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Khwae Yai River
The Khwae Yai River ( th, แม่น้ำแควใหญ่, , ), also known as the Si Sawat ( ), is a river in western Thailand. It has its source in the Tenasserim Hills and flows for about through Sangkhla Buri, Si Sawat, and Mueang Districts of Kanchanaburi Province, where it merges with the Khwae Noi to form the Mae Klong River at Pak Phraek. History This river used to be the upper section (before the confluence with the Khwae Noi River) of the Mae Klong River, however, in the 1960s, this river was named the Khwae Yai River, meaning 'Big River.' In 1980, the Srinagarind Dam (Thai: เขื่อนศรีนครินทร์; rtgs: Khuean Sinakharin) on the Khwae Yai was completed in Si Sawat District of Kanchanaburi Province. It is an embankment dam for river regulation and hydroelectric power generation. Bridge The famous bridge of the Burma Railway crosses the river at Tha Makham Subdistrict of the Mueang District. However, this is not the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thailand
Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bordered to the north by Myanmar and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the west by the Andaman Sea and the extremity of Myanmar. Thailand also shares maritime borders with Vietnam to the southeast, and Indonesia and India to the southwest. Bangkok is the nation's capital and largest city. Tai peoples migrated from southwestern China to mainland Southeast Asia from the 11th century. Indianised kingdoms such as the Mon, Khmer Empire and Malay states ruled the region, competing with Thai states such as the Kingdoms of Ngoenyang, Sukhothai, Lan Na and Ayutthaya, which also rivalled each other. European contact began in 1511 with a Portuguese diplomatic mission to Ayuttha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Khwae Noi River
The River Kwai (), more correctly Khwae Noi ( th, แควน้อย, , 'small tributary') or Khwae Sai Yok (, ), is a river in western Thailand. It rises to the east of the Salween in the north-south spine of the Bilauktaung range near, but not over the border with Burma. It begins at the confluence of Ranti, Songkalia and Bikhli Rivers. At Kanchanaburi it merges with the Khwae Yai River to form the Mae Klong River, which empties into the Gulf of Thailand at Samut Songkhram. The river is chiefly known for its association with the Pierre Boulle novel, '' The Bridge over the River Kwai'' and David Lean's film adaptation of the novel, '' The Bridge on the River Kwai'', in which Australian, Dutch, and British prisoners of war and indigenous peoples were forced by the Japanese to construct two parallel bridges spanning a river as part of the Burma Railway, also called the "Railway of Death" or "Thai-Burma Death Railway", due to the many lives lost in its construction. O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kanchanaburi War Cemetery
The Kanchanaburi War Cemetery (known locally as the Don-Rak War Cemetery) is the main prisoner of war (POW) cemetery for victims of Japanese imprisonment while building the Burma Railway. It is on the main road, Saeng Chuto Road, through the town of Kanchanaburi, Thailand, adjacent to an older Chinese cemetery. The cemetery contains 6,982 graves of British, Australian and Dutch prisoner of wars of which 6,858 have been identified. History The cemetery was designed by Colin St Clair Oakes and is maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It is located near the former prisoner of war base camp of Kanchanaburi. There are 6,858 POWs buried there, mostly British, Australian, and Dutch. It contains the remains of prisoners buried beside the south section of the railway from Bangkok to Nieke ( Niki Niki), excepting those identified as Americans, whose remains were repatriated. There are 1,896 Dutch war graves, 5,085 Commonwealth graves and one non-war grave. Two graves ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bridge On The River Kwai
''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' is a 1957 epic film, epic war film directed by David Lean and based on the The Bridge over the River Kwai, 1952 novel written by Pierre Boulle. Although the film uses the historical setting of the construction of the Burma Railway in 1942–1943, the plot and characters of Boulle's novel and the screenplay are almost entirely fictional."Remembering the railway: ''The Bridge on the River Kwai'' ''www.hellfire-pass.commemoration.gov.au''. Retrieved 09-24-2015. The cast includes William Holden, Alec Guinness, Jack Hawkins, and Sessue Hayakawa. It was initially scripted by screenwriter Carl Foreman, who was later replaced by Michael Wilson (writer), Michael Wilson. Both writers had to work in secret, as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pierre Boulle
Pierre François Marie Louis Boulle (20 February 1912 – 30 January 1994) was a French novelist best known for two works, '' The Bridge over the River Kwai'' (1952) and ''Planet of the Apes'' (1963), that were both made into award-winning films. Boulle was an engineer serving as a secret agent with the Free French in Singapore, when he was captured and subjected to two years' forced labour. He used these experiences in ''The Bridge over the River Kwai'', about the notorious Death Railway, which became an international bestseller. The film, named '' The Bridge on the River Kwai'', by David Lean won seven Oscars, and Boulle was credited with writing the screenplay, because its two actual screenwriters had been blacklisted. His science-fiction novel ''Planet of the Apes'', in which intelligent apes gain mastery over humans, was adapted into a series of nine award-winning films that spawned magazine and TV versions and popular themed toys. Life and career Born in Avignon, France, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bridge Over The River Kwai
