The Reflection of the Relationship between the Social Context and the Architecture in the Thai Royal Court

Abstract

The social, cultural and value conditions in each era had significantly relevant to the architectural design of the grand palace hall of Thailand's Rattankosin era especially the architectural styles and decorated arts. Under the Thai traditional believes, culture has regarded as the extremely important aspect of the architectural design which appeared in the concreted studies of the pattern studies of two grand palace halls built in two differences times. The Amarin Winitchai Throne Hall was built in the early Rattanakosin era (1783). The grand palace served as the King's place to govern the administration. As the traditional culture of that period, the architecture and the interior decoration had dominant with the king status under the context of Thai culture in the early Rattanakosin era which was the Absolute Monarchy that believe of the king as the divined god. The Chahri Maha Prasat Throne Hall was built in the reign of King Rama V (1876), the period of colonialism had spread across Southeast Asia region while Thailand changed many things to preserve the country's severity by developing the country toward Modernization and Civilization as the Western countries in every area; the Chahri Maha Prasat Throne Hall was built from the influence of these reasons. Although the total decoration, inside and outside decorations, had been built in Western style to show the civilization aspect for the King's visiting monarchs, mostly Westerner, but with the influence of the custom and tradition of Thailand's grand palace designation, the Chahri Maha Prasat Throne Hall was built with the mixture style of westerner and Thai tradition and still decorated some symbol that shown the Kingship from the believe along the Thai custom, especially the architectural styles of the palace shaped roof and the area of the throne in the grand hall.