Bagan’s Sea of Pagodas

                                      by Jim Goodman

Shwesandaw and Dhammayan Gyi

       For a country long used to negative reports in the international media, this year Myanmar drew the world’s attention for a very felicitous reason.  On 6 July 2019 UNESCO recognized the ancient capital of Bagan as a World Heritage Site.  It was a long time coming.  Myanmar’s government had first nominated Bagan for the award in 1995.  But Myanmar was a pariah country then, under the military-led State Law and Order Restoration Council (the notorious SLORC).  Western governments discouraged their citizens from making it a tourist destination.  And members of the UNESCO committee objected to some of the restoration work.

the gilded stupa of Shwezigon

       Time passed.  Eventually a civilian government came to power.  Tourist arrivals have been burgeoning for at least fifteen years, with Bagan one of the most popular excursions.  Despite the original qualms, UNESCO could no longer deny the site its due recognition. 

       It certainly deserved it.  The Bagan Archaeological Zone, with over 3000 pagodas and temples, comprises 104 square kilometers, making it the world’s largest.  Founded in the mid- to late 9^th century, capital of the country’s first Burmese Empire from 1044-1287, the plain around it once held over 10,000 religious monuments.  Bagan’s religious tradition followed that of their Pyu predecessors, a Tibeto-Burman people occupying several city-states in the Ayerewady Valley, heavily influenced by their trade links with India.  It encompassed both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhism, plus Tantra, Hindu cults of Shiva and Vishnu, as well as the indigenous spirit (nat) beliefs.

stupas on the way to New Bagan

      Wars with its neighbor Nanzhao, in contemporary Yunnan, China, from 750-830, destroyed Pyu political power.  In this power vacuum rose the Kingdom of Bagan, founded by Burmese people (Bahmar), who would by two centuries later extend their control over the whole Irrawaddy Valley and its periphery.  Under King Anawrahta, who ascended in 1044, the state became an empire.  He extended the rice cultivation area, especially to the east, with weirs and canals, which encouraged the immigration of ever more farmers.  He made Theravada Buddhism the state religion, though tolerated other beliefs, and sponsored the formation of a script for the Burmese language.

Thatbinniyu (right), the tallest pagoda on the plain

      His able successors Kyinsuttha (1081-1112), who patronized Mon scholars and artisans, and Alaungsithi ·1112-1167), who constructed more irrigation systems and standardized weights and measures, presided over a long period of peace and prosperity.  The empire had no real rivals and grew quite wealthy.  And with both kings and commoners religiously pious, much of that wealth became devoted to building temples and pagodas.  Their palaces, houses and walls have disappeared, but their spectacular array of religious monuments remains as a legacy that draws visitors from all over the world.

pagodas on the Bagan plain

       People can fly to Bagan’s airport, but a more interesting way there is to go by boat from Mandalay, to the north.  The fastest boat takes about eight hours, though one could take cheaper, slower ones that arrive well after dark, or even the next morning.  The journey by road also takes the entire day and is basically a boring succession of farms and villages.  The river route can also be tedious for long stretches, but at least one can walk around on deck and enjoy food and drinks.

sunrise view from Shwesandaw

       After departing Mandalay in early morning, the boat soon passes slowly by the former medieval capital Sagaing.  The town lies on the west bank and morning light from the east on the two long, temple-studded hills that make up the town keeps the passengers’ cameras clicking.  After Sagaing the scenery is monotonous until the junction with the Chindwin River, and then relatively boring again until just before the landing at Bagan, where the northernmost stupas are first visible.

       I made the trip on a sunny day in December 2006.  The monsoon had ended less than two months previously but already the river was rather shallow.  The boat zigzagged its way downriver to avoid getting stuck on a sandbar.  It made brief stops at a village south of Sagaing, where children waded out from shore to sell bananas and other snacks, and at the confluence with the Chindwin, where a few passengers disembarked.  Until approaching Bagan scarcely any other vessels were in the river, with a surprising dearth of fishing activity.

Sulamani Temple

      The boat pulled into the pier at Old Bagan next to Bupaya Temple, reputedly the oldest monument in the city.  Unfortunately, a devastating earthquake of 6.3 magnitude in1975 completely leveled the building and what stands there now is a reconstruction.  Most of the main temples remained standing, though some lost a few spires.  Bagan suffered periodic earthquakes throughout its history and it’s a tribute to the skills of the planners and architects that so many major temples and pagodas survived them relatively intact.

