Nana Plaza named after Muslim politician

[Fidel]

I never knew this. Seems like an interesting character. From Wikipedia:

 

Lek Nana (�ล�ภ�า�า in Thai; born c. 1936) is a Thai businessman and politician. He served as Deputy Foreign Minister and as Minister of Science, Technology and Energy. Active in the Democrat Party, he served as its secretary general and repeatedly on its executive committee. As a Muslim, he was also a senior member of the Central Islamic Committee of Thailand.

 

From 1975 to 1976 he was Deputy Foreign Minister under Prime Minister Seni Pramoj.

 

He served as a honorary consul-general for Iraq in Thailand until 1981. A powerful bomb exploded in his office building in Bangkok's Chinatown in December 1982, killing a police bomb disposal expert, injuring 20 people, and causing a fire affecting five buildings. Lek was not in the office at the time.The office was used for an Iraq export business and had formerly been the Iraqi consulate; a connection to the Iran-Iraq war was conjectured at the time.

 

In 1982 he became secretary general of the Democrat Party under party leader Bhichai Rattakul.

 

In 1985, Prime Minister Prem Tinsulanonda appointed Lek Nana as minister for science and technology after the previous minister, Damrong Latthapipat, had committed suicide, reportedly discontended with the inadequate attention that his field had received.

 

Lek Nana owned property in Bangkok along Sukhumvit Road Soi 3 and 4, and that area is now known as "Soi Nana", also giving rise to the name "Nana" for the nearby Skytrain station, the "Nana Hotel" and the "Nana Plaza" entertainment complex there. He also donated land for the headquarters of the Democrat Party, for the Princess Mother Memorial Park, and for a hospital.

[Flashermac]

My understanding is his family owned the area long before the city spread out there. They were always simply referred to as "Indians" (Khaek).

 

BTW the Bunnag family, the second most prestigious surname after the royal family, are descended from two Persian brothers who came here in the Ayutthaya period. The majority of their descendants became Buddhists long ago, but one branch remained Muslim to cover that end. The titular head of the Thai Muslim community is usually a Bunnag. I know a female Bunnag in the States - married to an Irish-American Catholic, though she was raised Muslim. I saw her one day wearing a gold chain with a cross around her neck. I asked, "What religion are you now?" She replied, "Anything I want to be." (Her son wanted nothing to do with Islam and chose to be raised RC.)

 

p.s. Other trivia ... the Na Nakorn family are descendants of King Taksin of Thonburi.

 

 

[CTO]

Was Gen Sonthi a descendent of them? I know he's from a royal related Muslim family.

[Flashermac]

I'm not sure where Sonthi is from. His bios don't say. There was a small Islamic comunity in Ayutthaya though and it moved to Bangkok after Ayutthaya's destruction by the Burmese. The area where the Bangkok Noi train station stands was the original Muslim area. When Rama V built the train station there, he gave the local Muslims other land north of the klong. You can also find Muslims in Banglampoo, to the west of KSR. Notice the minarets when you're down there some time.

 

The Bangkok Muslims have had virtually nothing to do with the ethnic Malay Muslims of the far south. In fact, you might not even recognise them as Muslim from the way they dress. One of my favourite students a few years ago was a cutie who dressed like everyone else and would even take me by the arm at times. (Take note of Thai rules: gals can grab you, but not you them!) I was quite surprised when she mentioned one day she was a Muslim.

 

Big difference is Bangkok Muslims are proud to be Thai. Some of the folks way down south don't really feel that they are.