Thai Suphan Buri riverside market still bustling after 100 years

Mar 16, 2010, 11:26 GMT

Suphan Buri, Thailand - Tekming Sae Chang, a Chinese immigrant from Swatao, Fujian Province, moved to Sam Chuk market with his family in 1950 to open the Sil Thammachat (Natural Art) Photo Shop.

His wife NguangHong Sae Aeab, 81, and daughter Suri Eampichairit, 61, still run the shop today, doing a booming business in taking old-fashion portraits of tourists with an antique Voightlander studio camera. The photos, which cost 100 baht (3 dollars) each, are sent to customers via snail mail.

'In the old days we only took photos of people living in the neighbourhood,' said Suri. 'Nowadays we take pictures of people from all over Thailand and even from overseas.'

Suri and her mother are part of the living history accessible for a friendly chat at the Sam Chuk market, which on December 11, 2009, was granted an Award of Merit by UNESCO for cultural heritage conservation.

The market was opened more than a century ago at a juncture of three waterways in the then-sparsely inhabited wilderness of Suphan Buri, about 100 kilometres north-west of Bangkok.

Enterprising Chinese and Thai merchants pioneered the remote outpost, setting up a market to buy rice and jungle products that were then transported by boat down the river to Bangkok.

Business was good until 1967 when the government built a new road between Suphan Buri and Bangkok, making river transport unnecessary.

With new more modern markets cropping up along the Suphan Buri highway, the Sam Chuk market, comprising about 250 wooden shophouses on the bank of the Tha Jeen River, eventually fell off the merchant map.

In 1999 the Treasury Department, which owns half of the land on which the market stands, decided to build a new commercial building on the property and opened negotiations with the tenants and the community to persuade them to knock down their shops.

Sam Chuk is split into four lanes of wooden shops, half of which are on Treasury Department land and the other half are privately owned.

'People didn't want to rip down their old shops because they didn't have money to rebuild or to move somewhere else,' said Pongwin Chaivirat, head of the Sam Chuk preservation committee.

Instead, the community decided to conserve their market community as a heritage site, hoping to attract tourists.

The community was at first clueless about how to turn what was essentially a dilapidated, fire-trap of jumbled old wooden shophouses into a cultural heritage site.

With lots of community meetings and some advice from Thai non-government organizations, such as the Chumchonthai Foundation and Community Architects for Shelter and Environment, the Sam Chuk residents designated 25 buildings as heritage attractions, put in a decent garbage disposal system and tried to persuade local merchants to sell vintage junk (check out the fake antique toys) as opposed to modern junk.

By 2003, as word spread of the restoration project, Sam Chuk began to become popular, especially among Bangkok residents for whom the market is only a three-hour drive away.

UNESCO awarded the community for its heritage efforts in December, adding to its already growing popularity among tourists.

'The project will have a major impact in raising awareness about grassroots heritage conservation and is an important model for empowering other historic communities in Thailand,' UNESCO's Bangkok director Molly Lee said when presenting the community with an Award of Merit last year.

Nowadays, about 10,000 tourists visit the market every Saturday and Sunday, giving it a genuine hot-and-crowded Thai market feel.

The Sam Chuk shop-owners, the majority of whom are relatives or descendants of the original Thai-Chinese merchants, are enjoying both a business and social revival.

'Before there were only old people and kids living here, but now the young adults are coming back,' Pongwin said. 'It's a happy time for everyone. The old people can feel lively again.'

He acknowledged the commercial success of the market, which last year attracted 267 study groups, has had some adverse side effects.

'Our effort to preserve the old ways is getting undermined by all the visitors because no matter what food you make here you can sell it now,' Pongwin said.

Initially the market tried to concentrate on the old-fashioned sweets and snacks it had originally been well-known for.

Smart Bangkokians know better that to have their lunch at the market. The routine is to stop at the Gooi Mong Restaurant, on the highway 40 kilometres south of Sam Chuk, and feast on their famous river shrimp dishes before heading to the 100-year-old market for dessert.