The Ancient Artillery Museum consists of a collection of ancient military cannons in the front garden of Thailand's Ministry of Defence in Bangkok. This government department, known in Thai as Krasuang Kalaahome (กระทรวงกลาโหม), is in charge of defending the kingdom, i.e. maintaining its national security and territorial integrity. In order to do so, it supervises the operations and administration of the military establishment and coordinated military policies, with those of other governmental agencies concerned with national security. It thus oversees and controls the Royal Thai Armed Forces, which are made up of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force, and as such its official emblem and flag is made up of the combination of these three branches. Officially, the King is the Supreme Commander of the Thai Armed Forces, but it is the Minister of Defence who takes charges of its daily running. Initially, Samuha Kalaahome (สมุหกลาโหม) was the department in charge of territorial defence during the Ayutthaya (อยุธยา) Period, i.e. since its formation until the reign of Somdet Phra Phetracha (สมเด็จพระเพทราชา), who ruled between 1688 and 1703 AD, when it was reorganized and charged with the protection of the Southern border, to defend the kingdom from foreign occupation and fight off rebellions with vassals in the South. On 8 April 1887, a major administrative reform took place to modernize the Thai Military, when King Chulalongkorn (จุฬาลงกรณ์) enacted a decree to create a permanent military command and merged the Army with the Navy, to form a War and Marine Department, which was later renamed the Ministry of Defence. Today, it is housed in a European-style building, opposite of Wat Phra Kaew (วัดพระแก้ว), at the location of a former Army rice mill, as well as the former stables of the Army's horses and elephants. It was then known as rohng thahaan nah (โรงทหารหน้า), i.e. the ‘front barracks’, yet it was initially built by King Rama I as a palace for his sons and referred to as Wang Thanon Lak Meuang (วังถนนหลักเมือง), i.e. ‘Palace [at the] Road [of the] City Pillar’, due to its location adjacent to sahn lak meuang (ศาลหลักเมือง), which houses the capital's City Pillar. Later, in the reign of King Rama III, the building was used as a royal silk weaving factory, which in Thai is called rohng mai (โรงไหม) and stands a the origin of the name of a street in this area called Trok Rohng Mai (ตรอกโรงไหม), i.e. ‘Silk Factory Lane’. The factory was commissioned to weave material for royal attire and pah sompak, a brocade-like material, until King Rama V had it made into army barracks used as the accommodation for the soldiers who guarded the capital city, as well as an army garage and stable, and a warehouse for various army provisions, including arms. Final construction into its present form took place between 1881 and 1884 AD and was overseen by Chao Phraya (เจ้าพระยา) Surasak Montri (สุรศักดิ์มนตรี), and completed at a cost of 570,000 Thai baht. In the garden in front of the building are today several ancient cannons on display, including the infamous ‘Phaya Thani’ (พญาตานี), a large cannon with a length of 3 wah (วา), i.e 6 meters, that was confiscated by royal troops after the 1785 rebellion of Pattani (ปัตตานี) against Rattanakosin (รัตนโกสินทร์) and offered to the king (Rama I). The garden also features a large bronze statue of a Kodchasih (คชสีห์), a fabulous animal from the mythical Himaphan (หิมพาน) forest, similar to a lion but with a trunk and tusks like an elephant, and this Ministry's symbol and logo. The expenditures of the Ministry of Defence are among the greatest of any ministry, absorbing a large proportion of the total national budget.
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