Bangkok was a smelly city
In almost every Thai house hangs the portrait of King Rama V (Chulalongkorn, 1853-1910), dressed in a three-piece suit, with a bowler hat and his hands with a pair of gloves resting on a walking stick.
An English gentleman through and through, because of his many journey he had become enamored of western civilization and he wanted to Thailand reform in that spirit.
For example, he once decreed that all Thais must wear a headgear. And a man had to kiss his wife in front of the matrimonial home when he left for work in the morning because he had seen that in England. That didn't make it. But he has also been very committed to many other things, including cleaning Bangkok. The stench and filth of Bangkok was a thorn in his side.
Pooping and peeing
Bangkok in the 19th century was a foul-smelling city in a way we can no longer imagine. But they had learned to live with it. Pooping and peeing happened in public, along the canals, along the street and in the river. A bare-bottomed man defecates in a canal in a mural at Wat Suthat in Bangkok. Cheerful cheering people in a passing boat wave to him. Relieving yourself in public was accepted. Incidentally, that was also the case in the Roman cities where public toilets could accommodate up to 20 people and people did their business together while chatting. And on the barges in 18th century Netherlands, people animatedly discussed each other's bowel movements.
An aristocrat, Phra Bamrasnaradur, describes in a memoir how as a child he bathed in a canal and then had to wash away the turds. Heaps of faeces, from people and animals, were just lying on the street. Corpses were rotting. There was a country road called Poepweg. Rama V himself once saw a man defecating in front of Prince Bodin's palace, after which he instructed the police to take stricter action.
Bare breasts
How important Rama V considered the beautification of Bangkok is evident from the appointment of three princes. Prince Naris had to clear away the many corpses. Prince Mahis had to remove the excrement from the cityscape. And Prince Nares was instructed to ensure that the many women (and men) who were still bare-chested dressed in European clothing. (Until the 20s, bare-breasted women were common in Chiang Mai).
Those who relieved themselves in public ran the risk of a fine or even imprisonment. There was resistance: why change age-old habits? A hundred public toilets were set up in old Bangkok (the island of Rattanakosin). The change for the better only took hold after 1921 when compulsory primary education was introduced with hygiene as an important subject in the curriculum.
Bangkok still has no sewage system for faeces, only cesspools and septic tanks. Bangkok floats on a lake of excrement.
Source: JSS, vol. 99, 2011, p. 172 ff
It must not have been fresh, but even today there are still about a million dogs in Bangkok that happily defecate where it suits them, while there were not a million people living there at the time of King Rama V. Incidentally, I am happy with the sanitary habits of the Thais, because when I was in Lahore in Pakistan I regularly saw men squatting and letting things run free under their salwar kamiez. They still don't care about hygiene. In any case, that doesn't happen (much) anymore in modern Bangkok.
Population figures for Bangkok around 1900 range from 200.000 to 500.000. It may have been 350.000, that's the best estimate. Of these, more than 200.000 were Thai, more than 100.000 Chinese and 15.000 Indians.
When I was a child (50s) the sewage of many houses also discharged into the canal.
So you don't have to go all the way back to the nineteenth century for open sewerage in the Netherlands.
Many city sewers discharged directly into the rivers, where all the waste ended up unprocessed.
The processing of wastewater only started much later.
@Paul Many wealthy Amsterdammers had luxurious country houses in the 16th century and later, especially along the Vecht. They went to live there in the summer because the stench in Amsterdam was unbearable.
That Chulalongkorn anyway, who wanted to introduce Western customs – and with it values…
I have read elsewhere that it was Marshal Phibunsongkram who, through cultural 'ddicts', made wearing hats and gloves etc. compulsory (eg Wyatt, Thailand – a short history 1982, 2003), at the time when Italy, Japan and Germany show indications.
That cheerful image of Chulalongkorn always reminds me of Toon Hermans' Vader goes out.
You're absolutely right, Alex. King Chulalongkorn was also there to introduce Western customs, but those hats, that kissing and the ban on betel came from Marshal Phibunsongkraam. Funny that some of those imported Western customs are now glorified as Thia cultural heritage.
You are correct. He also recommended the kiss at the door, and that all Chinese should choose a Thai name. Spicy detail he w
he himself was Chinese
Things are attributed to Rama V here that were introduced by the dictator Pibul Songkram in the 50s
women and men who no longer walk bare-chested a change for the better? how opinions can differ. just like how some people want to ban street food, small market stalls and eateries because they are not in a (expensive) building.
nice article further, only I think you paint a wrong picture of the filth of bangkok at the time. many people have been taught in school through uncritical teacher types what the state wants them to learn, namely that the state and everything it does is good, so that they become well-behaved taxpaying citizen slaves.
that in the days of open sewers there was all shit and shit in the streets of bangkok, that is not the case at all, there have always been shit buckets, shit bins and shit carts. the open sewers worked quite well, and were mainly for draining waste water.
That people don't have to shit on the street, yes that's nice that people pick up such things. We should not all want a mess like in some Indian cities.