The Venice of the East

THE VENICE OF THE EAST The Venice of the Far East – the capital still wrapped in Yet another tack, yet one more bend of the tortuous river mystery, in spite of the thousand efforts of modernism amid its maze and lo! The glories of the floating city, the capital of Siam, at sunrise. of canals, and in spite of the popularity of the reigning monarchy... Numerous temples of Buddha with their gilt and glazed tile roofs, From the crowded dock-roads of the River... which reminds one of the some blue and others green or yellow, and tall single spires sparkling Giudecca [several linked islands south of and separated from the in the sun, rise from what seems to be a forest, but is in reality a great main mass of Venice by the Canale della Giudecca in which city. On each side of the river floating habitations, resting on rafts of merchant ships moored in times past] across the intricate mass of... bamboos. Close to these anchored the largest descriptions of native the Chinese quarter... which, whilst resembling Canton, is still more vessels. A row of Chinese junks extend for more than two miles, at Venetian. Were it not for queues, almond eyes, and odours, decidedly anchor in the middle of the stream, where they often remain for Oriental, the illusion would very often be complete... the Quarter of the months, retailing their cargoes. The river presented a busy scene, Legations, the European residences and sporting clubs, all... shady from the number of boats of every size and description, some not and surrounded by canals which reminded me of Stra (Curious these larger than clothes- continual Venetian reminiscences in the Far East.)... the canals ploughed by sampans, which the rowers guide standing as in Venice... little bridges and tiny gardens, reflecting in the quiet water the drooping foliage of ancient trees... as in the remotest corners of the City of the Doges (and a longing for the lagoons nearly seizes one)...the Royal Quarter, rich in parks, temples, and palaces... all a dazzling variety of colour and cadences...which give one the impression of being in Venice... a wild primitive Venice. So Salvatore Besso, a young, adventurous and perceptive Italian nobleman writing about happenings in the Far East, saw the city of Bangkok on the eve of the coronation of King Vajiravudh, Rama Vl of Thailand, in 1911. Many before Besso had casually compared Bangkok and the previous Thai capital of Ayutthaya, its prototype, with the fantastic Adriatic port. Apparently, Fernao Mendez Pinto was the first to use the epithet ‘Venice of the East’ when referring to Ayutthaya in a letter to the Society of Jesus in Lisbon dated 1554. Bangkok was born during troubled times, a period of intense conflict among the principalities of Southeast Asia, and, more ‘Sketch of the Town of Bangkok by a Native’ was included importantly, among the powers of Europe engaged in the Napoleonic in a journal of an embassy to the Siamese Court in 1821-22. wars. Solemnly proclaimed the capital of Thailand in 1782, Bangkok Although a ‘mental map’, a caricature, rather than a representation of apparently was unsighted by Europeans of wit before the cessation of the built city, something is shown of the citadel and a great deal hostilities permitted the great powers to revive their intercourse with about the raison d’etre of the capital. Source: Crawfurd, J., Journal of first island and then mainland Southeast Asia, an endeavour which an Embassy from the Governor-General of India to the Courts of needed the concurrence of the influential Thai court. From the 1820s Siam and Cochin-China London, 1828. Bangkok was on the itinerary of an everincreasing stream of diplomatic, commercial and evangelical transients, a number of whom thought to leave accounts of their visit containing descriptions of the city which, when freed from prejudice, provide the material for a vivid anthology comprising material from fifteen eyewitness descriptions of Bangkok between 1821 and 1855: baskets, passing to and fro. The number struck us as very great for we were not aware that there are few or no roads, wheel carriages are altogether unknown, and that the ground is a rich tract of alluvial land, low, and intersected by numerous winding creeks and canals ramified in all directions and navigable a part of every tide, that they can go in boats to almost every place, almost every house where business or pleasure calls them. The market hour was now approaching. The occupants of the floating houses were taking down the shutters which formed the fronts, exposing their wares for sale; printed calicoes, paper Apparently the earliest representation, circa 1835, of a umbrellas, sweet-meats, fruits, pots, pans being placed in situations floating shophouse at Bangkok. At first glance this engraving seems a the best calculated to attract the passers by. Many of the