The Audience Hall

We promise, we’re not going to go through each and every one of the numerous buildings in the complex and talk about them. There’s just too much, and this ain’t the Discovery Channel. There are some that are kind of interesting, though.

In most of these buildings, you’re required to remove your shoes. There are racks outside with numbered shelves for them. There are also signs that say, “Not responsible for lost or stolen shoes”.

In the Audience Hall, shoes were allowed but hats were not for some reason.

This is the place that the King would do formal appearances, kind of like when the President steps out to meet with the press. In their case, though, he’d be sitting on a royal throne and then a red curtain would be drawn back and he could give his speech.

This was next to the Funeral Building, which is used for the obvious reasons. Royal bodies lie in state for a year after the death. The details there were a bit sketchy – do they REALLY stay in that unairconditioned building that long, or is it just the casket up there?

Because no one’s head can be higher than the kings, the bodies don’t lie in state the way they do in the US, but instead the caskets are stood on end so they’re essentially standing up.

There have been nine kings in the Dynasty and the symbol for each is their crown. Unlike European nations where the crown is a fixed item that doesn’t change, the Thai tradition has it more like a Pope or bishop’s seal, which is redesigned and changed for each incoming individual.

Models of elephants are predominant throughout the complex. Elephants are holy to the Thai people, and the way to tell whether it’s an African Elephant or an Asian Elephant is by the number of bumps on it’s head. (Think camels v. dromedaries). African elephants are a bit on the slow side and hard to train – they just have one lump. Asian elephants are educable and have two bumps on their head.