20171006151049rise and Fall of The Bangkok Mandala

RISE AND FALL OF THE BANGKOK MANDALA
Author(s): EDWARD VAN ROY

Source: Journal of Asian History, Vol. 45, No. 1/2 (2011), pp. 85-118
Published by: Harrassowitz Verlag
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41933582
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EDWARD VAN ROY
(Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok)
RISE AND FALL OF THE BANGKOK MANDALA
The mandala (usina, pronounced "monthon" in Thai) is a rigorously

symmetrical geometric diagram representing the Brahman-Buddhist
cosmos. In centuries past it served as a mystic metaphor for the unique
structure of Southeast Asia's kingdoms and capitals.1
The [...] premodern Theravada kingdoms, including those in Thailand, were quite
self-consciously constituted as microcosms in which the main lineaments of the cos-
mography and the hierarchical, merit-determined order of the cosmos were replicated
at the level of human social organizations.2
That vision is described in graphic detail in the Traiphumikatha lmq2mn,

or Discourse on the Three Worlds , a classic Thai metaphysical exposition
said to date from mid-fourteenth century Sukhothai.3
* The author thanks his colleagues in the Department of History and Institute of
Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, as well as Chatri Prakitnonthakarn,
Carl Trocki, Kritika Ratanaphruks, and Ralph Van Roy for comments on ear-
lier drafts of this paper. He also thanks Craig Johnson for assistance in applying
Maplnfo Professional software to historical reconstructive mapping, and to
Sutee Boonmee for preparing the sketch maps appearing in this paper. The six
maps appearing in this paper are black-and-white sketches abstracted from the
author's color-coded, annotated computer maps of Thonburi's and Bangkok's
physical history, 1767-1910, which were compiled from a wide variety of
primary-source data on the urban area's morphological evolution.
1 Among the many studies that deal with the political applications of the man-
dala metaphor in the premodem Southeast Asian context are: Tambiah (1977);
Sunait (1990); Eck (1987); Wolters (1999). Surprisingly, however, none of
those many studies considers the application of the mandala motif to nineteenth
century Bangkok, the subject of this paper.
2 Frank E. and Mani B. Reynolds, "Translators' Introduction," in Reynolds and
Reynolds (1982), p. 23.
J AH 45 (2011)
86 EDWARD VAN ROY
In conformity with its use as an instrum

sight, and ritual demarcating the conse
cants could enter into harmony with t
architectonic blueprint whereby the m
be replicated in the mundane world of
groundplan thus relied heavily on the
centricity, boundedness, radiation, axia
tion, and hierarchy. Rigorous applicatio
identified the city's ceremonial center, th
of its guardian spirit shrine, shelterin
bounds, dividing inner order from ou
encircling wall, bastions, gates, and mo
status radiated in diminishing gradation
riphery and beyond. The city's palaces
were aligned along the directional axes
the east, the most auspicious direction.
tematically bifurcated between inner
north and south, east and west. Replica
equivalence of the city's major elemen
sites of progressively lesser scale and
mandala's emphasis on hierarchy was e
lines and tapering towers punctuating t
cosmic mountain itself.
This paper proposes that one of th
Southeast Asian political history was t
or "blueprint" for the planning and co
eighteenth century.4 It further examin
course of the subsequent century, the
verged progressively from its original
design and culminating around the turn
3 The standard Thai edition of Traiphumik

systematized English translations are avai
and Lithai (1985).
4 Bangkok was, in fact, Southeast Asia's pen
the eponymous city of Mandalay, founded
for only 26 years until the end of the Kan
Upper Burma into the British empire.
JAH45 (2011)
RISE AND FALL OF THE BANGKOK MANDALA 87
dismantling of its mandala-based infrastructure in favor of a ne

morphology patterned after Western prototypes. That physical t
mation of Bangkok's symbolic cityscape formed an integral ele
Thailand's transition to a modern socio-political order, a proces
remains incomplete to the present day.
Structural anthropology would propose that
[...] the study of such specific "spatial phenomena" as the distribution of p
camps, the layout of towns, the network of roads, "permits us to grasp the nati
conception of their social structure; and, through our examination of the gaps an
dictions, the real structure, which is often very different from the natives' con
becomes accessible.5
In the case of Bangkok, we can go one step further by placing

polarities of that essentially synchronic view in diachronic per
examining the nexus between the city's evolving physical morp
and social organization from its eighteenth century inception to
twentieth century. In examining that urban history with direct r
to the sacred symbolism of the mandala, several questions arise
role did the mandala motif play in Bangkok's planning and const
How did the mandala's aesthetic principles express themselves i
kok's physical design? Why did the mandala wane as Bangkok's
tectonic template over the course of the city's two-centuries-long hi
In what ways did that physical transformation interact with t
evolving social organization? Such questions contest and lead far
the blunt assertion that
[...] the layout of [old Bangkok] showed an obvious lack of concern for th
arrangement of the Indie ritual space [viz., the mandala] in which to carry into
performative form of government that Clifford Geertz has famously termed (wi
ence to Bali) the "theater state".6
5 Kuper (2003), p. 249, citing Lvy-Strauss ( 1 967), p. 328.

6 Peleggi (2002), p. 78. Similarly, it contests the view that "After Angkor,
to identify a Southeast Asian city in which the mandala is a strong infl
Baker (2002), p. 172.
J AH 45 (2011)
88 EDWARD VAN ROY
Origin of the Bangkok Mand
Map 1: The Thonburi mandala, pre- 1782
The ancient guardpost and customs station at

ters downriver from the former capital at Ay
Taksin in late 1767 as a fortified position from
military campaigns aimed at restoring the Tha
been destroyed by the Burmese. It thus becam
tal by default over the course of Taksin's 15-y
it appears never formally to have been conse
by the lack of any documentary or physical ev
ceremonies and installation of a city pillar as i
ciencies as the kingdom's new seat of gove
stricted confines, eroding riverbank, inadeq
ability to attack from the west, were apparent
definitively remedied until some 15 years later
taken early on to strengthen the capital's de
moat along its rear flank, flowing from th
Bangkok Noi) marking the city's northern lim
(Khlong Bangkok Yai) at the southern end to cr
7 Thipakorawong(1988),p. 1.
JAH45 (2011)
meters wide, two kilometers long) riverside stronghold. The

