Kudi Chin, Bangkok: Thonburi's Portuguese Descendants

On the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, facing old Bangkok, the neighbourhood of Kudi Chin brings together a Catholic church, a Buddhist temple, a mosque and a Chinese shrine. It was here, in 1769, that King Taksin granted land to the Catholics who had come from the ruins of Ayutthaya, many of whom claimed Portuguese descent. Their descendants still live here, around Santa Cruz Church, a family museum and a cake that came from Europe. Yet the history of the place is older and more mixed than is usually told. To understand Kudi Chin is to untangle community memory, Church archives and tourist narratives, without mistaking one for another.

Old two-storey wooden house on pillars with fretwork friezes and a rusted metal roof, surrounded by vegetation.

A neighbourhood that was never only Portuguese

Seen from the river, Kudi Chin first announces itself through a pale dome rising above the low rooftops of the Thonburi bank. The neighbourhood occupies a narrow strip of land in the sub-district (khwaeng) of Wat Kanlaya, in Thon Buri district. It stretches along the west bank of the Chao Phraya, just south of Khlong (khlong, canal) Bangkok Yai, also once known as Bang Luang. Within a few minutes' walk, you pass from Santa Cruz Catholic Church to Wat Kanlayanamit, a Buddhist monastery that houses a deeply venerated image of the Buddha, Luang Pho Sampokong. Further on lie the Kudi Khao Mosque, also called the Bang Luang Mosque, and then the Chinese shrine of Kian An Keng (or Kuan An Keng).

This proximity is no mere backdrop: it sums up the history of the place. The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC), the leading public institution for anthropology in Thailand, devotes an entry to the community. It describes Kudi Chin as a former settlement of Hokkien Chinese merchants, established along the Wat Kalaya canal as early as the Ayutthaya period (14th–18th centuries). To this original core were added, after the fall of the old capital, groups arriving from Ayutthaya: Thais, Chinese, farang (the Thai term for Westerners), Vietnamese and Mon.

The descendants of the Portuguese, who made the neighbourhood's reputation, are therefore one component among others, arriving after the Chinese traders. Kudi Chin is indeed described today as a cluster of distinct communities — Thai Buddhists, Mon, Chinese, Luso-Thais, Thai Muslims — who share a territory without merging into it.

One name, two hypotheses

The name itself bears the trace of these layers. Kudi means a monk's dwelling in Thai. Kudi Chin (also written Kadi Chin, Kudeejeen or Kudi Jeen) can therefore be translated as 'the Chinese monk's dwelling'. Two explanations circulate.

The first, widespread in guidebooks and blogs, links the name to the second Santa Cruz church, built in the 19th century in a Chinese-inspired style. Local residents are said to have seen in this foreign place of worship a 'dwelling of Chinese clergy'.
The second, reported by Wikipedia on the basis of a source it cites, points to a Chinese shrine on the riverbank, attested as early as the Ayutthaya period. Having fallen into ruin, it is said to have been rebuilt as the present Kian An Keng.

The antiquity of Hokkien settlement, established by the SAC, makes the second hypothesis plausible. None of the sources consulted, however, allows the question to be settled. One observation stands: in either case, the name of Bangkok's 'Portuguese' quarter is a Chinese name.

From Ayutthaya to Thonburi: the land granted by Taksin

The history of the Portuguese in Siam begins long before Thonburi. The arrival of the first Portuguese in Ayutthaya is generally dated to 1511. They are often presented as the first Westerners received by the Siamese court, and they came primarily for maritime trade. Clergy are said to have followed and established the Catholic Church; one popular-history website gives the date 1567, which remains to be confirmed. Over more than two centuries, a Catholic Luso-Siamese population thus took shape in Ayutthaya. The community's own accounts associate it with trade, translation and the profession of arms.

In 1767, Ayutthaya fell to the Burmese armies. Taksin, the war leader who rallied the Siamese forces, established his capital at Thonburi, on the west bank of the river. According to several sources, Catholics of Portuguese origin followed him and settled near his palace, the Wang Doem, a few hundred metres north of present-day Kudi Chin.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Bangkok provides the founding date. On 14 September 1769, Taksin granted a plot of raised land to Father Jacques Corre, a French missionary. On a low, flood-prone bank, the elevation of the land was no trivial matter. Corre named it 'Camp Santa Cruz' (Khai Santa Khru), since that day was the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Santa Cruz means 'Holy Cross' in Portuguese.

Military reward or missionary concession?

Accounts differ as to the recipient of the gift. The Church source, repeated by a local-history blog, names Father Corre. Tourist websites speak of a gift 'to the Portuguese' in thanks for their military assistance: mercenaries, cannon, muskets. This account of a reward for war service does not appear in the extract of the Church source consulted.

