Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong before CentralWorld: The Disappearance of Phetchabun Palace

Abstract

:The anti-government demonstrations that occurred in Thailand around Bangkok’s Ratchaprasong intersection in April and May 2010 drew attention to the broader significance of the protest site. In the wake of the bloody crackdown on the protests and of unprecedented arson attacks against shopping malls on 19 May, some people turned to the past in search of explanations of the shocking events. As a result, for the first time since its disappearance in the early 1980s, Wang Phetchabun, the former palace of Prince Chudadhuj Dharadilok, returned to the public memory. The palace had occupied the land adjoining Ratchaprasong intersection since the reign of King Rama VI until it was replaced by a shopping mall. Rumours spread about a royal curse, and about uprooted guardian spirits whose duty to protect the heritage of Wang Phetchabun dooms to failure commercial enterprises at the former palace site and punishes ignorance of its history with physical harm. The collective memory of the palace lends itself well to interpretations based on Halbwachs’ theory of social morphology which relates to the connection between society and architecture.