By Mien Kattenoor from bangkok.
Nearly two centuries ago, when Chulalongkorn was king, a man saw something stuck in the swirling waters of a Bang Rak canal, even before it was paved over to become Charoen Krung Road.
There it was trapped in running water for three days and nights before he recognized it as the image of a goddess. He later gave it to his brother, Chu Thang, who owned a chicken farm near Saphan Luang, an area now known for the street stalls and low-slung buildings along Rama IV Road.
In the 1880s – the exact year is forgotten – the family built a shrine on the farm and placed the statue in it. There, the fertility goddess Tubtim was highly respected among generations of Thai-Chinese for granting wishes – especially babies – and giving warnings in their dreams.
There it stands today along with the last in a line of caretakers stretching all the way to Chu Thang, despite the repeated attempts to demolish the shrine and evict the guards that go back more than half a century.
On a recent afternoon, Penprapa “Nok” Ploysrisuay sat on an ottoman in front of the statue’s smoldering censers, remembering the history passed down through generations of caretakers, now preserved on sheets of computer-printed paper.
Penprapa has been taking care of the shrine since her husband Pathompong Ploysrisuay, the third generation caretaker, passed away two years ago.
Now living there with her mother and three children means sweeping the front yard every morning, giving the statue offerings and lighting incense and candles .
Penprapa “Nok” Sowsum represents the Tubtim Goddess that her husband’s family has cared for since the reign of King Rama V. Photo: Coconuts
The last caretaker?
They now remain there, despite a final eviction date handed down on June 15 earlier this month by Chulalongkorn University, which owns that and much more land in the area. The university is eager to get started with stalled plans to redevelop the lot into luxury apartments.
As the university founded by King Chulalongkorn mounts pressure to leave, Penprapa says she is willing to do so, despite the shrine being decades older than the university. But she insists it should treat them with honor, help them through the transition, and provide a safe living environment in the shrine’s new location.
‘You should come and have a good chat with us. You have a lot of land, you could give us a room or build your condominium behind our sanctuary or even move your condo project elsewhere,” she said, adding that she was never given proper documentation of the eviction. nor the opportunity for a serious sit-down with the school’s property management directors.
The university says it has generously offered to pay for six months of accommodation until a new sanctuary is completed in a nearby park in December.
Penprapa said the university was in fact only offering to cover half of the monthly rent of 30,000 Thai baht for six months of accommodation while a new building is being built by the park. She also described the accommodations as “shabby” and “worn out,” saying the university had told them they would have to pay to make it habitable.
She also doubts that the school will not separate them from the goddess she calls Ama (grandmother, for the Thai-Chinese) after all.
“They said they were going to build a new sanctuary for Ama in Centenary Park, but the park is far from finished and there are a lot of snakes in that place,” Penprapa, 42, said. “And from what I’m hearing, the buildings in the area they’re offering us to stay in will be getting eviction notices shortly in the future because the university refuses to renew their leases.”
Earlier this month, student activists staged several protests urging the university to stop the demolition. With great public and media attention, the university didn’t go ahead as planned, but said it will begin demolition soon.
Those advocating for its preservation say the shrine is an important local heritage site for residents in the community.
Penprapa says that every occasion from Chinese New Year to Songkran was celebrated there. Each generation of caretakers cooked for people in the community, Chinese opera troupes competed against each other in front of the audience, and movies were shown outside as community entertainment tribute to the goddess.
The shrine of the goddess Tubtim at Saphan Luang in Samyan on June 17, which survived the bulldozing by Chulalongkorn University on June 16. Photo: Coconuts
Divine Interventions
This isn’t the first time the university has attempted to remove the shrine.
Years ago, the sanctuary was not so isolated. It had a thriving community around it, at least until 2007, when Chula issued eviction notices to its neighbors.
Their pleas to stay were rejected. Although the shrine survived, it was left alone, surrounded by empty lots used to park cars. The opera companies stopped coming in 2013.
Fifty years earlier, in 1957, Chula had moved to clear a much larger track between the present National Stadium and Rama IV Road for redevelopment. The densely populated community was able to stave off the threat of eviction, but after three years later one of the largest fires ever broke out between the site where the stadium now stands and Soi Chula 12, rumors circulated that it was arson.
The censer donated by King Rama VI in 1910.
The caretaker family’s poultry farm in the 1880s.
The caretaker’s family lives in rooms behind and next to the sanctuary’s dragon waterfall mural.
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