The Mission to Siam, and Hué, the Capital of Cochin China, in the Years 1821-2

by George Finlayson

The city is continuous with the palace, extending on both sides of the river to the distance of three or four miles; it lies principally on the left bank, and the most populous as well as the wealthiest part lies nearly opposite to the house of the Pra-klang, but a little lower down. The town is built entirely of wood, the palaces of the king, the temples and the houses of a few chiefs being alone constructed of brick or mud walls. The mildness of the climate, the cheapness of the materials used in building, and the few effects of which the natives are possessed, render them indifferent to the destructive ravages of fire. The ruin occasioned by this element they regard with perfect indifference. From the great length which the city occupies along the banks of the river, it might be supposed to be a place of vast extent: this, however, is not the case. The Siamese may be said to be aquatic in their disposition. The houses rarely extend more than one or two hundred yards from the river, and by far the greater number of them are floating on bamboo rafts secured close to the bank. The houses that are not so floated are built on posts driven into the mud, and raised above the bank, a precaution rendered necessary both by the diurnal flow of the tides, and the annual inundations to which the country is subject. It has been said that there are but few, I had almost said, no roads or even pathways. To every house, floating or not, there is attached a boat, generally very small, for the use of the family. There is little travelling but what is performed by water, and hence the arms both of the women and men acquire a large size from the constant habit of rowing.

The few streets that Bankok boasts are passable on foot only in dry weather: the principal shops, however, and the most valuable merchandise, are found along the river in the floating-houses. These floating-houses are occupied almost exclusively by Chinese. In the most populous parts of the town the latter would appear to constitute at least three-fourths of the whole population; and if we were to form an estimate of those that are to be seen at all hours moving up and down the river in boats of various kinds, often forming a very animated scene, the proportion would be still greater on the side of the Chinese. There are but very few parts of Bankok where the Chinese do not appear to exceed the natives in number. The greatest uniformity prevails in the appearance of the houses—a handsome spire here and there serves to enliven the view, and these are the only ornaments which can be said to produce this effect, for the singular architecture displayed in the construction of the temples and palaces can hardly be considered in this light.

A more particular account of the floating-houses has been given above: like every other building in the place, they consist of one floor only. The houses generally have a neat appearance; they are, for the most part, thatched with palm-leaves, but sometimes with tiles. They are divided into several small apartments, of which the Chinese always allot the central one for the reception of their household gods. The shops, forming one side of the house, being shut up at night, are converted into sleeping apartments. The whole is disposed with the greatest economy of space: even the narrow virandas in front, on which are usually disposed jars of water, pots with herbs and plants, bundles of firewood, &c. They have become so habituated to this sort of aquatic life, as scarcely to experience any inconvenience from it. The walls and floors of the houses are formed of boards, and considering the nature of the climate, such buildings afford very comfortable shelter. The houses of the common people are equally wretched in appearance with those of a common bazar in India. Those occupied by the Chinese are in general neater and more comfortable. The latter people are not only the principal merchants, but the only artificers in the place. The most common trades are those of tin-smith, blacksmith, and currier. The manufacture of tin vessels is very considerable, and the utensils being polished bright, and often of very handsome forms, give an air of extreme neatness to the shops in which they are displayed. Were it not for the very extraordinary junction of the trade of currier, such places might readily be mistaken for silversmiths’ shops. The occupations just mentioned are carried on in the same shop conjointly, and by the same individuals. The preparation of leather is carried on to a great extent, not for the purpose of making shoes, which are scarcely used, but for covering mattresses and pillows, and for exportation to China. After tanning, the leather is dyed red with the bark, I believe, of a species of Mimosa. The hides used are principally those of the deer, which are to be had in the greatest abundance. Besides these, they use that of the ox and buffalo. Leopards’, tigers’ skins, &c., are preserved with the fur on, and exported to China. There are, in the place, one or two manufactories of shallow cast-iron pots, also conducted by Chinese: the process is extremely simple, and the articles are sold remarkably cheap. From the practice of these and other trades, the Chinese derive a very handsome livelihood; they are consequently enabled to procure more generous food than the natives. It is even a common boast with the labourers of this class, that they live better than the first chiefs of the country. Their food, however, is gross and rich to excess; pork is their principal and favourite diet, oil is reckoned scarce less savoury, and their vegetables are invariably brought to table floating in a sea of fat. A Chinese thus expends more money on eating, in one week, than a Siamese in two or three months, and his superior industry will enable him to do so.

