Covering around fifty-eight hectares of formal landscaped grounds in the central Pathum Wan district of Bangkok, Lumphini Park is the principal large central public park of the modern Thai capital and one of the most heavily used single green spaces anywhere in South-East Asia. The park was opened in 1925 by King Rama VI as a major civic memorial to his recently deceased grandfather King Rama V and remains the principal central recreation space of the wider central business district. The site was originally part of the wider royal estate of the early Chakri kings and had been used for various royal ceremonial purposes through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. King Rama VI decided in around 1920 to dedicate the principal central section of the estate as a permanent public park in memory of his recently deceased grandfather, with the formal opening of the new park on 31 December 1925 marking one of the principal civic moments of the late Rama VI reign. The park takes its name from the small district of Lumphini in the Indian state of Bihar, the traditional birthplace of the historical Buddha. The naming was a deliberate echo of the close personal religious devotion of King Rama VI and reflects the wider Buddhist religious framework within which the various Thai royal public benefactions of the early twentieth century were conceived. The principal entrance gate at the corner of Rama IV and Silom Roads is decorated with several inscriptions covering the various Buddhist references. The principal individual features of the park include the large central ornamental lake of around two and a half hectares covering the centre of the property, with a small island in the middle accessible by a small ornamental bridge. The lake supports a substantial population of large Asian water monitor lizards, which can be observed swimming through the shallow water of the lake or sunbathing on the various small islands and banks. The presence of the substantial wild reptile population is one of the principal distinctive features of the park. Supplementary facilities across the wider park include the famous outdoor early morning tai chi sessions held each day from around five thirty until seven thirty, the wider outdoor exercise machine zones around the perimeter of the park, the various small running tracks of one, two and three kilometres laid out around the principal walking paths, a small Chinese cultural pavilion on the south-eastern side and the Lumpini Public Library on the western edge. The park is one of the principal early morning gathering places of the central Bangkok elderly Thai community and one of the principal afternoon destinations for families with younger children.

Type: Outdoors

Address: Rama IV Road, Bangkok, Thailand

Opening Date: 31/12/1925