Talaat Nahm Khwan-Riam (ตลาดน้ำขวัญ-เรียม) is a floating market in Minburi,
located along Khlong Saen Saeb, a major canal in Bangkok, i.e. a section past
the last jetty of the Bangkapi express boat service near Wat Sri Boon Reuang.
The market area is around Wat Bang Peng Tai and both sides of the canal are
connected with a bridge in the form of the skeleton of an ancient rice barge and
referred to in Thai as saphaan kradook ngu, i.e. ‘snake skeleton bridge’ or
‘snake bones bridge’. Visitors can take a boat trip along the waterway or have a
meal at one of the many barges turned restaurant or coffee shop, although there
are also ample shops and stalls on land. Around the market there is also a range
of Thai cultural effigies on display, as well as some live animals, such as
rabbits, miniature pigs and ponies, and different species of ducks, geese and
swans, though much was downsized when the Covid pandemic hit, and Ban Suan
Phuttasin (บ้านสวนพุทธศิลป์), i.e. the ‘Buddhist Art Garden House’, the once
popular section adjacent to the floating market, is now closed, though for our
video we were allowed on the normally closed off premises to film the now
abandoned sculptures made from sand, an international art form, known in Thai as
pan saai lohk (บ้านสวนพุทธศิลป์). The name of the floating market is taken from
the story Phlaek Kao (แผลเก่า) written in 1936 and which is set in the area of
today's floating market, and represented in an effigy of the protagonists from
the story seated together on a water buffalo, i.e. Khwan, the son of the
Bangkapi Village Chief; and Riam, the daughter of Ta Rueang (ตาเรือง), who lived
along the Saen Saeb Canal. The effigy stands along the canal on the southeastern
side of the rice barge skeleton bridge. In the story Khwan and Riam are lovers
despite the fact that their families were each others adversaries, and when
Khwan was eventually shot and killed by a jealous contender called Somchai (สมชาย),
Riam took Khwan's knife and slit her own throat in order to follow her lover
into the hereafter.
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