IN A MUCH-ANTICIPATED move, the Royal Crematorium ceremonial grounds at Sanam Luang will open to the public tomorrow at 8am after Her Royal Highness Maha Chakri Sirindhorn officiates at the opening of an exhibition in honour of her father, the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, at 7am.
Eight roads linked to Sanam Luang will be
closed from tomorrow as 100,000 people are expected to visit the
exhibition each day. The security will be as strict as that during the
Royal Cremation.
Visitors must bring ID cards or passports, and will have to go through
one of five screening points. There are four screening points for
ordinary people at the Territorial Defence Command, Tha Chang, the Earth
Goddess Statue and Thammasat University, which will also provide for
the disabled, while monks and foreign visitors are invited to check in
at the Defence Ministry screening point.
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At Saman Luang, tents will be provided for people to wait before
entering at one of two entrances. One is near the Earth Goddess statue
and another is close to Thammasat University, where wheelchairs will be
provided.
Visitors will be provided pamphlets there about the Royal Crematorium
and, before leaving the exhibition, postcards, which will come in nine
versions. Three million each of the pamphlets and postcards will be
available. There will be English-language pamphlets for
foreign|visitors.
The one-way tour will take about an hour to complete, with 5,000
visitors at a time being able to view its three zones. In the first
zone, visitors will see exhibits related to Royal projects such as
demonstration rice fields, “Monkey Cheek” water-retention systems and
Chaipattana water mills. Visitors will be able to stay 15 minutes and
take photographs.
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Guides will then lead visitors to see the grand architecture of the
Royal Crematorium, featuring the centrepiece Principal Pavilion
(Busabok) with the fire screen surround by the Monks’ Pavilions and
Dismantling Halls. Visitors will be restricted to the first level of the
Royal Crematorium.
The tour will end at the Songtham Pavilion, where three murals depict
the late monarch during his 70-year-reign. The exhibition will also
highlight his biography in five sections.
Special guides will be set up for the disabled, including an audio
commentary and touchable exhibits. At Tab Kaset Hall, next to the
Dismantling Hall, blind people will be able to imagine the grandeur of
the Royal Crematorium by touching a replica and listening to audio.
From 8am to 5pm, a pipat – traditional Thai ensemble – from the Culture
Ministry’s Musical Department will perform and, in the evening until
10pm closing time, there will be public performances by some of the
thousands of artists who performed at the Royal Cremation. Khon masked
dance will be performed on the weekend.
The Culture Ministry expects 3 million visitors to view the exhibition, which will end on November 30.
The Bangkok Mass Transit Authority will provide 60 free buses a day on
six routes from 4am to 11pm. The routes to Saman Luang will depart
Victory Monument, Hua Lampong Station, Mo Chit, Ekkamai, Southern Bus
Station and Rattanakosin Island in Dusit district. Free ferries will be
provided daily from 6am to 10.30pm from Rachanavik Sapha Pier at
Thonburi’s Royal Navy Auditorium to Nivej Woradit Pier in Dusit near the
Grand Palace.
Source - TheNation
