The Bangkok Protestant Cemetery on Charoen Krung Road, locally dubbed as Soi Susan Farang, is a well-known tourist attraction. Somchai Poomlard
Cemeteries are a sanctuary for the dead and the mourners. But the Bangkok Protestant Cemetery on Charoen Krung 72/5, known as Soi Susan Farang, has been known as a tourist attraction, due to the beautiful architecture of the memorial sites and splendidly carved gravestones. The cemetery, besides being one of the oldest burial grounds that remain unaffected by the urban development of the city, has a cultural value as a testament of foreign cultures present in Thailand from the mid-19th century until the present day.
For more than a century, the ground has served as the final resting place for foreign envoys, pioneers and missionaries — including Dan Beach Bradley and the first British envoy to Siam. Despite the iron gate, the place allows the public to visit. Anyone can walk in to sit in the shade or look at the river.
Cemeteries — mostly Islamic and Christian — become the last cultural stronghold in the face of massive construction. Life featured a story on an Islamic kubur recently; the Protestant cemetery of Charoen Krung also is another prime example of how Bangkok communities struggle to retain their history in the sea of change.
The nine-rai plot in Charoen Krung 72/5 was bestowed by King Rama IV to the Protestant community in Siam in 1853. Before that, the community did not have its own burial space and needed to use a Catholic community’s graveyard. At that time, Bangkok was still full of canals and people commuted by boat, so those who attended funerals could only go there by boat. The burial ground was accessible by road only when Charoen Krung Road was cut in 1864. Also known as “New Road”, the new thoroughfare was then a swanky location and a favourite locale for foreign embassies.
But when the city expanded and commerce grew, cemeteries of various faiths came under pressure. The best example is the large plot of Catholic cemeteries on Silom Road, which had housed the bodies of at least three generations before the remains were exhumed and moved to Sam Pran. Silom is too hot a property, and the dead couldn’t argue with capitalism. Thai-Chinese graveyards, known as huang sui, once dotted Bangkok but have gradually been moved out. The municipal codes also imposed higher sanitary and environmental demands, making it harder for cemeteries in Bangkok to remain. The only exception is the various Muslim cemeteries, which are still found in almost every neighbourhood of Bangkok, including Charoen Krung and Silom. Tight-knitted community spirit and the Islamic ritual that allows bodies to be buried on top of a previous one reduces the pressure to find more space.
Yet, the Protestant cemetery here withstands the test of time. The committee overseeing the place does not have a policy to relocate. It is estimated that over 1,800 bodies rest in peace here. Currently, the cost of using land for graveyard is around 60,000 baht per plot.
“We cannot do anything. It is a gift from the Royal Family. Other cemeteries moved out but we do not want to. On the contrary, we will turn this place into little oasis … place of restfulness where people can walk in.” said J. Geoffrey Walsh, cemetery chairperson.
The cemetery is getting landscape redevelopment in order to make the place suitable for a community park.
“The vision of the committee is to create a park-like environment, with more trees and seating, hopefully it will be used by people in the neighbourhood,” Walsh said as he walked along the rows of gravestones. Well maintained, the place feels peaceful.
The cemetery has a number of intricately carved tombstones and a few memorial chapels. Several burial grounds belong to notable foreign pioneers such as the Rev Dan Beach Bradley, the American medical doctor who came to Siam during the reign of King Rama III and pioneered the printing industry. Henry Alabaster, the first British diplomat to the Court of Siam, and who later served as adviser to King Chulalongkorn, was buried here. Alabaster married a Thai lady, and King Rama VI later granted the Thai family name “Savetsila”.
This eternal home serves people of multi-nationalities — British, French, Scandinavians, Protestant Thai-Chinese families. Jewish people used this site until the mid-1990s. The Jewish community subsequently purchased the adjacent land plot to use as their burial ground.
Apparently, this necropolis has a new facelift. Old view-blocking iron barn door has been replaced by a new steel-alloy gate that allows the public to view the cemetery. A new wooden notice board has been installed to replace the old one, and the committee is working with a company to build and install a 15 metre frontal glass notice board.
A team of workers are cleaning the drains and improving tanks and water pump stations to prevent floods and the overflow from the Chao Phraya River. Landscape improvements are expected to be completed by next month. The committee plans to hire a permanent gardener to take care of the newly developed garden.
The continued existence of the cemetery in Bangkok defies the city’s land development trend (there are Catholic cemeteries that are worth visiting too, such as at Santa Cruz Church by the river opposite the Memorial Bridge, and Conception Church in Samsen).
Given to land stress and rising property prices, cemeteries in Bangkok and particularly in Silom and Sathon have been moved out. It’s clear that ancient cemeteries in Bangkok feel the need to adjust their role to serve the public in the new shake up of space: They have to become public parks. The Islamic burial grounds such as the one in Charoen Krung 36, or the Ton Son mosque near Bangkok Noi Canal, are leafy and quiet compounds where residents can find pockets of clean air despite the skyscrapers around them. The city administration has turned the Chinese cemetery on Chan Road, off Sathon, into a park where people can walk and jog amid the cenotaphs. And for those who love to look at splendid tombstones and enjoy a river view, the Christian Cemetery is a must visit.
J. Geoffrey Walsh. Somchai Poomlard
This source first appeared on Bangkok Post Lifestyle.