BANGKOK (4) Wat Trimit, Wat Benchamabophit, Wat Suthat, Wat Sa ket

Wat Traimit (Temple o fthe Folden Buddha)

     At the end of Yaowarat Road, near Bangkok's Hualamphong Railway Station, is a temple situated on Traimit Road. This temple is known for its famous Golden Buddha, constructed during the Sukhothai period. The image, of solid gold, is there meters high and weighs five and half tons. The building holding this image is open to the public everyday from 9.00 A.M.-5.00 P.M.

Wat Benchamabophit (The Marble Temple)

     The Marble Temple is on Si Ayuthaya Road near Chitralada palace. The temple is well-known because its main building was constructed during the rign of King Rama V.
     The best time to visit this temple is early in the morning when Buddhist monks are chanting inside the chapel. The interior of the main building is magnificently decorated with cross beams of lacquer and gold. A large collection of Bronze Buddhas lines the walls of the spacious,inner courtyard. The main building is open to visitors until 5.00 P.M.

Wat Suthat (The Giant Swing)

     Located on Bamrung Muang Road, this temple took 27 years to build. It is famous for the excellent murals in the main building from the reign of King RamaIII. The viharn should be seen for its collection of gilded Buddha images. The temple complex is open daily from 9.00 A.M.-5.00 P.M. In front of the temple is the famous Giant Swing. Many shops surrounding Wat Suthat stock a very comprehensive range of Buddhist ecclesiastic supplies.

Wat Sa Ket (The Golden Mount)

     Wat Sa Ket of the Golden Mount, was begun during the reign of King Rama. The golden chedi houses relics of Lord Buddha, and affords visitors a panoramic view of Bangkok.

BANGKOK!!(3)

                              The City Pillar Shrine (Lek Muang)

     Located at the south east corner of Saman Luang, this a graceful, temple-like structure house "Lak Muang" a stone pillar placed there by King Rama I, the first monarch of the present Chakri dynasty, as the foundation stone of his new capital city of Bangkok. Lak Muang is believed by many to have the power of granting wishes.

BANGKOK!!(2)

The National Museum Bangkok

     Wighin walking distance of the Grand Palace, across the Pramane Ground, is one of the largest and most comprehensive museums in Southeast Asia. The National Museum houses over one thousand artifacts ranging from neolithic times to the present Bangkok period. The complex, also begun in 1782, consists of several old but beautiful buildings of colourful Thai architectural design. The Museum is open every day, except Mondays and Fridays, from 9.00 A.M. - 4.00 P.M. Guided tour are provided in the mornings as follows.

BANGKOK!!(1)

TOUR IN BANGKOK (1)

The Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo.
     This city landmark should be the first place on any visitor's itinerary. It is a huge compound on Na Phra Lan Road near Pramane Ground, is surrounded by high white walls and occupies an area of about a square mile. The palace, begun in 1782, consists of several buildings with highly decorated architectural details. The Royal chaped, Wat Phra Kaeo, which is in the same compound, Houses the Emerald Buddha, the most sacred Buddha image in Thailand. Photography inside the building housing the Emerald Buddha is forbidden.
     The complex is open daily from 8.30- 11.30 a.m. and 1.00-3.30 p.m.
     Proper dress is essential.

Thai-Fruits

THAI-FRUITS
     Thailand has plenty kinds of fruits throughout the year. Most of them are so cheap. You could easily see all of them in Bangkok; in fruit shops, on stall or even in the basket of the hawkers.
      There may be some kinds of them that are in your favour.

DURIAN "TURIAN"

     The fear some spikes of the huge durain fruit yeild soft, yellow segments with a strong smell. Durian sellers will pry open fruit with special wedge. Eat only yellow meat and discard seeds. (Season: Apirl to June)

THAI-SWEETS

THAI-SWEETS

     Thai desserts, Egg, mung bean, rice flour, glutinous rice, lotus seeds, palm sugar, cassava roots and coconuts are common ingredients of Thai sweets. The Thais prefer their desserts to have fragrance. Accordingly, they soak jasmine and other aromatic flower in water and use resultant scented water to make a syrup. Bland seeds or beans are cooked in the syrup to make liquid sweets. Aromatic candles are often burned next to cakes or cookies in closed containers to impart scents, or desserts are placed next to fragrant flowers overnight. Cookies are sometimes garnished with slivers of gold leaf.

Painting-Thailand

Painting Thailand

     Traditional Thai painting is confined mostly to mural paintings of a temple or a palace. It has a characteristic of its own; so different from those of the Indian and the Chinese which with other cultures form the basis of the cultural life of the various peoples in Indo-China like the classical Greek and Roman did for the rest of Europe. No definite and satisfactory explanation of the origin of Thai painting has as yet been found, though there are suggestions. The life of Buddha, the Buddhist Jataka tales and episodes from the Ramayana mainly the subjects of traditional Thai painting.

Thai-Architecture

Thai Architecture

     Examples of Thai classical architectural art may be found in the various buildings and structures of the Thai temples commonly called 'Wat' in Thai and also of the Royal palace buildings. Both are fundamental in style and maybe divided in to two principal types. The one is a building rectangular in plan and contains only one large hall. The roof is sloping, usually three, tiers, while the other type of building is usually confined to the King's palace called 'Prasad' ('storied building' in Sanskit) somewhat like a Greek cross in plan and composed of a cubical hall with four porches of less projecting on each side. Typical of Thai architectural structures, the Prasad has many roofs superimposed one over the other, surmounted as its finial either by a small Sikhara (called in Thai 'Phra Prang') or by a high pyramidal superstructure with its four sides formed in a concave line culminating in a final spire. In fact the pyramidal superstructure looks like the Thai royal crown. The superstructure with the exception of the Sikhara was constructed with timber, and unique in its kind is the roof with its terracotta glazed coloured tiles. Under a tropical sunlight the polychromic roof with its gilded gables and other decorations give out a beautiful and harmonized artistic effect.

A BRIEF SURVEY OF CULTURAL

     Thailand is in Indo-China. She has as her nieghbour Burma in the West, and Franch Indo-China in the east and on her northern frontier. Down south through the Malay Peninsula she borders on the Malayan Union. Prior to the appearance of the Thai as a political unit, Central Thailand in the Menam (Chao Phya) valley was known archaeologically as the Dvaravati Kingdom peopled by a Mon-speaking race. Later on the Khmer, a race linguistically akin to the Mon, overran Dvaravati and established the Khmer Empire, Down south in the Malay Peninsula and contemporaneously with the Khmer was part of the Srivijaya Empire. These three peoples, the Mon of Dvaravati, the Khmer of the Khmer Empire, and the Malays of Srivijaya left important marks of their highly hinduized civilization in what is now Thailand.