Suan Pakkad Palace is a lovely little haven , nestling in tranquil detachment, in Sri Ayutthaya Road, Bangkok, not far from Phaya Thai BTS Station. It is not at all as flashy or huge or even well known as the other Palaces in Bangkok and consequently, not crawling with tourists. In fact, the day we visited, it was just us !
The surreal phantasmagoria of Alice's Wonderland is what comes to mind the instant you come to know that the name of the Palace, Suan Pakkad, means "Cabbage Patch" ! Really !
Well, the place was really a cabbage patch before a prince and his bride inherited it during the 1950s and decided to make a residence there for themselves. Scions of Oriental Royalty have their quirks. Instead of building anew, they had four antique Thai houses uprooted from elsewhere and got them assembled in this compound , with lush tropical gardens laid around them.
The best among the repurposed houses is The Lacquer Pavilion (above ), a 17th Century wooden house on stilts, completely covered with lacquer, embellished with gold inlay murals of the highest order depicting the Life of Buddha and scenes from the Ramayana . Visitors are allowed to enter and gape, but strictly no photography. In a courtyard by this pavilion stand a large ornate, gilded barge used by King Rama V .
Later, more Houses were constructed around the core of these four.
The 'No photography' rule applies to all rooms of the Palace, which is now a Museum . The Prince and his Princess, it seems, were avid collectors of beautiful and interesting objects and their Palace is crammed with their collections. While collecting gave personal satisfaction, the royal couple decided that sharing their collection with Public would enhance that pleasure because after all, whatever they collected was also common heritage of all mankind. Hence, conversion of Palace to Museum. No longer a residence.
Two huge brightly painted cement Roosters welcome visitors to the Museum. At the reception area, where tickets are sold, the staff is very polite, friendly , almost making it seem like your visit is a honour to them ! Talk of old world etiquette !
Along with the ticket we receive a handy visitors guide brochure and a woven palm hand fan ! A polite , uniformed attender is dispatched as our personal companion to guide us and to unlock doors. He may also keep an eye on visitors who are tempted to help themselves to souvenirs on the side ! Its really easy, because many exhibits are small and kept in open display .
The first artefact of interest to be pointed out is the "horoscope" or The foundation Stone of the building, an engraved stone slab embedded on the wall of the entrance corridor.
House 1 displays a wide range of musical instruments of all kinds at the ground floor. detailed notes are found alongside each. The upper floor has beautiful statuary /figurines of stone, metal and wood from different eras of South East Asian history. Buddhas aplenty, ofcourse ! And a very lovely headless Uma and an Ardhanariswara , probably Khmer.
House 2 : The ground floor was reportedly nicknamed Alibaba's Cave by the Princess because it contains a variety of rare and valuable rocks and minerals , so colourful and twinkling under the lights.The Upper Storey is filled with miscellaneous curios like traditional furniture , cabinets, containers , trays , boxes , fans etc which are richly worked and painted with delicate designs so typical of Thai art.
House 3 : The elegant paraphernalia of Thai royalty , like the parasols, a model Throne ( Busabok), palanquin and formal insignias are all found here. At the Upper level is a vast collection of Bencharong, the unique China made pentachromatic ( pancha-rang) porcelain with customised Thai designs. There are also some Gold and Silver neilloware artifacts .
House 4 is still in use for royal receptions and dinners. And it has their private chapel also. Visitors are allowed , when it is not in use. There are quite a free Buddhist paintings and mother-of-pearl inlaid panels.
House 5 has more rocks and minerals, along with great looking Fossils personally collected by the Royal couple. They sure had eclectic tastes !
House 6 is the Khon Museum. Khon is the Mask used in the traditional opera which uses both dance and story telling formats. Stories are always from The epic, Ramayana. Each mask has a character, is elaborately made and visually stunning. In this museum , it is possible to see a diorama with action figures ( Khon puppets) enacting scenes.
House 7 : stores prehistoric artefacts obtained from excavation around the country, Chinese ceramics from Ming, Song and Yuan dynasties, Khmer pottery and Green Glaze friezes from Burma.
House 8 is dedicated to household items - glassware, silverware, porcelain, crystalware- used by the Royal couple who tuirned such prodigious collectors .
Marsi Gallery exhibits the paintings of the only daughter of the couple, who was an artist.The Gallery is also rented out now to contemporary artists to show their work.
The pride of place among this odd collection of things in this museum , belongs to The Banchiang Collection, housed in a modern annexe.
Ban Chiang , an archeological site in North East Thailand, that yielded amazingly sophisticated artefacts of ceramic and metal from an unknown bronze age civilization , was discovered in 1966 and has been a World Heritage Site since 1992. Initial dating had declared it to be the earliest Bronze Age civilization in the World. But later dating with better techniques brought the date down by wo millenia to about 2100BCE . The settlement could have flourished upto 200BCE.
While the exquisite painted pottery pieces , many of them intact, look like they were made just yesterday , the bronze objects like bracelets, rings, spearheads, axes, blades and bells, show very fine workmanship. One exhibit is a bony hand still wearing a large spiral bracelet and, with clay around it, it looks eerie. The pottery pieces are of different elegant shapes and painted in a swirling pattern , which give them a modern look.
Before the site was formally discovered, local villagers are said to have just picked up ancient pottery and metal pieces for their use from the wasteland ! And after it became famous, it attracted looters who saw a good market abroad for the grave goods stolen from here ! The collection in Suan Pakkad palace is quite large and gives a good idea about the high degree of refinement and culture attained by those ancient people , about whom studies are still in progress both locally and abroad, most notably in Pennsylvania University.
Pictures of some exhibits from the brochure : Model of the Throne , A Sukhothai Buddha, a conical food container, a Khon Mask and a Banchiang Pottery
