Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
from funds raised by the people and had been cast in Paris by a French craftsman. Now
a plaque was affixed to the ground commemorating the date of the rally. The Ananta Sa-
makhom Throne Hall was appropriated as the permanent meeting place of the National
Assembly, until in 1970 a plot of land was requested for the building of a new legislature,
as the throne hall was no longer large enough to accommodate the growing assembly and
its secretariat. Rama
IX
granted land immediately north of the throne hall for the building
of the new Parliament House, and with the completion of this building the Ananta Samk-
hom Throne Hall was returned to the king. It is today still used for the ceremonial opening
of parliament. Thus did Suan Dusit pass naturally from the seat of the absolute monarchy
to the centre of the constitutional monarchy and the democratic government of modern-
day Thailand.
Rama
VI
expanded Suan Dusit further eastwards by the laying out in 1913 of another
garden called Suan Chitralada. Within this garden he had a two-storey residential villa
built and named it Chitralada Royal Villa. During the reign of Rama
IX
, the villa became
the primary residence of the king and the royal family. Known generally as Chitralada
Palace, and surrounded by high walls and a tree-shaded moat, this is a working palace,
for within the four-square-kilometre (980-acre) compound a host of royal projects have
been initiated. There is a small dairy farm, a fish farm, a demonstration paddy field and
a rice mill. Agricultural research centres have been founded, and sustainable production
methods explored, along with ways to improve poor soil and to protect endangered plant
species. This part of Suan Dusit has retained its pastoral quality more than any other, en-
hanced by the greenery of the Royal Turf Club on the other side of Si Ayutthaya Road. A
railway line runs alongside Chitralada from the confluence of lines slightly further north
at Bang Sue, and the palace has its own private station, a modest rural halt with an Italian
design, built in 1920 to replace an original wooden structure that had been built under the
direction of Rama
V
.
Carlo Allegri returned to Italy in 1916. This, however, was not the end of the Italian
story, for Tamagno and Manfredi stayed on, while Rigotti later returned to Bangkok on
another contract. One of the most spectacular buildings during this time was Norasing-
ha Mansion, commissioned by Rama
VI
in 1923 for Chao Phaya Ramarakop, one of the
leading figures during the sixth reign, who was head of the army and the navy. Today it
is Government House, containing the Prime Minister's Office. The king wished it to be
based on the Palazzo Ca' d'Oro at Venice, and the classic Venetian styling can be seen
in the cloverleaf design over the windows and galleries, the marble pillars and bronze
sculptures in the arcade, the Gothic motifs of the arches, and the symmetry of the in-
