Out of the cannon's month
Special Report: The latest armament unearthed at Sanam Luang could shed more light on the fabled Front Palace of bygone times
A cannon unearthed last Saturday in Bangkok’s Sanam Luang – probably dating to Bangkok’s early years as the capital of Siam – has stirred Culture Ministry interest in the history of the Wang Na, the “Front Palace” that once occupied the site.
Workers laying drainage pipes amid renovations of the riverside ceremonial ground encountered the three-tonne cannon 1.5 metres deep.
A backhoe hoisted it from its grave to be measured at just over three metres long, with a 40-centimetre muzzle and 22cm barrel. All that was missing was the gun carriage
The rusty armament is now at the National Museum, where experts have begun the preservation work, a task that could take up to a year.
“We hope to make new discoveries under the thick layer of rust, perhaps learning whether it was imported or locally made – that would help us estimate its age and use,” museum director Nitaya Kanokmongkol told The Nation Weekend.
But the cannon was certainly interred “for centuries”, she said, and bringing it to the surface meant it experienced a jolting temperature shift of about 10 degrees and quickly oxidised, accumulating more rust.
“We cooled it down by covering it with wet rice sacks for a while.
The scientists will next start cleaning it with chemicals, and meanwhile visitors to the museum can watch the process,” Nitaya said.
Culture Minister Vira Rojpojchanarat has said the government’s Fine Arts Department would ask His Majesty the King’s permission to keep the cannon at the museum as a national artefact.
Royal permission is needed since the cannon was recovered at Sanam Luang, part of the Grand Palace complex.
The museum has for years displayed six other cannon of the same type that were also discovered at Sanam Luang.
The royal ground has yielded dozens of old cannon, in fact, because it was the site of the Wang Na. Those not kept at the museum are on loan for study or displayed at the Defence Ministry and its own museum.
The Fine Arts Department has been pursuing a Front Palace conservation and development project for years. The emergence of so many cannon suggests there was a military barracks there.
“The history of Wang Na is complicated by the mix of older and newer architecture, including Thammasat University and the National Museum,” explained Nitaya.
From 1782 to 1885, spanning the reigns of Kings Rama I to V, the Front Palace – which literally sat “in front of” the Grand Palace – was the residence of five viceroys and one “second king”. It occupied a large part of the vast expanse we now know as Sanam Luang, as did, from 1893-1926, the original Royal Museum and Royal Guards’ Camp.
The outer court of the Front Palace was demolished so that Sanam Luang could be enlarged.
Nitaya said the latest 200-year-old cannon was likely used in battle during the Early Rattanakosin Period. The same type is known to have been used in the Nine Army War, otherwise known as the Burmese-Siamese War (1785-1786).
But until it’s examined further, she said, “We can’t prove it was used in war.
“What we know is that it was operated manually. A metal ball was loaded into the barrel from the front and the fuse lit.
“More modern cannon are loaded from the rear.”
The museum has an excellent section on the Nine Army War, “The Front Palace at War”, complete with a weapons room stalked by a giant armoured (replica) elephant on which the warrior monarch rode into battle in an elaborately decorated howdah.
There’s also a classical Siamese soldier on duty. Illustrations depict troops marching through a royal tabernacle and an archway adorned with leaves – the sacred door to a battlefield.
This is Prince Maha Surasinghanath |leading his forces against King Bodawpaya of Burma at Thung Lat Ya in Kanchanaburi.
The book “The Evolution of Weaponry in the Royal Thai Army” says Siam began forging its own cannon during the Ayutthaya Period, around the 1850s. Prior to that, the heavy guns came from Portuguese traders, as arranged by King Rama Thibordi II (1491-1529).
The cannon-makers of Ayutthaya became gifted at their craft, however. Another book, “Looking Back at Thai History through Weapons”, says King Narai presented two of his best models to Louis XIV of France – whose doomed successor, Louis XVI, may have lost them to the revolutionaries. They seem to have been used to pound the Bastille, and now sit in the Musee de l’Armee in Paris.
