Culture Shock!

You know a museum is good when the artifacts speak for themselves: no fancy displays, no state of the art lighting or audio-visuals, and maybe even a lack of air conditioning despite sweltering heat. This is exactly what I found in Bangkok. Between visiting the National Museum, the Grand Palace, and the Dusit Palace complex north of the city, the sheer number, types, sizes, and ages of artifacts on display was a complete culture shock!

The gold trimming, grandiose architecture, and mosaic tiling make a life-sized mega-artifact of the Grand Palace. Inside you'll find Hindu mythological panoramas depicting Rama's encounters with Ravana. Beautifully intricate, colorful, and expanding hundreds of meters, it's a wonder that most tourists shy away from the murals in favor of the architectural wonders surrounding them. Additionally, a to-scale representation Cambodia's (once Thailand's) Angkor Wat lies proudly amidst the the life-sized buildings of this former King's palace.

The National Museum, though humbly small, boasts an in-depth history of the Thai kingdom, a gallery full of intricately carved ivory tusks, an extensive collection of ancient Thai games, musical instruments, textiles, and art, just to name a few. Despite its size, I easily spent 2 hours here to satisfy my cultural curiosity.

But just when I thought my museum-junkie tendencies had been maxed-out, I approached the Dusit Palace complex on a whim. It is the Mecca of Thai art and history to say the least. The central attraction is Rama V's teakwood mansion (Vimanmek), the largest of its kind in the world. But its real treasures are housed in 12, 2-story wooden cottages that are scattered throughout the Dusit complex. Clocks, carriages, palanquins, money, weapons, ceramics, seashells, and hundreds of intact prehistoric pottery recovered from the Gulf of Thailand's maritime heyday. The artifacts were in impeccable condition dating back as far as 2,000 BC!

But it is not only the old and ancient you'll find here. This grandiose Throne Hall of European architecture is a showcase for the cultural initiative of Thailand's queen: the rebirth of the ancient and creation of new Thai art forms. In a setting fit for royalty, mother of pearl, gold, diamonds, jade, and even beetle wings glitter on everything from thrones to purses to plates and menu covers. It's entrancing, exalting, and overwhelming. And just when my aesthetic senses reached their limit, the less than glitzy intricacies of the wood carved murals and embroidered tapestries surprised me once again.

It is not just Thai and Southeast Asia's art and artifacts you'll see here either. Thanks to Rama V's 2 trips to Europe (he was the first Siamese monarch to do so), you see a mix of conventional European and traditional Thai everywhere you look. Thailand is obviously a country that both values and takes pride in its rich history and culture, while integrating and embracing the art of its countreymen and European counterparts alike...a true culture shock!