Grand Palace

Gurundi around Temple of Emerald Buddha

The Grand Palace was built by Rama I beginning in 1782. Previously the palace was located across the Chao Phraya river near the Temple of the Dawn. Upon entering the palace grounds, we first visited the Royal Temple of the Emerald Buddha. First discovered in Chiang Rai covered with plaster, it was believed that the Buddha was made of emerald, but it actually consists of Jade. The Buddha also was once in Chiang Mai, then Laos, and finally here. Three sets of clothes were made for the Buddha for hot, cold, and rainy season.

Royal Panthenon

The upper terrace is particularly spectacular with a gold stuppa in Ceylonese style containing Buddha's relics. The holy library containing the Buddhist scriptures is built of green glass guarded by demons. The royal Pantheon is a mix of Cambodian and Thai styles contains statues of the 8 past Bangkok kings. Finally, there is a miniature of Angkor Wat built by Rama IV. North of the terrace is a golden Chedi with demons supporting the mountain, containing the ashes of the royal family.

Surrounding this temple area is the story of Ramakien (a mile of galleries). This story takes about 14 hours to fully tell. We viewed some of the scenes where the king with help from the white monkey wages war to rescue his wife from an island. (Note: our guide, Anil, had been teasing us for a week about the story of the white monkey.)

We then left the temple area to visit the royal palace area. The audience or throne hall was used until 1932. Today it is only used to crown the crown prince or the king. The Chakri Maha Prasat Hall was built in 1882 (the centennial of the palace) and is a mix of European and Thai architecture. The 2nd floor is used as a royal banquet room today. Finally, there was a smaller throne room, primarily used to day when royalty lies in state.

Chakri Maha Prasat Hall

We ended our tour by seeing all the Royal paraphernalia: many bowls, containers, beetle nut holders, spittoons, amulets, and crowns. All of these were made of gold, emeralds, and rubies.

In the afternoon, most of our group relaxed, but I spent about 3 hours walking both sides of the river. Unique was the Santa Cruz Catholic church built by the Portuguese. Then the giant Buddha in Wat Kalayanamit. I managed to get lost in the back alleys, found many small houses, and monks doing their afternoon chores. I returned to the other side of the river and walked back through the flower market, up to the Grand Palace. On the way back, I walked through the Indian section of town, and about 1/2 mile of pedestrian market, bumping into many of the locals in the crowded market place. Luckily I had figured out that I was still walking in the direction of our hotel.