The Old Harbour - 22 Walks in Bangkok - page 25

for Rama IV and who was elevated to Somdet Chao Phraya, the highest title a common-
er could attain, equal to royalty. Only the king and the king's brother, who was appointed
“second king”, a position invented by Rama IV but later discontinued, were higher. Along-
side this canal too were mansions and even a zoological garden. One of the canal-side
mansions belonged to another member of the Bunnag family, who were descended from
a Persian merchant who had settled in Ayutthaya around the year 1600. Built in the last
years of Rama IV is reign, the two-storey mansion is a romantic blend of English Tudor and
Moorish. When the Somdet Chao Phraya Hospital was built nearby, an annex for the psy-
chiatric unit was built next to the mansion, and the old house taken over as the residen-
ce for the hospital director. Today, beautifully conserved, it acts as the hospital reception,
while on the second floor is the Institute of Psychiatry Museum. Alas, Regent Island is no
more the home of palaces: the surrounding canal was filled in to become Arun Amarin
Road, and although there are a couple of gracious old houses behind high walls, the island
is now fringed with standard mid-twentieth-century housing.
Not far from Regent Island and on the bank of the Somdet Chao Phraya canal is a glor-
ious riot of white stupas. This is Wat Phichaya Yatikaram, an Ayutthaya-era temple that
was greatly enlarged during the years 1829-1832, in the time of Rama III , by Tat Bunnag,
the brother of Dit. The two brothers were so powerful in the court of Siam that they were
known as the Sun and the Moon, and Tat also took the title of Somdet Chao Phraya. The
temple architecture is heavily influenced by Chinese style, very much a characteristic of
Rama III 's reign, when almost all of Siam's trade was with China. The Bunnags owned
junks, and most of the materials used in the construction of the temple were brought in
from China, including the boundary stones that were carved by Chinese stoneworkers.
Instead of the overlapping roof leaves and the finials of the traditional Siamese temple,
the roof of the ubosot resembles the hood of a Chinese carriage, and the eaves are decor-
ated with stucco flowers and dragons. At the main entrance of the ubosot is a painting of
a Chinese warrior with a lion at his feet, a theme that is repeated on another door, where
a dagger-wielding angel is subduing a lion. Two enormous white prangs tower over the
compound, the largest of them housing four Buddha images looking out towards each of
the cardinal directions. A bronze statue of Tat Bunnag is seated at the temple entrance,
looking across the canal towards the river, the face modelled after a photograph taken of
him in middle age.
A few years later, in 1850, Tat Bunnag completed Wat Anongkharam, on the opposite
side of the road. The architectural style here is very different, the wiharn being built in
the classic early Bangkok style that originated in the time of Rama I . The principal Buddha