In the late 1760s, when King Taksin was busy establishing his new capital in Thon Buri following the sacking of Ayutthaya, this was a sparsely populated frontier area. Those were unsettled times and the residents of this rural outpost probably lived in constant fear of attack by enemy troops.
A local man named Khai demonstrates how to climb an areca palm to pick its fruit. Betel nuts from the Rat Burana area are famous for their red flesh, crunchy texture and the fact that they don’t leave a bitter after-taste. Each tree has to be raised from seed. It only begins bearing bundles of nuts when it is between five and seven years old but, if cared for properly, can live for up to three decades. Areca palms usually need to be watered every two or three days and a farmer must be vigilant against the tree’s two worst enemies: aphids are a constant threat, but squirrels can also be troublesome. Production of nuts is most plentiful when a tree is between eight and 12 years old.
Fast-forward to 2013 and Rat Burana is a tranquil district in southwestern Bangkok covering an area of 15.7km2. Agriculture is still an important occupation here, with orchards and market gardens supplying fresh produce for city dwellers, but this is also an emerging industrial zone and, increasingly, a suburban refuge for those who don't mind the long commute to town.
Rat Burana owes its modest place in history to two accidents of nature: its location on the western bank of the Chao Phraya River and its fertile alluvial soil. By the early Rattanakosin period, its farmers were already gaining renown for one product in particular, the betel nut. This fruit of the areca palm has long been prized in the Asia-Pacific region, chewed for its mildly euphoric and stimulating effects, although its use has been steadily declining in Southeast Asia over the past century.
After the Kingdom began opening up to international trade following the signing of the Anglo-Siamese (Bowring) Treaty of 1855, the domestic rice industry expanded rapidly. Since waterways were the primary means of moving cargo in those days, mills were built on several riverside spots in Rat Burana to process rice carried down the Chao Phraya on barges. Inland, however, there was little development, with most of the population continuing to make a living from the land, cultivating various kinds of fruit and those superb betel nuts, of course, much in demand because of their unusually fine flavour and texture.
Now 60, Sant Ketthongruang is a former village headman who has been growing betel nuts, bananas and other fruit for sale since he was a boy. In addition to areca palms, his 27 rai orchard contains durian, pomelo, mangosteen and banana trees. Fish are also raised in ponds. Loong (Uncle) Sant said he sells an average of about 4,000 betel nuts, at least twice a month, to wholesale vendors, mostly in Ratchaburi. Prices are highest in the run-up to the annual Songkran festival, but later drop due to a peak in supply between April and the end of September. Prices range from 3 baht per betel nut all the way down to 70 satang. Nowadays, he said, the major sources of betel nuts are Om Noi (in Samut Sakhon province), Nakhon Chaisi (in Nakhon Pathom) and Chachoengsao.
In 1880, Rat Burana was elevated to district status in what was then the province of Thon Buri. Due to its good links with other communities, principally via the Dao Khanong, Bang Pa Kaew and Chaeng Ron canals, the area grew into an important transportation and warehousing hub.
During World War II, the Japanese army moved a great deal of military supplies along the Chao Phraya and rented several waterfront sites in Rat Burana for use as shipyards. An influx which had a much greater effect on the local folks, however, was the great Bangkok flood of 1942 when many orchards in Rat Burana were inundated and valuable trees killed.
Even more devastating in its long-term consequences was a totally man-made event. Between 1939 and 1942, the dictatorial prime minister, Field Marshal Plaek Phibulsongkhram, introduced a series of so-called ratthaniyom (cultural mandates). But one of the casualties of this drastic attempt to ''modernise'' the population were the farmers of Rat Burana. The government imposed a total ban on betel-nut chewing and, deprived of a market for their produce, many of the locals were forced to cut down their areca palms and plant other crops.
Today the last surviving grove of betel-nut trees in the whole district is owned by 60-year-old Sant Ketthongruang.
''I've been farming since I was 12 years old,'' he confided, during a recent visit I paid to his lush, 27 rai orchard.
''First, I observed what other people were doing and then I tried taking care of the trees myself. In the past, this area was full of betel-nut palms; there were orchards from where Ratana School stands today all the way down to Rat Burana Canal.''
A fount of folk wisdom, considered by many in the community as something of an intellectual, Sant is passionate about passing on the knowledge he has accumulated about integrated farming methods and the use of effective micro-organisms to improve soil fertility. He is adamant about the merits of hard work and leading a self-sufficient life _ ''like my parents and grandparents did before me'' _ and, pointing to the housing estates which now surround his smallholding, says he would never sell out to real-estate developers like many of his former neighbours did.
More interesting stories about the old way of life in these parts _ as well as tools and equipment used by the fruit and betel-nut growers of yore and the manual labourers who dug the canals once so vital for transporting people and goods _ are to be found in the exhibitions and displays at Rat Burana Local Museum which is housed within the compound of Wat Prasert Sutthawat. The temple itself is well worth a visit, especially to see its ornate ordination hall decorated with murals depicting scenes from that much-quoted Chinese historical novel Sam Kok (Romance Of The Three Kingdoms).
