Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The origins of the word Siam evolved in a similar haphazard way. It is not of native ori-
gin. There is a Sanskrit word,
syama
, which describes a shade of dark brown, and a Hindi
word,
shyam
, used for dark-skinned people. A twelfth-century a.d. inscription at Angkor
Wat is the first written evidence of this word being used to refer to the Tai, and it has car-
ried over to the Shan in Burma, who are of Tai origin. Early sources say that the people
of Ayutthaya continued to call themselves Tai, and their kingdom Krung Tai, or “the City
of the Tais”. The name Syam, Siem or Siam was propagated by the Portuguese, who pos-
sibly encountered it at Goa. Incidentally, the word “Tai” is not the linguistic root for the
name of modern Thailand. The latter is a confection that dates from the 1930s, when the
absolute monarchy had been overthrown and the new government was striving for an in-
ternational identity that would also please the local population. “Thai”, it was decided, is
generally held to mean “free”, while “land”, of course, is not even a Thai word. With more
than forty ethnic groupings in the country, the new name was not universally popular, and
there is even today a small but vociferous group of scholars who are lobbying for the name
to revert to Siam.
The rise of Thonburi
With the main force of the river water coursing through the route of the canal, the
original loop silted up and the waterway eventually became four canals: Bangkok Noi,
Bang Ramat, Taling Chan and Bangkok Yai. From these, other small canals and streams
connected and became the basis of transporting produce from the farms and orchards of
the outlying districts. With the growth of residential areas came the building of temples.
The garrison was strengthened in 1665 when King Narai the Great ordered the construc-
tion of Wichaiprasit Fort at the mouth of the Bangkok Yai canal to protect Ayutthaya
from invasion by sea. Narai had greatly expanded relations with the European powers,
which had unleashed an unprecedented foreign influence at the Ayutthaya court. Advised
that a stronger French presence would provide a counterweight to the Portuguese and the
Dutch, who were causing the most concern, in 1688 Narai allowed the French to increase
their military presence at Bangkok, occupying the Thonburi fort and building another on
the opposite bank of the river. A chain was laid between the two, which could be raised in
the event of uninvited shipping attempting to travel upriver.
For the Ayutthaya courtiers, increasingly hostile to the foreign communities and to
Narai's chief minister, a Greek adventurer named Constantine Phaulkon, this was the fi-
nal insult. The French were intent not only on trade and influence; they were flooding the
