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Old Phuket - Phuket and The Charming
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 Let's
know about the impressive articles about Phuket Andaman Pearl
Southern Heaven Golden SandsThe land of the two Heroines Powerful
Luang Pho Chaem
Besides the amazing treasures of Phuket mentioned above,
one of the charms can be seen in Phuket Town is its over half
century old building. Most home residences, shops, official
buildings etc. are showing its significant architecture.
Since most of Phuketians realize to conserve their heritage
buildings to be their unique. In the past, these people had
the close contact with the people in Penang because of the
short distance to visit each other, the trade business, some
had their children study there.
Those people observed and copy the building architecture
to build their own in Phuket That is why Phuket is full of
significantly difference in building architecture.
These buildings were buildings in the newly-developed in
tin mining era. At first they were influenced by Chinese architecture.
They were two-storey brick wood building, some were one story.
Thick wall to shoulder the heavy curing Chinese style tiles.
Roof designing including doors, windows were all influenced
by Chinese architecture . Later, the architecture headed towards
to western civilization. The architectures then got influence
from Chino- Portuguese from Malay through Penang.
The Chino - Portuguese style architecture show the compositions
of the classic Renaissance, neo-Europe classic with the mixture
of Chinese, Thai style architecture. These new building architecture
are about 60-100 years old. One of the charming of these house
styles is using the arch in their work. There are curing pillars
standing in row on the first floor in each building.
They are used to hold or carry the weight of the second floor
and to mark the space of arcade or Nlgorkakee as the Chinese
call as well. Ngorkakee means the pavement with the roofs.
People may walk through. In the previous time, some areas
in Bangkok, such as Charoenkrung, Bumrungmuang or Sao Ching
Cha used to have the building with these styles.
The stucco of pillars edge, windows frames and decorations
are all neat and attractive. There are many decorative styles
at the pillar edges, such as Doris, lonic and Corintian styles
and others. All of them represents the Renaissance and neo
classic influence on the way of living. But the doors, window
and interior decoration show the mixture of Chinese and Thai
style or pure Chinese.
These old building still welcome all tourists at the old
Phuket residence area on Thalang Road, Deebuk Road, Russada
Road, and ect. It is such a good pleasure that these old building
owners all understand the value to conserve their buildings
.
They try to keep the buildings in good conditions. Some although
have new buildings in this area but still bring or use the
previous style to harmonize the surroundings. However some
of these buildings have been out of repair or changed to be
more modern while some are demolished.
Nowadays, both government and private organizations are
giving hands each other to restore and keep these old buildings
in good conditions for our generations.
Phuket Town has not always been the capital of Phuket Island.
Three hundred years ago, the capital was Thalang (see History
of Phuket). Phuket is a middle-sized town with about 60.000
inhabitants and offers the sightseer Chinese temples (about
30% of the population of Phuket Island are Chinese), markets,
and old colonial mansions.
Your Starting Point is Ranong Road. This is the site of Phuket`s
town market. The market is open until late afternoon, but
most interesting in the early morning. The stalls offer all
kinds of things: it starts with beautiful flowers and delicious
tropical fruit like mango or pineapple, spices like chilies,
garlic,or tamarind, dried fish and Thai shrimp paste, goes
on with fresh seafood and butchered meats and finally ends
up with clothes and household articles. Buy some fruit (the
small bananas or the mangoes are delicious!) or a spray of
orchids.
Jui Jui Temple
When you are sure that you have inspected everything in
the market, exit to Ranong Road, turn left, cross the street
and walk ahead past the Thai Airways office and then past
a Thai temple. At the next corner you can see a building with
a Chinese temple roof. This is Put Jaw Temple, the oldest
Chinese temple in Phuket. It is dedicated to Kuan Yin, the
Chinese Goddess of Mercy.
Put Jaw Temple is not particularly sophisticated from an
architectonic point of view, but nevertheless interesting.
The middle hall holds an image of Kuan Yin and several fortune
telling devices, such as a pair of wooden blocks that are
dropped by the devotees to the floor. Depending on which side
they fall on, the answer to a question is "yes"
or "no". There are also two cans with sticks that
have to be shaken until one of the sticks comes out. Each
stick has a number and in the room left to the main hall are
boxes where the devotee can find paper slips (also with numbers
written on them) with good advice that suits his or or problem.
Do not forget to leave a donation (it is used for the upkeep
of Put Jaw) - the temple`s guardian will ring a little bell
when you put the money in the box.
Old Colonial House on Krabi Road
While Put Jaw Temple is admittedly rather plain, the Jui
Jui Temple next door is much more ornate and stately. You
just have to walk through the gate in the left temple compound
wall of Put Jaw Temple. The Jui Jui Temple is dedicated to
a vegetarian god, Kiu Wong In, whose statue can be admired
on the altar. His red face colour does not indicate fierceness
but, according to Chinese symbolism, benevolence. Also interesting
are the carved entrance doors of the temple.
After the temple visit walk back to the street corner, cross
Ranong Road, and go straight ahead on the same street (Soi
Phoo Toon) in northern direction until you reach the intersection
with Krabi Road (it is the second street after Ranong Road).
(The walk takes just a few minutes) Turn right and walk some
50 meters more until you see a further Chinese shrine, with
an entrance that is flanked by two lions, a little set back
form the road. This is Sanjao Sam San Temple. You can enter
it; inside is an altar. The shrine is dedicated to the Goddess
of the Sea and new boats are blessed here, so that their owners
may enjoy the protection of the goddess. The atmosphere of
the shrine is a lot more quiet and dignified than at Put Jaw
Temple.
Phuket Aquarium at Cape Panwa
When you return from the temple to Krabi Road just walk on
in the same direction as before and you will come across huge
yard with very beautiful old Sino-Portuguese houses. They
were built and owned by rich Chinese merchants. The ribbings
across the roof edges and on the gables are typical for this
style. There are a number of these houses on Krabi road.
Walk until the next main intersection (with Yawaraj Road)
and turn right (one the corner is another interesting house)
This way you will get back to Ranong road (it is the next
larger road where you can turn left). If you like to, you
can also visit the Phuket Aquarium at Cape Panwa. Just hire
a Songthaew and let it take you the 10 kilometers to Cape
Panwa (there are also regular buses to the aquarium that bear
signs in English). The aquarium houses a large variety of
tropical fish and other sea animals in large tanks - quite
interesting if you plan to do diving or snorkeling on Phuket
Island. From the aquarium catch a bus or Songthaew back to
you hotel.
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