Grand Palace Murals, Gardens & Mythical Creatures: A Closer Look

The Grand Palace is often experienced as a visual spectacle — which it undeniably is — but many of its most extraordinary elements are invisible without context. The 178-panel Ramakien mural gallery wrapping around the inner wall of the Wat Phra Kaew compound represents one of the most ambitious narrative art projects in Southeast Asian history. The mythological creatures distributed throughout the complex are not decorative accessories but characters from a cosmological system with precise identities and meanings. And the bonsai gardens and carefully maintained topiary of the upper terrace, which most visitors pass through without stopping, are among the oldest maintained royal gardens in Thailand.

The Ramakien Mural Gallery

What Is the Ramakien?

The Ramayana in its original Sanskrit form was composed in India around the 4th–2nd centuries BCE and tells the story of Prince Rama (an avatar of the god Vishnu), his wife Sita, and his battle to rescue her from the demon king Ravana with the help of a monkey army led by Hanuman. As the story spread across Southeast Asia through trade, religious contact, and cultural exchange, it was adopted and transformed by each culture it reached.

The Thai adaptation — the Ramakien — retains the central narrative structure but gives the characters Thai names, dress, cosmological context, and artistic treatment. Phra Ram (Rama), Nang Sida (Sita), Tosakanth (Ravana), and Hanuman (unchanged) are the principal characters. The story was compiled and codified in its current form by King Rama I, who wrote much of the text himself — and it was King Rama I who commissioned the 178-panel mural gallery at Wat Phra Kaew to illustrate the full narrative.

The Mural Gallery

The gallery runs around the full inner perimeter of the Wat Phra Kaew compound wall — a covered walkway of approximately 1,900 metres enclosing the temple compound. Each of the 178 panels is approximately 3 metres tall and 4–6 metres wide, and the panels are arranged to be read sequentially, beginning at the north gate and proceeding clockwise.

The murals were originally painted during the reign of Rama I (late 18th century) and have been periodically restored under successive kings — most comprehensively under Rama VII during the 150th anniversary of Bangkok in 1932 and under Rama IX for the 200th anniversary in 1982. The restoration work attempts to maintain the original colour palette and compositional style while replacing deteriorated sections.

How to read the murals: Begin at the north gate (the gate nearest the Royal Pantheon) and walk clockwise. The panels open with the origin story — the demon king Tosakanth’s abduction of Sida — and proceed through the assembly of the monkey armies, the construction of a bridge across the ocean, the battles between the monkey forces and Tosakanth’s demon armies, and the eventual defeat of Tosakanth and the restoration of Sida. The final panels show the joyful return of Phra Ram and Sida to their kingdom of Ayodhaya.

What to look for: Even without knowing the full narrative, the murals reward careful looking. The demon armies are depicted in extraordinary detail — ranks of armoured soldiers with elaborate helmets, weapons, and cosmological insignia. The monkey armies, led by Hanuman (depicted as white, in contrast to the other monkeys), display acrobatic energy in their battle scenes. The colour palette — deep reds, greens, and golds against white — uses Thai traditional pigments that give the murals their distinctive warm glow.

Walking the full gallery takes approximately 25–35 minutes at a comfortable pace. This is time genuinely well spent.

The Mythological Creatures

Yaksha — The Demon Guardians

The most immediately striking mythological figures at the Grand Palace are the yaksha — giant demon guardian statues positioned at the entrance gates of the Wat Phra Kaew compound. Standing over three metres tall, brilliantly coloured in reds, greens, and golds, with fierce expressions, elaborate armour, and weapons raised, the yaksha are characters from the Ramakien — specifically, they are guardians of the mythological Mount Meru and defenders of the divine order.

There are twelve yaksha figures at the Grand Palace, each with a specific name, colour, and identity. The most prominent pair, flanking the main entrance gate into the Wat Phra Kaew compound, represent Tosakanth (the demon king, depicted as green-faced) and Sukreep (a monkey king character, depicted differently). Other colour schemes — dark blue, red, white, gold — correspond to other named characters from the Ramakien narrative.

