National Museum of Bangkok

A tour of the National Museum of Bangkok will leave you with an experience of revisiting history. Being the largest of its type in the entire Southeast Asia to treasure a range of prehistoric to contemporary Thai artifacts, it is assured to make you loose yourself in the corridors of time. The short tour gives the visitor an overview of more than a millennium of history of the kingdom.

History: Historical background of the museum goes back to the year 1874 when his majesty King Rama V opened the first public museum, to exhibit the royal collection of King Rama IV. It was only in 1926 that it became 'Bangkok museum' & then went on to became 'National museum of Bangkok' when it had been organized under the Department of Fine Arts since 1933. Collection: The collections of the museum are national cultural heritage objects with an emphasis on the art, archaeological objects & cultural objects dated from as early as prehistoric period to the present day. There are three main galleries, the first of which hosts the prehistoric evidences. It starts with the origin of early Thai civilizations dating back to Stone Age & based upon the relics discovered in Lampong & Mae Hong Son in northern Thailand & Krabi in the south. Civilizations existing around 3,600 BC were discovered in Ban Chiang, Udorn Thani in northeast Thailand as well as Kanchanaburi and Chonburi. Lobpuri: The tour then moves on to cover the 7th – 13th centuries when the Khmer empire, based in what is now Cambodia, was at the height of its power. The influence of Khmer culture covered the northeastern region of Thailand and extended all the way to Lopburi in central Thailand. Historical sites like Phanom Rung in Buriram and Phimai in Nakhon Ratchasima stand as an evidence to its influence. Sukhothai : The kingdom reached its pinnacle under the reign of King Ram Khamhaeng from 1279 – 1298 AD. Sukhothai not only grew in political and military stature, it was