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ALL THE KING’S BARGES
SINCE MOVING TO THE THAI CAPITAL IN THE 1960’S, WRITER/EXPLORER HAROLD STEPHENS HAS BEEN PRIVY TO MANY ROYAL BARGE PROCESSIONS. RESEARCH ON HIS LATEST NOVEL FOR THE LOVE OF SIAM LED HIM TO TAKE A MUCH MORE ACTIVE INTEREST IN THIS PROUD TRADITION
I SAW MY FIRST ROYAL BARGE PROCESSION ON 27 OCTOBER 1967. I was truly impressed; I’d never seen, nor imagined, anything like it before – not only the sight of the beautiful barges, but also the reverberating sounds of drums and the chanting of the rowers. Seen from afar, the barges made a majestic show – enough to send chills up my spine – with gold-leaf figureheads jutting into the wind, and bright red and orange canopies catching the sun. The oarsmen’s paddles, raised high after each stroke of their silver and gold oars were controlled by a rhythm keeper who tapped the butt of his silver spear on the deck in time with the chanting of ancient boat songs.
I wondered how the Thai government managed to maintain this fleet of beautiful vessels. I soon learned that caring for these barges is an undertaking of love. My interest in royal barges had begun.
In the 17th century, Siam (Thailand’s name before 1939) opened her doors in grand style to the nations of Europe, and the first country to establish an embassy here was France. The year was 1684. To show the world that the Siamese capital of Ayutthaya was the most magnificent city in the East, if not the entire world, King Narai welcomed the French by sending his fleet of royal barges downriver to Pak Nam to honour the new arrivals. Narai wanted this to be the grandest welcome that the kingdom had ever known. He entrusted his Foreign Minister with the responsibility of welcoming them and instructed him to make the necessary preparations for their journey upriver to Ayutthaya – on his fleet of royal barges.
The official record of that splendid diplomatic voyage up the River of Kings was lost when the Burmese invaded and sacked the city in 1776, but accounts do survive – particularly in the journals kept by the French, Dutch and Portuguese who lived in Ayutthaya at the time, as well as biographies and letters. From these, while doing research for my book For the Love of Siam, I was able to piece together that voyage.
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
The French dignitaries were dazzled when they first laid eyes upon the magnificent royal barges with their tall bows carved in the shapes of mythical animals and winged birds.
The procession upriver began. Along the entire length of the river, on both banks, multi-tiered-roofed temples glistened in the background, sprouting nagas (serpent-like creatures) reaching for the sky, houses were decorated and festooned with colourful banners and trees were adorned with tiny tinsels that caught the rays of the sun like a billion stars. The new-arrivals were awed by the grandness of it all.
The procession grew in size and magnificence as more barges joined the convoy along the route. The air was filled with thousands of flutes, the roll of drumbeats and the chanting of the rowers. The closer they came to the capital, the more magnificently dressed were the nobles and envoys sent by the king to greet the embassy at every landing.
Flowers, fruit and gift s were delivered at each stop until there was no more room aboard. The opulence, wealth and display of abundance was overwhelming. To the eyes of the visitors, Siam was the grandest country in the world.
A SIGHT TO BEHOLD
Accommodation for the dignitaries had been erected at waterside landings every 15 kilometres – the distance the barge-rowers could cover in one day. Some 20,000 people worked to beautify each of the three stations. The last landing, a kilometre before Ayutthaya, was at a temple named Wat Prote Saht.
Beautiful Persian and Chinese carpets covered the floors and walkways, silks and brocades hung upon the walls, and wonderful painted silk screens and paper lanterns from Japan were festooned all around. Beds resembled large low tables with intricately carved legs and were covered with luxurious silk cushions. The Foreign Minister, dressed in robes glazed with precious stones that caught the afternoon sun, was there to greet the party.
The Foreign Minister entertained the embassy officials lavishly. One thousand servants, moving about on hands and knees, served the food. The meal was a sumptuous feast as only a king can offer; the best European dishes, together with French and Italian wines.
The next morning the embassy made the final passage upriver to meet the King of Siam in his palace. Hundreds of beautifully decorated barges accompanied the visitors to their destination. In the centre of the grand procession, gliding effortlessly along, was a golden, jewel-encrusted barge. On it was an ornate presentation stand of solid gold where Siamese officials had placed a letter from Louis XIV of France.
