Page 85 - A History of the World in 25 Cities

Many people in Bangkok practise Theravada Buddhism, a form of the religion that developed in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. Monasteries also used to be schools where children were taught the moral codes of Buddhism from an early age. Boys could become novice monks from as young as seven years old.
The city’s Buddhist temples are called Wats, and are centres of study, medicine and religion. Wats contain images of the Buddha. The temples were often covered both inside and outside with carved, gilded, painted and inlaid decorations
to honour the Buddha.
In NuMbers
Size of Bangkok within the city walls in 1850:
Size of Bangkok today:
Population of Bangkok in 1850:
At the beginning of the 1800s, ordinary workers didn’t pay taxes in money – they paid in time instead. Each commoner was expected to work for the government for free for a set number of days each year. This meant that the government always had plenty of labour on hand to help build new city walls or dig new canals. As well as the labour from the tax system, the government also used enslaved people captured in wars and invasions. This system fell out of use during the 1800s.
8
Population of Bangkok today:
83
5O 4 1 565 OOO