Bangkok City Pillar Shrine
When I was grade 12, my school took
us, my friends and I, to visit Bangkok, the capital of Thailand. We saw many cultural
places such as the Grand Palace, the Emerald Temple and the Bangkok City Pillar
Shrine. The teacher told us the story about the history of Thailand and the
legend of Bangkok City Pillar Shrine. That was interesting to me.
Bangkok City Pillar Shrine or Sao
Lak Muang in Thai was created by King Rama I when he established Bangkok as the
capital of Thailand. The shrine was raised and blessed before construction on
the Grand Palace, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the rest of the city, it
was actually the first building of the capital.
Before The Bangkok City Pillar Shrine was
built, the king ordered soldiers to make 4 big holes at every corner of the
City Pillar Hall. Then they went to the city and made an announcement of
volunteer recruition, 16 people were named in the list.: four good meaning and
the four names in the lists were In, Jan, Mun and Kong, the meanings are
enduring and strong. Before the ceremony, all the men were fed with the best
food of the country. Then they took four living men into each hole and overlaid
the holes with the big logs. All 16 men
finally died. The four logs that overlay the holes were built to be the shrine,
covering the city pillar. They believed that the spirit of the 16 men would be
the guardians and defend the city from the bad things. And this is what I
heard about the Bangkok City Pillar Shrine
Nick, I liked reading this story. Thanks for sharing an interesting story about your culture.
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