5. Canals in Bangkok
Oct 06, 2004
 From
the First Reign to that of King Rama III, Bangkok within its walls
was an almost unimaginably tiny place considering its vast sprawl
today. The seven-kilometre city wall enclosed just 2,163 rai – less
than three-and-a-half square kilometres – and a population of between
70,000 and 80,000. Bangkok has since spread outward to cover some
1,570 square kilometres and become home to an estimated 12 million
people.
The choice of dwelling places in the earliest years was either
inside the wall or on Rattanakosin Island. If citizens chose to
live beyond the gates, they often faced difficult conditions, not
least of which was flooding.
There were, however, the huge expanses of orchards and fields everywhere,
and these were viewed with pleasure by the multitudes who travelled
via the great transport routes of the day, the canals.
The waterway network that so enthralled foreign visitors and helped
build Bangkok’s reputation was traversed primarily in small, light
boats.
Out on the water – the bulk of Bangkokians living in raft-houses
along the Chao Phya and its tributaries – the genuine life of the
city could best be seen, its heartbeat most surely felt.
Townsend Harris, a businessman who served as US President Franklin
Pierce’s envoy to the court of Rama IV, estimated there were around
7,000 raft-houses at the time. And he could see for himself why
Bangkok was called “the Venice of the East”, so elaborate was its
labyrinth of natural and man-made waterways filled with boats.
The first and most important canal was dug in 1783, in Rama I’s
time, a defensive structure known as Rob Krung (literally, “around
the city”).
On the throne just one year, the King ordered the capital’s expansion
to the east, and 10,000 Khmer prisoners of war were set to work
burrowing a trench linking Banglamphu Canal, to the north of the
Chao Phya, with the Ong-arng Canal in the south.
Rattanakosin Island was actually formed by Rob Krung to the east
and the Chao Phya to the west.
At the same time, Rama I demolished the eastern city wall, built
in the reign of King Taksin, and two new parallel canals were excavated
to connect with Rob Krung.
Beyond facilitating his subjects’ movement and protection, Rama
I had Mahanak Canal built next to Wat Saket so they could come together
and socialise, while performers recited the traditional improvised
poetry known as “sakava” for their amusement.
When war with the early Vietnamese loomed, King Rama III had Chinese
workers dig the Saen Saeb Canal, from present-day Hua Mark to Chachoengsao’s
Bangkhanak district, to ship his troops.
The Saen Saeb also connected the Chao Phya with Bang Pakong and
eased the journey to Chachoengsao. Chinese labourers were also responsible
for the city’s outermost defensive canal, Padung Krung Kasem, which
in Rama IV’s time linked present-day Wat Tewarat Kunchon to Wat
Kaew Fa. It met Mahanak Canal at the Mahanak junction, which continues
to be an important trade centre.
Rama V oversaw the construction of Prem Prachakorn Canal by Chinese
workers, which connected Phadung Krung Kasem Canal with the Chao
Phya in old Ayutthaya.
Necessity, much planning and, obviously, a lot of forced labour
went into giving Bangkok its Venetian airs, but far more importantly,
its people a means of getting around.
These canals have always been transportation routes, bringing all
the food staples and life’s other essentials from near and far.
They have also, worryingly, always served as communal toilets and
sewers – this is no modern phenomenon.
King Rama V recognised with alarm that the Chao Phya and the canals
were becoming horribly polluted breeding waters for disease. He
moved to protect them by law in 1902, and 95 canals in Bangkok and
Thon Buri were formally registered.
Alas, the once-beautiful canals’ vulnerability to contamination
helped sign the death warrant for most. As the motor car created
a popular culture of road transport, Bangkok’s canals began disappearing,
and the great majority today lie refilled where once so many thousands
toiled to excavate them.
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