为了一座古堡，泰国村民面临强拆

BANGKOK — The thick white walls of the little fort are smudged and streaked with mold, doing little to keep out the racket and heavy fumes of passing traffic.

曼谷——这是一座小小的城堡，厚厚的白色墙壁上满是星点或条纹状的霉斑，完全无法抵御过往车辆的喧哗与浓重的尾气。

Secluded behind them, for the moment at least, is a tiny village — incongruous here among the temples and palaces — with elaborate wood buildings that date back more than a century.

它的后面隐藏着——至少目前是这样——一个小村庄，与周围有着精致木结构建筑的百年寺庙和宫殿显得格格不入。

Here at Fort Mahakan in Bangkok’s historic core, a deadline for eviction is approaching at the end of next month in a 24-year battle for the fort between the city and the stubborn villagers.

这里是曼谷历史遗迹核心地带的曼哈坎堡(Fort Mahakan)，为了这座城堡，顽强的村民已经和曼谷市进行了24年的斗争，驱逐村民的最后期限将在下月月底到来。

It comes in the context of a seemingly endless battle for the city’s past as canals have been paved over, historic teak houses demolished and entire neighborhoods done away with as a new Bangkok of tall buildings and highways takes their place.

这一事件的背景是围绕这座城市的过去而展开的一场似乎永无休止的斗争，这里的运河已被填平，古老的柚木屋被拆毁，一个个社区被整个抹去，被一座布满高层建筑与高速公路的新曼谷取代。

Fort Mahakan is one of the oldest structures in Bangkok, built in the 18th century as one of 14 citadels guarding the city. Only one other fort remains.

曼哈坎堡是曼谷最古老的建筑之一，建于18世纪，当时有14座城堡守卫着这座城市。曼哈坎堡是如今仅存的两座中的一座。

The settlement, now reduced to 44 buildings and about 300 residents, has resisted for years a government order to move out and make way for a public park.

这个定居点现在减少到只有44栋建筑物和大约300名居民，多年来政府一直命令他们搬走，给一座公园腾出地方，遭到他们的拒绝。

In September, the government brought in a crew of demolition workers and pulled down 12 houses in which the residents had agreed to accept compensation and move.

九月，政府派来了一批拆迁工人，拆除了12户同意接受补偿和拆迁的居民的房屋。

But the other residents, who have banded together in a well-organized bloc, have refused to give up their homes.

但其他居民通过一个组织良好的集团团结在一起，拒绝放弃他们的家园。

The demolition order stems from a royal decree in 1992 to make the ancient Rattanakosin area, which is also home to the Grand Palace and other historic sites, a showpiece of restoration and a magnet for tourists.

拆迁令源于1992年的皇家法令，意在使古代的拉达那哥欣(Rattanakosin)地区，也就是大皇宫(Grand Palace)和其他历史遗迹的所在地，成为一个历史修复的样版和旅游热点。

With the support of conservationists, academics and civic groups, the residents have proposed a compromise, giving up part of their land and staying on to help manage the site as a “living heritage museum.”

在自然环境保护人士、学者和公民团体的支持下，居民提出了一个妥协方案，放弃了部分土地，并继续协助管理这个地点，使它作为一个“活的遗产博物馆”。

“What we want is to stay on this land and develop together with the government,” said Tawatchai Woramahakun, 58, the head of a community organization at the fort. “That way everybody wins.”

“我们想要的是留在这片土地上，并与政府一起开发它，”该堡垒社区组织的领袖、58岁的塔瓦差·沃叻玛哈昆(Tawatchai Woramahakun)说。“这样所有人都赢了。”

But the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, or B.M.A., has brushed aside that proposal, and the city has set a deadline of Feb. 28 for the villagers to surrender their homes for demolition.

但是，曼谷都市管理局(Bangkok Metropolitan Administration)已经放弃了这一建议，该市已将2月28日规定为最后期限，要求村民们届时交出房子以供拆除。

“That’s the deadline,” said Chatri Prakitnonthakan, associate professor of Silpakorn University’s faculty of architecture. “There’s always a deadline. I’m not sure if this one is real or not.”

