Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles

The Queen Sirikit Museum of Textiles occupies the Ratsadakorn-bhibhathana Building inside the Grand Palace grounds — a building erected in 1873 under King Chulalongkorn for Siam’s customs and treasury administration, later handed over in 2003 for use as a museum. Entry is 150 THB for adults, but if you already hold a Grand Palace ticket the museum is included — just show it at the door. It is open daily 9:00am-4:30pm, last admission 3:30pm, on the same schedule as the palace around it.

The museum documents Queen Sirikit’s decades-long promotion of Thai textile craft, a role that began when she started commissioning French and Thai couturiers to remake traditional village weaving into formal wear she then wore on state visits abroad — turning a domestic craft into an internationally recognised export. In 1976 she founded the SUPPORT Foundation (Promotion of Supplementary Occupations and Related Techniques), which trained rural artisans, particularly women, in weaving, basketry, and other crafts as a source of income alongside farming; it has since grown into a national network across roughly 50 provinces. The museum’s rotating exhibitions draw on her personal wardrobe and the wider SUPPORT collection to trace that history, including a major 2022 show, “Decades of Style,” built around pieces from her own closet for her 90th birthday.

Galleries are air-conditioned and well-lit, a contrast to the open-air heat of the rest of the palace complex — a natural pause point partway through a Grand Palace visit rather than a separate trip. Signage runs in Thai and English, and the collection rewards a slower pace: garment construction, embroidery techniques, and the specific weaving regions each textile came from are all labelled in detail.

Watch out: Queen Sirikit, the Queen Mother, passed away on 24 October 2025, and her remains lie in state nearby at the Dusit Maha Prasat Throne Hall through a year-long mourning period into late 2026. The Grand Palace and museum remain open on their usual hours, but expect heavier-than-normal crowds from Thai visitors paying their respects, particularly on weekends.

Insider Tip: Buy the Grand Palace ticket first — it is cheaper overall than paying for the two attractions separately, and the museum makes a good air-conditioned break roughly halfway through the palace circuit rather than an add-on at the very end when everyone is tired.

Same dress code as the Grand Palace applies: covered shoulders and knees, no sandals. Photography is generally permitted in the main galleries but restricted in some temporary exhibition rooms — check the signage at each entrance.

Getting There

The museum sits inside the Grand Palace complex on Na Phralan Road in Bangkok’s Phra Nakhon district. Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, is a short walk away within the same palace grounds and is typically visited on the same trip. View on Google Maps.