Archive for Architecture
August 12, 2009 at 1:17 am · Filed under Architecture, Thailand
Guest post by Julius
If there was a category of attraction defined as “cool-weird-serene-semi-boring-relaxing” Bang Pa In would fall into it.
Not knowing much of the history of it—beyond my memory of what Jay had explained it to me as, some King, who took an interest in european/asian culture/architecture, thus building a summer palace at home that comprised of elements from multiple cultures?
Highlights? Gotta be them bad-assed animal shaped shrubs. Look at them! They’re huge!!
And then there was this miniaturized house- made for midgets?
It was a nice day when Ben and I visited. Plenty to walk around in the compound of the palace.
They even had golf buggies!!! If only the king had thought of putting in an 18 hole, if they existed back then.
May 11, 2009 at 8:56 pm · Filed under Architecture, Thailand, UNESCO
Our bus arrived late in Ayutthaya. Short on time, we scrambled on our bikes to tour the city at dusk. That was one happy accident.
The ruins at twilight were breathtaking. The colours, vibe and atmosphere were unreal, like a dream.
Wat Phukhao Thong (เจดีย์ภูเขาทอง)
When the western world first discovered Siam, Ayutthaya was the capital city.
During the 17th century, Ayutthaya was one of the biggest and wealthiest cities in the world. The ambassadors of King Louis XIV felt its size and scale was comparable to Paris.
In 1767, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was sacked by the Burmese. A fleeing general gathered the remaining forces to a small garrison town called Thonburi where he made himself king and established a new kingdom.
Today, that town is known as Bangkok.
Ayutthaya’s ruins are now a UNESCO World Heritage site. Unlike Sukhothai, the ruins are much bigger and better preserved, but scattered all over the city—hence the bikes.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram (วัดไชยวัฒนาราม)
Designed in the Khmer style (inspired by Angkor Wat), the princes and princesses of Ayutthaya were cremated in this royal Buddhist temple.
Wat Phra Sri Sanphet (วัดพระศรีสรรเพ็ชญ์)
Near the Grand Palace, this is the king’s private chapel. The three Sri Lankan-style chedis enshrine the ashes of three Ayutthayan kings.
Wat Ratchaburana (วัดราชบุรณะ)
Couldn’t get near this one!
At this point, it was too dark to see anything. We decided to continue the next day.
January 4, 2009 at 8:58 pm · Filed under Architecture, Thailand, UNESCO
Traditional Thai historians consider Sukhothai (which means “the dawn of happiness”) as the first capital city, its ruin is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site near the modern city of New Sukhothai.
Upon entering, you will notice a statue of King Ramkamhaeng, the third king of the Sukhothai empire, who ruled during the kingdom’s most prosperous period.
He created the Thai alphabet and introduced Theravada Buddhism as the official state religion. So you can imagine the huge reverence Thais bestow upon him.
We know this from King Mongkut (Rama IV), who found the first Stone Inscription in his archaeological expeditions and transcribed the history of the Sukhothai kingdom.
King Mongkut then incorporated Sukhothai into the Thailand’s historical identity as their starting point.
But modern Thai historians feel that older Thai kingdoms exist further back although they exist as small vassal states to surrounding empires.
The Sukhothai-style of architecture and sculpture is immediately distinct to me.
All the columns, the statues, the podium—their proportions have a slim elegance to them. There’s also minimal detailing between elements, such as where the columns meet the podium and so forth. Akin to a sort of slender Tuscan order.
Even the individual bricks are elongated and slender. Having said that, the vertical scale is still greatly emphasised, accentuated by a myriad of slim bandings at the extremities.
The statues also acquire a feminine poise from Sukhothai’s tendency towards leanness and tapered forms.
(That’s real gold, by the way)
October 4, 2008 at 10:18 pm · Filed under Architecture, Culture, Thailand
Burma Railway is a 415 km railway between Bangkok, Thailand and Rangoon, Myanmar – built by the Empire of Japan during World War II to support its forces in the Burma campaign.
The sea route, namely through Malaysia and Singapore, is patrolled by the reputable British navy, hence the construction of this very difficult route.
Much of the Death Railway isn’t particularly interesting because it looks like just any other ordinary railway track.
Occasionally you come across a section where you marvel at the engineering, and wonder how they pulled it off with rudimentary tools and starving prisoners-of-war.
This cliff of solid stone, was excavated without explosives. If I recall correctly, only pick axes were used. No lorries as well, only sacks on backs to carry the rubble away.
The railway tracks have to be constructed dramatically higher than the terrain in order to squeeze between the cliff and the river bank – with the same dodgy tools.
Forced labour was used in its construction. About 180,000 Asian labourers and 60,000 Allied prisoners of war (POWs) worked on the railway.
Of these, around 90,000 Asian labourers and 16,000 Allied POWs died as a direct result of the project.
Midway there’s a surprise cave temple which was not documented anywhere.
Can’t tell if it existed during WWII or after because like most cave temples, this one is remarkably well maintained for such a secluded spot.