“又是最后期限，”泰国艺术大学(Silpakorn University)建筑学院副教授差立·普拉吉龙他肯(Chatri Prakitnonthakan)说。“总是有最后期限。我不知道这一次是不是真的。”

Deadlines are often negotiating tactics in Thailand, and resistance can prevail, as it has here at Fort Mahakan for a quarter of a century. Deadlines have been set and ignored here in the past.

在泰国，最后期限通常是一种谈判策略，抵抗也可以取得胜利，四分之一个世纪以来，发生在曼哈坎堡的事情正是如此。过去也曾定下最后期限却被无视。

But some supporters of the villagers worry that the current military government may not back away, and some residents now seem resigned to leaving.

但一些村民的支持者担心，目前的军政府可能不会退缩，一些居民现在似乎已经决定离开。

“I will ask for their sympathy,” said Sarayut Nilbai, 50, who repairs birdcages for a living and said his father and grandfather had lived here before him.

“我会请求得到他们的同情，”50岁的萨拉尤特·尼尔拜(Sarayut Nilbai)说，他以修理鸟笼为生，并说他的父亲和祖父之前都住在这里。

“I’ll have to spend a lot of money to move out and we’ll have to start all over again,” he said. “I have no plans for the future.”

“我必须花很多钱搬走，我们必须一切重新开始，”他说。“我没有对未来的计划。”

His neighbor, Paiboon Tularak, 65, who makes birdcages and raises zebra doves for a living, seems to have had enough after decades of resistance, and now says, “What’s the use?”

他的邻居派汶·都拉叻(Paiboon Tularak)今年65岁，以做鸟笼和饲养斑姬地鸠为生，经历了几十年的抵抗，他似乎已经受够了，如今他说，“这有什么用?”

“They’ll insist we have to leave,” he said. “It’s time. They don’t think we are important here.”

“他们会坚持我们必须离开，”他说。“是时候了。他们不认为我们待在这里是有必要的。”

For some observers, the struggle over the fate of the people here has a broader significance; it is a clash over the character of historic sites and the meaning of preservation.

对于一些观察人士来说，这里的人民对命运的抗争具有更广泛的意义：它意味着历史遗迹的特色与保存的意义之间的冲突。

“The government’s definition of history is palaces and temples,” said Mr. Chatri, the architect. “The community is not part of history, by the government’s definition.”

“政府对历史的定义是宫殿和寺庙，”建筑师差立说。“根据政府的定义，社区不是历史的一部分。”

He said it was also a question of class, with people in poor communities forced by eviction or the cost of living to move out of the city center and to face a long commute to do their jobs.

他说，这也是一个阶级问题，贫困社区的人因拆迁或因生活费用被迫搬出市中心，上下班要花很多时间。

“All these small communities will be turned into areas to serve middle-class people, high-class people, tourists,” Mr. Chatri said. “It won’t be a city for everyone. For middle-class people like us, we want people to clear the garbage, sweep the streets. If you don’t allow these people to live in the city, it’s not fair.”

“所有这些小社区将变成为中产阶级、上层阶级与游客服务的地区，”差立说。“它将不再是每个人的城市。对于像我们这样的中产阶级来说，我们希望有人来清除垃圾，清扫街道。如果你不让这些人住在城市里，这是不公平的。”

The renewed pressure on Fort Mahakan coincides with a broad campaign by the military government to bring order to this unruly city, clearing the sidewalks of the vendors and food stalls that give Bangkok its character and color.

在曼哈坎堡面临新压力的同时，军事政府正在开展广泛的运动，希望为这个凌乱的城市带来秩序，清除人行道边那些最具曼谷特色、为它带来色彩的小贩和食物摊位。

The government has pushed the clamorous profusion of flower vendors off the sidewalks around the city’s famous flower market.

