Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
has dwindled to just one, a family-owned firm named Jiam Sangsajja. They are now the
only craftsmen in Bangkok producing the traditional stonewashed bronze bowls known
as
khanlonghin
. There used to be a tiny shop on the main street but it burned down a few
years ago, set alight when a gas canister in the neighbouring house exploded in the early
hours of the morning, says Metta Salanon, matriarch of the business. A gazebo has re-
placed the shop, and the small timber house that stood behind it now serves as Metta's of-
fice and showroom. Metta is a tiny, compact woman with glossy hair and a cherubic smile.
The fire had done the image of the business no good, and what was a dying trade now has
only a few years left. The two remaining smiths are now about sixty years old. When they
retire, there will be no one else to replace them, as nobody is interested in learning this
craft.
The workshop is a ramshackle mix of corrugated zinc and timber, lit mainly by daylight
from the open doorway. The heat hits you straight away, and the smell of burning coals
and red hot metal hangs heavily in the air. There is a startling plop and hiss as someone
tosses something hot into a tub of cold water. Two open furnaces protected by structures
like zinc sentry boxes throw out a cherry-red glow. Here sit the two smithies, each with a
helper, practicing their ancient art. A smithy places slivers of copper, tin and a gold known
as
thongmahlau
into an earthen mould and heats it for about ten minutes over the char-
coal. The contents melt and blend into liquid bronze, which is poured into a mould called
a
dinngann
. The bronze forms a pancake shape. The smithy bakes the flat metal until it
turns hard like stone, washing it in water to make it harder. He and his helper then al-
ternately beat the metal into its finished form, the final stage being known as
karnlaai
, in
which a much smaller hammer is used for final shaping. A middle-aged lady carries this
out, and the remainder of the tiny workforce is also female, three women carrying out the
cleaning and polishing stages. In earlier days the craftsmen would polish their work with
fine stones wrapped in a piece of cloth, hence the name “stone washed”. Nowadays they
grind the mould into powder and use that instead, a method that gives a depth and lustre
unmatched by the metal polish used by modern factories. The bronze glows in the light
that filters through the doorway, and if you ping a large bowl with your finger, it gives out
the resonant sound of a temple bell.
Ban Bu is tucked in directly behind Wat Suwannaram, a temple whose beauty is at
distinct odds with its grim history. King Taksin had used the grounds of this Ayutthaya-
era temple as a place to execute a large number of Burmese prisoners of war, who were
brought down from a holding camp at Bang Kaew in Phitsanulok Province to meet their
fate. Quite why Taksin chose the temple for this purpose is unknown. There is, however,
