Bangkok's Chinatown - Yaorowat
The unchanging face of Thailand's Chinatown.
A visit to Bangkok should include a half day in the city's Chinatown, Yaowarat, site of the original settlement of the Chinese who came to Thailand to work.
A visit to Yaowarat, Bangkok’s famous Chinatown, is sometimes better made after the Chinese New Year, as during the celebrations for that festival, the streets are crowded and restaurants are full. Like Mardi Gras in New Orleans, or Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, the revelry in the streets continues, but quiet places for contemplation can still be found hidden away in side streets.
There are Chinese Temples that pull in devotees, especially on the occasion of the Chinese New Year. The Year of the Pig doesn’t promise all sweetness and light and perhaps this is why the air is so thick with smoke from joss sticks. Wat Mangkorn Kamalawat, Wat Kalayanamit, Chao Poh Sua Shrine are all busy with people praying and making offerings to their ancestors and holy spirits.
On Trimit Road is the Trimit Temple which houses the famous shrine of the Lord Buddha cast in gold, a metal that has always held a special place in the hearts of the Chinese. Called simply the Golden Buddha, it supposedly weighs five and a half tons and is the heaviest Buddha statue in the world.
Surprisingly, the Golden Buddha was hidden inside a plaster cast for several centuries until 1954, when workers trying to remove the heavy sculpture found a code on the base of the statue relating to its contents. They broke the plaster cast and this unveiled the statue.
In Yaowarat Road lie the Chinese gold shops for which the area is famous, and if you are of a mind to buy some gold, then this is as good a place as any. The gold is sold by weight which can be found in the daily paper, but there is the added value of the workmanship which is the extra charge. It is expected that you will barter and you should sttart by offering half the price asked and then settle for three quarters, or whatever you feel you want to pay. Buy what you like, pay what you can afford should be your motto.
Visit the museum on the upper floor of the first gold shop to open in Bangkok 130 years ago, Tang Toh Kang,but an appointment may be necessary (02-224-2422) In the downstairs shop, they still use many of the tools used in the early days of the shop, while embracing some of the more technically advance tools as well.
Yaowarat is an island of Chinese culture in the modern city that Bangkok has become, and should not be missed.