       Reconstruction commenced soon afterwards and by 2006 even the smaller temples and stupas had all been restored.  Some had plaques placed in front listing the names of those who sponsored the restoration and others had newly installed Buddha images.  Because they used new bricks it was easy to tell which spires or other parts had been damaged and some were completely rebuilt from the base up.

typical bell-shaped stupa

       We arrived late in the afternoon when the waning light enriched the colors of the monuments, enhancing the 40-minute hike to New Bagan, where I stayed in a moderately priced hotel for four nights.  Clusters of pagodas along the way gave me a foretaste of what to expect come morning.  Rich visitors stayed in luxury hotels in Old Bagan and backpackers headed for cheap guesthouses in Nyaungthu village.  But wherever one lodged, wonderful temples and pagodas were just a short walk away.

gilded stupa atop Dhammayazika

      For the most majestic view of the archaeological zone one could take an expensive balloon ride over the plain.  The government had also erected a 60-meter-tall viewing tower on the northern side. Most people were content to explore the area on foot, by bicycle or by pony-cart.  I did all three.  About a dozen temples have interior staircases enabling visitors to reach the upper levels, provided you can find the groundskeeper to unlock the door. 

       A notable exception is Shwesandaw, southeast of Old Bagan, which has exterior stairways on three sides, with handrails.  It’s the most popular spot to watch the sun set behind the mountains west of the river.  Perhaps because guests did not want to miss the free morning breakfast in their hotels, hardly anyone showed up for the sunrise, which I found even more enchanting.

severed Buddha head on the ground

stone carving on a temple facade

       Climbing up to the fifth level of this whitewashed temple and looking west I could see groups of pagodas at intervals, with the distant mountains in the background.  The nearest cluster stood about a hundred meters away.  The first sun rays bathed the fronts of the buildings, while wispy, low, skinny clouds lay between the trees in nearby groves.  When the sun rose higher, the clouds dissipated and it was time to move on.

stone frieze on Abeyodana Temple

       Scholars divide the buildings into three periods.  The early period, 850-1100, reflects Mon and Pyu influence, with small perforated windows and dark interiors.  The middle period, 1100-1170, features bigger windows, taller stupas and a vertical emphasis.  Those of the late period, 1170-1300, are more elaborate, with more sculptural embellishments.

       The majority of the buildings are individual stupas, both simple small ones and big ornate ones.  The earliest were often cylindrical or like mounds, but from the 11^th century the bell shape dominated.  A few are whitewashed, others gilded, but most are of brick.  Some have smaller stupas at the corners of each of the pagoda terraces and some are completely gilded.  All of them are supposed to contain relics, indicating, from the sheer number of such stupas, just how prevalent the collecting and preserving of relics was to the religious-minded people of the Bagan era.

temple and stupas

       Stupas also rise above the tops of the temples, which have extended hollow chambers at the base, generally one or four, used for meditation and rituals.  They may also have large Buddha images from the original construction or smaller, modern ones installed during restoration.  Several temples feature interior frescos.

       UNESCO sponsored restoration of the biggest group, at Abeyodana Temple, mainly Hindu and Mahayana Buddhist imagery, but including lots of secular everyday life activities.  Nandamannya Pahto’s set of Mahayana panels is in less good condition.  Its most famous scene, the Temptation of Mara, with its bare-breasted beauties, is covered with glass and difficult to see.  Those at Ananda Ok Kyaung and Updi Thein depict daily life activities from the 17^th-18^th centuries, when they were painted.  Frescos in the Kyanzitthi cave temple, 800 years old, are too worn to see well, though they include panels of Mongols.

interior Buddha images

       Compared to the sculptural paradise of Angkor, Bagan doesn’t have many extant carvings.  Here and there one comes across a toppled Buddha head on the ground.  A few stone panels of deities, mythical animals and dancing apsaras exist, like the set at Abeyodana Temple.  A couple others have standing Buddhas or well-worn elephants.  Dhammayazika, with a recently re-gilded spire, has panels of Jataka scenes, stone sculptures around the base and protruding, stone makara-headed drainage pipes on the terrace levels.

       Among the most picturesque temples are three from the early period:  Shwesandaw—the sunrise/sunset viewing favorite, Thatbinniyu—the tallest on the plain, and Ananda Pahto—the biggest and most complex.  All three are whitewashed.  For its 900^th anniversary in 1992, Ananda Pahto had its spires gilded  

Manuha Temple, built by a captive Mon king, 11th c.

       Besides Abeyodana and Dhammayazika, other Bagan temples draw much visitor attention.  Sulamani has the most classic shape, with small stupas lining the sides of the multi-tiered base.  Mahabodhi is an exact replica of the ancient one in Bodh Gaya, India, where the Buddha achieved Enlightenment.  Dhammayangyi is the largest in volume, though its spire has toppled.  The Sein Sisters pair are in completely different styles from each other. Seinnyet Nyima resembles a smaller version of Sulamani, while Seinnyet Ama is a large, bell-shaped stupa.

