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Sino-Portuguese Houses
History
in Architecture, in the Streets of Phuket
Beaches are great, but Phuket
has more to offer, and a walking tour of the old sections of town give us a
peak into the very different world of Phuket s past
A walk down Thalang Road in the late after-noon light is a journey into
the past. Every few metres you walk beneath arches looming over the
sidewalk, and you can imagine you’ve been transported to l8th century Lisbon
or Verona. The street has a distinctly European feel to it. But closer
inspection will reveal a very different cultural influence. You’ll see
Chinese writing above some of the doors -sometimes vivid, as though freshly
painted, but more often than not the writing is faded with age and difficult
to decipher.
It’s hard to provide a blanket char-acterization of this style of
architecture but, in general terms, it’s fair to say that while the columns,
roofs and walls are European in design, with flamboyant Corinthian, Ionic
and Doric embellish-ments, doors and windows display distinctly Chinese
characteristics with carved teak louvers and inlaid doors. The merchants’
houses in the centre of Phuket traditionally have Chinese writing above or
just inside the en-trance, giving the family name and occasionally the names
of the family gods. Almost all the houses have a small altar in a place of
prominence, many displaying memorials to family members since passed on Both
man-sions and townhouses share other similarities. The centre of the house
is usually open to the elements, allowing the breeze to circulate within.
In some cases this has been transformed into a covered skylight that still
manages to bring sunlight and a sense of space into an otherwise fairly dark
abode But with the darkness and gloom comes the cool. Inside most
Sino-Portuguese houses the air is usually five to ten degrees cooler than
the blanket of tropical heat on the outside.
With a bit of imagina-tion you can see how the front archways of these
two-storey dwell-ings must have covered once the sidewalks on both sides of
the road. Some of them still remain, but most have been demolished or
ce-mented in and now serve either as private garages for cars and
motorcy-cles or extensions for a variety of shops. Perhaps, too, the people
have changed. There’s a greater demand for individual privacy and less
willing-ness to socialize and live in a commu-nal atmosphere. But, despite
the changes, Thalang Road offers a glimpse at the early Chinese middle
class.
Related Stories:
Grand Mansion, Fine Details, Strange History – Michael Beatty on
Sino-Portuguese architecture in Phuket Town. Phuket Magazine Vol 11 No 3
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