Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Leave the park by the rear gate and there is a small patch of wasteland and, behind
that, sitting directly on the riverbank, one of Bangkok's most florid Chinese shrines. Gong
Wu Shrine has a long history, predating Bangkok and even predating the Taksin era. There
are three statues here of Gong Wu. The smallest was brought to Siam by Hokkien traders
around the year 1736, during the period of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Chen Long. Later,
in 1802, the second Gong Wu statue arrived, and in 1822 a wealthy Chinese named Kung
Seng renovated the shrine, installed a bell tower, and brought in a third statue. The Gong
Wu Shrine has its own jetty, and from the end of this can be seen a small green onion-
shaped dome at a neighbouring jetty. There is a small public garden between the two jet-
ties, so the only way to find out what the dome belongs to is to walk around the garden
and into a rather dusty little corner, where through an almost hidden gate is the courtyard
of the Goowatin Mosque. This is, however, a very unusual mosque. The dome is mounted
over the jetty, and the only indication that this tiny building is a place of worship is the
traditional row of taps outside for the washing of hands and feet. Originally the building
had belonged to (yes, you have guessed correctly), Tat Bunnag. It had been used as a ware-
house, and next door, boarded up and crumbling away, is a splendid colonnaded building
that must have been the offices. The Persian ancestor of the Bunnags, Sheikh Ahmad, had
been a Muslim, and many of his descendants had held high office for Islamic affairs in
Siam. The Bunnag line had become Buddhist, but clearly there were strong family connec-
tions because when a group of Muslims arrived from the Indian city of Surat in the time
of Rama
IV
, Tat Bunnag had handed over this property for them to use as a mosque. The
Indians were traders but some became skilled translators in the Bunnag business. One of
them was named Ali Bai Nana. Everyone knew him as Clerk Ali, but he had ambitions
beyond translating, and he rose to become one of the wealthiest members of the Indian
community, the founder of the powerful Nana family. His descendant Lek Nana owned
part of the land on which the Princess Mother Memorial Park was laid out, and the family
today own huge plots of land on Sukhumvit Road, where the name is given to the district
that is served by the
BTS
Skytrain Nana station.
Crossing a bridge over the small canal that runs through here to connect with Klong
Somdet Chao Phraya takes us under the concrete span of Pokklao Bridge to, just a few
metres further on, the green girders of the far more aesthetically pleasing Memorial
Bridge. Opened in April 1932, the name commemorates the 150
th
anniversary of the
Chakri dynasty, although in Thai it is simply named after Rama
I
, King Buddha Yodfa, and
is known as Saphan Phra Phutta Yodfa, or colloquially, Saphan Phut. The designers and
builders were a British company, Dorman Long, who also built Sydney Harbour Bridge
