The first farang-run bar

[snotface]

In the first half of the 17th century several European countries established a trading presence in the Siamese capital Ayutthaya. The Portuguese had already been there for a hundred years; among the newcomers were the Dutch, English and French. The Dutch were by far the most significant of these and in 1634 established a brick-built trading lodge on the east bank of the Chao Phraya river a short distance to the south of the city walls (a replica of it, which includes a small museum, has recently been built on the same site and is well worth a visit if you have an interest in history).

A Dutch surgeon called Gijsbert Heeck visited Ayutthaya in the mid-1650s and, in the diary he kept, has left a fascinating glimpse of the lives of Dutch traders there (the words 'plus ca change...' might come to mind as you read on). They lived very luxuriously, he says, most of them keeping concubines; they paid them maintenance and bought or built houses for them according to their capacity. They gave three reasons justifying their behaviour: it was accepted among the Siamese, abstinence was too difficult, and they were deprived of Dutch wives. The high-minded Heeck says that they revealed their true guilt feelings by their habit of referring to these concubines as 'whore, trollop, slut, and the like.' From the humblest bargeman to the director himself, almost everyone had to have his own favourite, 'even if he will have not a penny left on his account.'

As for the children of these relationships, Heeck says they were reasonably well cared for while the fathers remained, but when they left the women would demand an advance of a large sum of money from the Dutch East India Company to continue to support the children. In fact, most of the money was spent at the establishment run by 'Thomas the Frenchman', a free burgher who lived not far from the lodge. There he made his living 'by tapping beer, arrack, and punch for the sailors and others in this area.' The Dutch nickname for the establishment was 'the orphanage' and Heeck concludes ominously, 'The fate of these poor orphan children can be easily imagined.'

It's not known how long the bar lasted. Not more than a few years would be a reasonable guess. There was probably some homosexual activity there, but it would have been necessarily discreet - death by burning at the stake or by drowning was the sentence awaiting 'sodomites' caught in the act which the implacable Dutch East India Company had brought with it from Europe. By the end of the 17th century the disillusioned Siamese government had closed its doors to Western influence (the Dutch lingered on) and didn't reopen them, albeit somewhat reluctantly, until the mid-19th century. Farang-run bars have become quite common since then!


Reference:

A Traveler in Siam in the Year 1655: extracts from the journal of Gijsbert Heeck (ed Barend Jan Terwiel, Silkworm Books, 2008)

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