       Bagan reached the zenith of its prestige and power in the late 12^th and early 13^th centuries, under Kings Narapatyi Sithu (1174-1211) and Htilominlo (1211-1235).  These rulers enlarged the borders, prevented Khmer expansion out of central western Thailand, codified the law, established a standing army and extended Burmese cultural influence beyond its boundaries.  The capital’s population then is estimated as anywhere from 50,000 to 200,000.  Yet this heyday was not to last much longer. 

everyday life in ancient Bagan

       Piety had become a problem.  Kings and nobles granted much of the agricultural land to temples and monasteries, which were exempt from taxation.  Falling revenues meant less money for state administration, especially in the furthest away border provinces, building canals to open new farmland, and equip the army.  The religious spirit, which had inspired so much architectural grandeur, was undermining the state. 

       Conflict began in the south and Bagan lost territory to Arakan and Martaban.  Later in the 13^th century Bagan faced Mongol invaders.  While the Mongols apparently never occupied the city itself (they usually destroyed every city they captured), their campaigns successfully terminated Bagan’s power.  By 1287 Bagan’s empire was history and its population reduced to several thousand.  The Myinsaing Kingdom to the south became the pre-eminent state in the country, though neither it nor any of its successors for the next few centuries held sway over Myanmar as much as Bagan had.

UNESCO-restored frescos at Abeyodana

Mahabodhi Temple

       Though it was no longer important politically, Bagan continued to attract pilgrims from all over the country.  They concentrated on Ananda Pahto, Shwezigon, Sulamani, Htilominlo and Dhammayazika.  The other monuments fell into decline.  When the Konbaung Dynasty (1752-1885) took control of Burma, holding territory even greater than the Bagan Empire, its government sponsored many restorations in Bagan, though not necessarily following the originals.  Nevertheless, the ancient site’s prestige, with its importance to Burmese culture, endured. 

Winido Temple, near the viewing tower

       Pilgrims continued to journey to Bagan throughout the colonial period and in the first few decades after independence.  With a slightly improved political situation, tourism began taking off in the 21^st century.  It did not draw anywhere near the numbers that visited Cambodia’s Angkor, but it was a less congested, more relaxing experience.  Like Angkor the main sites had their local hawkers, selling souvenirs, bric-a-brac and snacks, plus the ubiquitous painters.  But they were never very persistent.

       In 2006 the entry ticket was a mere US$10, valid for however long you stayed.  Unlike Angkor, where the nearest hotels were in urban Siem Reap, the lodgings were all inside the quiet archaeological zone.  Right after you left your hotel you were in the vicinity of ancient monuments.  You could even walk among them by moonlight.  Many travelers explored the zone on their own.  Groups in buses were not so numerous and didn’t stay long at any particular site, other then the sunset viewing pagodas.

       Visitor numbers have increased since my 2006 excursion, and are likely to grow more now that Bagan is a recognized World Heritage Site.  No doubt more people will be taking the balloon flights over the plain, but the area is too vast to get very congested.  And for an example of what religious fervor can do for architecture, Bagan remains one of the world’s most outstanding,

Seinnyet Nyima and Seinnyet Ama

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Watgate: Chiang Mai’s International Suburb

                                                                          by Jim Goodman

site of the former Watgate river port

       When King Mengrai of the state of Lanna conquered the ancient Kingdom of Haripunchai in the late 13^th century, he decided it was time to move his capital from Fang to somewhere closer to the center of his expanded realm.  Rather then move into Haripunchai (today’s Lamphun), he opted to make that old city Lanna’s spiritual center and instead build a new one at Wiang Kum Kam, about 25 km north.  Unfortunately, located beside the Ping River, the site was prone to regular flooding.

       Fed up with this situation, in 1296 he laid the foundations for Chiang Mai, literally “New City”, a few kilometers north and several hundred meters west of the Ping River, beyond the reach of any flood.  Besides the moats and walls around the city, eventually another wall went up between the eastern side of the city and the river, extending all the way around to the neighborhoods outside the moats to the southwest.  Most of the capital’s commoners lived inside this wall.

the vihatn of Wat Ketdaram

       Some lived along the river, though, for it was Lanna’s prime communication link.  The main port was on the east bank, opposite what is now Warorot market, in what became the district of Watgate.  Except for the small community involved with river trade, most of the area was agricultural and the farms didn’t extend very far from the river.  Nevertheless, in 1428 the royal government sponsored the construction of a temple close to the port, Wat Ketkaram, to service the spiritual needs of the inhabitants.  For over four centuries it was the only religious building east of the Ping River.