backed by a wall which was eventually extended to encircle the ent
del. Still concerned about the fortified position's vulnerability to the
king had an outer defensive barrier erected, a second moat - little
a ditch given the manpower shortage - backed by an earthen parap
with dense bamboo thickets and gun emplacements. That outer bou
about 400 meters west of the Thonburi city moat, doubling the cap
fective width. Those western defenses were abandoned as impractic
ever, as the threat of Burmese attack receded after 1776 and as the
cityscape expanded eastward, cross-river.8
It was only then that concerted action was taken to transform T
into a capital worthy of the name. Though no reference to those ac
pears in the Thonburi royal chronicle,9 several independent strands
dence support a plausible scenario. First, a sudden heightened inter
aforementioned Traiphumikatha coincided with the upgrading of th
buri cityscape along the lines of the mandala model. With only a fe
script fragments of that metaphysical treatise having survived the
Ayutthaya (1767), it was certainly more than fortuitous that in a f
activity two new recensions were prepared by royal order in
1778.10 One motivation behind the new recensions may have arisen
arrival at Thonburi in 1770 of some of the Brahman court officials - the
8 A section of that abandoned Thonburi moat was deepened and widened in the
1860s for the Nantha Uthayan Palace, a sprawling royal retreat developed for
Rama IV. Remnants of other segments of the old moat were still observable as
late as the close of the nineteenth century, as indicated in an 1897 survey map of
greater Bangkok, but all those lingering traces were subsequently obliterated to
cut the right-of-way for one of Thonburi's major thoroughfares, Isaraphap Road.
See Royal Thai Survey Department (1984).
9 That royal chronicle ( Phrarachaphongsawadan krung thonburi) was originally
prepared by order of King Taksin around 1779. A revised manuscript, the version
referred to here, was prepared in 1795 by Phan Chantanumat (Choem), a royal
scribe serving King Rama I. Along with other manuscript accounts of the Thon-
buri period available only as edited versions dating from the early Bangkok era,
that recension "involved everything from correcting the style and spelling, to ex-
tending the coverage, inserting new material, and altering old material [with the
primary objective of placing the Chakri dynasty in a favourable light]," according
to Nidhi (2005), pp. 290 and 3 1 6-3 1 7.
10 See Ivarsson (1995), p. 58, and C. Reynolds (2006), p. 169.
J AH 45 (2011)
90 EDWARD VAN ROY
ultimate champions, exponents, and arbiter

and its application to royal ritual - who had
in 1767 for the southern haven of Nakhon
have been related to Taksin's tum to adv
meditation at around the same time. Wh
stances, the revived emphasis on the Thr
have inspired the officials responsible for t
proceed in conformity with the mandala m
A second indicator of Thonburi's developm
dala motif is provided by an exceptional con
its environs long buried in the Burmese n
the city dates it to approximately 1780, and
not to mention its provenance, suggest tha
spy. Its wealth of information presents an
buri's essential lineaments, including its
royal and noble compounds, temples and
cantonments, gun batteries, rice stores, an
Of particular interest is its portrayal of the
bank, though that precinct, among other c
as being considerably smaller than actual (a
ing physical evidence) and lacking the moat
the city's eastern precinct. Equally interest
river is shown fully walled, in striking cont
the Thonburi walls lined both the east-
riverbanks.12
Several additional bits of physical and d
third indicator of Thonburi's formal cro
above, the city boasted east-bank fortifi
west bank. An archaeological excavation
partment in the early 1990s along the ol
Former City Moat (Khlong Khu Moeang D
11 "Map of Thonburi," estimated c. 1780, un

National Archives, Yangon; scanned copy in
Professor Sunait Chutintaranond.
12 The conventional view is exemplified by
(1994), p. 56.
JAH 45 (2011)
RISE AND FALL OF THE BANGKOK MANDALA 9 1
dation of the old wall,13 confirming the information conveyed b

mese map.14 Furthermore, among the documents carried by a tri
sion sent by Taksin to China in 1781 was a royal letter propos
patch of nine junks to Canton with rice in return for cargos of br
stones, and tiles.15 While locally established Chinese merchan
equipping at least 40 ships a year over the course of the Thonburi
bring back such construction supplies as clay, cement, and quickli
special royal request for high-quality building materials supports
tion that Taksin was intending to build an east-bank grand palace
was nearing its end.
In sum, by the close of the Thonburi period an enlarged capital
metrical proportions, straddling the river with parallel west- and
precincts, had begun to take shape. To complement the orig
west-bank citadel an equivalent moat had been dug around t
precinct, its northern and southern mouths emptying into the ri
across from the canals defining the northern and southern li
Thonburi citadel. Further replicating the west-bank city, th
east-bank precinct had been fortified with a gated wall. The
city's vertical axis was represented by the river itself. Its hor
skirted the riverside Wat Bang Wa-yai (later renamed Wat Rakhan
aram), monastery of the supreme patriarch of the Thonburi
Buddhist monkhood. In the absence of a city pillar that temple m
center of the urban mandala. Continuing across the city's eas
cinct, the horizontal axis passed between the palace of Taksin '
the prospective viceroy and heir presumptive ( uparat eibiif), a
planned new grand palace, occupying the approximate site of
palace later built by Rama I. With those developments Thonb
tained the basic structural lineaments of a mandala city.
13 Amplan ( 1 994). pp. 44 62.

14 The old Thonburi city walls surrounding both the west- and east-ba
were dismantled in 1783/84, following the decision to move the c
east bank and their brickwork was used to build the Bangkok city w
parently their brick foundations were left undisturbed.
15 Taksin (1781), cited in Cushman (1981), p. 51.
16 Sarasin (1977), p. 171.
JAH 45 (201 1)
92 EDWARD VAN ROY
Map 2. The initial Bangkok mandala, 1782-1785
The opening passage of the royal chronicl

the chronicles' sole reference to the new ca
brief mention declares that in the two w
start of the Chakri dynasty's First Reig
political crisis and myriad reign-change
attention of the newly enthroned king (
was taken to recenter the capital from the
bank. The stated reasons were the persist
the constricted confines of the Thonbur
plicit reason appears to have been the t
other Southeast Asian capitals, or at least
tic turnover, to mark the political rebir
spiritual purity. The most plausible exp
re-creation as Bangkok after the reign chan
an urban development plan that had bee
regime and was ripe for immediate implem
1 7 Thipakorawong ( 1 988), p. 1 .
1 8 Intimations of such a possibility are offere
sible is the contention that Phraya Thammat
J AH 45 (2011)
Earlier preparations to recenter the capital on the east bank wo

explain why and how, within only two weeks after the reign c
cadastral survey had been completed to stake out the expanded cit
parameters; a sizable Chinese community had been evicted f
planned city site; and the new capital's cosmic pivot, the city pil
been ritually implanted.19 Those actions in turn triggered further p
tory tasks for the new capital's construction, including the mobilizat
manpower and acquisition of construction materials; the draining, cle
leveling, and raising of the new city center's swampy terrain;
readying of residential precincts for the relocation of the capital's p
elite. Lacking any indication to the contrary, the First Reign chronic
plies, not without a trace of disingenuousness, that all this was d
denly, spontaneously, even impulsively by order of the newly
king, a ruler otherwise renowned for his cautious, sagacious te
ment.20 In fact, as has been noted above, circumstantial evidence
an earlier start to the planning of the new capital and its grounding
mandala template dating some years back into the Thonburi period.
In contrast with the necessarily speculative interpretation of Thon
mandala associations, Bangkok was undoubtedly planned from th
as a replica of Indra's celestial city. That is firmly attested in its
proclamation as City of Deities, Great City, Excellent Jewel
two senior officials mentioned in the First Reign chronicle (Thipako

