Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
21, the lane beside the mast, and walk through the District Office compound. There is a
flight of steps leading up to the ramparts, and a small garden with stone seats.
On the other side of the mast is the Taksin Hospital, and the lane alongside here, Soi
Lat Ya 17, leads between old timbered houses to a tiny canal. On its bank is Wat Thong
Noppakhun, a temple of unknown age, in whose forecourt is a stone yannawa , an ocean-
going Chinese ship. About seven metres long, painted cream and red, and with a bodhi
tree for a mast, the vessel carries an inscription in Thai that commemorates the arrival
of Buddhist monks from China and Japan. The vessel is a shrine, with offerings made at
the base of the tree, and directly behind the rudder is a single Chinese grave, encased in
plaster, where offerings are also made. The temple is believed to pre-date the Bangkok
era but to have been restored during the reign of Rama II , the Chinese porcelain on the
gable ends of the wiharn having become popular then, signifying the scale of trade with
China. Inside the wiharn are murals, with depictions of Siamese cats perched above the
main doorway, on guard against mice, cockroaches and other vermin. The windows on the
temple ubosot , or ordination hall, are unlike any other, resembling the port-holes of a ship,
set deep within the thick white walls, protected by gold and lacquer shutters and ringed by
elaborate frames. The sema stones, used to mark the sacred area of an ubosot , are encased
in cylindrical columns looking rather like miniature lighthouses, with the stones visible
only through a small slot on either side. Several chedis surround the temple, and there are
many small chedis and grave markers outside the house of the abbot, beyond which can
be seen a Chinese pagoda rearing into the sky.
Follow the lane around past the front of Wat Thong Noppakhun and some of the most
exuberant Chinese architecture in Bangkok will be revealed. Chee Chin Khor was a so-
ciety formed in 1952 to undertake charitable works for the poor and to provide disaster
relief supplies. During the first forty years of its existence the society headquarters had a
rather peripatetic existence, but this riverside site became home in 1993. A temple was
built, a four-storey structure with multiple roofs clad in green ceramic tiling, and the pa-
goda was added as recently as 2001, becoming an instant landmark for river travellers.
Saturday morning is a good time to visit Chee Chin Khor Temple, as there is a service at
that time and a sizeable crowd gathers at the open-air restaurant at the side of the com-
pound. There are four altars within the temple, with fat Chinese Buddhas and gongs and
incense, and the crowd surges into the building to disperse amongst the various floors and
altars. A climb up the circular interior staircase of the pagoda is irresistible, and from the
top there are beautiful views of the river and the city.
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