Thailand Guide
The central plains
Kamphaeng Phet National Museum
Opening time: Wed– Sun 9am–4pm
Price: B30
Address: Just east of Wat Phra That, inside the Old City Historical Park
Website: www.thailandmuseum.com
Kamphaeng Phet National Museum displays the artistic and archeological heritage of Kamphaeng Phet. The exhibition on the ground floor looks at the historical development of the city, while upstairs is given over to a display of sculptures found in the locality. The prize exhibit up here is the very fine bronze standing Shiva: cast in the sixteenth century in Khmer-Ayutthayan style, the statue has had a chequered history – including decapitation by a keen nineteenth-century German admirer. Also on this floor is an unusual seventeenth- or eighteenth-century Ayutthayan-style standing Buddha in wood, whose diadem, necklace and even hems are finely carved.