Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 04/06/2026 17:38:00

Standing twenty-one and a half metres tall on the small Phra Lan square in front of Wat Suthat in the historic Phra Nakhon district of central Bangkok, the Giant Swing is one of the most distinctive surviving traditional Thai religious monuments anywhere in the central capital. The structure consists of two great teak posts connected by an elaborately carved horizontal lintel and originally supported a swinging platform used during the annual Triyampavai-Tripavai festival. The original Giant Swing was constructed in 1784 by King Rama I as part of the wider foundation of the new Thai capital at Bangkok following the destruction of the older Ayutthaya capital by the Burmese in 1767. The swing was constructed within the wider religious complex around the new Wat Suthat temple and provided the principal venue for the annual Brahmin religious festival that had been transferred from the older Ayutthaya capital alongside the various other royal ceremonial traditions. The original festival ceremony was performed each year in December as the principal celebration of the Hindu god Shiva. The ceremony involved four young men climbing onto a large wooden platform suspended from the lintel of the swing and being pushed by a team of helpers to swing upward in an attempt to grab a small bag of silver coins suspended from the end of a tall bamboo pole positioned at the side of the swing. The ceremony was a substantial test of strength and balance and provided one of the most spectacular individual public ceremonies of the traditional Thai royal calendar. The original festival ceremony was permanently abolished in 1935 following a series of fatal accidents during the previous decades, with several young swingers killed by falls from the platform during the ceremonial swinging. The swing itself was retained as a static religious monument and has been preserved continuously since the abolition of the active ceremony as a symbolic reminder of the original royal Brahmin ritual tradition. The structure has been completely rebuilt several times since the original 1784 construction. The most recent comprehensive rebuilding was completed in 2007 using newly carved teak from approved sustainable Thai forestry sources, with the original carved decorative elements carefully copied from the previous version. The structure stands within a small public square directly in front of the main entrance to Wat Suthat and is one of the principal landmark monuments of the historic central Phra Nakhon district. The illumination programme installed in 2007 makes the structure one of the most distinctive nighttime landmarks of the surrounding historic district.