Down in the South-East of Bangkok at Samut Prakan, an eccentric Thai millionaire by the name of Lek Viriyaphant (Khun Lek) ordered the construction of monumental building sculpted in the shape of the three-headed elephant, Airavata. The magnificent monumental building becomes a spiritual museum for holding Khun Lek’s priceless collections of scared religious objects and also as a center where ceremonies and festivals of Thai traditions could be held. This post will be about my first visit to Erawan Museum.

Coincidentally, this cute graffiti already got me a pleasant start just when I was getting ready to visit this magnificent structure of 3 head elephant.


Within 30 minutes of Bus ride from On-Nut BTS is all it take. In fact, even before I reach the Erawan Museum , I’m already in awe at the size of the Airavata at a distance. It looks so beautiful & incredibly majestic!

Another angle, beautiful! Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my wide angle lens (in fact I didn’t bring my DSLR along LOLz), so took me sometime squeeze this into the frame.

The Museum is divided into UNDERWORLD, EARTH & HEAVEN. The guided tour start with UNDERWORLD, which is situated in the basement of the structure. In Thai cosmology, the underground represent the Naga World. Naga is the guardian of treasures. Unfortunately they do not allow photography in this private section. But I got to say his private collections are indeed very impressive works of art.

Next in line is the tour for EARTH which is situated on the next floor. The EARTH represents the four continents, mountains, rivers, whole solar system. Inside the dome of EARTH, it has both Eastern & Western decoration. But stucco made by Petcharburi craftsmen simply blows me away. The refinement in details shown by Thai craftsmanship are incredible.

Can you imagine that all these stucco moulds are made all from these natural materials. Piece by piece, bit by bit, diligently by these fine Thai craftmen.

There are also tin embossed plates decorate the 4 pillars, which represent the 4 main religions. And this particular one shows Moses.

Up another flight of spiral stairways, you will pass by several other deities …

… and finally get close to the beautiful stained glass map of ancient world. Made by German artist named Jakob Schwarzkopf, this stained glass represent the roof of the world.

More spiral stairways via the elephant hind legs finally leads you to HEAVEN (In the belly of Elephant) - the kingdom of God which resides here to protect eath and Human with good morals.

Holy water are freely available to those who need though most will donate, which believed to be good for your own karma.

Even as I took my last look at Airavata (3 headed Elephant), I’m still in awe of this beautiful monument. Yes, I will definitely be back once again.

GETTING THERE
WEBSITE: http://www.erawan-museum.com/home_e.html
OPENS DAILY 8am ~ 5pm
FEES: 150THB Adult, 50THB Children
BUS: 507 or 511 Public Bus from On-Nut BTS station. (Bus stop opposite shopping Mall). Just keep watch out for 3 head Elephant on the left.
TAXI: I guess this is the easiest. But I didn’t see a lot of TAXI over there, so it might be a good idea to ask the TAXI to wait. (at additional costs of coz)

PHOTOGRAPH TIPS:
- Bring wide angle
- Go in the afternoon after 2pm. I went in the morning and found that the sun is behind the elephant. This create shadows on the elephant. Fill-flash is useless as the structure is really HUGE!