A village in sea

The kingdom of Thailand is one of the developed and well established countries in the world with 68.9 million people. Being a very liberal and fragile society, the kingdom is crammed with a significant number of registered foreigners and estimated several hundred thousand illegal immigrants from different parts of the world. Under the influence of demographic changes, innovation and technologies they are bringing heaven on earth, where people can experience a cozy life in skyscrapers with highly equipped facilities and so on. And it’s hard to find a place that is free from earsplitting traffic, filthy atmosphere and hefty crowd.

However, towards the south of Bangkok there lies an isolated village of Ban Khun Samut Chin. Despite being a remote community, people have access to the most basic necessities and are living a happy live. Boating was the only mode of transportation so no worries of irritating traffic jam. Standing on a scrap of land floating on the surface of sea, the villagers are living a temporary life building temporary sheds (perhaps more convenient and easy for them to move with the rise of tides). It’s amazing to see the temple, formally the centre of the village now half submerged in sea connected with a long and uplifted concrete walk way. Remains of erected electric and telephone poles are the clear indication of the village once stranded there and now swamped by the sea.

With the fear of losing their village one day, people have placed long bamboo fencing (facing vertically to the sea and horizontally to one another) arranged in such a way that it helps reduce the force of high tides hitting their fragile village. Government has also put in some effort to save that village constructing cement poles and stone walls at the shore. The recent flood in Thailand have deposited plentiful of garbage and affected the village to a large extend. Seeing a vehicle tyre in the jungle, one of my Thai friends said “this is the impact of tourism and gift of flood to the village”, every one chuckled.

As a community they have their own culture and festivals, in their own capacities make offerings to the almighty god and guardian deities. The chief of the village said “I am born here, I have been here till this day and I will be here for all the times to come.” She was very determined to face the challenges of realities and geared up to change the community with the changing nature. They have a museum where we could see some of their preserved antiques with clear impression of Chinese influence.

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