The yaksha statues are consistently the most photographed element of the Wat Phra Kaew compound exterior and are particularly engaging for children, who respond to their scale and fierce expressions.

Garuda — The Royal Symbol

The Garuda — a mythological eagle-like creature from Hindu-Buddhist cosmology, associated with Vishnu and with royal divine authority — appears repeatedly throughout the Grand Palace complex. The golden row of 112 Garuda figures that decorates the base of the Ubosot (the Emerald Buddha temple) is the most prominent display: each figure grasps a naga (serpent) in its talons, representing the eternal cosmic struggle between sky-power (Garuda) and earth-power (naga).

The Garuda is also the emblem of the Thai royal family and appears on the official seal of the Thai government. Its use throughout the Grand Palace is both decorative and deeply symbolic — the presence of Garuda motifs signifies royal sponsorship and divine protection.

Kinnaree and Kinnara — The Half-Bird Beings

The kinnaree (female) and kinnara (male) are half-human, half-bird beings from Thai Buddhist mythology — human from the waist up and bird from the waist down, inhabiting the Himapan forest of the Buddhist cosmological universe. They are associated with beauty, grace, and musical ability.

At the Grand Palace, kinnaree figures appear throughout the Wat Phra Kaew compound in a supporting and decorative role — as architectural ornaments on rooflines, as figures in the mural gallery, and as free-standing sculptures in the compound courtyards. The kinnaree is one of the most beloved figures in Thai mythological art and has become a symbol of Thai culture more broadly.

Naga — The Sacred Serpents

Naga (sacred serpents) appear throughout the Grand Palace as decorative and protective elements — lining staircase balustrades, appearing in the base decorations of temple buildings, and coiling around architectural elements across the compound. In Buddhist cosmology, the naga is associated with water, earth, and fertility, and in Thai royal tradition is also linked to the protection of sacred spaces.

The multi-headed naga balustrades at the entrance gates to the Wat Phra Kaew compound — showing three, five, or seven heads fanning outward at the top of each balustrade — are characteristic of Rattanakosin-period decorative architecture and are a distinctive visual element of the compound.

The Gardens and Topiary

The formal gardens of the Grand Palace — particularly the terrace areas around the Wat Phra Kaew upper compound and the courtyard spaces of the Middle Court — contain carefully maintained collections of bonsai trees, topiary, and ornamental planting that are easy to overlook when attention is focused on the larger architectural elements.

The bonsai collection on the upper terrace of the Wat Phra Kaew compound is among the oldest maintained royal bonsai in Thailand, with individual trees of considerable age. The trees are pruned and shaped in the traditional Thai style — more naturalistic and less architecturally severe than Japanese bonsai conventions.

The ornamental planting between the palace buildings includes mature trees that provide the only significant shade in the largely open Middle Court. These trees — frangipani, rain trees, and selected tropical species — were planted at specific points in the compound’s development and are themselves part of the historical landscape.

Tips for Experiencing the Murals and Gardens Well

Walk the mural gallery early: The covered gallery provides shade from the sun and is most comfortable in the early morning before midday heat. It is also less crowded in the first 90 minutes after the palace opens.

Read before you go: Even a brief introduction to the Ramakien narrative before your visit — who Phra Ram is, what Tosakanth wants, who Hanuman is — makes the mural panels dramatically more readable. A five-minute read the evening before transforms the gallery from a long painted wall into a comprehensible epic narrative.

Look at the details: The yaksha and the Garuda decorations reward close inspection. The Garuda at the Ubosot base are each individually modelled — look at the faces, the wing postures, the naga each is grasping. In the murals, the battle scenes contain hundreds of individual figures, each with distinct weapons, armour, and expressions.

The audio guide explains the Ramakien: The on-site audio guide rental (200 THB) includes commentary on the mural gallery’s narrative and the key mythological figures throughout the compound. See our tours and audio guides article for options.