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The marshy delta land on which Thai monarchs sited their kingdoms served as a crucible for one of the richest rice cultures that Asia has spawned. To defend their soggy land against would-be invaders lured by the new riches, Thai engineers dug thousands of canals as virtual moats, and developed a remarkably-diverse collection of boats to navigate them. Thais fought their battles from oared warships, conveyed their kings in royal barges, commuted in wooden boats, and lived in floating houses. Cultural historian Phya Anuman Rajadhon once counted 42 different kinds of boats plying Thailand's waterways. The earliest were rafts made of bamboo bundles. When river-faring pioneers encountered fallen trees, they could take apart the bundles and reassemble them downstream from the obstacles. Today, similar rafts carry visitors on their own voyages of discovery through jungles and farmlands.
The simplest boats were hollowed-out palm trunks or dugouts made from single trees. Many are still used in lower valley farm areas, primarily as fishing or cargo boats. In an age before bridges, they served-and on some northern streams, continue to serve-as ferry boats to move goods from one bank to the other.
By far the most ubiquitous boats are the sampans. Although "Sam" means "three" and "pan" means "board", most Thai sampans comprise five planks and come in a variety of sizes. Today, centuries after their adoption, they continue to carry produce to market (a boat cluster becomes a Floating Market), children to school, men to offices.
What Phya Anuman failed to note in his enumeration was the multiplicity of ways a single type of boat could be used. Many sampans serve as floating vendor stands. It isn't necessary to go to the store; the store comes to you. Central Plains women paddle sampans with onboard charcoal braziers to cook noodles, roast chicken, brew hot coffee, even dye clothes on the spot.
In the flat water, variants of sampan were used for fishing and as ferry boats. More often, Thai farmers carved boats from single logs, the precursor of the racing longboat. Northeastern boats varied only slightly from those used in the North and the Central Plains and were used for the same purpose: fishing and short trips.
While Southerners paddle sampans on small rivers and in the Talay Sap, the huge freshwater lake near Songkhla, they are primarily open-sea fishermen. The craft for which they are famed are the ko-lae fishing boats which are distinguished by the brightly-colored Thai or Malay designs covering their high bows and sterns.
In all regions of Thailand, one is impressed by the power and dexterity of the paddlers. It is in the longboat that the Thais best demonstrate their superior skills.
The longboat is derived from the ancient royal barges. Until well into the 19th century, these huge craft-propelled by dozens of paddlers-served as the royal navy. A vestige of that glorious heritage can be seen in the Royal Barge Procession, one of the world's great spectacles. The waterborne convoy is one of many associated with the ancient rite of Thawt Kathin, which marks the end of the annual "rains retreat" (often termed "Buddhist Lent") each October. His Majesty the King commands a fleet of 52 royal barges to present new robes to the monks at Wat Arun, the Temple of Dawn.
The ritual is replicated in the villages. Robes are conveyed in a solemn longboat procession to the Buddhist monastery where they are presented to the monks. Then, it is time for fun. Just as land-based cultures race horses or cars, Thais race boats, a logical pastime for a people immersed in water.
Traditionally hewn from a single log, a longboat has plank seats to hold up to 30 paddlers who may be male and/or female. Village teams spend months honing their techniques for the big day when they race down a kilometre-long course, cheered by thousands of spectators lining the banks. The winning boat earns glory for the village that built and propelled it. The boats and the races trace a lineage virtually unchanged since the foundation of the Thai kingdom in the 13th century, and are the ultimate reflection of an ages-old love affair between the Thais and their rivers.
Over the years, I'd seen many boat races and been impressed by the boatmen's prowess. What I failed to understand was the difficulty inherent just in keeping them upright. My chance came when I was invited to assemble a team of foreign journalists to paddle a boat in the annual Boat Races in the northern town of Phichit.
Granted, we hadn't had a lot of time to prepare but we were confident that our sheer muscle would overcome our opponents in the boat beside us. Our bulky European bodies, however, proved our undoing as the combined weight caused the boat to ride very low in the water. When waves splashed up against the right side, everyone leaned left which, of course, dipped that gunwale beneath the waterline, allowing water to pour in. The crew reacted by over-leaning in the opposite direction. More water poured in. We crossed the finish line a very distant second.
Long-distance river boats have largely been replaced by fleets of trucks hurtling down the highways. But something of the antique longboatmen is now found in a new breed of paddlers who are discovering the rush that comes from negotiating whitewater. Riverbank farmers have been startled to see colourful rubber rafts and plastic kayaks flying down fast rivers, propelled by determined paddlers. While many paddlers are foreigners, the vanguard are young Thai men and women who are re-discovering their ago-old aquatic tradition, replicating the spirit of the longboat stalwarts of yore and ensuring the survival of an ancient tradition.
Contact information
TAT Tourism Information Hotline
Tel: 1672
Phitsanulok Boat Race
TAT Northern Office : Region 3
Areas of Responsibility : Phitsanulok,Phetchabun, Sukhothai and Uttaradit
Tel : +66 (0) 5525 2742-3
Fax : +66 (0) 5525 2472
E-mail Address : tatplok@tat.or.th
Phichit Annual Boat Race
TAT Northern Office - Region 4
Areas of responsibility: Tak, Phichit and Kamphaeng Phet
Tel: +66 (0) 5551 4341 - 3
Fax: +66 5551 4344
E-mail: tattak@tat.or.th
Chumphon Boat Race
TAT Southern Office - Region 5
Areas of responsibility: Surat Thani, Chumphon and Ranong
Tel: +66 (0) 7728 8818 - 9
Fax: +66 (0) 7728 2828
E-mail: tatsurat@tat.or.th
About The Author
Steve Van Beek
Steve Van Beek's special intimacy with water comes in large part because for 11 of his 30 years in Thailand, he lived in a wooden Thai house set on stilts in the Chao Phraya River. He has also paddled a small boat down all of the Chao Phraya's four tributaries; his "The Chao Phya, River in Transition" which was published by Oxford University Press is considered the definitive work on the river and water culture in Thailand. His most recent book, "Slithering South" is an anecdotal chronicle of his first journey. The author of 21 books and 42 documentary films on a variety of Asian cultural topics, he is a Fellow of the Explorers Club in New York, elected in recognition of his solo river expeditions in China and Tibet. |
