In July 2021, during construction of a road to connect Manee Nopparat Gate with Sawadi Sopha Gate behind the east walls of the Grand palace, a cache of buried sculptures were unearthed. Subsequent archeological excavations revealed that the male and female sculptures in attires of various nationalities as well as mythical animals of stone and marble had a provenance from Guandong in China as attested by Chinese characters chiseled into the bases of quite a few sculptures.
Photographs in books printed during the reign of Rama V and later kings showed that the sculptures were placed in the courtyards of the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. His Majesty Rama X, the present reign, graciously ordered that after repairs and conservation the sculptures be placed in near proximity to their original placements.
Joachim K. Bautze ,
Unseen Siam Early Photography 1860 – 1910,
River Books, 2016. p 142.
