Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
moat. The route starts at the gate of the Grand Palace and runs north alongside Sanam
Luang and here it is known as Ratchadamnoen Nai, the inner part of the way. The road
then swings sharply to the east and cuts directly across Rattanakosin Island in a straight
line until it reaches the second moat. This stretch is known as Ratchadamnoen Klang, the
central section. Over the canal it becomes Ratchadamnoen Nok, the outer section, and
it turns northeast and proceeds arrow-straight to the plaza in front of Anantha Samak-
hom Palace, where the king had installed a throne hall similar to that in the Grand Palace,
where he could grant audiences.
Ratchadamnoen Avenue was the widest road in Bangkok at that time, and was an in-
novation for a city that had had its first true roads built less than forty years previously.
In design it was faithful to its Parisian origins, with the tamarind-ringed Sanam Luang
providing a handsome green backdrop early on, the wide central section lined by ma-
hogany trees, and the outer section culminating at the Renaissance-like splendour of the
new palace. he king was very open to European ideas, and he and members of the royal
family would sometimes organise bicycle processions along the royal route, arriving long
after nightfall. He would also organise motorcar rallies along the avenue, something of a
foretaste of what was to come.
Siam was to change quickly after the king's death in 1910. Rama
V
was a great reform-
ing king, but he was absolute monarch. There was no democracy in Siam then. So too
was his son, Rama
VI
, who had been educated in Britain and during his rather short reign
(he died in 1925) introduced compulsory education and the Western calendar. In 1912,
however, a group of military officers tried to overthrow the monarchy and it was clear that
the days of the king as an absolute monarch were numbered. Rama
VI
's brother, Prajad-
hipok, became King Rama
VII
. During his rule, European ideas came home with a ven-
geance. A group of Siamese students living in Paris became convinced that democracy was
necessary for Siam's future, and they mounted a successful coup in 1932. It was a bloodless
revolution and Siam became a constitutional monarchy along British lines, with a mixed
military-civilian group in power. In 1935 Rama
VII
abdicated without naming a successor,
and retired to Britain. The government placed his nephew, 10-year-old Ananda Mahidol,
on the throne: but as the young king didn't return to Bangkok from his studies in Switzer-
land until 1945, the effective leader of the country was a military officer named Phibul
Songkhram. Phibul's government changed the name of the country officially from Siam to
Thailand, signifying a new era of nation building, the word “Thai” generally held to mean
“free”.
