile that a monk is said to have captured and kept in a pond at the temple until it died of natural causes. Wat Pathum Khongkha, another old temple, was restored under Rama I and then took the name Wat Sampheng.¹²

Wat Mangkon Kamalawat, a Chinese temple often associated with Chinatown, actually lies just beyond the boundaries of the district, in that of Pom Prap Sattru Phai. The gap between the quarter as lived and the administrative district can thus be read even in its places of worship.⁵

The present administrative division is the result of several reforms. On 15 October 1915, the reorganisation of inner Bangkok into twenty-five districts, then called amphoeDistrict, the tier of Thai territorial administration between the province and the subdistrict (tambon); in Bangkok it is replaced by the khet., created among others those of Samphanthawong and Chakkrawat. In 1931, during the reign of Rama VII, the economic crisis made savings necessary: Chakkrawat and Sampheng were merged with Samphanthawong.⁵

In the early 1970s, the district acquired the status of khetThai name for the administrative districts of Bangkok, equivalent to the districts of the provinces; each khet is subdivided into khwaeng, or sub-districts., a district of the capital; accounts differ as to the date: 21 December 1971, 1972, or 1973 with the creation of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. It is divided into three khwaengAn administrative subdivision of Bangkok, ranking below the district (khet), the urban equivalent of the tambon in the provinces., or sub-districts: Samphanthawong, its central part, Chakkrawat to the north-west, and Talat Noi. At less than one and a half square kilometres, it is the smallest district in the country, bordered by Pom Prap Sattru Phai, Bang Rak, Phra Nakhon and, on the far bank of the river, KhlongCanal or waterway, natural or man-made, which long played a major role in transport, irrigation and the organisation of settlements and territories in Thailand. SanIn Thailand, a small shrine where worship is offered to a deity, a spirit or a protective figure.. This small area contrasts with its role, since its origins, as a densely populated business quarter.⁵

The quarter features in the events of 24 June 1932. On that day, the naval faction of the Khana Ratsadon (People’s Party) mobilised some five hundred armed sailors towards the Royal Plaza. To justify this troop movement, it put forward as a pretext the suppression of a Chinese uprising at Wat Samphanthawong.⁹

On 3 June 1946, King Rama VIII and his brother, Prince Bhumibol, walked through Yaowarat and Sampheng. This visit is depicted on the reverse of the 20-baht notes of Series 15.¹¹

The quarter has been a centre of Chinese trade since the early days of Bangkok. Yaowarat Road is known for its gold shops: around forty line the main thoroughfare and more than a hundred are spread throughout the quarter, hence its nickname of ‘Golden Road’. It is also known for culinary specialities such as swiftlet’s nest and shark fin soup, dishes that are now controversial.¹³

Another part of this trade serves ritual needs. The Charoen Chai community, on Soi Charoen Krung 23, is home to the largest and oldest market in Thailand for joss paperOffering paper, often decorated with patterns or metallic leaf, burnt in Chinese rites for the deceased and the deities. and Chinese offering objects. It is also the last source of traditional items for Chinese weddings.¹⁰

At the end of the 19th century, the quarter had a negative image. Sampheng was associated with gambling houses, opium dens and brothels, and the expression ‘Sampeng woman’ was still used as a pejorative epithet for a prostitute. The British resident H. W. Smyth, a European observer of Siam at that time, described the quarter in disparaging terms.²

This reputation reminds us that today’s Chinatown, associated with trade and gastronomy, long bore a quite different image.

The Chinese population has gradually assimilated into Thai society, but the quarter has retained its Chinese culture in its cuisine, crafts and religion.¹⁰

Chinese New Year is its most visible moment, with large celebrations on Yaowarat Road. The land around Yaowarat has long been among the most expensive in Bangkok and in the country; property there is limited and largely owned by great families.¹¹

Samphanthawong District remains one of the country’s main hubs of trade and gastronomy, with Yaowarat Road still at its heart. Shops and stalls are concentrated on Yaowarat, Sampheng Lane and Charoen Krung, especially in the evenings and at weekends. The life of the quarter can still be read in the overlapping of its layers: the wholesale trade of Sampheng, the gold shops of Yaowarat, the alleys of Song Wat turned towards the river.¹¹

Two recent structures mark the landscape. In 1999, a Chinatown gate was erected at Odeon Circle, the former roundabout marking the start of Yaowarat Road, for the 72nd birthday of King Bhumibol, by then Rama IX. On 14 February 2010, a large building was inaugurated at Wat Traimit to house the Golden Buddha.⁵

In the 2010s, the future of Chinatown was once again debated in connection with a building project. These discussions extend a history of transformations imposed by the city: from the relocation of 1782 to Chulalongkorn’s new thoroughfares, the quarter has constantly been redrawn by the needs of the capital around it.¹⁰