The Ma Win Rama - Ban Rai Village, Sukhothai, Thailand

About seven kilometers outside of Sukhothai City is the village of Ban Rai. Like many such villages in the lower north of Thailand, Ban Rai owes its existence to its past as a trading hub for agricultural goods. The local market provided the gravity that pulled farmers and farm hands in from the surrounding fields. A town, in all its bucolic modesty, sprang up around it. 

In the middle decades of the 20th century, the jungles of upper Thailand were being felled to make way for the expansion of market-based agriculture. On account of that, local business entrepreneurs who dealt in agricultural products and services tended to prosper from the increased production, which became known the world over as the "Green Revolution." 

In 1972, the owner of the Ban Rai's market, having profited handsomely from Green Revolution expansion, decided to diversify his business holdings. With a high volume of foot traffic already in place, he surmised that building a movie theater on the grounds of his market would be a natural fit. Similar market place-movie theater combinations were being developed across Thailand in response to an increased appetite for film among the populous. 

Home electrification in rural Thailand, it should be stated, had yet to become widespread by the early 1970's. If villagers living in the vicinity of Ban Rai wanted a dose of modern entertainment they would have to travel all the way to Sukhothai City for a movie theater. Television and other technologies predicated on having an electrical source were not yet an option for most. Opening a theater in Ban Rai thus made practical sense. 

Enter the Ma Win Rama.

The Ma Win Rama: A simple yet sleek and elegant mid-century Thai movie theater. It's place white facade subtly accented by its name in red, plaster letters on its peak. 

For the first 20 years of its existence, the Ma Win Rama was predictably successful. To nearby villagers, it was the most immediate entertainment venue; one of the only local spaces that offered a window into a another world, or a fictitious refection of their own. 

But as houses got wired for electricity, and different mediums for viewing movies became more widespread, the Ma Win Rama began to lose customers, if not its standing as an important community gathering point.

In the mid-1990's the theater was closed. The owner, however, invested in a tour bus company which now connects Sukhothai with points near and far. Win Tour is its name. 

Veranda-inspired lobby area, a common signature of many Thai stand-alones.

Ticket booth

Wooden, bi-fold doors, nailed shut.

Plaster signage

For a more detailed, if not entertaining background on the Ma Win Rama, please watch the short documentary below:

The Amarin Rama - Sawan Khalok, Sukhothai, Thailand

Three days worth of travel brought me to a few of Thailand's lower northern provinces. My first stop was the city of Sawan Khalok, in Sukhothai province, termination point for an east-west spur of the state railway. Whatever reason the train line was extended out here has seemingly out-lived its time. Sawan Khalok is a pretty quiet place. Nonetheless, the locals were kind enough to point me towards the Amarin Rama - a shell of a 1970's-era stand-alone theater, which despite 17 years of dormancy and neglect is still in relatively good shape. It was built in 1976.

The space in front of the Amarin Rama is used as a dumping ground.

Spirit shrine in front of the theater.

The Amarin Rama is located in a now-economically depressed commercial plaza. This shot is from the side of the theater, looking towards its front. The shop houses that surround the Amarin Rama (in the background of the photo) are almost all vacant.

Front side of the plaza, containing private residences. It's unclear if the residents of these buildings used to operate businesses inside the court.

As the march of progress lays stand-alone theaters like this one to waste, the story of technics and civilization begins to unfold (to cite the name of a Lewis Mumford book which I've never read). The Amarin Rama stands in a commercial plaza. The commercial plaza was once anchored by the theater. It's shops and restaurants catered to the hundreds of daily patrons who spent their free time watching movies there. If you had a business in the plaza, you made a nice living. But once the Amarin Rama was put out of business by home theaters and other technological innovations, the entire plaza died along with it - the creation of an urban waste land.

Ticket booth

Above the ticket window reads, Poonsap Productions

Two old projectors lie rusting away behind the ticket booth.

Lobby waste

Like most of the other stand-alone movie theaters in Thailand, the Amarin Rama was once the most popular place in town. A resident of the Amarin Rama plaza, Mr. Att, recalled that it was packed every day in the 1970's and 80's. And on public holidays, the theater would hold extra showings to accommodate the larger crowds. "Now there's no place in town to see a movie," lamented Mr. Att. "Sawan Khalok used to have a second theater, too, but it's been torn down."

Severe dereliction

Mr. Att went on to explain how the builder of the Amarin Rama and the plaza it's in has since moved to Phitsanulok city, in search of more fertile ground for residential/commercial property development. Apparently he is responsible for a similar plaza there. If it's the one I think it is, where the Rama Phitsanulok stands, then it's safe to say that this developer has - quite unintentionally - created two urban dead-zones. Both plazas and the theaters look strikingly similar.

The Amarin Rama Theater has since been seized by Siam Commercial Bank and is seeking a buyer.

The Hong Rama Theater - Sukhothai, Thailand

Not a lot of information on the Hong Rama, here. It closed down in 2008 and was Sukhothai city's largest ever movie theater, I know that. Visually, it was quite a dramatic structure standing at this intersection in the center of town. Beyond that, I wasn't able to get much data.

Signage

Vendor stalls in front of the old theater

The old ticket booth, where tickets cost an affordable 30 baht. The Hong Rama is now used to store products for a wedding planning company.

Lobby, with stairs leading to the balcony

I didn't spend too much time in Sukhothai, but just enough to get the feeling that this city has seen better days. A hint of slow decay was in the air, and not just because the city's last movie theater has gone derelict. The locals were marked by a sort of collective torpor, the kind that begins to set in when things take a turn for the worse. Imagine being surrounded by zombies, only instead of trying to eat your brains, they want send you to the historic ruins of ancient Sukhothai, the former Siamese capital. That what Sukhothai was like. It was really annoying. I had no patience to try to dig up some history on the Hong Rama that day. But to be sure, it was once a nice, big movie theater.

Street scape context