Rama III and the Chinese Taste: The Origins of the Sino-Thai Style in Bangkok
Under the reign of Rama III, commonly placed between 1824 and 1851, several of Bangkok's royal temples were clad in ceramics and filled with stone…
Understand 12 min read
Period
Rattanakosin
- Dates
- 1782 –
Articles
Lanna, Kingdom of the North: from Mangrai to Dara Rasmi, Chiang Mai between Ayutthaya, Burma and Bangkok
For nearly six centuries, the north of present-day Thailand answered to a capital other than Sukhothai, Ayutthaya or Bangkok. Founded in 1296 by…
Understand 13 min read
Kudi Chin, on the Thonburi bank: the descendants of the Portuguese and the memory of a plural neighbourhood
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…
Understand 13 min read
From Rain-Fed Rice to the World Market: How Rice Cultivation Shaped Thai Society
The flooded paddies that now make up the image of the Thai countryside are not a timeless backdrop. Archaeology shows that the first rice cultivated…
Understand 13 min read
Rattanakosin Island, the historic heart of Bangkok: a capital shaped by water, contested by its memory
On 21 April 1782, on the eastern bank of the Chao Phraya, a wooden pillar is planted in the ground. This act founds the capital of the new Chakri…
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From the Ramayana to the Ramakien: how the Indian epic became Siamese
On the walls of Wat Phra Kaew, as on the stages of the *khon*, Phra Ram has been doing battle with Thotsakan for more than two centuries. Their story…
Understand 11 min read
Yaowarat, from Sampheng market to the ‘dragon road’: how Bangkok’s Chinatown took shape
Some one and a half kilometres long, Yaowarat Road has become the emblem of Bangkok’s Chinatown, with its shop signs, its gold shops and its…
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Tha Rae, on the shore of Lake Nong Han: how Catholicism took root in Isan
On the edge of Lake Nong Han, some twenty kilometres from Sakon Nakhon, a boat-shaped cathedral towers over streets laid out with ruler-straight…
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