Tuesday, December 16, 2008

City pillar shrines outside provincial towns

City pillar shrine of TrangWhen I wrote about the city pillar shrines the first time, I shortly mentioned the three cases I knew where it had a city pillar shrine not located in a provincial capital. By some random googleing I found the blog of Sing, and while introducing his hometown Kantharalak he also posted photos of the city pillar shrine there. This now makes it the fourth of these shrines not in the provincial capital.
  • Phra Pradaeng, Samut Prakan. The city pillar shrine is quite old already, and continued to exist after the province was abolished in 1932.
  • Trang's city pillar shrine (see photo) is still located at the original location of the town, which was moved first to the coast and later further inland at the beginning of the 20th century.
  • Mae Sai, Chiang Rai. Might date back to the time when Mae Sai was a Mueang (though not one reporting directly to Bangkok) and not yet incorporated into Chiang Rai province as a district.
  • Kantharalak, Sisaket. Might be similarily old, according to amphoe.com Kantharalak goes back to Mueang Uthumphon Phisai.
Below is a Google Map with the location of those shrines I either visited already, or could proof the location. On a scrapbook at Wikipedia I already collected more, including information on the history of each building though that is hard to find without reading Thai. Though that page is not an article, it can be edited by anyone like almost every page on Wikipedia, so if you can share information you're welcome to put it right there. I have also created a photo album with all my city pillar shrine photos.

View Larger Map

4 comments:

Ian said...

Regarding CPSs outside provincial capitals. A few months back I was travelling through the Surin province, and stopped at the amphoe capital of Tha Tum. I was surprised to see what looked to be a CPS in this small town.

I did add this as a waymark:
http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM976G_Tha_Tum_Lak_MueangTha_Tum_Town_Surin_Province_Thailand

As you can see it is comparable in size to some of the smaller, provincial CPSs.

I spoke to a knowledgeable Surin local, and she explained that it was a common practice for prominent citizens in an amphoe to create their own CPS. I investigaated further and found other amphoe level CPS, both in Surin and in Roi Et to the north.

I was entirely unaware of these amphoe CPS. I am also unaware of any written information on this subject. I was wondering, do you have any info about these shrines?

Andy said...

What I wrote in this posting is more or less all I know about these shrines. I still don't know whether the one in Mae Sai is as old as I suspected. In Isan id had quite a lot of Mueang, many of them became reduced to Amphoe. I have no idea if these shrines date back to then, or are rather recent as that local told you. Anyway, I have added your waypoint to my Lak Mueang map, if you have more you can also send me by email, or I could even give you write access to that map.

Ian said...

Hi again,
Here are links to all of my waymarked CPSs. Feel free to use. I do have additional photos of each if needed. My goal is to visit each and every CPS in Thailand (and the few in Cambodia).

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM98RG_Rayong_Lak_MueangRayong_Town_Rayong_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM95N5_Roi_Et_Lak_MueangRoi_Et_Town_Roi_Et_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM7W6K_Songkhla_City_Pillar_ShrineSongkhla_Town_Songkhla_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM72GW_Surin_City_Pillar_ShrineSurin_Town_Surin_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9ART_Chanthaburi_City_Pillar_ShrineChanthaburi_Town_Chanthaburi_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM9492_Sisaket_City_Pillar_ShrineSisaket_Town_Sisaket_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM93QZ_Buriram_City_Pillar_ShrineBuriram_Town_Buriram_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8D3C_Bangkok_City_Pillar_Shrine_Bangkok_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM92X4_Sa_Kaeo_City_Pillar_ShrineSa_Kaeo_Town_Sa_Kaeo_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8HBR_Saraburi_City_Pillar_ShrineSaraburi_City_Saraburi_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8FYR_Nonthaburi_City_Pillar_Shrine_BellNonthaburi_Province_Thailand

http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM8B8Z_Surat_Thani_City_Pillar_ShrineSurat_Thani_Town_Surat_Thani_Province_Thailand

Andy said...

Thanks, added those I did not have yet, too bad that for several there's no hires imagery online yet.

I also have the goal to collect them all, and have done quite a few already. But since you're living in Thailand you will probably have the full collection much earlier, I can only do in the few weeks of my annual vacation.