1988, p. 1) as responsible for surveying and laying out the new city sit
ready initiated that work in the preceding reign.
19 The city pillar served not only as the pivot of the two-dimensional urb
but also formed the vertical axis of the city's three-dimensional cosm
Metaphysically, its depths reached to the nether world of ghosts and
(represented by the ancient practice sacrificing a pregnant woman bene
implanted pillar); its visible element passed through the realm of huma
tion; and its upper reaches ascended via the incense clouds of its devotee
world of the gods. Through the ancient Southeast Asian fertility rites a
with its phallic imagery it contested the Buddhist ethos propagated by th
kings, and so in the Bangkok period it soon fell from royal favor.
20 The deliberative governance style of Rama I is stressed by Dhani (1
Wyatt (1994). Dhani (1955), p. 36, for instance, emphasizes that Rama
the habit of taking steps to study and enquire before embarking upon an
tant move" and provides several examples in evidence.
JAH45 (201 1)
94 EDWARD VAN ROY
(Krungthep maha nakhon bowon ratanak

It was evidently for that reason that in
reign, Rama I ordered a new recension o
The king would not have been collecting mus

his ministers [and taking other steps to validat
assigned to the compilation [of the Traiphumi
tical value. No less a figure than the supreme
monastic order] advised the work; since hig
contents the cosmography must have forme
educated [member of the Thai elite] should kn
As illustrated in map 2, considerable

formity of Bangkok's initial design wit
the Traiphumikatha. The cityscape's d
were attributable not to willful distorti
modate the practical realities of the loc
21 That was the capital's abbreviated nam

"amon" mn to distance the name from ass
which included the term "bowon"). The fu
phrase appears in Thipakorawong (1988)
term, "Krung Ratanakosin" n^Vrnlrmuii
teenth-century walled city of Bangkok. O
century, however, "Ratanakosin" iuln
quated in common use and replaced by
city's innermost administrative district),
age, Bangkok.
22 C. Reynolds (2006), p. 170. The all-embracing influence of the Three Worlds
cosmology on the Thai intellectual and moral fabric during the early decades of
the Bangkok era is explored in Saichon (2003).
23 It has been widely accepted among Thai histonans that the onginal Bangkok city-
scape was designed primarily for defensive purposes in keeping with the instruc-
tions on the appropriate disposition of military forces contained in the ancient
Manual on Victorious Warfare (Department of Fine Arts, 2009), which survives in
several manuscript versions stored in the National Archives, Bangkok. By late
eighteenth-century Southeast Asian standards of military technology, however,
Bangkok's defenses were not impressive. Charney (2004), p. 257, for instance,
notes that the introduction of Western firepower had left Bangkok's wall and bas-
tions largely redundant for military purposes by that time. Nevertheless, as stated by
C. Reynolds (2006), p. 1 5 1 , they continued to serve the imperative ritual function of
protecting the citizenry "just as a Buddhist amulet protects its possessor." Bang-
JAH 45 (2011)
Table 1. Bangkok palaces: Locations over the course of the first five Chakri
1782-1 9 10a
Reign Citadel City Outside Total

(outside the citadel) (outside th
First Reign (1782-1809)
1782-1785
King's entourage 2 4b - 6
Viceroy's entourage 1 4b - 5
1785-1809
King's entourage 10 - - 10
Viceroy's entourage 4 - - 4
Second Reign
(1809-1824)
King's entourage 10 4 - 14
Viceroy's entourage - 1 12
Third Reign (1824-1851)

King's entourage 9 9 - 18
Viceroy's entourage 4 7 3 14
Fourth Reign (1851-1868)

King's entourage 1 - 5 6
Viceroy's entourage 2 4 - 6
Fifth Reign (1868-1910)

1868-1885
King's entourage 2 14 3 19
Viceroy's entourage - 1 -
1885-1910
King's entourage 1 2 19 22
Viceroy's entourage0 - 2 5 7
Total 46 52 36 134d
Notes:
a Derived from Damrong (1964

princes' biographies. Where not
dates of princes' coming of age
b Including palaces located on t
c Because of the early deaths of
sons' palaces were established f
are listed as having been establi
d Not all these palaces survive
kok's defenses, in that lig

which should thus not be
J AH 45 (2011)
96 EDWARD VAN ROY
The basic elements of the resituated city,

planted city pillar (see map 2, item A),
1782/83-1784/85; the completion of constru
triumphal coronation of Rama I, was celebrate
ties culminating in the designation of the city
chronicle devotes special attention to the majo
city's construction over that three-year perio
tions.24 Of particular interest is the excava
Moat (Khu Rop Krung, today commonly refer
- Khlong Ong Ang) and the erection of the Ba
Those extended bounds more than doubled the dimensions of the former
east-bank precinct. They created a new eastern district within the expanded
urban mandala, separated from the old east-bank settlement by the Former
City Moat. It was assigned to house the bulk of the capital 's minor nobility, or
civil service. A Brahman temple ( thewa sathan bot phram ivnavnvi
liJ TmriTHiJo) and giant ritual swing ( sao chingcha isriirfi) (see map 2, item B)
were erected along the city's latitudinal axis in 1784, marking the center of
that district, and a major Buddhist temple (Wat Suthat) was later built di-
rectly alongside as the lynchpin of the noble quarter. Similarly, the city's
longitudinal axis extended southward from the city pillar shrine through a
cluster of spirit shrines (see map 2, item C) located near the rear of the Grand
Palace.25
That the initial Bangkok mandala incorporated the former Thonburi cita-
del is vividly demonstrated by several essential architectonic features. First,
the city pillar was installed centrally about 1.2 kilometers equidistant be-
tween the expanded city's west- and east-bank moats. Second, the capital's
initial 1 1 palaces, occupied by the leading members of the Chakri royal fam-
ily's founding generation, were distributed evenly along both sides of the
river (see table l).26 The Grand Palace (Wang Luang, the king's residence)
24 Thipakorawong (1988), 22-26, 28-31.

