Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was a simple affair with the purpose of teaching children how to read and write, with
all ages welcome. Perhaps because of this, the temple compound has evolved into a chil-
dren's playground: not unusual in Thailand, where temples are regarded as community
centres, but in this instance
takraw
courts have been painted in front of the
chedis
and
there are always children and young men kicking a
takraw
ball around, in the game in
which the woven rattan ball is not allowed to touch the ground. Perhaps because of this,
the temple has a strange custom in which devotees offer
takraw
balls to the Buddha im-
age, a 500-year-old figure brought from Sukhothai and named Luang Pho Ruang.
Wat Mahanaparam faces onto Tanao Road, and almost directly opposite is the Chao
Poh Suea Shrine, the Shrine of the Tiger God, which although a Taoist shrine, is also one of
the most popular places of worship for Buddhists. The shrine is actually dedicated to the
warrior god Xuan Tian Shang Ti, who is seated on an altar decorated with embroidered
Chinese silk, clad in imperial robes, a sword in his right hand, his right foot resting on a
snake and his left foot on a black turtle. So fierce is the god that he has tigers as his ser-
vants, and the two stone tigers at the entrance are how the shrine acquired its name. Xuan
is believed to have the power of blessing good fortune, and every year on his birthday,
thousands of devotees attend the Shrine of the Tiger God, presenting strips of pork, bowls
of rice and eggs, and tiny sugar tigers.
Lying between the old inner city moat and Tanao Road is what was once a lively and
fashionable area, a home of royalty, which later fell into decline and became sad and
neglected, and not a little disreputable. Its buildings crumbled, some burned, some were
pulled down, and with the blight of decay on the entire area it seemed ready for the wreck-
er's hammer. But the residents felt attached to their neighbour-hood, and they believed
that much of it could be saved. Thus was born one of Bangkok's first urban conservation
projects, and it has provided an example and encouragement for many others.
Renovated shophouses in the quiet square that forms the centre of Phraeng Phuton.
You probably won't find the name Sam Phraeng on the maps, as it refers to the locality,
but the name means “three road junctions”, the roads being Phraeng Puthon, Phraeng
