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Historic photos of the Giant Swing
Giant Swing main page
The local papers beat us to publishing photos of the recreation
of the Giant Swing ritual. A smaller swing (about one-third the
size of the old one) has been constructed and several times over
Songkran, the swinging ceremony will be reenacted. This has been
shown on TV several times.
(For whatever reasons, it seems the actual
schedule of events for the 222th Bangkok anniversary is not easily
available. TAT, BMA, and the English-language papers have a generalized
version without specific times for individual events--only showing
the six different zones where activities take place. Neither BMA
nor TAT would give us a schedule or admit one was available. Finally
a sympathetic person faxed us one in both English and Thai.
This is the only way to see that the recreation
of the giant swing ceremony is occurring on April 7, 9 and 11
from 17:15-17:45.)
Here is a vintage photo of the actual Giant Swing ceremony. The
pole on the right has coins for the swinging monks to reach out
and grab. A boy is underneath pulling on a rope to move the swing.
There is also a support wire for the trams crossing through the
photo near the top.
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(Photo: National Archives)
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