25 Those shrines were closely associated with the various military and police con-
tingents charged with the city's day-to-day safety and security. They were dis-
mantled in the Fifth Reign, and their five deity images were transferred to the city
pillar shrine, where they continue to reside today in a separate small sanctuary
fronting the city pillar.
26 "Palaces" (wang ft) are here defined in terms of their occupants rather than their
architectural splendour; in fact, many Bangkok palaces were virtually indistin-
JAH45(2011)
and Front Palace (Wang Na, the viceroy's residence) dominated the
bank while the Rear Palace (Wang Lang, residence of the deputy vic
and Former Grand Palace (Wang Doem, briefly occupied by Rama I, then
a royal family elder, and later by the king's senior son) dominated the w
Of the remaining seven palaces, three lined the west bank and four lined
east bank. Furthermore, the city's leading west-bank temples, Wat Rakh
and Wat Aran, were paired with Wat Mahathat and Wat Phra Chetuphon
city's principal east-bank temples.27
Not only did the city's initial palaces and temples form a symmet
cross-river arrangement, they also straddled the city's latitudinal axi
flecting the north-south division of the city into separate zones of occu
tion and control by the king and viceroy, the latter often referred to in
lish translation as the "second king" or "second sovereign." Five pa
occupied the southern (Grand Palace) zone, while six were located i
northern (Front Palace) zone. The positioning of the residential comp
of senior members of the nobility serving the king and the viceroy, res
tively, also fit that zonal division. Just as the Grand Palace and Fo
Grand Palace served as the chief redoubts of the king and his entourage,
the Front Palace and Rear Palace stood in command over the vicero
retinue. That dualistic, north-south division of the city became increasin
apparent in the later years of the First Reign and subsequent reigns as t
numbers of palaces and mansions multiplied with the intergenerat
proliferation of the kingdom's aristocracy and nobility.
guishable in their physical features from noblemen's mansions. "Palaces"

the residences of kings and their sons - the sons of queens (princes of ch
i itti i rank) or concubines (princes of phra ong chao vnsaw rank). The k
grandsons (princes of mom chao mrnimi rank) technically did not occupy
aces," though their residences had in many cases formerly served as their fat
palaces and thus often continued to be popularly referred to as such out of resp
for their patrimony.
27 The prohibition against cremations within the mandala city, other than for
royals in their metaphorical guise as celestial divinities, extended to t
west-bank precincts of the original Bangkok cityscape. For example, the pe
nent funerary facilities associated with Thonburi's Wat Arun were purpo
situated well outside the Thonburi city bounds, beyond the west-bank moat
insure against any transgression of the mandala city's sanctity. See Wat
Rachaworaram, map insert.
JAH 45 (201 1)
98 EDWARD VAN ROY
Map 3: The revised Bangkok mandala, 1809
Whereas the original conception of th

memorated with formal founding festivitie
tion proceeded as a gradual, largely unnotic
of deviation from the city's original ma
occurred in 1784/85 with the much-cele
Palace's chapel royal (Wat Phra Si Ratana
Wat Phra Kaew) upon the installation of
Morakot) image as the kingdom's new p
Located some 200 meters from the city p
image usurped the role of the city pillar
dom's tutelary spirit.29 That shift in sp
what may for simplicity's sake be termed
28 See Thipakorawong (1988), p. 24, and F. R

29 "Through the proper veneration of the Je
the king gained the support of sovereign pow
form. And, on a deeper level the king's medit
that power and thereby enabled him to exerci
to guarantee the protection and prosperity o
p. 183).
JAH45 (2011)
Rama I (and his successors), part of a broad-based, continuin

validate and sustain the Chakri dynasty.
In some ways [the intellectual orientation of the First Reign] amounted

ning of a sort of Buddhist 'Reformation,' to the extent that it involved a r
principles and the clearing away of the accretion of centuries of
long-standing habit.30
That revisionist theme was apparent in the king's purge

elements from the Buddhist monkhood, his convening of a
monastic council (the ninth, by Thai reckoning, in the his
dhism), his command to reorient all the capital's temples e
keeping with Buddhist tradition, his order that the Traiphumik
vised anew to incorporate the wisdom contained in the Bud
and his proscription against the veneration of linga (phalli
cluding, by implication, the city pillar) as antithetical to Bud
The installation of the Emerald Buddha image in the chape
constituted a subtle shift of the city center, not far distant in sp
city pillar but far removed from it in symbolic significance.
With the city pillar shrine marginalized in the shadow of the
chapel royal, the city's longitudinal axis slipped westward in the
of the First Reign as the Emerald Buddha was joined by two oth
lynchpins: the Phra Sihing Buddha image (see map 3, item F
the Phuthai Sawan Throne Hall of the Front Palace in 1794
Royal Cremation Ground (Thung Phra Men) (see map 3, item
in front of Wat Mahathat, between the Grand Palace and Fro
1796/97.31 Aligned with the Royal Cremation Ground, the
30 Wyatt (1994), p. 172.

3 1 The Chakri dynasty progenitor, father of King Rama I and his yo
the First Reign viceroy, had died at the provincial capital of Phis
chaotic aftermath of the fall of Ayutthaya (1767). Some three deca
1797, Bangkok's Royal Cremation Ground was inaugurated with
neral rites for his remains. His crematory relics were subsequently div
terment, respectively, at Wat Phra Si Ratana Sasadaram, the king's
and Wat Mahathat, the viceroy's landmark temple, referred to in W
pp. 24-35. Over the succeeding years of the First Reign the cremat
ditional six senior members of the Chakri royal family were con
Royal Cremation Ground, the capital's new cosmic axis, reinventi
Thai royal tradition that continues to the present day.
J AH 45 (2011)
1 00 EDWARD VAN ROY
powerful Emerald and Sinhalese Buddha image

