Bangkok Museums – a rich tapestry of Thai history and culture

Bangkok Museums
a rich tapestry of Thai history and culture

There are presently about 184 Bangkok museums in the city and these can be grouped into Palace museums, special museums, Kings' museums and community museums.

We begin our tour of these Bangkok legacies with the Palace Museums. These were former royal residences carefully restored to depict the life of that era.

Palace museums

Let's start with the Suan Pakkad Palace Museum the former royal residence of Prince Chumbhot and his wife Mom Rajawongse Pantip. Besides the family heirlooms, this museum displays the rare Ban Chiang Collection from a civilization that is more than 5,000 years old!

To visit and view this rare collection, please see the map to Suan Pakkad.

Suan Pakkad Palace

Another Bangkok museum, a former palace with an interesting history, is the Varadis Palace the former residence of Prince Damrong who played a significant role in Thai history. Varadis Palace is now a museum and library dedicated to his memory.

To help you get to Varadis Palace in Lan Luang Road, please see the map to Varadis Palace.

Special museums

These Bangkok museums cover special aspects of the history and culture of Thailand.

The Bank of Thailand Museum is one of those very special Bangkok museums. The museum is in the Bang Khun Prom Palace within the premises of the Central Bank of Thailand. The former residence of HRH Prince Paribatra Sukhumbhand, son of King Chulalongkorn, this museum depicts the history of Thai currency from the days of the ancient beads, seeds and bracelets till the present forms.

Please see the map to the Bank of Thailand Museum.

The history of the Thai labour movement from the days of slavery to the present is presented in the Thai Labour Museum. To visit this unusual museum, please see the map to the Thai Labour Museum.

Thai Labour Museum

For a display of Thai traditions costumes and culture in miniature form, visit the Bangkok Dolls Museum. The location of this attractive dollhouse is in the map to the Bangkok Dolls Museum.

Bangkok Dolls Museum

A very gruesome aspect of Thai prison history and prison life is recorded in the Bangkok Corrections Museum. To visit this prison museum in Maha Chai Road, please see the Bangkok Corrections Museum map.

Kamthieng House a traditional Lanna home in the grounds of the Siam Society in Soi Asoke, preserves the old Lanna architecture and culture from northern Thailand. To get there, please see the map to Kamthieng House.

Kamthieng House

For something that's really different and somewhat gruesome, see the Siriraj Medical Museums. For the location, please see map to Siriraj Medical Museums.

The Museum of Buddhist Art is reputed to have the biggest collection of Buddha statues, sculptures and figurines based on Buddhist art from old kingdoms dating back to the 6th century AD. To get there, please see map to the Museum of Buddhist Art.

Traditional Thai art takes a unique twist in the Erawan Museum which displays old Buddha statues in a highly unusual structure with the gigantic three-headed Erawan on the dome.

Erawan Museum

Some of these Buddha statues are as old as the ones in the Museum of Buddhist Art, though much lesser in number. To visit this museum, please see the Erawan Museum map.

To review the Thai postal and stamp history spanning over more than 120 years, please visit the Philatelic Museum. To get there, please see the map to the Philatelic Museum.

Related to stamps, please see this article Old Stamps on impressions from the 20th Asian International Stamp Exhibition in Bangkok in August 2007.

For the latest Bangkok Museum that depicts 2,000 years of Thai history in an innovative style, visit the Museum Siam for a very different museum experience.

Museum Siam

Please see the Museum Siam map to get there.

For an outdoor museum that is unrivalled anywhere else, visit Muang Boran or the Ancient City in Samut Prakan just outside Bangkok.

The displays of scaled models or life sized replicas of ancient ruins, monuments, buildings which provide an excellent insight into the ethnic and cultural heritage of Thailand.

Muang Boran the Ancient City

Another special museum is the Thailand Railway Hall of Fame which preserves the history of rail travel in Thailand since the late 1800s.

Thailand Railway Hall of Fame

For a very interesting provincial museum preserving the history, culture, art and craft of its communities, visit the Museum of Nonthaburi which is in an old province just north of Bangkok.

Museum of Nonthaburi

For the history of the Government Savings Bank of Thailand, please the Savings Bank Museum which has some nostalgic images of banking in the early days.

Savings Bank Museum

The latest addition to our list of special museums is the Museum of Floral Culture which displays exquisite Asian and Thai floral designs in an old colonial bungalow set in a lush tropical garden.

Museum of Floral Culture

Kings' Museums

The Kings' Museums make up another group of Bangkok museums. These museums were not royal palaces before but now house museums dedicated to former Chakri Kings.

The King Rama VI Museum within the Territorial Defence Department is a military museum dedicated to King Vajiravudh, a Sandhurst graduate, who had a keen interest in the military. To help visitors locate the museum, please see the map to King Rama VI Museum.

King Rama VI Museum

The King Rama VII Museum preserves the personal history and life of King Prajadhipok, the last absolute monarch whose reign saw the watershed in Thai political history. Please see the map to the King Rama VII Museum.

King Rama VII Museum

Community museums

The next category of Bangkok museums consists of the community museums. These are museums recording the history and life style of the local communities in the area.

The Bangkok Folk Museum in Bangrak was previously a family home carefully preserved to reflect the lifestyle in Bangkok in the early 20th century.

Bangkok Folk Museum

Colocated with the Folk Museum is the Bangrak Museum a community museum which preserves the history and quaint memories of old Bangrak district in the 1800s - early 1900s.

To visit these two Bangkok museums, please see the map to the Bangrak and Bangkok Folk Museums.

The Samphanthawong Museum in Yaowarat Chinatown Bangkok is a pictorial history of the early Chinese immigrants, their lives and contributions.

Samphanthawong Museum

The Bangkok Noi Museum a community museum on the Thonburi bank,traces the history of the old Bangkok community in the pre-Rattanakosin era, before Bangkok became the capital. The map to the Bangkok Noi Museum shows the way to this museum.

The Bang Khun Thien Museum another community museum on the Thonburi bank, traces the history of Bangkok's coastal community near the only seafront in Bangkok. The museum is quite out of the way, please see the map to the Bang Khun Thien Museum. to help you get there.

In July 2005, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority announced plans to establish 23 more community museums. Each of these Bangkok museums will preserve the history, culture and life-styles of the communities in the various Bangkok districts.

The Klong San Museum is one of the 23 community museums established in the second phase. This museum covers another old community on the west bank of the Chao Phraya just after you have crossed the Taksin Bridge.

Klong San Museum

The number of Bangkok museums gives an idea of the richness and diversity of the Thai history and culture and the impact of these influences on Thai society.

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