BANGSAI ARTS AND CRAFTS CENTER

Bangsai Arts and Crafts Center and Village is another tourist attraction which is located at about 60 kms from Bangkok. On an area of 285 rai (14 acres), the Bang Sai Center provides training in folk arts and craft. The Center is under the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques which was established under Royal Patronage on July 21, 1976.

Her Majesty Queen Sirikit of Thailand founded this centre to help villagers to improve the quality of their products so that they could make more money. This project expanded and in 1976 it was formally established as the Foundation for the Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques, or "SUPPORT" in short. The first project started in 1977 in the palace compound at Chitlada Palace, but because of the success she instructed the privy councillor and vice president of the SUPPORT Foundation to find a piece of land near Bang Pa-In in Ayutthaya province for a second centre. Two pieces of land were found, which were both given by His Majesty the King to the Government for land reform project. One of them was in Bangsai District which would be the location for a new training centre and on December 7, 1984 Her Majesty Queen Sirikit opened the centre with a ceremony. The main building (Sala Pra Ming Kwan) has 4 floors. On the ground floor are arts and crafts products on sale, on the 1st and 2nd floor are exhibits of masterpieces and on the 3rd floor is a conference room. The training centre consists of workshops, the Arts & Crafts Village is a blend of many traditional houses from all over Thailand, the freshwater fish aquarium (Wang-Pla) is the largest in Thailand, the Bird Park have many species of rare birds, and finally The Royal Lodge, which is a central Thai-style structure made of locally produced and easily obtainable materials, where Her Majesty the Queen and other members of the royal family stay during their visits to the centre.