Palace and Front Palace, respectively, formed a
secting the Bangkok citadel about 200 meters
axis.32 Similarly, in the closing years of the Fi
dinal axis slipped northward about 100 meter
croachment of nine new palaces built by Ram
southern fringe of the Royal Cremation Ground.
of the two axes at the Royal Cremation Ground
the king's and viceroy's zones of occupation a
distinct new mandala configuration for the B
firmed as the capital's royal precinct, bounded by
City Moat.
Contributing further to the fading away of the original Bangkok man-
dala was the distortion of its architectonic symmetry with the abandonment
of the Thonburi citadel as a formal component of the new city. The original
intention - if such an intent had ever existed - to build a new Thonburi city
wall to replace the collapsed and dismantled old wall never materialized.
Nearly imperceptibly, the political significance of Thonburi as the new
city's west-bank precinct slipped into obscurity.33 After the construction of
the Rear Palace in 1785, no further palace was built on the west bank over
the remaining two-and-a-half decades of the First Reign. In the closing
years of the First Reign the deaths of several senior royal family members
residing along the Thonburi riverbank opened opportunities for the down-
grading of their palaces. Particularly important was the dissolution of the
Rear Palace in 1806 upon the death of the deputy viceroy, with the prop-
32 The new city's perimeter, too, took on enhanced mandala attributes during the
First Reign with the installation of the ritually appropriate number of 16 spired
gates and 16 bastions along the city wall. (The conventional view that only 14
bastions punctuated the city wall - for instance, Naengnoi (1991), pp. 24-25 -
overlooks the two corner bastions along the Grand Palace's original riverside
wall, paralleling those of the Front Palace which are included among the other
14.) The resulting total of 32 alternating gates and bastions corresponds un-
equivocally with the 32 lesser deities surrounding Indra's palace atop Mount
Mera.
33 The military weakness of the bisected riparian city of Phisanulok, the kingdom's
key northern guardpost, in the face of repeated Burmese attack during the 1760s
and 1770s has been cited in Wenk, op. cit., p. 17, in justification of the First
Reign decision to abandon Bangkok's west bank precinct.
JAH 45 (201 1)
erty being divided among his principal heirs. That abandonment

west bank as a royal redoubt truncated the original Bangkok ma
leaving it unaesthetically asymmetrical.34 That may have contribu
the axial shifts and revised centricity that ignored the city in favor o
citadel as the essential Bangkok mandala.
The citadel's north-south dualism centering on the Royal Crem
Ground became increasingly apparent over the course of the First Reig
the sons of Rama I and his viceroy came of age and required the
palaces. Fourteen palaces were built between 1785 and the close o
First Reign, all within the citadel (see table 1). Of the ten built f
king's sons and one grandson (a son of King Taksin by a daughter o
I), all were situated within the Grand Palace zone. The rest were
within the Front Palace zone for the viceroy's four senior sons.
Contributing further to the crystallization of the citadel's north-sou
vide was the pairing of Wat Phra Chetuphon and Wat Mahathat, the fo
standing alongside the Grand Palace as the king's signature monast
the latter adjoining the Front Palace under the viceroy's patrona
parallel association of those two temples with the Grand Palace and
Palace, respectively, is confirmed not only by their positioning but als
their many elements of internal symbolism. Wat Phra Chetuphon serv
the royal repository for hundreds of Buddha images brought to B
by Rama I from outlying provinces and vassal states as testimony t
subjugation to the Thai Kingdom; also included was a great re
monument ( chedi h>a) containing the remains of the Si Sanphet
image that had formerly graced the chapel royal at Ayutthaya.35 The
affiliation between Wat Mahathat and the Front Palace was confirmed
splendid ritual chamber ( mondop wugil) erected by the First Reign vi
34 The truncated Bangkok mandala displayed a number of similarities to Ay

the former Thai capital that had nestled comfortably within the great bend
Chaophraya-Lopburi River confluence. It is thus frequently presumed t
Bangkok cityscape was consciously designed as a methodical re-creat
Ayutthaya. However, the many obvious physical similarities linking t
capitals also characterized such other ancient cities as Sukhothai, Chiangm
Nakhon Si Thammarat. Given that generic pattern, the two capitals' m
logical similarities can plausibly be ascribed to their mutual reliance on th
dala motif.
35 Thipakorawong (1988), pp. 81-84.
JAH 45 (201 1)
1 02 EDWARD VAN ROY
to house a golden reliquary containing a portio

of the Chakri dynasty progenitor,36 and by i
markers ( bai sema luimn), closely associated
and also installed by him in Wat Chana Songkh
built by him in the city's northern precinct.
Map 4: Disintegration: The king's and viceroy's zon
Subsequent reigns witnessed the progressive

dala in the presence of accelerating demogr
change. Increasingly, the push of residential o
plemented by the pull of rising economic prosp
bined to override concerns for cosmic conformi
shaping of the Bangkok cityscape. Within
spread of palaces beyond the confines of the ci
ception of a capital stratified spatially betwee
pation. Under the practice of unfettered royal
successive Chakri kings and viceroys grew qui
sive rulers' adult sons formed his own househ
36 Wat Mahathat, pp. 23-35.
J AH 45 (2011)
crowd the citadel by the close of the Third Reign (table 1). Given t
cumstances, growing pressure on the available terrain encourage
struction of new palaces outside the citadel bounds, resulting in th
ment of 24 palaces within the walled city's noble precinct by the e
Third Reign.37 Even outside the citadel, however, those palaces con
be sited, with rare exceptions, in conformity with the north-south
the king's and viceroy's respective zones of occupation and control.
lack of comparable demographic and residential data on the lower e
the elite, it can be inferred that an equivalent tendency to crowding a
precincts populated by the city's similarly polygynous nobility.38
Adding to the walled city's increased crowding and clutter
successive reigns was the emergence of a number of commone
ments in the interstices between the various princely and noble re
tracts.39 Select coteries of slaves and freemen had from the start f
substratum of servants and staff within the city's sprawling elite
compounds. Gradually, however, commoners' independent acc
walled city eased with the relaxation of curfew, residency, and lan
regulations, construction of metalled roads and sturdy bridges, dra
marshlands, and introduction of rental shophouses and tenements.
ingly, growing prosperity and the accompanying demand for luxur
and specialized services induced an influx of marketplaces
workshops, retail outlets, and transport agents at the city's m
roads and along its principal waterways and roadways. With t
peared a number of new commercial neighborhoods within the
37 Contributing to the spread of palaces beyond the citadel bounds was th

most princes' mothers were concubines (chaochom manda mî
daughters of high-ranking nobles. When those noblemen died, their r
compounds within the noble precinct were in many cases awarde
princely grandsons.
38 A leading example is the Bunnag lineage, the kingdom's leading nob
which over the course of some five generations covering the first f
reigns sired at least 120 senior officials in the state bureaucracy - thre
of princely stature (somdet chaophraya ten ministers {chao
ifomzm), 74 directors general (phraya msen), and 33 directors (ph
estates came to dominate the Khlong San district, directly downri
Thonburi. See Banchop (1999).
39 A number of examples are examined in Van Roy (2009) and (2010).
J AH 45 (2011)
1 04 EDWARD VAN ROY
einet as well as several along the citadel rive

