Bangkok: The Battle of Fort Mahakan

Few people will know this name and yet, you have probably all passed by it without knowing it, if you have ever set foot in Bangkok. Located on the west of Rattanakosin Island, the heart of Bangkok's old town, the fort is one of the last 2 still standing (with Phra Sumen), out of the 14 in total that formed the fortifications surrounding 18th century Bangkok.

Next to the Mahakan Fort, which dominates Ratchadamnoen Avenue (a large artery where the democracy monument stands in the middle and not far from the famous Khao San Road, the backpackers' street), there was a community, well hidden behind the wall, a rare vestige of the ramparts which once protected the city.

Truth be told, without all the hype surrounding the plight of this community, I probably wouldn't have heard of it or even suspected its existence, much less set foot in it... I kept the article as originally presented to talk about this community but I'll talk about it just below, the battle was lost and the area became a park.

Update: “The battle” has been lost…

I just mentioned it above but yes, unfortunately, everything I present below was razed, the legal "battle" was lost and the community had to be relocated, the buildings and wooden houses dismantled/destroyed...

It was a shock to see one of the main houses being removed (the masseurs' house on stilts) and I understood at that moment that the "promise" to keep and integrate the most beautiful houses into the park would not be kept...

I was sincerely touched, not to say with tears in my eyes. I am deeply saddened that this notion of "everything must be spotless" and "modern" involves the erasure of such a heritage. While I can understand the desire (and even obligation in this case) to add green spaces, historical elements must still be taken into consideration when choosing the location.

How can we simply forget 200 years of history to add a simple, uninteresting lawn, hidden behind a wall?

The worst part is that the park in question was a flop, no one really went there, because it was poorly developed, not signposted, so even tourists, who were the target audience at the beginning, royally skipped it. It is even, to this day, restricted in access, even if I have seen photos showing a more advanced and pleasant flower arrangement, but which will never replace the irreplaceable.

The History of the Fort Community

Flashback. The formation of the small community of the fort dates back 200 years, at the beginning of the Rattanakosin era, during the reign of King Rama III (1824-1851). They were originally Thai aristocrats and their servants, who built houses near their masters.

By the time of Rama VI (1910-1925), 12 of the 14 forts and most of the city walls had been destroyed, as Bangkok no longer faced the threat of invasion but needed space to build and expand (the original old city wall was reduced from seven kilometres to just 170 metres).

Today the 100 meters remaining from the wall The six-metre-high pillars that still stand around the Mahakan Fort are listed as a National Heritage Monument by the Department of Fine Arts. The fort itself has stood for over 230 years.

The battle to save the community

The idea of ​​developing this area dates back to 1959! But it was only in 1978 that the problems really began. The community area of ​​Fort Mahakan had been designated to be replaced by a public park as part of the overall plan for the conservation and development of Rattanakosin Island.

The royal decree of 1992 drove the point home. This decree aimed to add green spaces and reorganize the urban plan of Rattanakosin to attract tourists.

But as one of the residents points out, tourists (at least if I take my specific case) prefer to see people's daily lives rather than a park. Even more so in the case of this community, given the unique rarity of these old wooden houses, it's like a journey through time to walk behind the wall.

A year ago, there were 56 houses, for a total of about 200 inhabitants. The authorities were finally able to take action, after a long legal battle, today, there are still 40 houses according to the latest count. 12 houses having first been destroyed in September 2016 and then 4 more recently.

The authorities' argument is that today, community members no longer have any original historical connection to the site, since the original owners moved away when the BMA expropriated the land following the 1992 decree.

The community, however, insists that they are indeed descendants of families who lived there for years. Families who gave birth to part of Thailand's artistic heritage.

It should be noted that as early as 1897, a Likay Theatre was born. Likay being a kind of humorous popular theater which very quickly became fashionable at that time, attracting spectators to the fort community.

Crafts still exist on the site, with locals making traditional-style birdcages and sculpting miniature hermit statues (Rue Si Dud Ton)

A video showing the action of these residents to preserve the community

Concretely, after the plan defined in 2009 by people wishing to help the community, the idea of ​​which is transforming Mahakan into a living museum, as proposed by Silpakorn University, the community had proposed five rules on how they could live in harmony with a park without being encroached upon too much and disappearing altogether.

These 5 rules should have been:

1. The community will live in the park as a cultural tourist attraction, a floating market will be set up at Khlong Ong Ang with handicraft shops, traditional trainings and performances.
2. The community will take care of the maintenance of the park with technical support from the BMA.
3. The community will become a model of how a community can live alongside Bangkok's parks and waterways.
4. The city of Bangkok will collect income from the community.
5. The community will take care of the park, day and night, free of charge.

