Giant Swing (Sao Chingcha)

Why go

The Fine Arts Department says the Giant Swing was built for the Triyampawai rite of the second lunar month, a Brahmin new-year ceremony, in which swingers re-enacted a story of the creation of the world. It says the swinging was a yearly festival of the capital until the change of government from absolute monarchy in King Prajadhipok's reign, after which the ceremony was eventually discontinued. The Department says the swing was registered as a historic site in the Royal Gazette on 22 November 1949 for its importance as the centre of the capital since Bangkok's founding. Its national-museum storage page records that the swing completed in 1920, whose poles were replaced in 1970, was dismantled in 2005 and that its parts have been kept in the central storage of the national museums since 15 November 2007; another Department page refers to a 2006 restoration of the swing. This record is the structure, not the Sao Chingcha subdistrict or the surrounding neighbourhood.