Bangkok elite the city wall and moat were grad
than a vaguely emblematic social boundary
came to be seen as a threshold into a world of
those evolving circumstances the aristocrati
kosin wore increasingly thin, and the memo
configuration as a replica of Indra's heaven beg
Over the course of the Second, Third, and
covering 1809-1868), commercial and politic
bly beyond the city wall to the downriver r
Khlong San, and Bang Rak.41 The increasing
the walled city and its immediate surrounds
and his principal councilors early in the Fo
practical advisability of the city's formal ex
was more than doubled in size with the addi
outer moat known as Khlong Phadung Krun
ing within the extended city bounds the Chi
downriver, the Lao community of Bang Khu
other ethnic minority settlements in between.
wall alongside the new moat was left unim
cost, and instead a string of six token forts
length at approximately one-kilometer interva
retain a semblance of the city's mandala m
symbolic role, the new moat did perform an im
in providing a convenient transport route bypa
skirts, contributing greatly to that outlying a
The pragmatism behind the decline of the
plemented by a sense of rising dissatisfactio
and metaphorical applicability of the Three
kingdom's elite sought to accommodate the i
ern scientific rationalism.
40 See Tomosugi (1993), pp. 13-15; and Prani (20

41 See, for example, Van Roy (2008), and Ban
Homes of the Bunnag Lineage".
42 That project is referred to in Thipakorawong
mention of its mandala overtones or the reverses
tion.
J AH 45 (201 1)
The unquestioned use of the [Three Worlds cosmography] to express Buddhist pr

ples and to explain natural phenomena [ended] as the Siamese state entered a new
which the [Three Worlds cosmology] had to compete with other systems of thoug
By mid-century [it] could no longer stand as an unchallenged interpretation of
mese Buddhist world.43
Spearheaded by the efforts of King Mongkut and his minions to libe

Buddhism from its Three Worlds mythology, the metaphysical meanin
the Bangkok mandala was systematically deconstructed.44 That ma
explain why Chaophraya Thipakorawong, one of the king's closest
dants in that revisionist enterprise, omitted all mention of Bangkok's
dala template from his compilation of the dynastic chronicles of the B
kok era.
By the second decade of the Fifth Reign, the growth of Bangkok
population and its residential dispersion beyond the confines of the
city, countervailed by the penetration of the lower classes into em
commercial neighborhoods within the city wall, had proceeded to the p
where the conceptual integrity of the mandala city had come under se
threat. Bangkok's first postal directory, issued in 1883, illustrates the
well.45 The four-volume directory was organized to accommodate t
43 C. Reynolds (2006), pp. 171 and 178.

44 In the process, and in line with the Chakri dynasty's consistent Buddhist
mentalism, the role of the Brahman adepts at the Thai court was gradual
ginalized while the place of Buddhist ritual in royal ceremony was brought
fore. See Tambiah (1976), pp. 227-228.
45 That unique directory of postal addresses (Post and Telegraph Department
was issued in support of Siam' s application for membership in the Un
Postal Union. Its four volumes are titled Sarabanchi suan thi 1 khoe tam
rachakan cho. so. 1245 lem thi 1 trauiy itami flofliimimimvu .f. ic
[Directory, Part 1: Those Holding Government Appointments, 1883, V
Sarabanchi suan thi 2 khoe rasadon nai changwat thanon lae trok so. 12
thi 2 tmintyS ttami i fiontjglu wTVmiiu imswon i rnuvi I [Directory,
Population in the Changwat: Streets and Lanes, 1883, Vol. 2]; Sarabanch
thi 3 khoe rasadon nai changwat ban mu lae lamnam so. 1245 lem thi 3 tn
ttaufi en toiiugsliiftanfl tiimyirasiTJi i s>d& mufi co [Directory, Part 3: Pop
in the Changwat: Villages and Waterways, 1883, Vol. 3]; and Sarabanch
thi 4 khoe rasadon nai changwat khu lae khlong lampathong so. 1245 le
fminty taiw d SosiugiWwiflgirasfimM mihne i<< mufi d, [Directory,
Population in the Changwat: Ditches and Irrigation Canals, 1883, Vol. 4].
J AH 45 (2011)
1 06 EDWARD VAN ROY
tial distribution of Bangkok's social classes. T

dresses of Bangkok's royalty and senior nobilit
of thereby covering the walled city), while the
addresses of the commons in successive degrees
(from the inner built-up districts featuring str
urbs (with localities being successively ident
waterways, and ditches and irrigation canals
comport with the presumption, as a substan
located outside the walled city, and many comm
within. The spatial intermingling of residence
had thus by the early 1880s proceeded to a poin
linking of the mandala city with the elite.
Map 5: Dismantling: The post-mandala city, 1910
Political relations between the successive C

and thus between the city's southern and no
been tense. Early in the Fifth Reign, in 1874/7
JAH45 (201 1)
point with an armed confrontation that proved disastrous for the

His defeat resulted in his relegation to political obscurity an
Chulalongkorn (Rama V) on the path to monarchist absolutism
tant step along that path was the death in 1885 of the discred
Reign viceroy, which provided the king with a unique opportunit
ish the ancient viceregal office and dissolve the power ba
sented.47 In demonstration of the king's consolidation of powe
Palace was abandoned as a royal residence, except for a resid
gent of former viceregal consorts and their female attendants. Fu
the Front Palace was reduced by about one-fifth of its former ar
demolition of its front wall and forecourt. That was the first of tw
ments in the Front Palace grounds. The second came in 1898 t
for the creation of the Great Esplanade (Sanam Luang), result
duction of the Front Palace grounds by a third of their form
map 5). At around the same time, both of the signature temples o
Palace zone were also truncated - Wat Mahathat being hidden f
view behind a massive red edifice (today repainted a dull yello
Sanam Luang, and the forecourt of Wat Chana Songkhram giv
the passage of Chakraphong Road, the major land route to th
suburbs 48 Similarly, the princely palaces situated within the
zone, left vulnerable following the loss of their chief source of su
security, quickly declined in number over the ensuing years with
or eviction of their occupants (see maps 4 and 5). The Front Pa
and lesser staff were concurrently reassigned to subsidiary postin
the reorganised state bureaucracy. With that restructuring th
46 Succinct reviews of the "Front Palace crisis" and its aftermath ar

