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 EXPLORE
THAILAND THROUGH PHOTOGRAPHY |
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PALACES - MONUMENTS AND MEMORIALS
- Giant Swing |
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เสาชิงช้า |
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Description: |
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At 27 meters (88 feet) tall, Bangkok’s Giant Swing dwarfs nearby
Wat Suthat and other surrounding buildings. The swing was
originally built in 1784, under the direction of King Rama I.
Since then weather damage has required several restorations,
including a recent renovation completed in 2007. For this
project, workers used six massive teak tree trunks (each more
than 20 meters tall and approximately 200 years old) to
construct a new swing.
For centuries, the Giant Swing played
a central role in annual swing ceremonies that symbolically
reenacted elements of Hindu origin stories. In Hindu mythology
Brahma tested the stability of the newly created world by
ordering Shiva to stand on a mountain while giant snakes tried
to shake him to the ground. The swing ceremony had teams of Thai
men in elaborate headdresses competing to launch themselves into
the air, where they would use their teeth catch a sack of coins
tied to the top of a pole 25 meters (or more) above the ground.
The stability of the swing and presumed success of the swingers
represented the unshakable Shiva of Hindu legend.
Unfortunately, the ceremony was discontinued in 1935 after
several participants fell to their deaths. |
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Bangkok |
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District |
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Khet Phra Nakhon |
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City |
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Khwaeng Sao Chingcha |
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Official Web: |
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Genre |
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Palaces-Monuments and Memorials |
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Opening time |
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n/a |
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Entry fee |
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Free |
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GPS : |
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13.75183 N |
100.50115 E |
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