在这座城市最有名的花卉市场附近，政府赶走了人行道上五彩缤纷的卖花小摊。

As of October, in the latest reported statistics, the government said it had evicted 19,678 vendors from 223 public areas in 42 districts.

根据最新的统计数字，政府说，截至10月它已经在42个地区的223处公共区域里赶走了19678个摊贩。

“It’s the mentality of a military government,” Mr. Chatri said, “discipline, rules, order. Clear out every messy thing.”

“这是军政府的思维方式，”差立说，“纪律、规则、秩序。清除所有凌乱的东西。”

The government is also pushing forward with a plan for a promenade along the bank of the Chao Phraya River that it says will displace 309 families in 12 communities of riverfront homes and shanties.

政府还推出了一个计划，沿着湄南河岸修建一条步行大道，政府说，它将取代当地12个社区的309户居住在河岸与棚户区的家庭。

One of the most engaged and knowledgeable observers is Michael Herzfeld, professor of the social sciences in the anthropology department at Harvard, who has just published a book about Fort Mahakan called “Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok.”

哈佛人类学系社会科学教授迈克尔·赫茨费尔德(Michael Herzfeld)是最关注、最了解该地的观察人士之一，他刚刚出版了一本关于曼哈坎堡的书《精神的围困：曼谷的社区和政体》(Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok)。

“I think the B.M.A. is simply operating on a model of clean lines and no people,” he said. “They forget what a city is for. City life has to be somewhat messy to be bearable.”

“我认为曼谷都市管理局只是在根据一个边界分明的模型来运作，没有考虑到人的因素，”他说。“他们忘记了城市究竟是什么。城市生活必须带点可以承受的凌乱。”

The city planners, he said, “are living in a kind of world of bourgeois imagination that has little to do with reality.”

他说，城市规划者“生活在一种与现实毫无关系的资产阶级想象世界里。”

This has happened in the sterile cityscape of Singapore, once one of the most exciting cities in Asia, where vendors have been swept off the streets and grouped together in enclosed “hawker centers.”

新加坡贫瘠的城市景观正是如此，那里曾经是亚洲最令人兴奋的城市之一，如今，小摊贩已经从街头清理出去，并被集中在封闭的“小贩中心”。

Mr. Herzfeld called this approach “spatial cleansing.”

赫茨费尔德称这种方法是“空间清洗”。

The villagers at Fort Mahakan have worked to show that they can keep their area clean and organized and have put up signs in Thai and English at the oldest and most historic houses.

曼哈坎堡村民努力证明他们可以在自己的区域内保持清洁和秩序，他们还在村中最古老、最具历史价值的房子前面树立了泰语和英语的标志。

A sign on one wood house says that it is the site of the first performances of a traditional theater form called likay but that its residents now sell fish maw soup.

一座木屋上的标志写着，一种名叫梨伽(likay)的传统戏剧最早就是在这里上演的，但是这座屋子里的居民现在在卖鱼肚汤。

One building called Gold Melting House is the site of a former business that melted tiny amounts of gold into bars. Another housed a water-delivery business.

一栋名叫熔金屋(Gold Melting House)的建筑以前是商业场所，那时人们在这里可以把少量黄金熔铸成金条。还有一栋房子是一个做送水生意的店。

Others are designated Earthenware House, House of Music, Palace Police and Thai Massage, describing trades that were lodged here.

还有一些房子被标为陶器屋、音乐屋、宫廷警察和泰式按摩，都是在描述这些房子曾经的功用。

Just behind these remnants of the past is a scene of what could become the future at Fort Mahakan.

在这些遗址的背后有这样一个场景，可能预示着曼哈坎堡的未来。

In a vacant lot under the trees lies a jumble of boards and tin roofing and chunks of concrete where a wrecking crew had already done its work on 12 of the houses in September.

一片树木之下的空地上，放着一堆板材、铁皮屋顶和混凝土块，拆迁队在九月已经完成了那里的12座房子的拆除工作。