The two versions are not necessarily mutually exclusive. A sovereign rebuilding a kingdom may well have had an interest in settling near his palace a population with military and linguistic skills. The missionary, for his part, was the institutional interlocutor who received the land on behalf of the faithful. But this reconciliation remains an interpretation: on the basis of the sources consulted, only the grant to Father Corre is documented.

1775: an oath on the Gospels

An episode reported by the archdiocese reveals the ambiguous position of these Catholics. In September 1775, a thue nam phiphat sattaya ceremony was held — a royal rite in which dignitaries swear allegiance by drinking consecrated water. Three Christian officers instead took their oath on the Gospels, before the altar of Santa Cruz and in the presence of the bishop. Taksin regarded this as an affront to his royal majesty.

The incident sheds light on a lasting tension. The community owed its land to the king and served him, yet its faith prevented it from taking full part in the rituals that underpinned loyalty to him. The sources consulted do not detail the aftermath of the affair.

A community that divides, settlements that answer one another

The tension was internal, too. According to Wikipedia, some of the Portuguese Catholics came into conflict with the French clergy over the running of the parish. This group crossed the river and founded, on the east bank, what would become the Church of the Holy Rosary, known in Thai as Wat Kalawar, in the Talat Noi neighbourhood. The exact date of this split has not been established.

The episode recalls an often-forgotten reality. From the late 18th century onwards, the 'Portuguese' identity of the faithful and the Catholic institution, then overseen by French missionaries, did not coincide. One may see in it a claim to community autonomy as much as a quarrel over authority, but the sources consulted do not allow its terms to be specified.

Bangkok thus has several Luso-Thai settlements, which long defined themselves in relation to one another:

Kudi Chin, around Santa Cruz, on the Thonburi bank;
Ban Khmer, around the Church of the Immaculate Conception (Wat Conception), on the east bank;
Talat Noi, around the Holy Rosary, born of the split mentioned above.

An oral tradition, reported by the Thai-language Wikipedia, sets the first two against each other. The descendants of Kudi Chin are said to belong to the bun side (the learned, skilled at negotiation), those of Ban Khmer to the bu side (the warriors). The saying proves nothing in itself, but it shows how the communities perceived one another. The same source states that the people of Santa Cruz were chiefly interpreters, an intermediary role between the Siamese court and foreigners that their social position made plausible.

Place names eventually confirmed this presence. During the reign of Rama VI (1910–1925), a notice from the Ministry of the Capital (Krasuang Nakhonban) fixed the boundaries of the tambon (sub-district) of Kudi Chin. The precise year of this notice remains to be established.

Who are the 'Portuguese' of Kudi Chin?

The residents who describe themselves as descendants of the Portuguese are Thai. 'Portuguese' here denotes not so much a nationality as a claimed ancestry, handed down through surnames, the Catholic faith, recipes and family stories. After more than two and a half centuries in Siam, this ancestry has mingled with others. The figure of Marie Guimar, highlighted by the local museum, was already of Japanese-Portuguese descent. English-language scholars speak of Thai Portuguese; in French one may say Luso-Thaïs. Those concerned, for their part, most often present themselves as 'descendants of the Portuguese'. The Thai term farang, applied to Westerners, is an exonym: it is applied to them from outside, notably through the cake that bears the name. Finally, not all Catholics in the neighbourhood necessarily claim this ancestry to the same degree.

Santa Cruz: three churches on the same plot

The church visitors see today is the third on the site. A first wooden church was built around 1770, shortly after the grant. Sources differ as to how it disappeared:

a local-history blog mentions a fire in 1833, which is said to have destroyed the Portuguese village and the church;
a guided-tour website speaks of a dilapidated wooden building replaced in 1835 by Pallegoix (known as a bishop, not as a 'cardinal', the title this site gives him);
a third website merely refers to a reconstruction 'in the mid-19th century'.

These secondary sources agree on one point: the second church adopted a Chinese-inspired style. This is the basis for the first hypothesis about the neighbourhood's name.

The present building dates from 1913–1916. The date 2459 of the Buddhist Era, given by a Thai source, corresponds to 1916. Descriptions of its style vary: 'Renaissance Revival' according to a Portuguese website, a blend of neoclassical and Renaissance according to a Thai media outlet. The latter also claims that the dome was inspired by that of Florence Cathedral, a comparison that no architectural source consulted confirms. The architect's name appears in none of them.

Inside, stained-glass windows depict biblical scenes and a statue of the Virgin occupies a place of honour. The library of Ramkhamhaeng University mentions a bell known as Phutthakai, said to be rung to offer good wishes to the king. According to this source, only two churches in the country possess one. The detail deserves verification, but it illuminates an essential trait: a Catholic church that takes its place within the customs of the Siamese monarchy.

