Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
which from this perspective has a deceptively calm air. Did Anna ever climb this hill? I
would like to think so.
Back at ground level, the area around the base of Golden Mount is picturesque. The
mount is by the junction of the second moat and Mahanak canal: no sign of traitors'
corpses floating in the water here, but the junction is busy with the waterbuses that depart
for the journey out to Ramkhamhaeng. The pier is found by entering the gate next to Ma-
hakan Fort, which guards the canals. Spanning the Mahanak canal is a bridge whose pan-
els depict sorrowing figures mourning the loss of Rama
V
, who passed away in 1910. Vit-
torio Novi, the Italian sculptor brought out to Bangkok to execute the marble and granite
works for the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall that was then under construction, carved
the figures from photographs he took from life models, and the original pictures can be
seen in the archives today. Known officially as the Mahadthai Uthit Bridge, but more usu-
ally as the Weeping Bridge, the structure was completed in 1914. Continue along Paribatra
Road, a leafy street that skirts the base of Golden Mount and follows the second moat, and
there is a long-established community of woodworkers that grew up in the wake of the
seven sawmills that were working here along the canal-side in the late nineteenth century.
The entire street is given over to their businesses, and judging by the spruce appearance of
the shophouses, and by the huge amounts of timber stacked in the workshops in the back
lanes, they do very well. Beautifully carved doors and panelling, fine window frames and
screens with ornate fretwork are all here, along with handsome coffins, a legacy of Wat
Saket's original purpose.
In the shadow of Golden Mount is a village that has been there since the founding
of Bangkok. Rama
I
, in building his new capital, had allocated three areas solely for the
production of monks' alms bowls,
baat
, which, given the number of temples going up at
that time, and the number of monks arriving to live and work in them, must indeed have
been brisk business. Today, however, the three districts have dwindled to just this one,
Ban Baat, and it is so tiny it consists of only a couple of small alleys lying on the other side
of Bamrung Muang Road, and would be easily missed if it were not for a marker board.
The way leads between old timber houses and is navigable on foot only, but there is the
unmistakable tik-tik-tik of metal being hammered, and heaps of half-finished bowls on the
ground, on trestle tables, on pallets… everywhere. There are only half-a-dozen families in-
volved in the production of
baat
, a craft that has been passed down from the Ayutthaya
era and which is believed to have come from the Khmer. Each bowl is made from eight
sections of metal, representing the eight spokes of the Dharma wheel. The sections have
their edges serrated so that they interlock with each other, and then the joints are fused
