King Prajadhipok Museum

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Lonely Planet review

A visit to a royal museum might sound like a royal bore, but this collection uses modern techniques to relate the rather dramatic life of King Prajadhipok (Rama VII; r 1925-35) and neatly documents Thailand's transition from absolute to constitutional monarchy. As you wander among the exhibits in the neocolonial-style former administrative building, you'll learn that Prajadhipok did not expect to become king.

However, once on the throne he showed considerable diplomacy in dealing with what was, in effect, a revolution fomented by a new intellectual class of Thais who had returned home from European educations with dreams of democracy. Prajadhipok's reign eventually ended when he abdicated while in England in 1935, just two months after the sesquicentenary of the Chakri dynasty.