Phuket and The Charming Chino-Portuguese style Architecture

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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.

Travel Tips

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.