Wat Muen San

Wat Muen San is an active Buddhist temple, first mentioned in documents in fourteen thirty-eight. Its name appeared before the silversmiths’ resettlement. Temple tradition links it to the court official Muen Nangsue Wimalakitti, who oversaw the construction of the first viharn—a hall for communal prayers. “Muen” denoted a high official rank, and “san” a royal message: the official handled the court’s written affairs. The temple’s short name remained from his long title.

Five centuries later, people again used this courtyard to work with documents and messages, except that now they had to hide them. At the end of World War II, the Japanese military set up a field hospital at Wat Muen San. After the failed offensive at Imphal in British India, soldiers retreating through Burma were brought here. Many reached Chiang Mai with malaria and exhaustion. Long bamboo wards with leaf roofs were erected in the temple courtyard, along with a separate room for the dead. Japanese commanders readily occupied temples: the temples had spacious buildings and wells, as well as the expectation that Allied aircraft would not bomb Buddhist shrines.

Nearby, the Japanese held Allied prisoners of war and took some of them to a city workshop to repair trucks. The father of twelve-year-old Orachun Tanaphong ended up there. He knew English, so Japanese soldiers forced him to interpret conversations between the prisoners and Thai mechanics. The father noticed that sick prisoners stopped appearing at the workshop. From them, he learned that malaria was spreading in the camp and that they were not being given quinine.

The father decided to pass medicine to the prisoners. Orachun’s mother packed quinine, fruit, and hand-rolled cigarettes into a small woven box, and Orachun carried it across the city in his bicycle basket. The child was chosen because an adult near a guarded camp would immediately have aroused suspicion. Orachun himself understood the cost of a mistake: for stealing army gasoline, Japanese soldiers could force a person to drink what had been stolen.

Later accounts differ on whether the prisoners were held at Wat Muen San itself or at neighboring Wat Sri Suphan. Orachun’s recollections mention two temples: one contained the guarded camp, while the other remained open and had a well in its courtyard. Researchers compared old photographs and plans and identified this well as the well of Wat Muen San.

Orachun noticed that a prisoner who carried water came here regularly with a shoulder yoke. Two cut-off gasoline cans hung from its ends. The boy left the box beside the well and showed the water carrier by gestures where to look. The man filled one can with water, hid the package in the other, and walked back past the guards.

The trips continued. To avoid becoming too familiar, Orachun arrived in advance, parked his bicycle among children’s bicycles, and joined games near the temples. Sometimes he waited for the water carrier for two or three hours. Along with the medicine, the family began passing notes: a relative of Orachun’s secretly listened to foreign radio broadcasts and briefly wrote down war news.

The last box contained news of Japan’s surrender. When the water carrier brought it into the camp, the prisoners learned that the war had ended before their guards did. A year later, the British government presented the Tanaphong family with a commemorative plaque of thanks. Orachun completed his studies, entered the diplomatic service, and later represented Thailand in several countries.

The bamboo wards and the room for the dead have disappeared; new monastic housing now stands where the latter once stood. The well remains, although a later extension has partly covered it. In one cut-off can, water was carried away from here; in the other, quinine and a note saying that the war was over.