072 – The Palace

The palace grounds currently covers an area of 218,000 square meters that are enclosed by crenellated walls measuring 19,000 meters. Similar to other palaces of the era, this palace is laid out with Halls of Residence and Throne Halls as well as administrative buildings and a temple that serves as the Chapel Royal.

What you notice right away is first, it is big. Second, there are a heck of a lot of people here.
We walked over from Wat Pho, since apparently the temple was close. It was close, but the front entrance (only commoner entrance) is on the opposite side of the palace. Refer to palace ground size above and do math if you are so inclined. Then add the 39C degree temps and broken flip flop. It took us a while.
When we did get to the correct side of the complex, we had to go even further. There is a park across from the entrance, and instead of having people just round the corner and line up, they have you cross the street, walk the length of the park to an escalator which goes underground to a huge open… room is the best word I can find. Like a giant train station without trains. There are bathrooms, and areas for tour groups to congregate before going up the escalator on the palace side and… you guessed it, walking back up the street to the entrance.
Whatever works, I guess, but it was a lot of walking.
Here’s another hint, do not pay the people outside the Palace to give you a private guided tour. There are several. There are also several selling tourist pants, but sadly nothing useful like ice cream or water.
You can hire them if you wish, but we got inside, and quickly found there were guided tours, in English, for free. Not extensive personal tours, but free and good enough. They also have paid tours inside, and as we discovered, several languages are offered.

I took a lot of pictures, but there were a lot of things to take pictures of, and every little thing was significant. My recording of the tour did not turn out well, so I am left with piecing together the map and brochure with pictures of things that honestly look a lot alike.
But I will do my best. Above, I am certain, is the Royal Pantheon.
Constructed in the reign of Rama IV with the intention of using it for royal ceremonies and to enshrine the Emerald Buddha at eye level. When the building was completed, it was deemed that the size was inappropriately small.

Of course it was. Way too small for a tiny statue.

When an electrical fire destroyed the roof structure in 1903, Rama VI continued the repair project when he took over and decided to put life-size bronze statues of his predecessors including a bronze life-sized statue of his father, Rama V, into this sacrosanct building dedicated as a Royal Pantheon.
The building is closed except to the royal family and on certain days is opened to the Thai public to honor their former kings.

You can also see the twin gilt-copper redented chedi. Constructed by Rama I the chedi on the south dedicated to his father and the chedi to the north dedicated to his mother.

These are the Phra Asada Maha Chedi or Eight Prang Towers .
Rama I had eight prang (that means corncob) towers on the east of the temple constructed. The plastered brick chedi are decorated with stucco motifs and glazed tiles of differing colors and dedicated to eight Buddhist concepts. White for the Buddha, Darke Blue for the Dhamma, Pink for the Sangha or order of monks, Green for the order of nuns, Grey for the Buddhas in their previous incarnations, Greyish blue for universal powerful monarchs, Red for the Bodhisattvas who gain enlightenment but do not preach, Yellow for the future Buddha.

These murals are part of the Cloisters that enclose the Temple buildings. The walls are painted with 178 episodes of the Ramakien story as composed by Rama I and follows Prince Rama’s quest to rescue his beloved wife, Sida, from the clutches of Thotsakan, the ten heads and twenty arms demon King of Longka.
The episodes are painted in a clockwise progression starting from the north door of the cloister opposite the Phra Vihara Yod chapel. Its scenes depict gods and humans, monkeys and demons involved in the story.

 This is the Dusida Bhirom Hall built by Rama I to be used as a robing chamber for the king when arriving or departing by palanquin or elephant. That is why there is a mounting platform (I called it a porch) outside. The platforms are 2 different heights, depending on if he was taking an elephant or Palanquin.
The building was later closed in with glass walls by Rama III.

Above is the Chakri Maha Prasad Throne Hall. The building was designed by British architect John Clunich, which is odd, but it is a very western looking building. The one change from Clunich’s design is the 3 domes he stipulated on top are 3 Thai-spired Prasad instead.
The foundation stone was laid by Rama V in 1876 and the main building that is built on an east to west axis was completed in 1882 in time for the centenary of the founding of Bangkok.
It has dining halls, throne halls, and reception rooms for the king to receive honored guests. The ground floor has rooms which are sued as offices and for the King’s Own Body Guards.
The top floor is reserved for the crematory relics in small urns of Rama IV, Rama V, Rama VI, Rama VII, Rama VIII, and Rama IX. The s mall reliquary urns of the queens of the 4^th reign, 5^th reign and 7thh reign are placed with the small reliquary urns of their respective monarchs. The crematory relics of the Prince Father and Princess Mother of Rama VIII and Rama IX as well as crematory relics of the children of the former monarchs and their queens and Princess Galyani Vadhana, the elder sister of Rama VIII and Rama IX are also enshrined in small reliquary urns on this top floor.

So, literally the Kings ancestors are looking down on him. Or… not looking, but certainly ready to shake some dust on him if he steps out of line. Talk about ashes in the attic.

Above is the Emerald Buddha. I admit I stole this pic from the internet because you are not allowed to take pictures inside the emerald Buddha temple, and I thought this was a good picture to show the size of this most revered object.
I also learned that the king (The guy in the picture) has the honor of changing the Emerald Buddha’s clothes 3 times per year, which is why Buddha is naked and the king is in the shot.
Again, lack of pictures from my camera, but the brochure from the palace provides the following.

Believed to be of northern Thai workmanship of the 15^th century the image has 3 different raiments which are changed by the king on specified dates of the lunar calendar. The raiments for the summer and rainy seasons were dedicated by King Rama I and the winter raiment was dedicated by King Rama III. All of the raiments are crafted from gold and embellished with diamonds and precious stones.
The Buddha itself is made from jasper, and only gets its name from the color of the stone, not the stone itself. It measures 66 cm in height including the base, and is 48.2 cm wide from knee to knee.
It is enshrined high up on a tiered base in an altar of gilded wood designed to represent the Busabok aerial chariot of heavenly beings.
I can tell you it is certainly up there. I don’t know how high the alter stands, but i was craning my neck to see it from the back of the room we were allowed to walk through. I was surprised to see the buddha at all given how small it is.
And, to illustrate my point, I took this photo from the Palace site on the internet.

I am glad I got to see the original. I liked the one in Chiang Rai better, because it was a darker color and I am not a pastel person, but this one is certainly greatly admired.

I did take some pics of the outside of the building because I could, but they really don’t want you standing around looking at things.

Above is Phra Mondop, which was constructed by Rama I to hold a large lacquered mother-of pearl inlay cabinet containing palm leaf Buddhist Tritaka Scriptures.
No idea if they are still in there, but the building is really shiny.

These big guys are Asura statues. 12 of them are placed as guardians around the complex with their backs to the gates. They all face the Phra Ubosoth to show deference to the Emerald Buddha.
Built during Rama III reign, they are from the Thai Ramakien story depicted in the murals of the cloisters.

That is an overview of the palace grounds. It was a long day and we were both tired after that, but on the way out we did see our first hint of a security force.

This one did much better at ignoring the tourist antics than the others further along. Some of the others were breaking their guard to pose with the tourists as their comrades egged them on to do so.
I liked this one the best. He didn’t even blink. I thought he might be wax for a few minutes, but wax would have melted in this heat.