Bangkok National Museum

Bangkok National Museum was originally established by King Chulalongkorn around the collection of antiquities of his father King Mongkut. The National Museum is on the grounds of the former Wang Na, the "Front Palace" which was built for the vice king, a sort of crown prince (Thailand has no law of primogeniture. The king traditionally named his own successor, who was often his brother rather than his son). The post was eliminated by Chulalongkorn and the National Museum was set up in the former palace in 1887.^[5]

In 1874, Chulalongkorn ordered the establishment of the first public museum at the Concordia Pavilion inside the Grand Palace to exhibit the collections of his father and other objects of general interest. The Concordia Museum was opened on 19 September 1874, and the Fine Arts Department has marked that day as the birth of the first national museum of Thailand.

In 1887, Chulalongkorn ordered the museum moved from Concordia to the Front Palace, and called it Wang Na Museum ("Front Palace Museum").

In 1926, it was named the "Bangkok Museum" and subsequently developed into the Bangkok National Museum, when it came under the direction of the Fine Arts Department in 1934.

Between 1939 and 1948 the museum arranged an exchange of deposits with the Guimet Museum in Paris, through which the French museum acquired the architectural reliefs of the Dvāravatī and Sukhothai periods that it holds.^[6]

The National Museum Bangkok houses three permanent exhibition galleries:

1. The Thai History Gallery, located at the front of Siwamokhaphiman Hall, a former ceremonial hall. On display is the Ram Khamhaeng Inscription, which was added to UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme Register in 2003. Another exhibit addresses the question, "Where did the Thais come from?" The gallery also features artifacts from Thailand's prehistoric period to the Bangkok period.
2. The Archaeological and Art History Collections are presented in two parts:
   1. The Prehistory Gallery, at the rear of Siwamokhaphiman Hall, covering Thailand's prehistoric cultures.
   2. The Art History Gallery, in the North Wing Building, displaying sculptures and other works from the Dvaravati, Srivijaya, and Lopburi periods (before 1257 CE) through to the early Bangkok period (c. 1782).
3. The Decorative Arts and Ethnological Collection, displayed in the former central palace buildings. This section focuses on courtly and regional material culture, including gold and precious stones, mother of pearl inlay, royal emblems and insignia, costumes and textiles, ceramics, carved ivory, historic royal conveyances, weapons, and musical instruments.^[7]

The museum holds a group of large Hindu bronzes whose attribution has been disputed since the 19th century. Pierre Baptiste traces fourteen positions on them between 1895 and 2005, with proposed dates running from the mid-14th to the mid-18th century. Lucien Fournereau photographed the images at Wat Bot Phram, now the Devasathan, in 1891 and 1892, when the temple was dilapidated and the bronzes lay in disorder.^{[8]: 216–229} Among them are two standing figures of Śiva, 308 and 150 centimetres high, catalogued as S.K. 14 and S.K. 19.^[6]: 224 John Listopad in 1999 reattributed the Umā of the group from Sukhothai to Ayutthaya, against the classification of the Fine Arts Department.^[6]: 224 Baptiste describes the difficulty of separating work of a style from work that prolongs it as a persistent problem in the field.^[6]: 223

In May 2024, the Golden Boy, a 4-foot-tall bronze statue dating to around 900 years ago, was repatriated to Thailand from the United States and unveiled at the museum. Another related sculpture, known as the Kneeling Lady, was also placed on public display. Both statues had previously been held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City for about three decades. The repatriation marked a rare success in Thailand's ongoing efforts to recover thousands of cultural artifacts that were looted or illicitly trafficked.^[9][10]

The two bronze sculptures are believed to have originated from the lower Northeast region of Thailand, possibly in present-day Buriram province, and are stylistically linked to the Khmer art tradition that flourished in the area between the 11th and 12th centuries CE. The Golden Boy, sometimes identified as a representation of Shiva or a Khmer monarch such as Jayavarman VI, was reportedly unearthed by a villager around fifty years earlier before being illicitly exported. The artifacts entered the Met's collection in the late 1980s, during a period when antiquities dealers associated with Douglas Latchford later charged with art trafficking supplied many Southeast Asian sculptures to Western museums.^[11][12]

Following prolonged diplomatic discussions and provenance research, the Met formally agreed in 2023 to return the two statues to Thailand, alongside fourteen Khmer works to Cambodia. The repatriation ceremony, held at the National Museum Bangkok in May 2024, was attended by Thai cultural officials and U.S. representatives, symbolizing a growing international commitment to address the colonial-era and post-war trade in looted antiquities. The Thai Ministry of Culture noted that additional requests were being pursued for roughly thirty more artifacts believed to have been removed from the country during the 20th century.^[13][14]

The museum has three main exhibition spaces:

• Siwamokhaphiman Hall – This building was constructed when Maha Sura Singhanat, the Prince Successor to Rama I, built the Front Palace. Originally used as an audience hall, it now houses the Thai History Gallery.
• Buddhaisawan Chapel – The chapel was built in 1787 to house the important Buddha image Phra Phuttha Sihing. The interior murals depict scenes from the life of the Buddha.
• The Red House – This teak residence was originally one of the private quarters of Princess Sri Sudarak, the elder sister of King Rama I. It was later moved from the old palace in Thonburi to the Grand Palace for Queen Sri Suriyendra, wife of Rama II. The Red House is now furnished in early Rattanakosin period style, depicting aspects of royal domestic life, and includes objects once belonging to Queen Sri Suriyendra.^[7]

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  Ram Khamhaeng Inscription, describing early Thai script, government, religion and society
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  8th-century bronze torso of Avalokiteshvara of Chaiya, Srivijaya art from Chaiya, Surat Thani; shows Central Javanese influence
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  Four-armed Ganesha, c. 10th-11th century CE, from Candi Singhasari, East Java
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  Five-headed Shiva, Ayutthayan art, 21st–22nd centuries BE
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  Kāla, c. 9th–10th century CE, from Borobudur, Central Java
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  Floral lintel, 13th century BE (c. 8th century CE), from Watthana Nakhon, Sa Kaeo
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  Lintel depicting the Hindu god Narayana reclining on the serpent Shesha amid the Ocean of Milk, 17th century BE (c. 12th century CE), from Ku Suan Taeng Temple, Ban Mai Chaiyaphot, Buriram
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  Cham lintel, Bình Định, c. 12th–13th century CE; excavated at Quy Nhơn by the French School of the Far East (1927–1928), exchanged with a Thai Buddha image on 16 February 1938
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  Throne of the White Umbrella, a royal throne once occupied by Prince Pinklao
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  Funeral pyre and urn of Princess Bejaratana Rajasuda at Chariot Hall
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  Great Victory Royal Chariot, commissioned by King Rama I in 1795 CE.
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  Phra Wo Siwika Kan ("Royal Golden Litter")
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  Phra Yannamas Sam Lam Khan ("Royal Chariot with Three Poles")
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  War elephant and antique weapons
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  Collection of Thai swords and polearms
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  Cannons
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  Khon masks
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  Traditional Thai clothing
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  Inside Siwamokhaphiman Hall
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  Chairs occupied by King Bhumibol Adulyadej and Queen Sirikit during their visit to Nakhon Ratchasima on 2 November 1955