          In the late 18^th century, after two centuries of rule over Lanna, Burmese authority began to collapse.  Sporadic revolts broke out at various places in the north.  Because they were uncoordinated, the Burmese suppressed them and in some cases retaliated by expelling people from the cities that revolted, such as the entire population of Chiang Mai.  King Kawila of Lampang, allied with the Kingdom of Siam, expelled the Burmese from their Chiang Mai garrison in 1774 and then went on to chase them out of the rest of Lanna over the next several years. 

rainbow strikes the chedi at Wat Ketkaram

Chedi Chula Manee at Loy Krathong

       Rama I of the new Rattanakosin Dynasty appointed Kawila King of Lanna in 1782, but the city was deserted and the campaign against the Burmese far from finished.  Only in 1796, five hundred years after Mengrai founded the city, Kawila finally settled in the capital.  He had spent the previous few years going around to persuade scattered ex-residents to move back, now that it was again safe.

Sala Bitr, the former Chinese school

       Slowly but surely Chiang Mai’s population grew and commerce and agriculture returned to normal.  Watgate port became active again, a business community settled in around it, augmented in the 19^th century by Chinese immigrants, who sponsored a major renovation and expansion of Wat Ketkaram.  The renovated Chedi Chula Mani, said to house a hair of the Buddha, is the oldest original building in the compound, whole the rest are 19^th and 20^th century constructions.

       The viharn (assembly hall) is a beautiful example of the Rattanakosin style, with its multi-layered roof of orange tiles and golden trimmings.  The color red dominates the interior, with tall columns supporting the roofs, a gilded seated Buddha at the far end and a painting of a standing Buddha flanking one of the columns.

the 'dogs' of Wat Ketkaram

       Near the chedi stands a small, elegant open shrine to a standing Buddha, while next to it is the larger ubosot (ordination hall), with the twelve animals of the Chinese zodiac sculpted around the exterior walls.  Flanking the doors are high-relief vertical descending tigers, a feature copied on the doors of the abbot’s residence on the other side of the chedi. 

       Behind the shrine stands Sala Bitr, built of dark teakwood and embellished with gold on the door panels and shutters.  The attractive two-story building was originally a school for Chinese but is now empty.  A much larger modern school in the eastern part of the compound has replaced it.

dog sculptures next to the chedi

viharn interior

       The very clean and tidy compound has one other unique feature—its dogs, not the real animals but statues of them.  The chedi was built in the Year of the Dog.  Thus dogs are honored here with statues of various breeds, including ones not native to Thailand.    

the Attaqwa Mosque

         With peace and prosperity continuing, Watgate continued to expand.  Besides the Chinese coming up from Bangkok, the district attracted Muslim Chinese (Hui) in the1870s after the suppression of the Muslim Revolt in Yunnan.  They also established themselves in Warorot, but a large community settled a few blocks east of the river.  They built the Attaqwa Mosque, which eventually included a school with teachers trained in Cairo and Saudi Arabia.  Today the school has 150 students and the language of instruction is Arabic.

       Around the same time Watgate witnessed the arrival of Western missionaries.  They built the first church in 1868 near the river at the southeast corner of the district.  The most prominent were Dr. Daniel and Sophie McGilvary, austere and dedicated, who believed Buddhism was superstitious idolatry and local people needed a true religion like Christianity to save them from the Devil. 

Muslim girls passing through Wat Ketkaram

       Local people felt Buddhism was quite good enough for them and so conversion was slow.  After several years McGilvary could count only eight converts and two of them were killed for it.  The missionary then had to turn his attention to efforts to get the Court in Siam to issue a decree that no one was to be harmed because of conversion.  That success protected his new Christians but did not speed up the conversion rate.

       The next step was to set up schools.  Chiang Mai didn’t have schools then.  All education was in the monasteries and only for boys.  In 1878 the McGilvary couple opened the Phra Racha Chaiya Girls School, named after the young daughter of Chiang Mai’s King Inthawichayanon.   This princess later grew up with the name Dara Rasami and today is revered and remembered as the most famous lady in late Lanna history.  The school eventually changed its name to Dara Academy and now has both girl and boy students.

the Christian School Chapel, Chiang Mai's oldest church

the church at Prince Royal's College

       Dara Rasami’s youth coincided with a time of great political anxiety in the country.  France had begun taking over Indochina and Great Britain had already subjugated much of Burma.  In 1883 a rumor spread that Queen Victoria wished to adopt Dara Radami.  Having just been through problems with British logging interests in the north, the rumor alarmed the Siamese Court.  They viewed it as a possible first step toward seizing Lanna. 

