Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The riverside shrine to Kuan Yin is in a classic Chinese design.
A few metres along the walkway the Catholic community ends at a small waterway and
the Chinese district begins. Taksin had encouraged the Hokkien Chinese to settle here.
Residents had originally built two shrines on this site, but during the reign of Rama
III
the shrines were pulled down and replaced with a single temple to the goddess of mercy,
Kuan Yin. Over the course of a number of years the temple fell into a state of dilapidation
until the reign of Rama
V
, when one of Siam's best-known historians, Prince Damrong
Rachanuphap, passed through the community on his way to neighbouring Wat Kanlay-
anamit to take part in the casting of a large bell. He noted the decayed condition of the
building, the cracking of the mural paintings, the deterioration of the carvings on the roof,
and the depredations of rain and bats, and he urged the conservation of the temple that
was, he said, a masterpiece created by skilled artists who even then were becoming hard to
find. Today, the temple remains faded on the exterior, although a bright red archway has
recently been added at the walkway, leading through to a red-tiled courtyard. Two dragons
writhe on the roof. There are some beautiful bas-reliefs and murals on the exterior walls,
framed in blue, but they have become weathered and much of the paint has disappeared.
Inside, seen through swirling clouds of incense smoke, the wall paintings are vivid, tradi-
tional golden silk lanterns hang from the roof beams, and a one-metre-high statue of Kuan
Yin sits serenely at the back of the altar, facing the river. The shrine is cared for by a local
family and has a steady stream of Chinese visitors, albeit ones with a tendency to become
somewhat agitated when a large foreigner hoves into view with a camera.
From the walkway of the Memorial Bridge, Wat Kanlayanamit, an enormous barn-like
structure that rises above the neighbouring rooftops, dominates this part of the riverbank.
Oddly, though, it is easy to walk straight past the entrance when following the riverside
pathway, because it is an unassuming one next to a clutter of wooden shops and eating
houses, and the temple is set further back from the river than it appears from a distance.
Passing through the gate one is within another distinctive aspect of the Chinese com-
munity. A Chinese nobleman named Toh Kanlayanamit, who owned a residence on this
piece of land, founded Wat Kanlayanamit in 1825 and the design is a blending of Chinese