See related posts The Bridge over the River Kwai and Kanchanaburi War Cemetery and Death Railway Museum.
June 28, 2008 at 8:50 pm · Filed under Architecture, Culture, Thailand
There are no bicycle racks here, no posts, pipes or loops whatsoever to secure our bikes. So we got creative.
Upon arriving at the museum, I wasn’t be entirely convinced with the signs on the building (given the proliferation of piracy in Thailand).
However, it’s not too shabby inside. Too bad cameras weren’t allowed, there’s plenty of models to help you wrap your head around how massive the Death Railway is/was.
There’s even an actual reconstruction of the Bridge over River Kwai (the original wooden version) and even 1:1 models of the prisoners’ living conditions. Historical photographs were worth seeing too.
It’s rather abrupt to see such orderliness and cleanliness in a country like Thailand, but it shouldn’t be surprising given that it’s managed by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
There are 6,982 POWs buried here mostly Australian, British and Dutch.
Having visited many World War II memorials sites—notably the ANZAC memorials in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra, as well as the Ranau War Memorial in Borneo—I can’t help but feel a sense of connection between them all.
I guess war amplifies differences but ultimately makes the world smaller.
April 25, 2008 at 9:29 pm · Filed under Architecture, Culture, Thailand
Kanchanaburi is a real nice quiet & small town, perfect for cycling. As for one of us, learning how to cycle.
You wouldn’t even suspect one of World War II’s big epics happened here.
Have you ever read the novel, or seen the film “The Bridge on the River Kwai”? Here’s news for you, the plot is entirely fictitious.
The actual bridge over River Kwai however, is very real – as well as the deaths of forced slave labour used to build it, estimated to be 13,000 prisoners-of-war and 80,000 to 100,000 civilians from Malaya, Dutch East Indies, Siam and Burma.
WWII aficionados will appreciate that the bridge is an integral part of the infamous Burma Death Railway.
All the concrete and steel parts are still intact since the war ended. A definite must-see site.
What I find more amusing is that the river was not even originally called River Kwai. Before 1960 (i.e. before the release of the novel and movie), it was called Mae Klong.
Typical of most Hollywood foul ups, the novelist who inspired the movie never visited the bridge and assumed that, since the Burma Death Railway ran along River Kwai, this bridge must have crossed it.
A flood of misguided tourists showed up to look for a bridge over River Kwai and found nothing.
Subsequently, the authorities in Thailand renamed the river Kwai Yai (trans: แควใหญ่, thai for Big Tributary).
And bravo, history is changed to the delight and convenience of tourists. You won’t find this fact in travel brochures and sorts.
There’s a strange transition of scale between the end and mid-sections. The rounded arches appear larger than life, and the angular sections (the bit that got bombed by Allied forces, and thereafter rebuilt by the Japanese as “payment for their war crimes”) are much larger than expected.
For a bridge that’s declared “actively used today”, there’s really nothing on the other bank. The one-carriage “train” that crosses, holds 10-12 passengers only for a pathetic shuttle back and forth the river banks.
It puts pedestrians (like us) in a rather precarious position. If we can’t make it to the next platform in time, we have to sidestep and balance ourselves on a narrow 30 cm piece of something (eg. steel beam or timber board) about 4 metres above the swirling river.
Happened to me twice, must say it was utterly hair raising.
February 28, 2008 at 12:00 am · Filed under Architecture, Thailand
Walked out of Nakhon Pathom’s train station and it was squarely right front of us. The scale of the chedi is huge compared to the rest of the town, which, after all, is named after the chedi.
It appeared small for “the largest chedi in Thailand” from the train station, where I first saw it.
And we started walking towards it … and walking … and walking.
And when I realised (visually) it hasn’t gotten any bigger, this thing must be massive!
The chedi is approximately 120 metres high.
The sheer size of it is hard to tell, even up close like this. If you care to imagine, those irregular specks on top are not dirt but pigeons. (To architects, the tiles are about 150mm x 150mm for scale).
Like all chedis, there’s no “inside” per say. So we walked around the also unassumingly large colonnade. The whole atmosphere is really, urm, ORANGE though it’s not captured on camera (thank you, JPEG algorithms). And the colour really lends itself to the calming serenity, kind of like, a perpetual quiet sunset feeling.
Then you see a statue that looks a little “CHINESE”?
Sure enough, Phra Pathom Chedi also claims to be the oldest temple in Thailand (trans: Pathom means “of the beginning”). So it has a lot of history going for it (apparently since the 4th century) but what you see today is initiated by King Mongkut in 1853.
So the statues are ballast stones from Chinese ships that sailed here a few hundred years ago. What?
Well, why use boring rectilinear stones when you can carve elaborate statues just for keeping ships bouyant? After we load our ships with much heavier cargo, we’ll just dump these elaborate-looking statues onshore!
Calling the chinese opulent?? Who dares to be so insolent…
January 13, 2008 at 9:26 am · Filed under Architecture, Thailand
I have something to confess …
I have this uncontrollable urge to immediately condemn any form of “classical” European style in this part of the world.