April flowers on Rattanakosin Road

       King Rama V dispatched a delegate to Chiang Mai to propose a royal marriage.  In 1886, the year Britain annexed northern Burma, Dara Rasami left her home to live in the royal palace in Bangkok as one of the king’s consorts.  She and her entourage continued to dress in Lanna style, with very long hair tied in a bun at the top of the head and sarongs with Lanna designs.  Other Court ladies looked down on them, considered them Lao foreigners.  These ladies wore their hair shorter and preferred different kind of sarongs, a style they believed was more ‘civilized’.

       In late1889 she bore the king a daughter, who unfortunately died in early 1892.  The distraught mother destroyed all photos and portraits of the girl.  Princess Dara bore no more children but remained in Bangkok until 1908, when she made a visit to Chiang Mai. Lampang and Lamphun to visit her relatives.  On her arrival in April she was greeted by royal and military officials, soldiers and commoners from all over Lanna.  Likewise, upon her return to Bangkok in November, the King and Court, government officials and Bangkok residents welcomed her back with a flotilla of a hundred royal boats.

Princess Dara Rasami in Chiang Mai

Siri Guru Singh Sabha, Sikh temple on Charoenrat Road

       In 1910 Rama V died.  Four years later Princess Dara asked his successor Rama Vi for permission to return permanently to Chiang Mai.  She remained active in her royal duties and patronage projects until she died in 1933.

       Much had changed since Princess Dara first moved to Bangkok.  In 1887 the missionaries opened another school in Watgate—the Chiang Mai Boys School.  This institution would educate Thai boys in subjects they did not study at the monasteries, like science, mathematics and, naturally, Protestant Christian theology.  It was successful and won royal favor such that in 1906, expanding into new buildings, Crown Prince Maha Vajiravudh, later Rama VI, came up from Bangkok to lay the cornerstone.  Thereafter its name was Prince Royal’s College.

=old buildings on Charoenrat Road

display in the Watgate Museum

       In 1888 missionaries opened McCormick Hospital on Kaew Nawarat Road, between Prince Royal’s and Dara Academy.  By establishing the first public health care center, with all the latest modern medicines and treatments, as well as the first formal schools, the missionaries certainly raised their prestige.  Though the great majority of Buddhists clung to their religion, conversions did grow.  Today Chiang Mai province has the largest number of ethnic Thai Christians in the country. 

       Meanwhile another foreign religious community immigrated to Chiang Mai and took up residence in Watgate—Sikhs from British India.  The first arrived in 1905, a cloth merchant who later persuaded many others to join him.  They also got involved in the cloth business, and still are, and in 1907 set up a gurudwara (Sikh temple) on Charoenrat Road along the Ping River—Siri Guru Singh Sabha, a large white block building with a golden dome on the roof.

the British Council, built in 1952

       The Watgate port was still active, but not for long.  When Princess Dara made her 1908 trip she went by train to Nakhon Sawan and by boat from there to Chiang Mai.  The journey took two months and nine days.  In the early 1920s workers completed a railroad and highway from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, reducing travel time either direction to just over a day.  River commerce was over.  But Watgate had already outgrown its port.

       The district included all the neighborhoods on either side of the three roads—Charoen Muang, Kaew Nawarat and Rattanakosin--that ran east of the three main bridges spanning the Ping River.  The new train station stood near the end of Charoen Muang and the northern bus terminal lies near the end of Kaew Nawarat.  The river port was dismantled and farms behind the eastern riverbank largely disappeared, replaced by residential neighborhoods. 

       For a look at the artifacts, crafts, photos and items of everyday use in this period one should visit Wat Ketkaram’s Museum, established around a century ago.  Many Lannna temples have museums, but this is the largest.  Furnishings, images, manuscripts and decorations from the original temple are on display, but the collection also includes a host of objects representing the secular life of the times.  These include baskets, musical instruments, leather cases, old typewriters, radios and phonographs, hunting and fishing gear, wooden animal head trophies, looms, thread winders, classic sarongs and festival rocket launchers.

a modern traditional style house in Watgate

       As the century progressed Watgate retained its importance to Chiang Mai’s educational program.  Dara Academy and Prince Royal’s College expanded into new buildings and today have a few thousand students.  Payap University, another Christian-sponsored institution, opened a campus opposite McCormick Hospital.  Facing Rattanakosin Road, in the rear of the campus, is the McGilvary Institute for religious studies.  Chiang Mai’s first church still stands, now called Chiang Mai Christian School Chapel, next to a Bible Study Institute.

