Thailand

While in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, history and culture enthusiasts are encouraged to visit the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Museum. Here's a rundown of the attraction's highlights.

Bangkok is a fascinating land of immigration where populations of all races, colors, and nationalities coexist. To delve into the history of the Thai-Chinese community, a detour to the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Museum is essential. The museum occupies the first floor of Wat Traimit, within the Talat Noi neighborhood, Samphanthawong district. It sheds light on the experiences of the early Chinese migrants in the kingdom of Siam: the dangers of the voyage across the South China Sea, the means of survival upon arrival, the founding of the Chinatown city, the path to prosperity… Multimedia exhibitions faithfully portray the past of the Thai-Chinese, recounting how this ethnic minority gradually asserted itself and contributed to building the vibrant cosmopolitan metropolis that Bangkok has become today. Highly recommended during a stay in the City of Angels.

History of the Museum

Tribute to the Chinese

Small but powerfully captivating, the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Museum is one of the few ethnographic museums in Thailand. Locals sometimes call it the "Wat Traimit Museum" or the "Golden Buddha Temple Museum," after the name of the Buddhist monastery within which it is located.

Ethnic origin is a sensitive issue for Thais. Government policy is the cause, or more precisely, the desire to convey a favorable image of Thai society. Unlike neighboring Burma or India, Thailand boasts of having a united people living in friendship and harmony. To preserve this image, cultural and ethnic differences are deliberately kept under wraps. The Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Museum is the exception that proves this rule. It recalls how difficult the integration of the Chinese into Bangkok was due to the political turmoil that shook the young capital.

The construction of Sampheng: xenophobia or political score-settling?

The Chinatown district of Sampheng, or Yaowarat, came into being in 1782. This was the wish of King Rama I, who ordered the deportation of Chinese families descended from the Teochew tribe downstream of the Chao Phraya River. When, around 1770, King Taksin founded the capital of Thonburi, he sought the help of the Teochew ethnic group, with whom he himself had family ties, to supply the royal court with rice and provisions. In return, the Teochew obtained, among other privileges, the right to settle on the east bank of the Chao Phraya River, just opposite the royal palace.

Fortunes turned against the Teochew merchants when their powerful protector, Taksin, was ousted from the throne in a coup. Rama I reigned in his place. The latter appropriated the Teochew lands, on which he planned to build a palace even more beautiful and majestic than that of his rival. In any case, the Teochew tribe was not in the new sovereign's favor. Not only had it aided his rival, but it also competed with the Hokkien Chinese tribe, with whom Rama I had close relations. The order was given and immediately executed. The poor migrants were relocated to an isolated, landlocked, and unsanitary area southeast of the Chao Phraya River. Thus was born the Chinese community of Sampheng.

The migrants' refuge became a modern and prosperous district

Although it was initially a camp of despised and humiliated migrants, Chinatown actively developed its port trade from the 1850s onwards. Export and import operations to the Middle Kingdom flourished; Chinese shops, inns, and restaurants crowded the docks. Over the course of the 20th century, the neighborhood gradually lost its commercial importance; wealthy residents moved to the fashionable new suburbs. The Teochew ethnicity was fully integrated into Thai society, and traces of separatism disappeared. Nevertheless, the Sampheng district fondly remembers its Chinese origins. This is evidenced by the crafts, architecture, and culinary specialties.

The captivating museum exhibition

The history of Chinese immigration in the Sampheng district is revealed by the Yaowarat Chinatown Heritage Museum through its rich collection. A journey through time, starting in the second half of the 18th century, when the Chinese were invited to the ancient capital of Thonburi, and ending in the 20th century, with the transformation of Sampheng into a chic and glamorous neighborhood.

In a Chinese-style living room, a grandfather tells his grandson what life was like in Chinatown in the 1940s. The old man's intimate and passionate tone evokes emotion. This is what awaits you at the first stop of the exhibition. This is followed by video screenings depicting the arrival of the first Chinese in the Kingdom of Siam, the perilous journey aboard a junk, the way of life of migrants in old Bangkok, the problems they faced, the rise of commerce in Chinatown during the 20th century, and the full contribution of the Chinese to the country's economic development.

The museum's exhibitions are divided into six sections: A glimpse of the past (the touching conversation between grandfather and grandson); The beginning of the story (1782–1851) (the construction of the Grand Palace, the displacement of the Chinese to Sampheng, the Chinese marked on the wrist and reduced to forced labor, the massive immigration of Teochew and Hokkien to Sampheng due to famine, the popularity of the Chinese junk); Life in ancient times (the odds and ends of a Chinese junk); In the eye of the storm (a day at sea for Chinese migrants who left their plots of land in southern China in hopes of finding a better life in Bangkok; they faced waves and storms); The history from 1851 to the present day (the significant events during the reigns of Kings Rama IV to Rama IX); Nostalgia (a collection of old photographs related to Chinatown).

Practical information

Opening hours and admission prices

The Wat Traimit Museum is open every day except Monday. Visitor hours are from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Foreigners are charged an entrance fee of 40 baht, or 1.12 euros. Free admission for residents.

When to go?

Travel experts advise against the monsoon season, which runs from June to October. To visit the museum in fine weather, consider scheduling your visit between the first and last months of the year. Avoid weekends, as the museum will be crowded.

How to get there?

The museum is located on the first floor of the building housing the Wat Traimit shrine. The best way to get there is to take the metro to Hua Lam Phong and walk to the shrine once you get off at the station.

Nearby attractions

After leaving the museum, don't forget to explore other attractions in the city:

• the Golden Buddha Temple;
• the Temple of the Buddha's Relic and its small museum;
• the Sri Mariamman Temple;
• the Thong Chai Medical Institute.