Ethnographic Arms & Armour - I hope you don't mine...pics of palaces

Ethnographic Arms & Armour (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/index.php)

- Ethnographic Weapons (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=2)

- - I hope you don't mine...pics of palaces (http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1780)

I hope you don't mine...pics of palaces

You are very enthusiastic about all things Thai. Here is a sugestion to place your wonderful photos rather: http://www.trekearth.com/. I am a member myself. Give it a second thought when you post this many pictures without any direct link to arms and armour in the forum. Maybe you should open a Dha related thread or krabi-krabong for example, you would likely get a lot more feedback and let me tell you, there are plenty of aficionados and lots to learn, just call upon them Dha lovers and youll be impressed how much virtual ink will spill. And then you will learn about the neighbours also, like Burma, for example in a whole new light...

I think the mythical beast is one of the monkey warriors, e.g. Sugriva, Anggada, etc, from Rama-kien (Thai version of Ramayana).

Quote:

Originally Posted by BluErf

I think the mythical beast is one of the monkey warriors, e.g. Sugriva, Anggada, etc, from Rama-kien (Thai version of Ramayana).

I think you are correct on this Kai Wee.
Radu, i personally see nothing wrong with this post and the pictures. Frankly i think we sopend far too much time trying to discuss weapons in a cultural vacuum. Let's see more pictures of the places and other cultural artifacts from those places where so many of the weapons we discuss come from. It can only add to a greater understanding of the weapons themselves. :)

I like the European medieval castles also. It seems that they were great builders using large blocks of stone to make castle walls. The Romans make note of this when Caeser was on the campaign to conquer Gaul. Although, I know how the medieval castles compared to the earlier Celtic defensive wall. The Romans were very ingeneous themselves when it comes to building fortification or any structures, that proved to be very useful. They had a secret building material...a type of cement, closely resemble what we have today, and they were very strong. As strong as anything stone. I heard it was made from some type of volcanic rock mixed with some other chemicals and rocks. This allowed them to build stone sea port with the base directly under water. And they make alot megastructures from it, also. But the Siamese, I think, made the moat much deeper and wider it would have been much more difficult to siege, probably impossible with the European-medieval-style-castles! In a Ayutthaya, the width of the moat once span probably something like the length of two football stadiums. The Chinese had something like this also...I don't know who copy who. If you look at the picture of the imperial palace in Bejing, I think, it is very impressive! The Siamese did this on purpose because, not only were they great defensive barrier, but also large European and Arab merchant ships could sail upward from the mouth of the Jao Phraya River and docked at the Aytthaya's ports. This was a huge Island with the population of about 1 million in the middle of the mainland. Can you imagine how it must have looked back in those day?

Another interesting fortress are the ones in the Middle East. Those look very elaborate in designs and well built. It would seem to be a difficult place to storm and take the city. Very impressive!