       Besides the Christian schools, Watgate also has some language learning institutes.  The first was the British Council, on Bamrungrat Road, constructed in 1952, whose activities today are basically restricted to teaching English.  Besides English academies, there is also a center nearby for foreigners to learn Thai.

       From the late 90s tourism to Thailand accelerated and affected developments in Watgate.  New restaurants and nightclubs lined the riverbank between Charoen Muang and Kaew Nawarat.  Many of the fine old wooden houses were converted into hotels and art galleries.  The quiet end of Rattanakosin features several buffet grills, though customers are mostly Thai.

NcGilvary Academy, Payap University

       In fact, for all the foreigner presence in Watgate, the district’s residents are still predominantly Thai.  Several Buddhist temples have been built the last few decades, plus a crematorium at the end of Rattanakosin.  Typical of suburban Thai life is the warren of lanes behind this road.  Some of the houses are quite fancy, old or new, others very modest.  The residents include white-collar professionals and ordinary workers and traders, some of whom transport their goods in side carts attached to their motorbikes. Shops on the lanes cater to the neighborhood’s needs, including convenience stores, legal offices, realtors, beauty salons, food stores and small restaurants.

       Bars, karaoke clubs and snack and grill stands are just around the corner, opening in late afternoon.  People also gather at the tables in front of the small essentials shops to have a ‘sundowner’ beer or whisky.  It’s a quiet and convivial scene, far from city congestion and one of the delights of being a resident of Watgate.

Watgate riverside in May

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Hanoi’s Old Quarter

                                            by Jim Goodman

clean and orderly--the Old Quarter after French renovation

       In 1010 Lý Thái Tổ, founder of the new Lý Dynasty, moved the capital of Đại Việt from Hoa Lư, in present-day Ninh Bình province, to the abandoned former Chinese administrative center on the Red River.  After a vision he had when arriving at the site, he called his new city Thăng Long (Rising Dragon), today’s Hanoi.  In designing its layout he divided the area into two parts:  Hoàng Thành, the Royal City, and Kinh Thành, the Commoner’s City.  Throughout the city’s ups and downs, this partition persisted until modern times.

Bạch Mã Temple, the first temple in the Old Quarter

       A sprawling walled compound comprised Hoàng Thành, featuring many royal palaces, administrative buildings, ponds, groves and gardens.  High-ranking mandarins, royal family relatives and military officers lived just outside the Citadel.  Kinh Thành included everything between the Citadel’s eastern gate and the Red River.  It soon drew a host of migrants, largely crafts workers and others employed by the palace, and in later times new residents to provide services to the growing population. 

       The Kinh Thành area--Hanoi’s contemporary Old Quarter--had a very different landscape a thousand years ago.  The Tố Lịch River, which ran along the northern wall of the Royal City, flowed through the northern side of Kinh Thành and into the Red River at today’s Chợ Gạo..  On the southeastern side, the water of what is now Hoàn Kiếm Lake was connected to the Red River.  The residential area in between was a partly reclaimed marsh with many ponds.

tree shrinn--an ancient custom still alive

bamboo work outside on HàngVải, like the old days

       It was not very crowded back then.  Households had plenty of space for a house, workshop, garden and pond or well within their compounds.  They built stilted wooden and bamboo houses.  They became organized into craft guilds whose members lived on the same street.  Houses could not rise higher than a royal palace and they could not have an upper story window facing the street, from where a commoner (or assassin) could look down on the king if he passed through the city.  Another regulation limited how wide they could be.  Thus, when families expanded their buildings they did it lengthwise, back into the courtyard, instead of upward.  This was the origin of-the ’tube house’ style that came to characterize the city’s architecture.

lacquer workers, centuries ago

       The typical craft guild membership all came from the same village.  Some of these might also erect a small communal house (đình) to service their community or a modest temple honoring their village tutelary deity.  Besides the Bạch Mã Temple on Hàng Buồm, the oldest in the city, and Báo Thiên Pagoda, where the cathedral now stands, the city’s other temples were outside the main settled area.  From the survival of the custom evident in Hanoi today, one could assume Kinh Thành also had shrines to the spirits of particularly impressive old trees.

