Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
designate the variety of tea kept behind the panel in its own tiny safe. This prevents the
fragrance of the leaves from being contaminated.
A display of fresh mango outside Ko Panit, one of the oldest shops on Tanao Road.
Entering Bamrung Muang, we are into a street lined by two-storey shophouses that
took their pattern from those built in Singapore. Rama
IV
had ordered construction of the
road, but in the early days nondescript buildings had sprung up. In 1870, Rama
V
, con-
cerned about the appearance of the fast-growing city, issued a proclamation to widen the
road for the greater convenience of the still-novel horse and carriage, and to rebuild the
shophouses. Although the Singapore design was followed, with its five-foot covered way,
this has long since been filled in and lost. Consequently one is walking in the road, and as
a pedestrian is naturally invisible to drivers, so it is rather dangerous to go on foot here
until the road widens a little further down. All along the road, on both sides, are shops
devoted to temple ware, and anything can be bought here from a giant Buddha image
through to small packets of incense. The shops are crammed with every conceivable need,
the goods spilling out onto the pavement, with alms bowls, saffron robes, bells, candles of
all sizes, shrines, altars, figures of monks, Hindu deities, and Buddha images in every pos-
ture. Wander into the alleys that lead of the road, and the workshops where much of this
produce is made can be seen, while the courtyard of an old printing works, the business
for which this district is also historically known, is used to store freshly gilded Buddha im-
ages, row upon row of them. Groups of monks can be seen wandering the street in their
saffron robes, window-shopping. Many of them will be from upcountry temples, for this
street supplies temples throughout the country. Many of the images are wrapped in trans-
parent plastic sheets, and pickups regularly cruise past with an image loaded in the back,
maybe bound for the railway station or a river pier but quite possibly setting out on a long
drive to a remote temple with a direct delivery.
The reason for this enormous concentration of temple goods and monks from the
provinces is Wat Suthat, a royal temple of the first grade, one of ten in Bangkok, which
trains and supplies priests for temples throughout the kingdom. Wat Suthat has enormous