Kullada (2004), pp. 60-64, and Stengs (2009), pp. 9-1 1 .
47 Two years later King Chulalongkorn awarded the newly minted t
prince (siam makut rachakuman ) to his eldest son, and he ordered t
tion of a new palace for the crown prince in the Pathumwan district, w
the walled city. See Chulalongkorn, "Preparations and Arrangment
Palace to Receive Western Royalty".
48 Yet another humiliation visited upon the viceregal heritage was th
sioning of Wat Bowon Sathan Suthawat, popularly known as Wat
Wang Na, a royal chapel that had been built within the Front Pal
along the citadel's longitudinal axis during the Third and Fourth
Sunisa (2000), pp. 114-116.
J AH 45 (2011)
1 08 EDWARD VAN ROY
the citadel between the king's and viceroy

trol faded away.49
Just as the north-south divide between t
was eliminated, so the east-west demarcatio
noble precincts was progressively obscure
built between 1885 and 1910 was situated
another four were sited elsewhere within t
total of 134 palaces built during the first fiv
still serving in that capacity as of 1910, and o
within the walled city (see map 5). That di
accompanied by the scattering of seats of m
tradition of separation of place of work fr
ernment service was introduced to Bangko
construction of a military staff headquarter,
fice, precursor of the Ministry of War, on
princes' palaces alongside the city pillar shrin
Foreign Office, precursor of the Ministry
lished in the neighboring, vacant Saranrom
a prospective retirement residence for Ram
ticipated death. The procedure of convertin
quarters and affiliated offices proved both a
means of housing the modern bureaucracy
ministries as well as many subsidiary depar
facilities were quartered in former palaces
side the citadel (see map 5). That progressiv
tive apparatus quickened in subsequent year
then beyond the walled city.
Over the course of his 42-year reign King C
ingly engaged in his kingdom's modernizat
buan kansiwilai innunnaTfld), through the ado
49 The thoroughness with which nearly all vestig

was obliterated, along with the mysterious disa
chives, provides strong circumstantial evidence
tirpate the viceregal memory. The emergence i
lalongkorn cult," which as an essential element
tates absolute respect for the monarchy [and] p
cism" (Stengs, 2009, p. 15), has long left that iss
JAH45 (2011)
attributes of Western culture. In his effort to cope with the menace of W

imperialism he came to envision the kingdom's political salvation in
teenth-century European terms, within the context of royal authoritaria
A major step in his campaign towards royal absolutism was a comprehen
bureaucratic reform, culminating in 1892 in the concentration of admin
tive control in his hands.50 In the aftermath, his 1897 grand tour of 14
pean capitals provided him with long-anticipated personal exposure
elaborate protocol and opulent lifestyle of the European aristocracy, inc
its architecture of luxurious garden palaces featuring monumental edifi
majestic promenades and plazas, heroic statuary, and sublime imperial v
that glorified the mystique of monarchal absolutism. Immediately upon
return he set in motion a comprehensive program to replicate that Wester
of stately grandeur in Bangkok.5 1
Initial steps towards the capital's modernization had been taken i
early 1890s by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Ministry of
Works with the upgrading of the transport and communications infras
ture of Sampheng and Bang Rak, Bangkok's chief commercial districts.
mobilization of bureaucratic resources in the cause of planned urban dev
opment marked a significant departure from the preceding several deca
benign neglect following the brief spate of urban canal-diggin
road-building projects during the Fourth Reign. A supporting factor in
municipal road-building programme, dating back to the Fourth Reig
the decision by the Privy Purse to exploit the investment opportunities
sented by the expropriation of road right-of-way for the construction
rental of shophouse and tenement lines, both within the walled city an
the built-up outer districts.52 The new commercial relationship between
aristocracy and the commons pioneered by that Privy Purse innovation
tematically ignored the former distinction between the mandala city an
outer districts in favour of indiscriminate property rental both within
without the walled city bounds.
After King Chulalongkorn's European sojourn of 1897, however
work was relegated to lesser priority with the reassignment of the bulk
two ministries' capital budgets and engineering personnel to the redesig
50 See Kullada (2004), pp. 94-104.

51 Peleggi (2002), p. 84-90.
52 See Sayamphon (1983), pp. 141-160, and the many references to natio
chives documents listed therein.
JAH 45 (201 1)
lio EDWARD VAN ROY
the capital's royal precinct. That project go

ing out of Sanam Luang (the Great Esplanad
mation Ground), followed in 1899-1904 b
noen Avenue (King's Way).53 The comple
kilometers in three segments from the
one end to the Dusit Palace and its impo
map 6, items (a), (b), and (c)).54 The capston
and construction of the magnificent Dus
than three times the size of the old, sited o
of the walled city (see map 6, item D).5
midst of the Suan Dusit (Dusit Garden) dist
lished with a number of sumptuous Europe
setting, plus a new royal temple (Wat Benc
ing royal temple completely rebuilt (Wat R
cence the century-old signature temples of
The Dusit district construction project, pa
featured the import of untold shiploads of
furnishings, and statuary, including mount
plus the hiring of dozens of Italian archi
artisans.56 The overall cost of the Dusit
never documented, partly due to the chroni
Purse expenditures despite their formal sep
Regardless of the 1890 decision to limit the
15 per cent of total government revenue a
six million baht (about 20 per cent of total
53 Chulalongkorn (1900), pp. 387-392.

54 The structural features and right-of-way of
construction are detailed in Royal Thai Surve
55 Naengnoi and Freeman (1996), pp. 194-233
56 Lazara and Piazzardi (1996) present detailed
57 The royal household's excessive expendit
budget, closely associated with the abandon
Dusit district, was mooted by C. Rivett-Car
ernment of Siam, in an 1899 memorandum
after the establishment of the Privy Purse D
tional Archives, Bangkok, r. 5 kh 5.2/14],
JAH45 (2011)
to 22 per cent of total expenditure by 1908, partly due to recurr

overruns on the Dusit district development project.58
Of the 19 palaces that King Chulalongkorn built outside the wal
for himself and his sons (table 1), 11 of his sons' palaces were b
located in the immediate vicinity of the Dusit Palace (see map 6).
self finally abandoned the crowded, antiquated Grand Palace in
the modern, spacious Dusit Palace as his primary residence in 190
the majestic prospect of Rachadamoen Avenue serving as the um
between the old citadel and the new royal quarter, Bangkok - at least
the royalist perspective - was transformed at the turn of the centur
metropolis unbound, "a city of magnificent distances."59
Just as the Dusit district and Rachadamnoen Avenue projects put th
obliterating touch on the former conceptual integrity of the Bangko
as the capital's political and social core, so the piecemeal dismantling o
city wall and its gates and bastions as well as the bridging of its moa
tively erased the physical bounds of the mandala city (see map 6
telling metaphor of Ratanakosin's transformation from bounded redo
open precinct within the greater Bangkok metropolis, the brick rubb
the city's demolished defenses was carted off to surface the newly in
arterial thoroughfares. The principal land routes radiating from the
city to the greater Bangkok metropolis - Chakraphong/Samsen Road
north, Rachadamnoen Avenue to the Dusit district, Bamrung Moe
Pathum Road to the east, Charoen Krung Road to the southe
Yaowarat Road through Chinatown (see map 6) - were greatly im
over time with macadam, culverts, curbs, and lighting to accommoda
torized traffic.61 Less interest was shown in the concentric perimete
circumscribing the old city center.
58 Brown (1992), pp. 57 and 1 17.