       No major transformations took place when the Trần Dynasty took over in 1238.  Growth affected the rural areas more than the city.  Princes and high mandarins had their estates in the countryside and hosted an assignment of soldiers.  Three times that century Mongol armies invaded Đại Việt.  Facing overwhelming numbers, the Vietnamese adopted the strategy of evacuating villages and removing all the food supplies—‘empty houses and gardens’.  Occupying a deserted capital and unsuccessful at foraging for food, the Mongols had to depart and Vietnamese guerrillas slaughtered them on their way out.

neighborhood temple on Bát Đân street

      Thăng Long residents rebuilt their city after each invasion, but in the late 14^th century their Chăm rivals in south central Vietnam attacked and sacked Thăng Long three times.  The city revived, but the dynasty did not.  The ambitious official Hồ Quý Ly moved the capital to his home district in Thanh Hóa, 160 km south, slaughtered the extended royal family members and proclaimed a new Hồ Dynasty in 1400.  Two Trần princes escaped and appealed to China for help.  The Chinese invaded in 1407, captured Hồ Qúy Ly, but did not restore the Trân. Instead they took over administration and ruled for twenty harsh years before a native uprising, led by Lê Lợi from Thanh Họa, expelled them.

early 20th century house

one of a few remaining old houses

       Unlike its predecessors, the Lê Court required its officials to live permanently in the capital, now renamed Đông Kinh.  The new neighborhoods were clustered around the southeastern side of the Citadel, while more village migrants came to live in the Old Quarter, where the government filled in more of the marshes.  Most of the work produced in the city was on contract.  The idea of stocking non-contracted goods in a shop didn’t take hold for another century or two. 

mandarin being carried into the Old Quarter

       Đông Kinh faced no external threats for the next few centuries.  The Old Quarter staged a market day the 1^st and 15^th of the lunar month, when villagers flocked to town.  Every few years the government hosted the examinations, drawing hundreds of scholars and enlivening the city’s atmosphere.  In general, life in the commoners’ city was not affected by political developments, like the coup against the Lê regime and establishment of the Mạc Dynasty (1527-1592).  When civil war broke out the battlefields were far away and until Lê forces captured Đông Kinh in 1592 the war did not affect the capital.

beer break late 19th century

       The victors did nit sack the city after evicting Mạc forces.  Peace, order and ordinary commerce returned so quickly that the Lê commander Trịnh Tùng ordered the city walls completely leveled.  He also took absolute control of the government, keeping the restored Lê emperor as a figurehead confined to the Citadel.  His successors got caught up in a violent quarrel with their erstwhile allies the Nguyển family, whose lords ruled the southern provinces while the Trịnh ruled the north.

typical ward gate

       Intermittent wars failed to change anything, so the two sides signed a truce in 1670.  The result in Đông Kinh was a century of growth and prosperity.  All the marshland of the Old Quarter was filled in by now, though several ponds remained, used as food sources.  River commerce thrived.  The two main ports were the confluence of the Tố Lịch and Red River at Chơ Gạo and Tây Lường Gate, where the Hoàn Kiếm Lake channel entered the Red River.

       Though the city walls were gone, new walls and gates began to separate the wards. These were locked and guarded at night, isolating the separate neighborhoods.  No one could pass through the gate without being examined by the watchmen, who were armed with thick staves.  Without an acceptable excuse, people could not enter these guarded neighborhoods after dark anyway. 

city wall and entrance gate, 19th century

       Most were just doorways in a high earthen wall that stretched across the lane.  Wealthier neighborhoods like Hàng Ngang had fancier gates, protruding from the wall, with an entrance surmounted by a tiled roof with upturned corners, supported by wooden pillars.

       Most streets in the commercial quarter were wider than nowadays, and paved with rectangular stones with slightly curved surfaces that facilitated water run-off in the rains.  But the lanes that twisted around the city’s ponds and connected the main streets were themselves narrower, mostly unpaved, quite muddy in the rains and never very clean when dry.  Sanitation was a low priority in Đông Kinh,, with no unit assigned by the government to keep the city clean.

Hàng Khay, 19th century

       Mid-18^th century, the city’s population exceeded 100,000, making it one of the biggest and most densely populated in East Asia.  Political developments threatened its future, though.  In 1749 Trịnh Doanh rebuilt the city walls as a defense against rural insurrections.  The walls had 21 entrance gates, locked and guarded at night.

       Rebels never breached these walls, but the Trịnh regime was in decline.  So was the Nguyễn Lords realm in the south.  In the late 18^th century armies of the Tây Sơn Revolt from south central Vietnam deposed the Nguyễn regime and later swept north, captured Đong Kinh in 1786, ended the Trinh Lords’ rule, restored the Lê emperor’s authority, then returned to their base around Huệ. 

