Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ment along both sides,” said the announcement in the
RoyalGazette
, adding: “His Majesty
the King has graciously named it Yaowarat Road”.
The Jubilee Gate, representing the head of the dragon at Yaowarat Road.
Much to the delight of the Chinese residents the new road mate-rialised in a slightly
curvy form, rather than the straight line that typifies most of the other roads being built
at that time, and they pronounced it to be in the form of a dragon: a lucky omen, indeed,
although the shape was due to the road having to avoid property holdings, which is why it
took ten years to build. The head of the dragon is where Yaowarat meets Charoen Krung
Road in a large traffic circle, known as the Odeon Circle, after a cinema that was built
here. The centre of the circle formed a small garden that became the haunt of derelicts,
and in 1999, to mark King Bhumibol's seventy-second birthday, the Jubilee Gate was erec-
ted here to signify the eastern entrance to Chinatown. More usually known as the Odeon
Gate, and designed in traditional Chinese architectural style, the gate carries four Chinese
characters on its arch that mean “Long Live The King” and are in the handwriting of Prin-
cess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, who is fluent in Chinese.
A few metres from the Odeon Gate is the most famous place in Chinatown, Wat
Traimit, formerly known as Wat Samcheen, the original name meaning “three Chinese”,
commemorating its founders. The temple itself was an obscure one. Were it not for a
strange act of fate, those tour buses parked outside today would have never bothered to
stop there.
Wat Phraya Krai had been built near the riverfront downstream in what was to be-
come the Yannawa district at some time during the early days of the founding of Bangkok.
In the time of Rama
III
the temple had been renovated in honour of the king and came un-
der royal sponsorship with the new name of Wat Chotanaram. During the reigns of Rama
IV
and
V
the temple had been abandoned and fallen into ruin. In 1931, the East Asiatic
Company applied for permission to rent the monastery estate, and they cleared the land
except for the remains of the ordination hall, in which there were two Buddha images,
one of plaster and one of bronze. The Buddhist Ecclesiastical Committee directed that the