The food of the Siamese consists chiefly of rice, which is eaten with a substance called Balachang, a strange compound of things savoury and loathsome; but in such general use, that no one thinks of eating without some portion of it. Religion offers but a feeble barrier against the desire to eat animal food, and the Siamese easily satisfy their conscience on this score. They conceive that they have obeyed the injunction of the law, when they themselves have not killed the animals. They do not hesitate to purchase fish, fowls, &c., alive in the market, desiring the seller to slay them before he delivers them over, well contented that the crime must remain attached to the latter. Their devotion, at times, goes the length of inducing them to purchase numbers of living fish for the purpose of turning them loose again, and the king has often in this manner given liberty to all the fish caught on a particular day. Yet the privilege of fishing is sold by the king to the highest bidder, and from this source he derives a very considerable annual revenue. The Siamese, however, are more choice in their food, and less indulgent of their appetites than the Chinese.

The town derives but little architectural ornament from the state of its public buildings, if we except the sacred edifice called Pra-cha-di. The palaces are buildings of inconsiderable size individually, in the Chinese style, covered with a diminishing series of three or four tiled roofs, sometimes terminated by a small spire, and more remarkable for singularity than for beauty. The palace of the king is covered with tin tiles.

Many of the temples cover a large extent of ground; they are placed in the most elevated and best situations, surrounded by brick walls or bamboo hedges, and the enclosure contains numerous rows of buildings, disposed in straight lines. They consist of one spacious, and in general lofty hall, with narrow but numerous doors and windows. Both the exterior and interior are studded over with a profusion of minute and singular ornaments of the most varied description. It is on the ends, and not on the sides of the exterior of the building, that the greatest care has been bestowed in the disposition of the ornaments. A profusion of gilding, bits of looking glass, China basins of various colours, stuck into the plaster, are amongst the most common materials. The floor of the temple is elevated several feet above the ground, and generally boarded or paved, and covered with coarse mats.

The fabulous stories of Hindu theology figure in all the absurdity that gave them birth, upon the interior walls. The wildest imagination would seem to have guided the artist’s hand; yet here and there he has portrayed, by accident, perhaps, more than by design, human passions with a degree of spirit and of truth worthy of better subjects. Notwithstanding the great demand there is for painting in this way, the circumstance is singular and remarkable, that this divine art should not only continue in its infancy among them, but that their performances should not even indicate a capacity of attaining to greater flights. If, as some believe, Asia has given birth to the arts, the experience of ages has proved that she is quite incapable of carrying them to perfection.

Here, for the first time, did I observe obscene paintings in a temple dedicated to Buddha. In Ceylon they would have been deemed altogether profane. We were amused to find suspended in a very handsome temple, two coarse paintings of French ladies, in rural costume.

At one end of the temple a sort of altar is raised, on which is placed the principal figure of Buddha, surrounded by innumerable lesser ones, and by those of priests; and here and there is disposed the figure of a deceased king, distinguished by his tall conical cap, peculiar physiognomy, and rich costume. The figures of Buddha have a cast of the Tartar countenance, particularly the eye of that race. They are very commonly disfigured by having tattered umbrellas of cloth or paper suspended over the head, or tied to it, and by having rags of dirty cloth wrapped round them, it being reckoned devout to deck the statues in this way; though as the images are all gilt, and in general well cast, this gives them a very sorry appearance. It will scarcely be credited how numerous the images of Buddha are in the temples. They are disposed with unsparing profusion on the altar, of all sizes, from one inch to thirty feet in height. In the outer courts of the temple they are disposed in still greater number. The arrangement observed in the temple called Wāāt-thay-cham-ponn, may be given as an instance of what occurs in the rest.

This consists of a number of temples, Pra-cha-dis[10], and buildings allotted for the accommodation of priests, enclosed in an ample square, rather more than a quarter of a mile on each side. The principal temples are further surrounded by a piazza open only towards the temple, and about twelve or fifteen feet in breadth, and well paved. Against the back wall, a stout platform of masonry extends round the temple, on which are placed gilded figures of Buddha, for the most part considerably larger than the human size, and so close to each other as to leave no vacant place on the platform. Of these statues the greater number are made of cast iron, others are made of brass, others of wood or of clay, and all with careful uniformity. Several hundreds of such images are thus seen at one glance of the eye. In other and less spacious passages, minor figures, chiefly of clay or wood, are heaped together in endless numbers. They would appear to accumulate so fast, that it seems probable the priests are at times reduced to the necessity of demolishing hosts of them.