One hundred robed men sporting golden tunics and scarlet headpieces paddled this immense barge, nearly 200 feet long.
They kept their cadence by dipping their oars in unison, then pausing and holding them in mid air, in time with the pace-setting drummers. At every temple along the way, the chant of monks filtered out across the water.
They were soon joined by hundreds of smaller barges and riverboats carrying nobles and courtiers. The River of Kings was a mass of glorious barges and riverboats, all moving together slowly upriver.
CENTURIES-OLD TRADITION
For nearly 700 years, royal barges have been plying the waterways of Thailand in ceremonies both religious and political. And twice they almost disappeared forever. When the Burmese attacked Ayutthaya in 1767, King Ekkathat ordered all barges to seek cover in the south canal, but the enemy found the barges and destroyed most of them. One royal barge was taken back to Burma as a gift to their monarch.
When General Taksin drove back the Burmese and set up his new capital at Thonburi, near the small village of Bangkok, he brought with him several of the badly damaged royal barges. However, it wasn’t until King Rama I ascended the throne in 1782, to become the first king of the present Chakri Dynasty, that he initiated the renewal of national arts and craft s, which included the construction of new royal barges.
Kings Rama II and Rama III had royal barges built in their honour, and the traditional art of royal barge building was passed on from generation to generation. During the reign of Rama IV seven new barges were constructed. King Rama V built a new
44.9-metre barge, Suphannahong, carved from a single teak log. He died before it was completed, and it was left to his son, Rama VI, to dedicate it on November 13, 1911. It is still in use to this day.
The 150th celebration of the Chakri Dynasty was marked in April 1932. King Rama VII rode the Suphannahong in a grand procession that could well have been the last of its kind. No one foresaw the coming of a coup, and that the kingdom would move from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy. Many changes took place, one of which was the termination of the royal barge procession. The annual ceremony on the Chao Phraya River ceased for 25 years.
BEAUTY RESTORED
In the meantime, World War II had dealt another devastating blow to the royal barges. Stored over that period in dry docks on Bangkok Noi Canal, the barges shared their berths with Japanese naval vessels and, tragically, became the target of Allied bombers.
In 1949, His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, after his return from school in Europe, went to see the barges. He was taken back by their state of deterioration and ordered their complete restoration. Artisans and craft smen under the direction of the Fine Arts Department were assigned to repair the damage.
Then, in 1959, the king decided to revive the tradition of the royal barge procession for the Kathin Ceremony. Today the procession takes place only for the most significant cultural and religious events. During the reign of King Bhumibol, spanning over 60 years, it has only occurred 16 times, most recently commemorating His Majesty’s 80th birthday on 5th December 2007.
According to Ratree Buapradit, the director of the National Museum of the Royal Barges and author of the excellent guidebook to the museum, the barges need to be on call any time. “Today the procession consists of 51 historical barges and the royal barge Narai Song Suban,” she explained. “His Majesty built Narai in 1994. It’s the only one that was built during his reign.”
Maintaining and caring for these vessels is not a simple task. Royal barges are the most delicate of boats, between 40 and 50 metres long, with several hollowed out of a single log. They must carry up to 80 oarsmen and assorted crew, and for special occasions, the biggest and most splendid of these barges, Narai Song Suban, must carry the King of Thailand and his retinue downriver from the Royal Palace to Wat Arun, the temple of dawn.
THE NATIONAL MUSEUM
The National Museum of Royal Barges is no ordinary museum; it’s more like a workshop, staffed by teams of artists and artisans. An amazingly large shed, the boathouse can house no more than eight barges at any one time. The rest of the fleet is scattered around Bangkok’s docks and shipyards.
Barges are maintained in long berths, and raised high above water level with mechanical lift s. Individual berths are connected by a network of walkways. From morning to night, workers can be seen climbing high 
on scaffolds, or applying paint and trim to the hulls on the walkways.
I watched teams of artists apply pure gold leaf patches to the ornate woodwork of one of the royal barges, and as I looked down the length of the shed to all the others, I could only imagine the man hours involved in making these vessels ready for the royal barge processions. Much like painting the Sydney Harbour Bridge, it never ends.
View the barges and watch artisans at work at the National Museum of Royal Barges; Open daily 9am-5pm; Bangkok Noi, tel +66 (0) 2424-0004
To order the author’s latest novel, For the Love of Siam, visit www.wolfendenpublishing.com or any outlet of Asia Books in Bangkok.
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