      The aging emperor died soon after and his son Lê Chiêu Thống, in his first act as an independent emperor, ordered all the Trịnh palaces around Hoàn Kiếm Lake to be burned to the ground.  Unfortunately, the fire spread to the Old Quarter and consumed three-fourths of the houses.  Two years later he called on the Chinese to buttress his authority against the Tây Sơn, provoking the latter to march on the capital, drive out the Chinese, terminate the Lê Dynasty and set up their own.  It lasted until 1802, when Nguyễn Ánh’s army conquered the city and founded the Nguyễn Dynasty.

       Assuming the royal name Gia Long, the Nguyển emperor demolished the old citadel and replaced it with a smaller one and filled in the estuary connecting Hoàn Kiếm Lake with the Red River.  He made Huế his national capital and rarely visited the north.  He renamed the city Thăng Long, but with a different character for Long, rendering it Rising Prosperity.  It must have sounded overly optimistic to its residents.  The chaos of the last two decades had reduced the population to about 15,000, while official neglect of its infrastructure left nearly everything in need of repair and restoration.

\streetcar, early 20th century

       Nevertheless, under energetic and competent local administrators, by 1831, when Gia Long’s successor Minh Mạng renamed the city Hanoi, prosperity had returned and the city now had over 50,000 residents.  The Old Quarter streets were repaved with brick, new craft guilds set up residence and popular subscription enabled the renovation of old temples and the construction of new ones.  The city still had its walls and gates, locked at night, but at a later hour, allowing for the first stirrings of nightlife, with theaters and song cafés.  

       As the Nguyễn Dynasty fell into decline, by the 1880s French armies were fighting for control of the north.  Some of these battles took place in the Old Quarter, but by 1885 the French had won.  Two years later they made Hanoi the capital of the French Indochina Union.  Drastic changes ensued.  They immediately demolished the Lý Dynasty temple Chùa Bạo Thiên to erect St. Joseph’s Cathedral, created a French Quarter of European-style mansions for its colonists south of Hoàn Kiếm Lake and opulent administrative buildings near the Citadel.  

French postcard of Hàng Nóm

       They didn’t move into the Old Quarter, but remade it.  They filled in the ponds and the part of the Tố Lịch flowing through its northern side.  All the ward gates and city walls and gates came down except for one—Ô Quang Chướng.  They widened the streets and realigned the houses evenly.  They renovated the dikes, sharply reducing the flood threats, and in the early 20^th century installed gas lighting on the streets, a huge water storage tower at the top of Hàng Giấy and eventually a streetcar route through the city. 

       Life improved, the city grew and bustled and then, with the end of World War II, disaster struck again.  Chinese Guomindang troops entered the city, ostensibly to receive the Japanese surrender, and ransacked it.  The new Provisional Revolutionary Government was forced to allow French forces to re-enter Hanoi in return for the Guomindang evacuation.  Shortly afterwards fighting broke out between the French and Việt Minh soldiers.  Most of this took place in the Old Quarter.  By the time the Việt Minh withdrew and the French took full control, only about 10,000 were left in the city.

copper and bronze ware, Hàng Đồng

tin workshop, Hàng Thiếc 

       Many returned, though, and built new houses of brick and wood, without stilts, and the wealthier families added stories to make them higher, since there were no laws restricting size anymore.  The Việt Minh campaign for independence continued, but the battles were far from the capital.  The final battle took place in Điếnbiếnphủ in the northwest, sparing Hanoi of any further damage.

reed mats, Hàng Chiếu

       After 1954 developments in Hanoi were slow.  While American planes bombed parts of the city during the American War, the Old Quarter, having no strategic value, wasn’t targeted.  After the war, Vietnam remained relatively isolated until the late 1980s, when the đổi mới (renovation) policies commenced and the country integrated with the global economy.  By the 21^st century, Vietnam had become a popular tourist destination.

       The Old Quarter was one of the major attractions.  Increasing prosperity had resulted in many changes, like new buildings of four and five stories and the gradual disappearance of classic wooden, tile-roofed houses.  But the layout remained constant.  Some of the streets were still dominated by the craft they were named after, like Hàng Thiếc’s tin workshops and Hàng Bạc’s silver jewelry shops.  Others were partly so, as bamboo blinds were still available on Hàng Mành, reed mats on Hàng Chiếu and copperware on Hàng Đồng.  Its temples, shrines and đìnhs also still existed.

       Hanoi is not likely to suffer future bombings or invasions. Nor will the Old Quarter change its basic form.  Tourists appreciate it as the liveliest and most interesting part of Hanoi, largely unaware of its long and checkered history.  Local Vietnamese are quite conscious of that, though, and revere it for that reason.  The Old Quarter is the heart of their ancient capital, so often destroyed and always reviving—truly a phoenix city.

basket shop on Nguyễn Siêu street, built over the filled in Tố Lịch River

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