Bangkok's Hidden Gems
Our field school trip today brought us to Pom Mahakan, one of the great examples of the Thai community’s unmistakable community spirit and resilience. There were originally 14 forts in Bangkok, with Pom Mahakan being only one of the two remaining forts that have been preserved - the other being Phra Sumeru. Upon setting foot on the site, we witnessed several prominent traditional Thai wooden houses that dotted the area. It reminded a few of us of Malay traditional houses that can still be found in Southeast Asia today. One could immediately sense the isolation of the community as a result of its location behind the fort walls, wondering how such a small community like Pom Mahakan could be self-sustaining in such a conservative country.
We then set off to further explore our site of study - Ban Panthom. Our impression of the site on the first visit was that it beared much resemblance to the small, intimate settings of typical shophouses. We approached the narrowed roads where motorbikes and cars would still travel, running parallel to the historical canal. Adjacent to that were narrow alleys which housed the residents of the Ban Panthom community.
It is interesting to see that 2 communities of people situated at such close proximity could have such differing urban settings and traits of life. It is evident that the 2 communities are at different stages of realising their worth and contribution to the preservation of Thai heritage and history. In our opinion, Pom Mahakan at the point of our visit seemed rather staged, as compared to Ban Panthom which still had its own unique character and street life. It would be interesting to study and explore how Ban Panthom could adopt a different and unique model of conservation that could still preserve and conserve their existing way of life - the status quo. It would be sad and unfortunate to see if Ban Panthom were to completely succumb to the commodification of historical places and landscapes and turn into another tourist destination solely for the sake of bettering the Thai economy.