Another must-see is the nearby Wat Chaeng Ron and its Luang Phor Hin Daeng statue which was carved from red laterite and is believed to date back as early as the 11th century.
Many day-trippers from Bangkok also visit Wat Bang Pakok, where it is customary to pay one's respects to a statue of Luang Pu Phring, a former abbot of this establishment who was revered by practically everyone in the district.
And after you've had your fill of Thai and Chinese religious art, wandered around one of the fruit plantations in the area and tasted some of the delicious local street food, sold at very affordable prices, take a moment to ponder the serendipity that has allowed this little pocket of the past to survive amidst the steadily encroaching concrete jungle.
Built next to the Chao Phraya River, the origins of Wat Chaeng Ron are now lost in time; the original structure may date back to the U Thong era (12th-15th centuries) or the even earlier Lopburi period (11th to 13th centuries). Its vihara (small prayer hall) was erected on the ruins of a much older building. It boasts several centuries-old Buddha statues carved from laterite or red sandstone. The most important one is called Luang Phor Hin Daeng; made of laterite, it represents the Buddha in the seated meditation posture and is believed to be the oldest such statue in the district. The architecture of the vihara itself is in a style associated with the Third Reign (1824-51). While there are no decorative features on the exterior of its gable, its doorway and window frames have been embellished with beautiful stuccowork.
Built in 1925, the ordination hall (ubosot ) of Wat Chaeng Ron has windows and doorways decorated with fine stuccowork depicting different kinds of fruit, terrestrial and aquatic creatures — pomegranates, custard apples, mangoes, pineapples, rabbits, bats, elephants, goats, dogs, frogs, goldfish, squid, mudskippers and crabs. The base of the principal Buddha statue features depictions of several mice or rats; this is believed to be a reference to a symbolic animal linked to the year of birth of the temple’s founder. The mural painted on the wall behind the statue looks like a stylised shadow thrown by the Lord Buddha, an image that Thais refer to as Phra Phutthachai.
Wat Prasert Sutthawat, aka Wat Klang, is located on Soi Suk Sawat 27. It was built in the Ayutthaya period, but completely restored in the Third Reign in a Chinese style. Its ordination hall (ubosot ) has Chinese-style gables and a roof adorned with colourful tiles and stuccowork. Legend has it that a Chinese man named Seng, who used to earn a living raising pigs for sale, found three jars filled with coins. He used some of this money — 165 chang (one chang equalled 80 baht in those days) — to restore the temple and then formally presented it to King Rama III. A stone inscription inside the ubosot, dated 1838, notes that this benefactor was later conferred with the title Phra Prasert Vanich. He is an ancestor of the present-day Sethaputra (Sreshthabutra) family. The sema (boundary marker stones) around the ubosot are made of red sandstone and are believed to predate the Ayutthaya period. The interior of the ordination hall at Wat Prasert Sutthawat is decorated with 364 black-and-white murals depicting scenes from the Chinese epic novelSam Kok . These stunningly intricate images are believed to have been executed by a team of Chinese painters during the reign of King Rama III (1824-51). Sam Kok was translated from Chinese into Thai by Chao Phraya Phra Klang (Hon), a senior minister in the administration of King Rama I, who reigned from 1782 to 1809.
Run by the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s Office of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Rat Burana Local Museum is located in a building within the Wat Prasert Sutthawat School premises. Here are displayed old photos depicting the lives of Chinese labourers who once toiled in Rat Burana as well as artefacts linked to the history and development of the district. The highlight of a standing exhibition on betel-nut cultivation is a full-sized model of an areca palm (complete with a man climbing it). Other objects on display include vintage farming implements, boats, hats, kitchen equipment, baskets and pottery used by local farmers and villagers, tools for making herbal medicines plus Buddha statues and decorative items from several local temples. And you can’t miss the well-preserved rua krachaeng , a barge once used for transporting freshly harvested paddy to the rice mill. The museum is open Wednesdays to Sundays from 8am to 5pm. For more information, call 02-427-1307 or visit www.bangkok.go.th/localmuseum.
Also of interest at Rat Burana Local Museum are equipment and tools once used by rice millers and manual labourers, such as filters, baskets, harrows, weight scales, tally sticks (used in counting), an abacus and even a wooden head-rest said to have been used by Chinese workers while they were imbibing marijuana.
Rat Burana is also known for its tasty street food. The photo shows beef noodles and chicken noodles which cost only 20 baht a bowl at Auntie Bai’s noodle shop in the compound of Wat Prasert Sutthawat. Delicacies of the district include rice served with pork soup and cubes of congealed pig’s blood (available from Jeh Nee’s shop on Soi Suk Sawat 19) and duck meat cooked in various ways (Ped Tow restaurant opposite Big C Rat Burana).
