Kerisik Mosque : Archaeological Remain or Conflict Monument

Kerisik or Krue Se mosque now situated at Village No. 3, Tanyong luloh sub-district, Muang district, Patani province, Thailand south, lie 6 kilometers to the south of present day Muang Patani or Patani city. Masjid Kerisek had been registered as an archaeological remain  on February 25, 1935 by Art Department of Thailand , first renovated in 1957, second renovated in 1982 and the last renovated  on July 1, 2004 after the bloody  extra judicial killing of  32 secessionists in the mosque by the Thai army on February 28, 2004 , Keresik mosque then,  become among the first and primary focus of attention  from journalists, academics, scholars and fact finders all over the world on assimilation issue, discrimination  practice and the primary cause of long lasting conflict between  Muslim Malay of Patani and the Thai government.

Archaeological Investigation of Patani History By David J Welch & Judth  R macNeilll/
Map Modify by Patani River to Locate Kerisek mosque (Red)and Lim Ko Niew Cemetary(Blue)

Back Ground

Kerisik mosqe was the first mosque of the Kingdom of Patani and of the whole Southeast Asia that built in the Middle East style.  It was called 'Masjid Pintu Gerbang' and later changed to be the same name with the location. It stood in front of the old palace gate on the west.

Kerisik Mosque from Travelling Memoir of Antony Hippon and Peter Floris  in 1611
in this picture Dome is in construction work : more detail at  Prof. Kronchai Hatta,
 Masjid Kerisek in the History of Patani, Thai language, page 30-31, PSU

From archaeological remains, it might have built in 1514 during the reign of Sultan Ismail Shah and completed in the reign of Sultan Muzzafar Shah. There were several times of renovation and the biggest renovation was during the reign of Queen Hijau (1584-1616), The Chinese builder(Lim To Kiam) was commissioned to enlarge the mosque and added more interior decorations. Being the royal mosque, it was destroyed several times by  wars (wars with neighbouring kingdoms like Palembang(Indonesia) and Ayutthaya(Thailand)).

Front side of kerisek mosque

After each war, the renovation took placed, unfortunately it had never finished. In 1786, Siam made an attack and took control over Patani. The order from Siamese king to sack every things in front after winning the war were fulfilled by his general and his commanders. This Patani-Siamese war  had brought an  end to Patani as a flourish and civilized kingdom. Most of the palaces and important buildings were destroyed and burnt to the ground. Few Sultans of Patani in later times (under the Siamese suzerainty) have put their efforts to re-establish the Patani old capital, but never succeeded. The Patani new town(present town) was erected  in 1832 and the Kerisek  Mosque was left behind since then.

 Invention Story

When  times gone by,  the  story of legendary Kerisek mosque had been adopted by Chinese or in Chinese favor  in order to rouse up the superiority of Chinese believed and culture over the local existing  Muslim Malay political  and economical weakness,  targeted at  graving  down the glamour of  Patani historic past manage by Siamese and later by Thai political and cultural assimilation policy which become one of the most important mechanical solution tool to root out  the Patani conflict or Patani unrest  and centuries  long rebellion in Thailand south.

New Lim Ko Niew Cemetary

“ Because of Lim Ko Niew curse that Kerisek mosque uncompleted built” this invented LimToh Kian and Lim Ko Niew myth by Chinese and Thai Buddhist in accordance with their faith  had brought the history of Kerisek mosque spread far and wide to the foreign countries on the purpose of  tourists  attraction . This campaign was successfully made by Tourist Authority of Thailand which later attract huge visitors  of Chinese origin from Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. These visitors come and visit not the mosque but Lim Ko Niew cemetery, 500 meters to the west of the mosque, the new location of Lim Ko Niew grave proof successful and able to convince more  people to believed in this semi-religious  myth. 

The Original Location

The original place of Lim Ko Niew grave  lie about 1.5 Km. to the north of the present day location in Kampong Tanyong Luloh, the location of original grave is about 500 meters distance from the sea coast(after hundred years of coastal erosion).The new generations especially Chinese, Thai  and Muslim Malay of Patani never known about the original grave location  and the truth story of Lim Ko Niew, they just believed that the present location  is its original place.

The Original Cemetary  of Lim Ko Niew and chinese residence- Few people know

The Inter-Faith Sentiment

How much  popular Lim Ko Niew  new shrine was, more upset and uneasy for the Muslim Malay of Patani sentiment were, because of the reason that their faith and believed being indirectly attack by the Chinese myth and some groups of the local Muslim Malay of Patani believed that their religion had  already been abused and discriminated by the Lim Ko Niew herself, hence it’s time to make a challenge to the new invented faith, finally  in 1987 Muslim Malay of Patani organized the demonstration at Kerisek mosque asking for returning  the mosque to its former status, a place of  worship not a place for tourists, stop the invented Lim ko Niew Goddess myth campaign created by Chinese and Thai authority, speak the truth and rationalized the myth. 

The demonstrators talking about the unjust invented myth which in turn destroyed the good relation between the  two ethnic groups and at the end,  the demonstration nearly turn to violence  when the high ranking  police officer try to infiltrate to the demonstration crowds and suddenly identified by the demonstrators, he was arrested  and brought  on the stage with several places on his body wounded after which the demonstration leaders were arrested and put into Bangkok prisons. This demonstration lasted for 3 years called by the local Muslim Malay as “Kerisek demonstration” lead by Bormor Ding, a Muslim Malay of Patani, a former Thai government health officer .

April 28, 2004 attack on the mosque

The  April 28, 2004

Kerisik  mosque, again come to the stage of attention when Islamic secessionists launched well-planned and almost simultaneous pre-dawn attacks on 11 government locations and security checkpoints in Patani, Yala and Songkhla provinces in Thailand south. 0n April 28, 2004. Thai authorities reported that 107 insurgents and five members of the security forces had been killed. 32 secessionists were shot down in the Krisek mosque after 8 hours of battling with the police who surrounded all side of the mosque. These were the bloodiest clashes since a new wave of separatist seccessionist was launched in Thailand’s Muslim-dominated region in January 2004. 

After the event, tourists had been vanished from the sense, both places were heavily guarded by Thai security official, the shooting in the mosque were investigated by the human right groups  recommended  by the  Thai  government in order  to clarified  the human right violation committed by Thai security official, at last no any Thai security official were punished and “Kerisek  mosque completely become the  real conflict monument rather than archaeological remains as understand by the archaeologists”

The Dead in Kerisik  Mosque