Modern take on ancient cultural link

       Vendors at outdoor markets tout saris, five-star hotels feature Indian chefs and Thais drop by a temple in the financial district to beseech Hindu gods to send profits their way.India pops up in unexpected places in the Thai capital, with the country's ancient Hindu civilisation influencing the Thai language, classical dance and religious architecture.
       An estimated 140,000 of the city's 10-plus million residents have roots in modern India, making their presence amply felt in Bangkok's hotels,markets, tailor shops, the gem trade, cricket leagues and contemporary art galleries.
       "It's a little-known Indian diaspora community compared to those in places like the United Kingdom or the United States, but perhaps equally influential," says Christopher Rego, a documentary film-maker who selected Bangkok as the starting point for a multimedia project on the world's Indian communities."It's like a microcosm of India's diversity."
       Indian influences appear all across this sprawling metropolis. Sukhumvit,an area popular with expats, has a plethora of Indian restaurants and major hotels operated by members of the Sikh community, many of whom have become extremely wealthy. In fact, large chunks of real estate in this area are owned by Thai-Indian people.
       On the other side of town, far from Sukhumvit's modern buildings and Western chain restaurants, Bangkok's official "Little India" borders the vast markets of Chinatown. The golden-domed Sri Guru Singh Sabha,believed to be the largest Sikh temple in Southeast Asia, towers over the Phahurat area, formerly an important centre for the textile trade.
       Rolls of cloth are still sold at Phahurat's Indian markets, along with Punjabi sweetmeats, sticks of incense, jewellery and the latest Bollywood hits on DVD. The setting is less intimidating than the much larger and labyrinthine Chinatown neighbourhood next door.
       Royal India, said to be Thailand's first Indian restaurant, is tucked away in a small alley in the heart of Phahurat, across the street from India Emporium, a modern, four-storey complex of shops. Bangkok's Indian community and foreign visitors alike occupy the restaurant's seven wooden tables where chicken masala and other traditional spice-laden dishes from northern India are served.
       The Sikh temple in Phahurat remains very much a community place of worship, but the Hindu temple across town is a true religious melting pot. Thais and Chinese pay respect to the Hindu goddess Uma Thewi at Sri Mahamariamman Temple off Silom Road. Next door, Chennai Kitchen prepares fresh vegetarian food characteristic of southern India.
       It was Tamil priests who built the temple near what is now Bangkok's main financial district. The current head priest is a fourth-generation Tamil immigrant, but many devotees are ethnic-Thai Buddhists who also worship Hindu gods on occasion.
       One of Bangkok's top tourist draws is the Erawan Shrine, built in 1956 to ward off problems which were plaguing the construction of an adjoining five-star hotel. Crowds flock daily to the resident golden image of Brahma,the four-faced Hindu deity, before which offerings of flowers are piled high and dancers decked out in ornate traditional garb are commissioned by devotees to perform in thanks for the granting of requests.
       Although some 95 per cent of Thais are Buddhist, many of them embrace elements of Hinduism as a result of cultural and religious influences which flowed across the Indian Ocean to reach Southeast Asia centuries ago.
       Khon , a classical Thai dance-drama which was once the sole preserve of the Siamese royal court, tells stories from the Ramayana, an ancient Hindu epic. Thai royal ceremonies are infused with Hindu-Brahmin rituals and many words in the Thai language were derived from Sanskrit.
       In more recent times, Tamils and Gujaratis migrated to Thailand in the late 1800s, trading in gems and textiles. Large-scale modern migration from northwestern India began in the 1890s, followed by a wave of Sikhs and Hindus from the Punjab.
       "We ourselves are Thais, but we have an Indian look," said Jesse Gulati,59, owner of a Ratchawong tailor shop, echoing many other members of his community. Gulati and his son Victor fill orders for international businessmen, visiting heads of state and diplomats.
       Gulati said his father migrated to Thailand in the 1930s, a move that actually strengthened the family's cultural and religious ties to India."We were more Sikh, more religious in Bangkok than the Sikhs in India were,"he noted.
       The tightly knit Sikh community began to really prosper at the outset of Thailand's tourist boom in the 1970s, renting apartments as well as building and running hotels. Many of Bangkok's Indian communities,including the Sikhs, have now seen their third or fourth generations grow to adulthood in Thailand. Assimilation adds another chapter to the cultural narrative of Bangkok's India.'Some youth are becoming Westernized, living in Bangkok," Gulati said, without a trace of irony. And Thai-Indian marriages, once a rarity, are now more common as Thais shed some once strongly held prejudices against immigrants from the subcontinent who are still commonly referred to as khaek (guests)."The third generation is more accepted by Thai people," said Asha Sehgal, a second-generation Thai-Indian. At Indus, a hip venue run by Asha's son Sid, Thais, Indians and other expats dine against a backdrop of traditional and contemporary art which Asha imports from India.Bangkok, an international foodie paradise, is warming up to Indian cuisine, and Indian DJs no longer play to exclusively Indian audiences,says Sid Sehgal. Nat Tuli, owner of Gallery Soulflower, said shows by contemporary Indian artists which she organises in Bangkok are actually more popular among Thais and foreigners than ethnic-Indian youths.