The Erawan Museum is well known for its giant three-headed elephant art sculpture as exterior. This is the first and biggest hand-carved sculpture in the world. It is considered an important tourist attraction as well as a holy shrine for many believers.
Erawan Museum started construction 1994 and has opened for the public since 2003. The building including the elephant sculpture is 43.6 meters in heights (equivalent of 14 stories building). The width of the elephant is 12 meters and length 39 meters. The weight of the elephant's body is 150 tons, and the elephant's head weights 100 tons. The outer layer of the elephant is lined with copper, the copper sheet 1.2 millimeters thick in various sizes from 4x8 feet to the smallest size that is a size of the palm. Every single copper sheet totaling in a hundred
thousands sheets were slowly plated on with care and craftsmanship.
Erawan has the meaning of water, clouds, and rainbow. It is the sacred name of a white elephant with 33 heads. The traditional tale has it that Erawan is the vehicle of Indra, a Hindu highest god. Erawan can travel freely in the realm of the Earth and Heaven. Erawan went with Indra to take care of human and their well-being. Indra's enemy is the god of thunder, who creates draught in the realm of the Earth, so Erawan uses its trunk to deliver water from heaven to Earth.
The interior of the museum is divided into three main floors according to the Hindu representation of the universe, which consists of Underworld, Earth, and Heaven. The two lower floors are located inside of the sculpture’s pedestal while the top floor is located in the belly of the elephant.
Suvarnabhumi
The first floor represents the underworld and contains precious artefacts from the founder, Lek Viriyaphant's personal collection. These include collections of tea sets, vases, and bowls, from the Ming Dynasty and Qing Dynasty. The underworld level also hosts the sculpture of the mythical being, a half Naga-half person, which was modeled after the belief that these beings guarded the precious treasures under the water.
Earth
The second floor representing the earth or the human world, this level houses three major types of art pieces and precious antiques and arts including Thai ceramics, stained glass, and European potteries.
Cosmos
The top floor represents the heaven, which is located on top of Mount Meru in Buddhist cosmology. Here there is a vast display of Buddha's relics and ancient Buddha statues from several eras. The walls are decorated with paintings depicting the universe by a German master. Other than this, Thai believers flock here to pay respect to the god Indra and the three-headed elephant god. They pay their respect by floating lotus flower on water, through a practice named Pu-ra-na-ka-ta. This will helps protect the believers from harm and allow them to have a fulfilling life.
