The Grand Palace and Ramakian Murals
The Grand Palace, on the same grounds as Wat Phra Kaew (see previous post), was built in 1882. The main building, the Grand Palace Hall (Chakri Mahaprasat) is a “peculiar blend of Italian Renaissance and traditional Thai architecture. It’s a style often referred to as...Westerner in a Thai crown because each wing is topped by a heavily ornamented spire representing a Thai adaptation of [a] Hindu shrine.
Thai kings housed their huge harems in the inner palace area, which was guarded by combat-trained female sentries.”
I’ve also included a few more pictures of the murals at Wat Phra Kaew that I couldn’t fit in my last post. These murals line the inside walls of the temple compound and illustrate the Ramakian, the Thai version of the Ramayana epic of India.
Source: Lonely Planet guidebook to Thailand.
