The King Rama VII Museum on Ratchadamnoen Nok Avenue
is dedicated to King Prajadhipok, the last absolute monarch in
Thailand. King Rama VII (1893 - 1941) or King Prajadhipok
succeeded to the throne in 1925 and reigned through a
tumultuous period in Thai history till his abdication on 2
March 1935.

The old building housing the museum was designed by French-
Swiss architect Charles Beguelin during the reign of King
Rama V and completed in the reign of King Rama VI. A
fashionable Western tailor first occupied the building. The
subsequent tenants were drastically different, a construction
material company and later the Department of Public Works.

King Rama VII Museum was opened in 7 December 2002 and
gives an insight into the life and times of King Prajadhipok. To
start your tour, proceed upstairs and follow the directions for a
chronological display of the biography of King Rama VII.

Start your tour with the video clip on the genealogy of the
Chakri kings. Born in 1893, the year of the French blockade of
the Chao Phraya, King Rama VII succeeded to the throne in
1925 after the death of his brother King Rama VI or King
Vajiravudh.

Continue your tour of the King Rama VII Museum and view
the displays on the young prince’s early education in Thailand.
He went on to study at Eton and attended military training at
the Woolwich Military Academy and later the French staff
college.

Displayed in the King Rama VII Museum are personal effects
of King Rama VII. These include his pencil box from London
when he was a student and an account book kept by the Thai
embassy in London on the young prince’s study expenses.

His early exposure to the West made him a firm believer in
education, science, public administration and foreign
languages. He saw the trend in political development and even
tried to prepare for it. But he knew the kingdom was not ready.

A reluctant monarch, King Rama VII needed to restore
confidence in the monarchy. He realized the need for political
reform as the days of absolute monarchy were numbered. With
a well-intended desire for reform, he was contemplating
democracy. A copy of the draft constitution prepared under his
the direction is on display at the King Rama VII Museum.

But time was not on his side. There was a growing force of
nationalism in the early 1920s with the new liberalism from the
intellectuals and Western educated Thais. This political
awakening was fired by the crisis of economic depression of
1930 that culminated in the coup on 24 July 1932.

King Rama VII Museum depicts the life of King Prajadhipok,
the last absolute monarch or the first constitutional monarch
depending on one’s point of view. It captures the life of a much-
enlightened king pressured by the political events of his time
and caught in the powerful forces of history over which he had
no control.

For a map to the King Rama VII Museum.

The King Rama VII Museum
is one of the historical treasures covered in Tour Bangkok Legacies a
historical travel site on people, places and events that left their
mark in the landscape of Bangkok. The author Eric Lim, a
free-lance writer, lives in Bangkok Thailand.

Running a museum is very hard work and it takes a lot of money to start a museum and they take up a lot of space. This means that often unless the museum property has been donated to a nonprofit group it cannot get enough people to come through it to pay for the rent.

The more people who come through the museum the easier it is to get volunteers to help out and the more people who come through the museum the more money they can make in donations and or user fees.

Once a museum becomes very popular, folks will donate to the museum additional items and tell their friends they should go to the museum. Word-of-mouth advertising and referrals to a museum will help its success.

Public relations and community Goodwill for local museums is paramount to increase the traffic and ensure the success of the museum.

The difficult part of running a museum is getting the initial traffic and high volumes of people to come to the museum. This requires a good public relations strategy, media support and good advertising. Of course most museums do not have any money.

One way to increase the traffic in a museum is to get locals to come and to get listed in all the travel books of course that takes a couple of years because each travel book is published at a different time.

Most local museums take two or three years to really get going and in the meantime they rely on volunteers who hopefully are dedicated enough to stick it out until things get busy. Please consider all this in 2006.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

A tour of the National Museum in Bangkok, which traces the
early Thai civilizations in the region and the history of
subsequent kingdoms, is like taking a stroll through the
corridors of time. The short tour gives the visitor an overview
of more than a millennium of history of the kingdom.

Our tour starts with the origin of early Thai civilizations in the
first section in the National Museum. There’s evidence of
civilizations dating back to the early Stone Age from relics
discovered in Lampang and Mae Hong Son in northern
Thailand and Krabi to the south.

Civilizations existing around 3,600 BC were discovered in
Ban Chiang, Udorn Thani in northeast Thailand as well
as Kanchanaburi and Chonburi. There are conflicting theories
as to where the early immigrants came from. However, there’s
sufficient evidence to show that there were civilizations in the
area for more than 1,000 years.

The next section in the National Museum covers 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 are testimony to this influence.

The 13th century saw the rise of the Sukhothai
kingdom. 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
renowned for its art, architecture and culture. It was King
Ram Khamhaeng who started the Thai alphabet.

The Ayutthaya section in the National Museum is the
most substantial. Founded by King U-Thong in 1351,
Ayutthaya was a city bounded by three rivers, the Chao
Phraya, Lopburi and Pasak. It grew rapidly and soon eclipsed
Sukhothai and the other kingdoms.

At the height of its influence, Ayutthaya was a major
commercial center with three main palaces within a walled city
with its network of roads and canals and protected by 16 forts.
Trade with China, Portugal, the Netherlands and Japan
flourished.

Ayutthaya was captured and sacked by Burma in 1569. The
city was revived in 1584 by King Naresuan. Unfortunately it
was overrun again and completely destroyed by the Burmese
in 1767. Built up over four centuries, Ayutthaya with its 34
kings from five dynasties crashed to an abrupt and tragic end.

It was left to Phraya Taksin, son of a Chinese immigrant, who
escaped the destruction of Ayutthaya to reestablish a new
capital in Thonburi. In a series of campaigns he drove
the Burmese out of Thailand and reunited the various
kingdoms.

The grand finale in the tour of the National Museum covers the
Chakri dynasty started by King Rama I in 1782 when he
established Bangkok as the new capital to restore the
former glory of Ayutthaya.

It was the dawn of a new era, Rattanakosin. After a massive
Burmese onslaught was repelled, they were never a serious
threat again. The prospect of a united Thailand with secure
borders became a reality. Under the reign of the Chakri Kings,
the next 200 years, saw the gradual emergence of a modern
Thailand.

The National Museum in Bangkok captures more than a
millennium of history of the early Thai civilizations, the rise
and fall of the various kingdoms and dynasties to the present.
It encapsulates the cultural ballast and very soul of the Thai
nation.

For more on King Taksin of Thonburi visit the National
Museum when you Tour Bangkok Legacies and
stroll through the corridors of history. The author Eric Lim, a
free-lance writer, lives in Bangkok Thailand.