The Old Historic Core of Pattani (1993) / Johannes Widodo (Indonesia/Singapore)

The Small Gallery

I first visited Pattani in South Thailand from 16 to 18 March 1993. On my recent return to Pattani on 29 May 2015, I am overwhelmed by a sense of relief when I see that the historic core of the city is still more or less intact in the morphological and typological sense.

Pattani used to be one of the important port cities in Southeast Asia, where two great cultures–Chinese and Muslim–met, merged and prospered. In the fourteenth century Pattani was an entrepot for the distribution of porcelain, iron, copper and other goods from China to different parts of Southeast Asia. Traders from Borneo purchased a lot of Chinese metals from Pattani. Muslim traders settled down and prospered in Pattani around 1520. The Grand mosque of Pattani was built by Chinese builders at the end of the sixteenth century using brick as the main construction material. The building style was…

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