The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall

This guide to The Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall in Bangkok opens before dawn on June 24, 1932, as soldiers surround the marble hall and a military officer named Phraya Phahon climbs onto a tank to read a manifesto to the assembled troops. It traces the officer's role in the People's Party, the officials held inside the building that day, and reaches back to King Chulalongkorn's 1908 decision to commission Italian architects and Carrara marble for the hall in the first place. Listen for how a building meant to project royal power became the stage for the day it was tested.