The City of Angels

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Name: เมฆ Meḳh (meaning 'Cloud')

Representative of: Bangkok, Thailand


Gender: Male

Age (human and historical) : Is about six centuries years old. Looks 26.

Brief personality: Meḳh is very traditionalist, and still believes in and practices his religion. Spirituality is very important to him. He believes that life is suffering, and each pain we must endure makes us evolve and spiritualy grow up. But sometimes spirituality is not enough for him to accept and deal with what he lives. Used to fight in a lot of wars, Meḳh is a man of action, and even now he has a part in the unofficial battles of Bangkok : but he's not on the good side. He is a hired killer, working for criminal networks, especially human trade networks. He has killed many a girl or a boy who tried to escape or give informations to the police, as well as witnesses, and policians. It's not a work he likes to do. But he is good at it, careful, skilled with a gun, knowing what he does, and... he doesn't have a choice. He needs that to feed himself and his family, having a brother, who represents Pattaya, infected with AIDS. And if he stops, someone will get hired to kill him.
Meḳh is a silent man. He rarely feels like he fits in an environement where people are joyful. Not that he is depressed - he is mentally strong enough not to fall in depression - but he is pensive, and sometimes his buddhist way of thinking enters in conflict with his growing cynism.

Brief physical description: Meḳh is a tall guy, with a bit of a good musculature. He's got black thin hair that is almost shoulder-length. He often ties them into a short pony tail. He wears sunglasses when he works with Bangkok's criminal network. He has black eyes, and a short cut moustache.


Brief history: Bangkok (Krung Thep) used to be a village located near the Chao Phraya river. It was occupied by French troops until the Siege of Bangkok in 1688. During the next century, it became the largest and most important city of Siam (now Thailand), and when in 1767, the Burmese, who often invaded Siam, sacked and burner Ayutthaya, its ancient capital, King Rama I moved to Bangkok, which was at that time mostly composed of Chinese traders, so he had the Chao Phraya river between him and the Burmese.

Rama I wanted his new capital to equal the splendor of Ayutthaya, which had served as the country's capital for more than 400 years. By the end of his reign, Bangkok was a thriving city, and King Rama I had established a walled palace complex, the Grand Palace, and a major Buddhist temple, the Wat Phra Kaeo. To fortify the new capital, Rama I ordered the construction of a seven-kilometer-long (four-and-a-half-mile-long), three-meter-high (ten-foot-high) wall along the river, which further protected the city from invasion.
The Grand Palace was born of the mind of King Taksin, the first man who unified Siam. Siam owed its creation to a man who was declared mad. He tried to build an empire, but the nobles who had been governing Siam for generations were tired of his wars and remplaced him by Rama I. They placed Taksin in a velvet bag and beat him to death.

King Chulalongkorn, thanks to the vision of his father, King Mongkurt (Rama IV), and the teachings of Anna Leonowens, maintained Siam's independence, abolished slavery, instituted religious freedom and reformed the judicial system.

Much of Thailand's history has been a battle for sovereignty, and while the country has suffered through many invasions, Thailand boasts that it is one of the few countries in Asia never conquered and colonized. This point is debatable. During World War II, though Thailand was technically allied with the Japanese, troops from Japan controlled much of Thailand and were concentrated in Bangkok.

Now, Bangkok had 5 billions of inhabitants, with 5000 people by squared kilometre. It turned very modern rapidely (with more than 500 sky-scrapers, and its sky-train) and in less than 30 years, it became one of the most influent Asian economic centres. Though not only thanks to its legal trade. Indeed, criminal networks, especially prostitution networks, are considerable. And if most of the boys and girls working as prostitutes are willing, a lot of them are sex slaves.

Bangkok has most of the country’s hospitals and clinics. Special services are offered for patients with tuberculosis and sexually transmitted diseases, and there are government homes for the indigent, handicapped, and aged. The Pasteur Institute and WHO supply vaccines. Family-planning clinics have proliferated in recent years. In the 1990s cases of AIDS increased among Bangkok’s prostitutes and drug users. The government has established special wards in hospitals to treat patients afflicted with the disease and has taken other measures to prevent the spread of HIV infection.

Because of its high proportion of school-age citizens, Bangkok’s educational facilities are overburdened. There are too few schools, and the standard of instruction varies. Literacy is extremely high, however. Many of the government-built preprimary and primary schools are located on monastery grounds. Private primary and secondary schools run by foreign religious missions train the children of the elite. There are many private Chinese primary schools and night schools. The city has several universities. Wat Pho, long a traditional centre of learning, has often been considered the city’s first university; it is one of the oldest and largest temples in Bangkok.

Religious affiliation: Buddhism

Any special powers or abilities: N/A



SOURCES :
Informations have been taken from the sites Wikipedia, City-Data and Britannica, and from the movies Anna and the King and Bangkok Love Story.