boats were caricature; close inspection, however, is rewarded by an accurate shops containing earthen-ware, blachang [a popular fetid and reasonably detailed portrayal of one of these remarkable condiment], dried fish, and fresh pork. There an old woman hawked structures. Source: Malcom, H., Travels in South Eastern Asia, betel, plantains, and pumpkins. Here you saw ca-noes laden with embracing Hindustan, Malaya, Siam, and China; with notices of coconuts, the Chinaman, with his ready cooked pork, the Numerous Missionary Stations, and a full account of the Burman fishmonger, with his fried and well stewed fish, the baker’s girl, with Empire Boston, 1838. bread and hoppers [a delicious cake made of rice flour and coconut milk], an interminable string of raw commodities, sea and river fish, meat and poultry, fruits, vegetables Bangkok residence during the period 1828-1831 of the Reverend Gutzlaff, first resident missionary-physician sent to Siam by the London Missionary Society This fine engraving is the earliest of those of Bangkok which are remarkable for a photographic-like realism. Source: Gutzlaff, C., Journal of Three Voyages along the Coast of China in 1831, 1832, & 1833, with notices of Siam, Corea, & the Loo-Choo Islands London, 1834. Morning market along the Chao Phraya river at Bangkok as depicted m a painting circa 1900. Source Young, E., Peeps at many Lands: Siam London, 1908. and other minor articles of consumption. Everything that is wanted, or supposed necessary. Vendors hawking and crying as in an European town. Groups of natives proceeding from house to house, on their various occupations and a flotilla of canoes filled with the priests of Buddha readily distinguished by their shaved and bare heads, and their yellow vestments plied on the river on their diurnal eleemosynary excursion. But the most singular feature in the busy scene was the great bazaar of the city, where all imaginable and unimaginable articles are displayed in houses, floating on the water on thick bamboo rafts in rows eight, ten, or more in depth from the bank. The houses were built of boards, generally teak-wood, of a neat oblong form twenty to thirty feet in length, and about half that space in breadth. They consist of a single stage, the floor raised above the water about a foot, and the roof thatched with palm leaves, sometimes with tiles. The houses are small, consisting of a principal centre room, and one or two small ones, the centre being open in front, for the display of wares or used as a playground by the children. At either end the houses were bound to This plan of Bangkok circa 1850, though stylised, provides long bamboos driven into the river and linked to each other in parcels a good general impression of the capital provided the regular pattern of six or seven houses by chains made fast to great piles planted in the of streets is disregarded or, better, consciously replaced by a maze of meandering footpaths and innumerable creeks, canals and bed of the stream so that they can rise and fall with the tide, and yet ditches. Source: Pallegoix, Mgr., Description du Royaume Thai ou not be carried away by it. Of course, their locality can be changed Siam Paris, 1854. without difficulty, and sometimes without the concurrence of the inmates. It is no uncommon thing to see whole streets of floating houses, together with their inhabitants, come floating down the stream to the utter confusion of the shipping. Another and a great disadvantage is this - cattle, dogs, cats, nay even sometimes human bodies, that have been cast into or been drowned in the river higher up are perpetually being swept down by the current, and getting entangled underneath the houses. the inmates are assailed with pestilential odours, which they have no possible means of ridding Floating houses along the bank of the Chao Phraya river at Bangkok depicted in a fine realistic engraving – in effect, a documentary photograph – circa 1855. Among the features of these structures, the double roof merits admiration as an ingeneous solution to the problem of providing a steep slope overhead to encourage the rapid runoff of torrential downpours, a large catchment area for drinking water and a low centre of gravity to maintain stability beneath one’s feet. Source: Bowring, Sir L, The Kingdom and People of Siam London, 1857. miasma quite sufficient to breed typhus. These floating streets, are of one story, made of plank or bamboo, and roofed with atap. nevertheless, possess advantages. The river furnishes water for all There are a few houses built of stone and brick and roofed with tiles. purposes, and is at the same time the common sewer of the city. Some of the best are used as cool retreats for men of wealth, who live Habitations are constructed of the most combustible materials, and the on shore.

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