Kalawar Church is also called Holy Rosary Church.
It is very old.
See good introductions and great photos at :
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Wikipedia,
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touristbangkok.com,
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Tour Bangkok Legacies.
This would have been my very first visit -
although my childhood home in Chinatown was not far from it.
For Khun Piak, it would have been a revisit to a very familiar childhood place after so many decades.
We were excited!
Saturday March 13, 2021
We drove past Chinatown and soon were in the middle
of a densely populated area with rather narrow and curvy roads.
Here again, we spent some time trying to figure out where the church was.
Fortunately, this time there were easily understandable road signs to follow.
Before long, all of a sudden, the sky seemed to open up
and there stood a magnificent breath-taking Gothic style building!
WOW!
The photos were taken in a hurry and the top of the building was missing.
Again, we saw a school within the church premises.
How nice to have a beautiful church so near the school!
This is Kularbwittaya School.
("โรงเรียนกุหลาบวิทยา")
Kularb ("กุหลาบ") means Rose,
and Wittaya ("วิทยา") is knowledge.
The small letters under the school name
"เวลาและวารี ไม่คอยใคร"
("Time and tide wait for no man")
reminded me of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales,
written probably between 1387-1400, but the proverb had existed long before that.
On this Saturday there were many school children in their colorful PE uniforms.
Chao Phraya River was at the land's end, though I cannot be sure whether it was in this photo :
To enter the church, we had to pass through the school's guardpost.
As it was during COVID time, some protocol had to be done:
body temperature checking, and hand cleaning by alcohol.
When done, we asked one of the guards where the church office was.
He pointed to a building outside the fence across the very narrow lane.
These were photos taken at the church.
And below were taken inside the church. Very beautiful!
There were a few young people in the front rows. Were they tourists?
The Chinese letters in the arch read from right to left.
Enlarge pic on top right below.
Last row in the above: left - two angels at the entrance, right - outside the church building.
Time to go to the chruch office and do some research.
Prior to our visit the lady at the church office had helped us take out piles of records.
When we were there she told us to look for the Grands' names.
All of us then started going through the pages of the heavy folders.
We came to a page similar to the computer screen that we had seen at Santikham Cemetery office,
but there were only 5 names - without our biological Grandma on the list. This was puzzling.
The lady told us what we needed was just one important date:
this could be certain life event. for example, birth, baptism, or wedding date of anyone in the family.
Once the date was known, the paper could be found,
and the entire family's relavant records would be revealed easily.
Unfortunately, we hardly knew anything.
"It is OK, the searches could take long time.
If later on you have any new info please let me know, and I will
use it to locate the files."
She also told us to look for Maria Tang (Tan) and Paolo Hiang Lim (Lin) "together".
In one folder I came across something weird:
some words surely sounded Chinese.
They triggered my crazy imagination...
I hope my thoughts were irrelevant!
Since it was past lunch time, we thanked her and left.
Soon we were in Sam Yan. Ken recommended this eating place near Samyan Mitrtown.
See the review:
HOTTO BUN
After lunch, we passed by Chinatown and headed for home. What a day!
Notes:
On March 13 2021 I shared my photos from this visit at
Kandaphati's Posts on FB.
Prior to our visit to Holy Rosary Church, we went to Santikham:
First Visit (Feb 27, 2021) :
- Posted at my FB,
- Edited and added to my site here on Apr 14, 2021.
Second Visit (Mar 6, 2021) (posted on Apr 17, 2021 )
View the photos at my Google Album :
Santikham 2021 Feb27,
Santikham 2021 Mar06,
Holy Rosary Church 2021 Mar13