Bangkok: history and heritage

About Bangkok: history and heritage

By the ULTIMATE Bangkok Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Bangkok was founded in 1782 as the heir to Ayutthaya, the great Siamese capital destroyed fifteen years earlier. Its builders recreated the old city on a man-made island in a bend of the Chao Phraya, with the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha at its heart. Canals, temples, Chinese shophouses and, today, skytrains and towers have grown out from that island.

At a glance

Population: about 5.5 million registered residents (Department of Provincial Administration, Thailand), and many more in the wider metropolitan region.

Names: Krung Thep Maha Nakhon, the “City of Angels”, the start of a ceremonial name often cited as the longest place name in the world; Bangkok was the name of the riverside village.

Built as a new Ayutthaya on an island in the river, Bangkok has never stopped growing outwards.

Peoples: Thai, with a large Thai-Chinese community, Mon, Lao, Malay and Muslim communities, and newcomers from across Asia and the world.

Shaped by: Ayutthaya (1351–1767), Thonburi (1767–1782), the Rattanakosin era from 1782, and modern Thailand (named Siam until 1939).

Ayutthaya

For four centuries Ayutthaya, north of today’s city, was the capital of Siam and one of the largest cities in Asia, trading with China, Japan, Persia and Europe. It was destroyed in 1767; its ruins, an hour north of Bangkok, are UNESCO World Heritage.

Thonburi

After the fall of Ayutthaya a new capital was set up at Thonburi, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya. Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn, with its porcelain-studded prang, stands on that bank.

Rattanakosin, 1782

In 1782 the capital moved across the river, and King Rama I, founder of the Chakri dynasty, built a new city on Rattanakosin, an island formed by digging a canal across the river’s bend. The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew, home of the Emerald Buddha, rose there, followed by Wat Pho, with its reclining Buddha and its school of traditional Thai massage.

The canals and the Chinese

Canals, the khlong, were the city’s streets, and European visitors called it the Venice of the East. Chinese merchants, moved to make way for the palace, settled in Sampeng and Yaowarat, today’s Chinatown; Thai-Chinese families remain central to the city’s business and food.

Never colonised

In the nineteenth century, as Britain and France took the lands around it, Siam kept its independence through diplomacy and reform, the only country in South-East Asia never colonised by a European power. Its kings built railways, schools and European-style palaces such as the Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall.

The modern city

The twentieth century filled in many canals with roads, and the city spread far beyond the old island. The skytrain opened in 1999 and the metro in 2004. The American silk merchant Jim Thompson’s house of old teak buildings, and the riverside temples, keep the older city in view.

Our advice: visit the Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaew at opening time, walk to Wat Pho, then take the river ferry across to Wat Arun. End the day with dinner in Yaowarat, Bangkok’s Chinatown.

Sources

Population: Department of Provincial Administration, Ministry of Interior, Thailand (registered population). History: The Bureau of the Royal Household (Grand Palace); Fine Arts Department, Thailand; UNESCO World Heritage Centre (Historic City of Ayutthaya); Tourism Authority of Thailand.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Bangkok: history and heritage before you go.