Phuttha Monthon Park (Part 2)
(Part 1)

Phuttha Monthon Park is a Buddhist Religious Park. It gives you a quiet place to reflect, it contains a beautiful large Buddha Image and four interesting monuments about the life of the Buddha.
It also contains some of the finest Buddhist Art I have ever seen in Thailand. Join me in a tour around this Park

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Paintings inside the Wiharn

I find the paintings within the Wiharn amonmg the best (modern) Buddhist Art I have seen so far in Thailand. The style is based on the ancient Buddist Art, that can be seen in Tmples al over Thailand.

Above you see just four more of the many hundreds of paintings inside the Wiharn. I believe that it is not useful to try to explain the meaning of these pictures. I am not a Buddhist anyway (although during the years I have learned quite some things about Buddhism). Consider them as works of Art.

As said, it would be impossible to show even a fraction of the many hundreds of pictures here. If this Art appeals to you, you should go to Phuttha Monthon park to see it with your own eyes.
Strangely enough, this Park is not popular at all with tourists. You will probably be there practically alone (unless you go there on one of the Buddhist Festivals). That is no reason, however, not to go there!

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The Human Imagery Museum

And now that you are in Phuttha Monthon anyway, this might be the right moment to visit the Human Imagery Museum, the Thai version of a wax Images Museum. It is relatively near to the park, so combine your visit to the Park with one to the museum.

There are reasons why you should not visit this museum, for instance because they charge you, foreigner, more than a Thai, but I believe that there are more reasons why you should go here, than there are reasons why you should not go there.
In one of the sections you will see some famous Monks, like the one above. This does not have the same meaning to us as it has to Buddhists, but still this section is interesting. Short life stories of the pictured Monks are on the walls.

One of the highlights of the museum are the wax figures of the complete RAMA dynasty so far, with the exception of the still alive member, King Bhumibol Adulyadej (King RAMA IX). See the left hand side picture above for his ancestors, from RAMA I on.
In 2000 the late Queen Mother was added to the Royal room. See her on the right hand side picture above.

Another section of the museum is dedicated to games. I show you "the chess players". Also children's games are depicted in this section.

And one, quite spectacular, section is devoted to the famous Thai poet Sunthorn Phu and one of his works. The large and spectacular scene from one of his works is too large to photograph. I did photograph the master himself, however. See him above.
The light was far from ideal within the museum, by the way. That is the reason why these pictures are not of the same quality you are accustomed to as a visitor of this site. But sometimes one has to take the circumstances as they are.

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Hopefully these few pictures of the Human Imagery Museum are enough to make you decide if you want to go there or not. You can go back to Bangkok by bus. Several buses pass the museum and will stop for you when you give them a sign.

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