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Thank you for sharing these very interesting pictures.

David

Great photos thanks for posting them, Id loved to have seen Thailand before it became so commercialised.

zzaa09,

I know you've been thanked for your fascinating contributions but I can't resist saying: well done, good on you.

A picture is worth a thousand words and all that but some of these pictures are works of art and they help us understand a lot more about Thai society than a lot of wordy books.

I am particularly interested in the war ones. I take it that some of the photos are of the Thai/Burma Railway of WW11? Being an Aussie I couldn't help noticing the slouch hats.

More please. You are doing everyone a service.

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Your post #22 of 2010-07-29 05:09, 'britisharmy_in_thaifrontier_1943.jpg' The image title is misleading. The vehicles appear to be Bedford MWDs, standard British army WW2 fare. However, the British army only penetrated the Thai border after the Japanese surrender in 1945.

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Your post #28, of 2010-07-31 05:25, 'japanese_lampangchiangmairailway_1943.jpg'

I believe the source for this photo was the Axis History Forum (photo since removed). There it was captioned "Thai and Japanese army engineers working on a section of the Lampang-Chiang Rai railway, April 6, 1943." After its presentation, it was determined that the caption was in error.

There is no rail link between Lampang and Chiang Rai. Conversely, the rail link between Lampang and Chiang Mai had been functioning since 01 Jan 1922. But during WW2, there was no satisfactory road connection from the rail terminus in Chiang Mai to the border. Hence, this photo probably records work on the existing road leading from the rail terminal at Lampang north to the Burmese border (the Phaholyothin Road, now Thai Highway No. 1). If the date is correct, the roadway was being improved to ease support to Thai troops in Kengtung. If, in actual fact much later in the year, the photo could be recording the panic effort to improve that road in support of the IJA's ill-fated attack on Imphal and Kohima which started in the spring of 1944.

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Post #27: nan_1933.jpg

This image title is in error.

This is a locally famous photo of Kruba Sri Vichai, a saint of Lanna, with his followers and others, seated at the foot of the stairs leading to Wat Prathat Doi Suthep, overlooking Chiang Mai, on 30 April 1935. The photo can also be seen at http://www.doisuthep...mid=57〈=en. Also on that page is a photo of a motorcar in a crowd: the monk had ramrodded the effort to improve the road up the mountain to the wat, and the monk's car, which he couldn't operate himself, was the first to travel the length of the improved road (that photo is also presented in Post #28: 1934.jpg). There is a very active shrine to the monk at the base of the mountain, adjacent to the road at a sharp right-hand bend, just uphill from the Chiang Mai Zoo. That road improvement was just one of many projects the monk oversaw in his lifetime: Oliver Hargreave provides a good, short-form bio of "Khru Ba Srivichai" on p 58 of his "Exploring Chiang Mai" (3rd Edition).

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Your post #30: floods_hat-yai_1933.jpg

Conflict / possible error:

The same scene, albeit cropped and / or taken from a different angle, appears on both the Payap University and CMU websites --- both of which identify it as in Chiang Mai:

Payap: http://lib.payap.ac....humb.php?GID=PC, photos pc00033.jpg and pc00034.jpg

[translation] Ratchawong Road, flooded during Chiang Mai's year of the great flood, 1952 – shot from Sri Nakhon Ping Cinema Intersection [the cinema marque is visible on the right] (the cinema was subsequently closed down and replaced by the Nawarat Market) [photographer: Boonserm Satraphaya]

CMU: http://library.cmu.a...?picture_id=187

'Title: The flood on Rachawong Road, Chiang Mai, 1952'

'Creator: Boonserm Satrabhaya'

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Your post #35: bridge-construction-over-the-mae-kok-river_chiangmai_1948.jpg

CMU website IDs this as at Chiang Rai, rather than Chiang Mai

(http://library.cmu.ac.th/ntic/en_picturelanna/detail_picturelanna.php?picture_id=599)

I would guess that the do-called construction was actually patchwork for an old deteriorating deck.

This bridge would have been on the Phahon Yothin Road (or 'Phaholyothin', now Thai National Highway No. 1) in Chiang Rai. As such, some Thai troops passed over the bridge while heading north towards Kengtung, Burma in early 1942; and Japanese army troops crossed the bridge on their way through Kengtung to attack Imphal and Kohima in late 1943-early 1944.

Wisarut on the Axis History Forum (http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=113632) records that Thai troops returned barefoot from Kengtung after the war, no doubt crossing this same bridge, though obviously with more wear and tear to feet than bridge deck. Few Japanese troops retreating from their defeat at Imphal came back this way.

In any case, the bridge deck got plenty of use; the bridge was demolished in 1969 to be replaced by one of reinforced concrete. Note that CMU also offers a view of the same location as it looks today; see:

http://library.cmu.ac.th/ntic/en_picturelanna/comparepic.php?picture_id=599

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Your post #40: thai-resistence-air-strike-on-jap-facilities-near-lao-border_1943.jpg

This image title is in error. Thai resistance forces never had an air arm. They came to control several airfields / airstrips; in fact, resistance forces built a few, but these were primarily for bringing in supplies for ground efforts; the resistance did get some 400 Allied pilots and POWs out of Thailand via those airstrips --- but all air activity was via Allied aircraft.

wow this is a best picture . i love them

sooooooooooooooo good

Thank you so much for posting the pictures.

Realy interesting to look at Thailand years before.

Again thank you

T

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Your post #40: thai-resistence-air-strike-on-jap-facilities-near-lao-border_1943.jpg

This image title is in error. Thai resistance forces never had an air arm. They came to control several airfields / airstrips; in fact, resistance forces built a few, but these were primarily for bringing in supplies for ground efforts; the resistance did get some 400 Allied pilots and POWs out of Thailand via those airstrips --- but all air activity was via Allied aircraft.

Some other Thai resistance errors.

Post #27 labeled 1943 free Thai is actually AA battery shooting at French in the 1941 Franco Thai war and not part of the free Thai movement.

Post #40 labeled Thai resistance movement 1943 is actually 150mm Bofors Guns of the 16th Artillery Battalion's 3rd Battery, 1936 and not part of the free Thai movement.

fantastic selection. Is it ok to get copies?