The Grand Palace in Bangkok; the things you can’t miss

It’s not a bad idea to read in advance what there is to do in the Grand Palace in Bangkok. The area covers 142 soccer fields and with the warm Thai weather, I don’t recommend wandering around the whole palace. In the meantime, you have succumbed to the heat a couple of times.

High, white palace walls

The palace is located in the center of Bangkok and when you see the high, white palace walls, you know you’re in the right place. After the inspection, you can buy an entrance ticket for 500 baht, €14,50 and go to the courtyard. Large decorated buildings, golden temples, six ‘Demon Guardians’ and many more buildings. What shouldn’t you miss when you visit the palace?

What Phra Kaew: The Temple of the Emerald Buddha

his is the most important Buddhist temple in Thailand and exists since 1782. Why is this temple so important? The Emerald Buddha lives here. The difference with other temples is that no monks live in this temple.

Phra Mondop

This building was built in 1789 and served as a library for Buddhist writings. You can’t enter the building, but from the outside, it’s spectacular enough. Huge golden pillars with beautiful details. There are also statues of the royal white elephants and monuments of the former kings.

An ‘ubosot’ is a building in a Buddhist temple. This is the most sacred prayer room of the temple. The Emerald Buddha is the most important statue of Buddha in Thailand. Before you can enter the temple, you have to take off your shoes. This doesn’t smell fresh at all! More than a hundred pairs of shoes from people who have been walking outside all day. Luckily you don’t smell any of this in the temple anymore. Inside you are not allowed to take pictures and this is strictly monitored.

Although the buildings and temples in the palace are huge, the Emerald Buddha is only 66 centimeters high. Buddha has three different costumes. One for each season: the summer, the rainy season and the winter. Three times a year there is a ceremony when the Buddha changes his jacket, which is done by the king. Only residents of Thailand are allowed to pray through the fence in the ‘ubosot’. You must never place your feet in the direction of the Buddha.

Prasat Phra Dhepbidorn: the Royal Pantheon

The Royal Pantheon was built in 1856 and was intended as a house for the Emerald Buddha. The king ruled that the building was too small for a ceremony, so it remained empty. Now, this is the Royal Pantheon of all the kings who has ruled over Bangkok. At this moment there are eight statues of the previous kings in the Pantheon

Chakri Maha Prasat Hall

When we saw this, we knew for sure that the king had to live here. An impressive white building, guards in front of the doors and countless windows. It could hardly be missed! And we were kind of right. This used to be the king’s house, but this is no longer the case. Now it is used for state banquets and receptions. This makes the palace no less impressive!

Remains of elephants

So there’s plenty to see at the Grand Palace. We also walked in at the museum, but we didn’t think this was very special. It had a few rooms with gifts from the former kings and remains of elephants. You can use that time to secretly take a picture of the Emerald Buddha.

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