Qualla: St Michael's Church, Songyae

St Michael's Church, Songyae: Introduction

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Pawyilee, Public domain. The first five families arrived at Ban Nong-Song-Yae in 1908 under a cloud. Some had been accused in their former villages of being possessed by spirits — an accusation that, in early-twentieth-century rural Isan, was serious enough to make a person leave. They settled in the marshy land named for its butterfly lizards (the yae of Song-Yae), near the fenland pools the Nong in the village name describes. News reached them of a Catholic priest in a nearby village, and within a year two French missionaries — the Reverends Desaval and Ambrosio — were making monthly visits, staying four or five days at a stretch, sleeping in a rough shelter the congregation built for them. That shelter became the first chapel. What stands today, a century and four constructions later, is billed as the largest wooden church in Thailand.

Image: User:Pawyilee | Public domain

St Michael's Church, Songyae: A Century of Building and Rebuilding

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Pawyilee, Public domain. The congregation grew faster than its buildings. The first chapel of 1909 gave way to a second church within years; the second proved too small within a few years more. A third structure, built like a large terrace house with bamboo walls and a wooden roof, stood near the fens un...

Image: User:Pawyilee | Public domain

St Michael's Church, Songyae: War, Wood, and the Fourth Church

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Pawyilee, Public domain. The fourth construction — the building that stands today — has its own difficult history embedded in it. When the Reverend Alazard arranged for 60 cartloads of timber to be delivered in 1936, Thai authorities confiscated the wood before a single plank could be raised. It took ano...

Image: User:Pawyilee | Public domain

St Michael's Church, Songyae: Termites, Donors, and Restoration

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Pawyilee, Public domain. Wood in tropical climates is always a negotiation with time. In 1981, a donation of 200,000 baht from a Bangkok patron replaced the wooden roof with corrugated iron, extending the building's life. In 1994 the real reckoning arrived: termites had eaten 124 of the church's 227 stru...

Image: User:Pawyilee | Public domain

St Michael's Church, Songyae: What Stands Today

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit USER:Pawyilee, Public domain. The Tourism Authority of Thailand has designated St. Michael's Church, Songyae as a heritage site of the sort they call Unseen in Thailand — places so distinctive and so off the beaten path that they belong in a category by themselves. The church grounds cover about 100 rai, or 1...

Image: USER:Pawyilee | Public domain