The vocabulary points the same way. In Thai, the church is called Wat Santa Khru or Wat Kudi Chin. The word wat, which ordinarily denotes a Buddhist monastery, is applied here to a Christian place of worship — a sign of institutions being translated rather than simply borrowed.

For several decades, Santa Cruz was probably one of the capital's principal Catholic places of worship. One popular-history website claims it was the foremost, until the construction of the Assumption Cathedral in Bang Rak, which it dates to 1821; this date needs to be confirmed. We should, however, set aside the claim, sometimes repeated, that Santa Cruz was 'the second Catholic church built in Thailand'. It sits poorly with a Catholic presence in Ayutthaya since the 16th century and rests on no solid source.

Khanom farang: a memory you can eat

If the church is the neighbourhood's monument, khanom farang Kudi Chin is its most everyday heritage. Khanom means a cake or sweet in Thai; the name therefore means 'the Westerners' cake of Kudi Chin'. This small cake is presented by the Thai press as a recipe 'more than two hundred years old', inherited from the Portuguese. The traditional recipe comes down to three ingredients: flour, eggs and sugar, beaten at length, without baking powder. Atlas Obscura specifies that duck eggs, white sugar and wheat flour are used. It is sold plain, as small cakes that keep for seven to ten days, or with toppings.

Its origin belongs to community memory. Nawinee Phongthai, founder of the local museum, offers an explanation in Atlas Obscura. The Luso-Siamese of Ayutthaya are said to have tried to recreate European pastries without easy access to milk or wheat flour. Their first attempts with rice flour reportedly produced cakes that were too hard. This version, coherent though it is, remains the community's interpretation rather than a documented fact.

Transmission rests on a handful of families. The Thanusingha bakery claims to have carried on the recipe for some five generations. Its name comes from the surname of a great-grandfather, Luang Ramritthikrai; according to Sarakadee magazine in 2012, the brand was registered only in 2001–2002. The newspaper Post Today reports that the whole community once almost all made these cakes, but that only two shops remained; the article is undated and the figure needs updating. Other Portuguese-influenced preparations are mentioned, such as khanom kusrang. A 2023 academic paper also mentions the Baan Sakulthong household, which cooks from the recipes of great-grandmother Chawee Sakhulthong.

The move from household to trade, and then from trade to brand, shows how domestic know-how becomes an emblem. A family recipe turns into a sign of collective identity, and then into something to be bought on a visit.

Museum, Barcelos cockerel and tourism: an identity put into narrative

Since 2008, conservation and revitalisation initiatives have made Kudi Chin a destination for cultural tourism. A cycle path and a riverside promenade now link the places of worship. Bangkok's municipal authorities are seeking to make these riverside neighbourhoods easier to explore on foot, and public and private actors are planning the area's tourism development.

The Baan Kudichin Museum, opened in 2017, embodies this narrative. It was founded by Nawinee Phongthai, of the Thoratranont family, which claims descent from Portuguese soldiers, and it is funded by private donations. It occupies an extended wooden family house built more than eighty years ago. On display are:

the arrival of the Portuguese and the Thonburi period;
everyday objects and old photographs;
Thai words borrowed from Portuguese.

The museum also highlights Marie Guimar, known by the title Thao Thong Kip Ma. Of Japanese-Portuguese descent, she was head of the pastry kitchen at the Ayutthaya court, in the early 18th century according to one tour website. This figure belongs to the Luso-Siamese history of Ayutthaya more than to that of Kudi Chin proper; her inclusion in the local narrative is a choice of memory.

The community has also adopted as its emblem the Barcelos cockerel, a popular symbol of Portugal. It is a revealing choice: to express its roots, it borrows an image from contemporary Portugal rather than an object inherited from its own ancestors.

This promotion rests on a community of modest size. A paper presented in 2023 at a conference supported by Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University counts some 1,850 Catholics in 2014, spread across 293 households; a Portuguese website puts the figure at 'nearly 2,000', without a date. The study focuses on participatory tourism management, a sign that the question of who decides the neighbourhood's future is being raised. On the other hand, no figures were found on visitor numbers, the effects of possible gentrification or changes in religious practice. These gaps rule out any assessment, whether enthusiastic or alarmist.

Kudi Chin thus obliges us to qualify the image of the 'Portuguese quarter'. The descendants of the Portuguese were neither its first occupants nor its only ones. Their ancestry took shape in Siam, in contact with the French clergy, the Thonburi court and their Chinese, Mon and Muslim neighbours. Their history comes down to a few secure dates — 1767, 1769, 1775, 1916 — and a much larger body of traditions that must be read as such. The neighbourhood's heritage cannot be reduced to a church or a cake. It lies in the way a community, today, chooses and tells what it wishes to pass on.