I know, I know but you’ll be surprised with the prevalence of bungalows with Greek columns, Tudor facades and “Some Exotic Asian” roof, not only in Thailand but in all parts of Asia.
You may also be surprised that most of these houses are not products of 80′s Post-Modern historicity but comes from an unbroken lineage of rags-to-riches clientele who felt compelled to be Euro-centric once they consider themselves “upper-class”.
Looking at Hua Lamphong train station …. I have a feeling this culture goes WAY back.
This train station is built in the Italian Renaissance style in the early 20th century by a Turin-born Mario Tamagno. So at least it was designed by a European, but at that time I’m sure he would have felt the bubbling excitement of Art Nouveau and/or Art Deco.
But thanks to a genuinely Euro-centric monarch known as the famous King Chulalongkorn of Siam (Rama V of the Chakri Dynasty), these ideas are very much at home with his grand plans to “westernise” Siam. So I suppose even “Italian Renaissance” would appear to be progressive.
Here’s a closer look of him in his official (note: Western) uniform.
So you have a rapidly Westernising Siam, and the overwhelming presence of Britain in India, Malaya & Burma, Dutch in Indonesia and the French in Indochina – all of the sudden, European IS the aristocracy.
But why the eclecticism? King Mongkut (also known as Rama IV – the father of our good fellow above) has an interesting quote that far outlived him …
King Mongkut once remarked to a Christian missionary friend: “What you teach us to do is admirable, but what you teach us to believe is foolish”.
So you see, when it comes to matters of science and technology everything is just imported wholesale. When it comes to matters of culture and religion, it seems that opinions are reserved. And when opinions are reserved, the opportunity for hybridity and “fusion” (so to say) becomes inevitable.
Much like how the Europeans had to somewhat reconcile the Industrial Age with their older architectural habits with, for instance, the Art Nouveau/Deco movement – everyone else in other parts of the world was pretty much doing the same thing albeit with a more jarring consequence in the Far East because of the greater divide.
Of course, I am not attributing the mentality in the region entirely to Rama V, but I’m sure this anecdote is a good insight into how the story played out elsewhere in the vicinity. So here’s my mini-lecture on early 20th century Siam architecture.
BUT … next time you feel nauseated by another Southeast Asian building with an absurd mix of “styles” ….. give it a little thought, the reasons may be more deeply rooted than you think.
January 3, 2008 at 7:52 am · Filed under Architecture, Thailand
Unlike many cities in the world, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur chose to build their mass transit trains ABOVE ground. For good reason I feel.
Why would you …
… in a climate where the temperature under shade is a constant 25˚C whole year round with wide-open highways ripe for stacking layers of freeways above …
… want to waste time shoving something underground??
No air-conditioning + no digging = lots of money saved !!
Of course, the trade off is the Blade Runner set you see above.
But … Menacing Concrete Jungle vs. Slick Sci-Fi Metropolis … take your Distopian/Utopian slant !!
Siam Square is not really a square, but a freak-load of shopping malls lining a boulevard of Asian consumerist indulgence (like Singapore’s Orchard Road, or Tokyo’s Ginza, and et cetera). Again, take your slant.
I used to be terrified at the prospect of more and more hyper massive impersonal shopping labyrinths. But having stayed in laid back Sydney for so long – I really miss the high energy 24/7 buzz in Asian malls, with wide open spaces in between to chill or meet people.
I mean WIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDDDDDDEEEEEEEEEE open spaces.
Or if you’re still conservative, there’re still plenty of ultra claustrophobic people-packed venues! All in the name of more Shopping, Socialising & Eating!!
Ahhh, the wonderful paradoxes of my Asian compatriots …
December 18, 2007 at 6:14 pm · Filed under Architecture, Thailand
No visit to any country should be complete without a look at its seedier side. If extra-terrestrials think alike, I think they’ll choose Pattaya to visit as the seediest side of planet Earth!!!
Ok, I know that doesn’t look too seedy…. mmmm… Fast forward 12 hours!
That’s better. And in the centre of all this electric energy is Walking Street.
A closer look and you see bar girls sitting outside waiting for customers. I guess we’re still early…
In case you think these photos are isolated cases, they’re not!! The whole town is just packed with these sort of places wall to wall (okay, perhaps with the occasional “hotel”) with girls harassing passer-bys.
Normally you find poles inside buildings, but practically all of them here are open air! You can see them shaking booty while riding a songthaew around town. They come in other shapes and sizes as well …
The system is simple. They try to entice you into the bar with their good looks and demeanour, in order to sell drinks and make the establishment lotsa money. We’ve talked to them and I can tell you, even with broken English they are very very good at chatting.
Once you’re hooked, they will make you stay as long as possible. If drinks are not enough, you can bring them to “some place else” for as little as 1 hour up to 1 whole night. To do that, you will have to pay a certain “bar fine” because these girls won’t be making the bar money in their absence.
Like THIS guy!
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