Finding the Truth of nature at the Rare Stone Museum

There are many places in Bangkok that can provide great tools to encourage children to learn. However, with the constant day-to-day introduction of new technology like online internet games and the convenience of mass media like television, many of those enriching places are overlooked. One day I had a chance to walk around Charoen  Krung Road and I found a place that absolutely fascinated me. As soon as I saw the sign I didn’t hesitate to step inside right away. It is the Rare Stone Museum, where strange and rare stones are collected.

The museum is divided into three stories. The first floor is the place where more than 2,000 pieces of outlandish rocks are displayed. Some stones look like animals, tools, or paintings and some even look like miniature natural landscapes. Amazingly, all of these creations came purely from nature. The museum owner has given a name to each stone according to its outstanding characteristics and appearance. For instance, one covered with tiny bar-shaped crystals is called the “Long White Hair Stone.”

Apart from all the strange and wonderful rocks, there are fossils exhibited on this floor too. The highlights are a crocodile head fossil, an ammonite fossil, and a dinosaur egg.

Going up to the second floor, you can see more unusual stones that didn’t fit on the first floor. There is also a display of foot massage stones, which vistors can use to massage their tired feet.

The museum’s owner, Banyong Lertnimitr, told me about his inspiration for opening this museum to the public. He had collected stones for a long time and owned a lot of bizarre and unique ones, so he got the idea of opening the museum to provide a useful place for kids and adults to study about geology and enjoy the stones. He claimed that the ultimate goal of setting up this museum was not for his own profit but to share his collection with following generations.

Visiting the Rare Stone Museum, apart from entertaining and educating myself, I  found out the truth of life-that stones take hundreds of million years to build up their precious values. On the other hand, the life of a human being is so short, what makes us precious and valuable is not time, but the goodness that we have accumulated while we are alive.