Despite this fine approach, the BMA refused... However, I find their approach rather noble although a little clumsy in a sense, because suddenly, the places would also be transformed into a "tourist" zone as "classic" as elsewhere...

I think the area can be transformed without adding a floating market and other "folklore" just for tourists. At least, that's my feeling.

A photo I took on the site shows what such arrangements could have looked like:

The beautiful houses of Mahakan

To this day, despite the disappearance of several houses, I enjoy walking around this little lost "paradise". It's like going back in time to that good old Bangkok of yesteryear, where the canals served as the main road.

It is quiet, despite the proximity to the main artery that is Ratchadamnoen Avenue not far from there. It is a place still little known to tourists, despite the community's attempt to attract them to shed light on the plight and show the BMA that they are not letting themselves go.

Since last July, they have installed information panels in front of the main houses such as the old goldsmith, the drinking water distributors, the musicians' house or the police station, are all old houses that you can come across while walking behind the wall.

Well protected by the trees, it is also in the shade, and with the heat that we can experience here, a little freshness is not too much. The inhabitants seem to go about their business for the most part as if nothing had happened. Others seem to be waiting for something to happen...

It's quite small, but it's enough to give you a sense of tranquility and the feeling of being in an old village and not in the heart of a big megacity like Bangkok.

It's everything I love and a perfect example of what Bangkok can offer, which is not just a big city that is "very polluted", "dirty", "too crowded/tiring", such are the negative arguments that I tend to hear and which I regularly try to demonstrate the opposite of on this blog (see for example the article on the Kudee Jin district)

I strongly encourage you to go there, not only to help this community by showing its tourist interest but also to see another, discreet and hidden aspect of what Bangkok can offer.

Knowing that at the rate things have been going in recent months, I don't think the community as we can still see it today will remain as such for long... Just the other day, I went there and yet another group of houses had been razed...

Soon Mahakan will be only a shadow of itself and if the oldest houses will still be there, their inhabitants and what made the charm of this district will be nothing more than a "sanitized" garden...

The other community threatened

Smaller and practically opposite Mahakan, there are also some century-old wooden houses. They line the canal that passes between the Wat Ratcha Natdaram Worawihan temple, where the building named Loha Prasat (also nicknamed the "Metal Castle") and Wat Thepthidaram are located.

Here too, along an alleyway, we find an atmosphere typical of old Bangkok, its amulet sellers at its entrance, with the local noodle seller, a small grocery store and the brothel that characterizes the interior of these cramped old rooms.

In an effort to not end up with the same fate, I felt a willingness in the tidying up carried out in the alley in question, tidying up the mess a little, repainting the facades to beautify everything. This gives less of an impression of neglect, which was reproached to the other neighboring community. To this day, I do not know what the plans are but this alley is still holding up and I invite you to go there before it also disappears…

How to get to Mahakan Fort

First, here are some landmarks on a map, to visualize where the fort community is located:

You're only less than 1km from Khao San, so if you're staying in the area it's definitely easy to get to.

If you are coming from the Siam/Pratunam district, the easiest way is to take the boat on the Saen Saep canal, you have stops near these 2 districts (which are side by side, see the map of stops on the canal), the arrival being the terminus, at the Phan Fa bridge.

For others, there is still the taxi option, see BTS then boat depending on where you are stay in bangkok.

Things to see around Mahakan Fort

If you're going to come to the area, here is a list of possible visits within a radius of about 600 m (a figure chosen at random, but I wasn't going to extend the search to all of Rattanakosin otherwise we're in trouble...).

• Wat Saket (the golden mountain)Wat Saket, in addition to not being generally overloaded with tourists, allows you to have a nice 360° view of all of Bangkok. On one side, the old city, with in the distance the Grand Palace, Wat Pho Wat Arun, etc. On the other, the new city with its alignment of towers that seem infinite.

  

• Monks' Quarter: This is where you can come across shops selling statues and religious accessories for monks, temples or at home.
• Wat Suthat and the Red Giant Swing: Wat Suthat is little known, but worth a look, I think. It is a temple with a large seated Buddha, a beautiful courtyard with its cloister filled with Buddha statues. The "swing" is located in front of this temple, itself facing the town hall square. It was used for Brahmanic ceremonies (of Hindu origin).
• Bangkok Corrections Museum and Rommaninat Park: The title of the museum is I think quite "explicit", it is a museum exhibiting the abuses that were used in particular for death sentences in Thailand (little used since 6 sentences have been carried out since 2003). The park is a former prison of which we can see old towers and surrounding walls, which has been converted into a small corner of greenery that is always welcome.

  

Sources used in writing this article (in English):

- see an article in English Among those who informed me of the current outcome, strangely, I found no French-speaking source alluding to it...

- On the plan and alternatives to the BMA project

- On the fate of its inhabitants of the community

- A New York Times article summarizing the case

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