LAK MUANG SHRINE (CITY PILLAR SHRINE)
In 1782, King Rama I was crowned as the first monarch of the Chakri dynasty. Having moved his capital from Thonburi to Bangkok, he ordered the ceremony to raise the traditional City Pillar on Sunday, April 21, 1782 at 6:45 am.
The City Pillar: Made from laburnum wood and decorated with heartwood, it is a decreed 108 inches of it are above ground and 79 inches buried in the soil. The top of the pillar is decorated in shellac and gold leaf and has a pointed tip. Inside is the birth certificate of the city.
When King Rama IV came to the throne, he saw that the Pillar was deteriorating and had it rebuilt. An expert in astrology, he improved the city's fortunes by holding a ceremony to inscribe the city's birth certificate on a gold bar of one baht in weight at the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. The shrine was rebuilt as the top of a prang, as at a pavilion in Ayutthaya, and great festivities were arranged when the city's birth certificate was placed in the City Pillar.
Inside the shrine are the three original gods: Phra Seua Muang, Phra Song Muang and Phra Lak Muang. When Thailand weathered a crisis, King Rama V ordered the building of Phra Siam Devathiraj as another god guarding the city.
Maho
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Police emergency: 191 