59 Sternstein (1982).
60 Considerable ambiguity remains as to the precise sections of the city
had been dismantled by the close of the Fifth Reign. But there is unifo
opinion as to the gathering pace of demolition over the course of the fi
decades of the twentieth century to facilitate the city's opening up to v
traffic and commercial property development. By the Seventh Reign (1
most sections of the wall and its gates and bastions had been removed.
JAH45 (2011)
112 EDWARD VAN ROY
Map 6: Metropolitan Bangkok, 1910
The original practical function of the Ba

barrier had been dramatically confirmed
portant enough to warrant special mention
span the City Moat with a substantial brid
main eastward land corridor.62 The few esse
were restricted to flimsy wooden structure
61 In addition, the major land routes came to

radiating from the central tram terminus (lo
dated and largely ignored city pillar shrine) to
idly expanding outer commercial and resid
Breakspeare (1908), p. 242.
62 Thipakorawong(1988),p. 22.
JAH45 (2011)
pedestrian use. By the close of the Fifth Reign that policy had been
phatically reversed, with the many transport and drainage canals threadi
the thickly settled deltaic metropolis being spanned by handsome br
featuring carriageways supported by steel and ferro-concrete frames, stu
coed-brick superstructures, and wrought-iron balustrades.63 By 19
total of eight substantial bridges spanned the Former City Moat, s
spanned the City Moat, and another eight spanned the later-dug Khl
Phadung Krung Kasem (or Outer City Moat), virtually erasing the m
traditional ceremonial function of demarcating the city bounds (see map
The construction of a number of those bridges as well as many other
sponsored by members of the royal family and nobility vying for the k
favor, and many of them were named in their sponsors' honor as reward
It is said that as many as 2,000 bridges had been erected by the close of t
Fifth Reign to accommodate the deltaic terrain of Bangkok's ra
spreading road network.65 Though probably an exaggeration, that estima
emphasizes the general impression among Bangkok's expatriate com
nity that led to the romantic fin de sicle sobriquet for the cosmopo
Bangkok metropolis as "Venice of the East," a reference that contr
dramatically with the vision of the traditional, firmly bounded, iso
mandala city and its citadel.
The unrestrained expansion of the modern Bangkok metropolis t
spelled the waning of the old ceremonial capital of Krung Ratanakosin. In
enterprise the aesthetics of Indra's celestial city were abandoned in favor
the secular architectonics of the nineteenth-century Western imperial ca
A new, more public expression of sovereign power and regal charism
been introduced, with "monumental public spaces as suitable stage sets fo
performance of [royal] spectacles," fitting the temper of the times.66 Th
63 Sirichai (1977).
64 In addition, a series of 17 bridges were built to celebrate King Chulalongk
successive birthdays, starting with the king's forty-second birthday in 1895.
was named a "celebration bridge" (saphan chaloem asmuiojj) plus the r
birthday year. Of those commemorative bridges only three crossed canals wi
the walled city. The others spanned canals along the outer districts' newly-b
roads, further corroborating the Bangkok aristocracy's intensifying emphas
the larger metropolis. Sirichai (1977), pp. 38-69.
65 Wright and Breakspeare ( 1 908), p. 24 1 .
66 Peleggi (2002), p. 94.
JAH45 (201 1)
114 EDWARD VAN ROY
grand transformation of the capital's royal

area's expansion to accommodate its flou
stroyed the Bangkok mandala. It represent
of life deeply informed by the Three Wor
traditional Thai values."67 With those de
the historical period during which Bang
guise of Indra's celestial city - came effecti
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RISE AND FALL OF THE BANGKOK MANDALA

Author(s): EDWARD VAN ROY

RISE AND FALL OF THE BANGKOK MANDALA

The mandala (usina, pronounced "monthon" in Thai) is a rigorously

That vision is described in graphic detail in the Traiphumikatha lmq2mn,

In conformity with its use as an instrum

3 The standard Thai edition of Traiphumik

dismantling of its mandala-based infrastructure in favor of a ne

In the case of Bangkok, we can go one step further by placing

5 Kuper (2003), p. 249, citing Lvy-Strauss ( 1 967), p. 328.

Origin of the Bangkok Mand

Map 1: The Thonburi mandala, pre- 1782

The ancient guardpost and customs station at

meters wide, two kilometers long) riverside stronghold. The

ultimate champions, exponents, and arbiter

11 "Map of Thonburi," estimated c. 1780, un

dation of the old wall,13 confirming the information conveyed b

13 Amplan ( 1 994). pp. 44 62.

Map 2. The initial Bangkok mandala, 1782-1785

The opening passage of the royal chronicl

Earlier preparations to recenter the capital on the east bank wo

two senior officials mentioned in the First Reign chronicle (Thipako

(Krungthep maha nakhon bowon ratanak

The king would not have been collecting mus

As illustrated in map 2, considerable

21 That was the capital's abbreviated nam

Reign Citadel City Outside Total

Third Reign (1824-1851)

Fourth Reign (1851-1868)

Fifth Reign (1868-1910)

a Derived from Damrong (1964

kok's defenses, in that lig

The basic elements of the resituated city,

24 Thipakorawong (1988), 22-26, 28-31.

guishable in their physical features from noblemen's mansions. "Palaces"

Map 3: The revised Bangkok mandala, 1809

Whereas the original conception of th

28 See Thipakorawong (1988), p. 24, and F. R

Rama I (and his successors), part of a broad-based, continuin

In some ways [the intellectual orientation of the First Reign] amounted

That revisionist theme was apparent in the king's purge

30 Wyatt (1994), p. 172.

powerful Emerald and Sinhalese Buddha image

erty being divided among his principal heirs. That abandonment

34 The truncated Bangkok mandala displayed a number of similarities to Ay

35 Thipakorawong (1988), pp. 81-84.

to house a golden reliquary containing a portio

Map 4: Disintegration: The king's and viceroy's zon

Subsequent reigns witnessed the progressive

36 Wat Mahathat, pp. 23-35.

37 Contributing to the spread of palaces beyond the citadel bounds was th

einet as well as several along the citadel rive

40 See Tomosugi (1993), pp. 13-15; and Prani (20

The unquestioned use of the [Three Worlds cosmography] to express Buddhist pr

Spearheaded by the efforts of King Mongkut and his minions to libe

43 C. Reynolds (2006), pp. 171 and 178.

tial distribution of Bangkok's social classes. T

Map 5: Dismantling: The post-mandala city, 1910

Political relations between the successive C

point with an armed confrontation that proved disastrous for the

46 Succinct reviews of the "Front Palace crisis" and its aftermath ar

the citadel between the king's and viceroy

49 The thoroughness with which nearly all vestig