''The Bridge over the River Kwai'' (french: Le Pont de la rivière Kwaï) is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942–1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber plantations and later working for allied forces in Singapore and Indochina during World War II. The novel deals with the plight of World War II British prisoners of war forced by the Imperial Japanese Army to build a bridge for the "Death Railway", so named because of the large number of prisoners and conscripts who died during its construction. The novel won France's '' Prix Sainte-Beuve'' in 1952. Historical context The largely fictitious plot is based on the building in 1942 of one of the railway bridges over the Mae Klong river—renamed Khwae Yai in the 1960s—at a place call ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Embankment Dam
An embankment dam is a large artificial dam. It is typically created by the placement and compaction of a complex semi-plastic mound of various compositions of soil or rock. It has a semi-pervious waterproof natural covering for its surface and a dense, impervious core. This makes the dam impervious to surface or seepage erosion. Such a dam is composed of fragmented independent material particles. The friction and interaction of particles binds the particles together into a stable mass rather than by the use of a cementing substance. Types Embankment dams come in two types: the earth-filled dam (also called an earthen dam or terrain dam) made of compacted earth, and the rock-filled dam. A cross-section of an embankment dam shows a shape like a bank, or hill. Most have a central section or core composed of an impermeable material to stop water from seeping through the dam. The core can be of clay, concrete, or asphalt concrete. This type of dam is a good choice for sites wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Si Sawat District
Si Sawat ( th, ศรีสวัสดิ์, ) is a district (''amphoe'') in Kanchanaburi province, western Thailand. Geography Neighboring districts are (from the north clockwise) Ban Rai of Uthai Thani province, Dan Chang of Suphanburi province, Nong Prue, Bo Phloi, Kanchanaburi, Sai Yok and Thong Pha Phum of Kanchanburi Province. The district is dominated by the Si Nakharin Reservoir, which is part of Khuean Srinagarindra National Park. The 140-metre-high Si Nakharin Dam was finished in 1980 and creates a 419 km2 impoundment of the Kwae Yai River. The dam has received criticism for being built on the Si Sawat fault line. To the south of the district is Erawan National Park, best known for its Erawan Waterfall. Administration The district is divided into six sub-districts (''tambons''), which are further subdivided into 33 villages (''mubans''). The township (''thesaban tambon Thesaban ( th, เทศบาล, , ) are the municipalities of Thailand. There ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Srinagarind Dam
The Srinagarind Dam (''also known as the'' Srinakarin Dam; th, เขื่อนศรีนครินทร์; ; ) is an embankment dam on the Khwae Yai River in Si Sawat District of Kanchanaburi Province, Thailand. The purposes of the dam are river regulation and hydroelectric power generation. The dam's power station has a capacity of which is pumped storage. The dam was named after Princess Srinagarindra. Background Feasibility studies for the dam were carried out between May 1967 and May 1969 and designs from September 1970 to December 1977. Construction began in 1974 and it was completed in 1980. The first of the dam's generators was commissioned in 1980 and the last in 1991. The original cost of the dam was estimated to be US$45 million but because the dam was constructed on a fault line, the dam's foundation had to be reinforced which raised the cost to US$114 million. Design The Srinagarind Dam is a tall and long embankment dam. It contains a reservoir with a ca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Burma Railway
The Burma Railway, also known as the Siam–Burma Railway, Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, or as the Death Railway, is a railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma (now called Myanmar). It was built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese, to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War II. It completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Japanese Government is ''Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō'' (), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway. Between 180,000 and 250,000 Southeast Asian civilians and over 60,000 Allied prisoners of war were subjected to forced labour during its construction. Around 90,000 of the civilians died, as did more than 12,000 Allied prisoners. Most of the railway was dismantled shortly after the war. Only the first of the line in Thailand remained, with trains still running as far north ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
