Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The most convenient way to get to the museum is by taking a motorcycle taxi (ask the
driver to go to
reu·a pra
́
te
̂
e na
̂
ng
) from Tha Saphan Phra Pin Klao. The museum is also
an optional stop on long-tail boat trips through Thonburi's canals.
These are not those wide, lumbering barges you'll see hauling sand and produce up and
down Mae Nam Chao Phraya. These barges are slender like their mainstream cousins, the
long-tail boats, and fantastically ornamented with religious symbolism. The largest is
more than 45m long and requires a rowing crew of 50 men, plus seven umbrella bearers,
two helmsmen and two navigators, as well as a flag bearer, rhythm keeper and chanter.
Suphannahong
(Golden Swan) is the king's personal barge. Built on the orders of Rama
I after an earlier version had been destroyed in the sacking of Ayuthaya,
Suphannahong
is
made from a single piece of timber, making it the largest dugout in the world. Appropri-
ately, a huge swan's head is carved into the prow. More recent barges feature bows carved
into other Hindu- Buddhist mythological shapes, such as the seven-headed
naga
(sea
dragon) and
garuda
(Vishnu's bird mount).
To mark auspicious Buddhist calendar years, the royal barges in all their finery set sail
during the royal
gà·tĭn,
the cloth-giving ceremony that falls in the month following the
end of the Buddhist retreat in October or November. During this ceremony, a barge pro-
cession travels to the temples to offer new robes to the monastic contingent, and countless
Bangkokians descend on the river to watch.
LAK MEUANG
(cnr Th Sanam Chai & Th Lak Meuang; 6.30am-6.30pm; Tha Chang)
What would otherwise be an
uninteresting mileage marker has both religious and historical significance in Thailand.
Lak Meuang is the city shrine, a wooden pillar erected by Rama I in 1782 to represent the
founding of the new Bangkok capital. Distances are measured to all other city shrines in
the country from this point. But its importance doesn't stop there. The pillar is endowed
with a spirit, Phra Sayam Thewathirat (Venerable Siam Deity of the State), and is con-
sidered the city's guardian.
Like the sacred banyan trees and the holy temples, Lak Meuang receives daily invoca-
tions from Thai worshippers in the form of commissioned
lákon gâa bon
(shrine dancing)
as thanks for granted wishes. Offerings also include those cute yet macabre pigs' head
with sticks of incense sprouting from their foreheads.
MONUMENT
