Samre, Bangkok


Samre, also spelled Sam Re and Samray, is a subdistrict of Thon Buri District, Bangkok, Thailand. It is also the name of a neighbourhood around the area.

History

The word samre is a name for the plant Malabar melastome, which probably used to grow in abundance in the area, leading the neighbourhood to be known by the name. It was also the name of a Buddhist temple in the area, Wat Samre, believed to have been built around 1717 and now known as Wat Ratchawarin.
Samre used to be a site of public executions during the late seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries, where prisoners were beheaded and their heads set on spikes by the riverside. It was a place locals feared to be heavily haunted, and is described as such in Nirat Thalang, a travel poem written c. 1815–1816 by Muen Phromsomphatson, a student of Sunthorn Phu.
In the 1850s, a plot of land in the area was purchased by American missionary Stephen Mattoon, and it became the location of the First [Presbyterian Church, Samray] as well as Samray Boys' School, the country's first formal school.

Geography

Samre is in the southeastern corner of Thon Buri District.
Samre is bounded by other subdistricts : Bang Yi Ruea in its district, Bang Lamphu Lang in Khlong San District, Wat Phraya Krai and Bang Kho Laem in Bang Kho Laem District with Dao Khanong in its district, Bukkhalo in its district.

Places

The local temple Wat Samre, or Wat Ratchawarin, indeed, it is located in the area of neighbouring Bukkhalo.