Penang has always had a sizeable Siamese community, and this relationship stretches back to the nineteenth century.
On May 30, 1845, a piece of land was granted to the Siamese and Burmese communities by the East India Company on behalf of Queen Victoria. Today, Kampung Siam still stands on this land, replete with families that have been living there for generations. The golden pagoda of Wat Chaiyamangalaram gleams over the village; a large statue of a sleeping Buddha within the temple attracts devotees and tourists alike.
“As a British colony, Penang was the first place to have a consul for Siam at the time,” says Wallapa Buranawijarn, a Thai who has been living in Penang for almost 20 years and who has been teaching Thai as a foreign language at Universiti Sains Malaysia for the past decade. So close was Penang to Thailand that King Rama V even visited in December 1871 with a large entourage.1
During the British colonial period, several English schools were established in Penang. This attracted some Thai elite families to send their children to be educated here. “It began during the reign of King Rama VI. Due to its close proximity to Thailand, Penang was seen as a favourable option,” says Wallapa.
