with the Democracy Monument at its centre. Its new social function
as the mnemonic site for the ‘October generation’ resurfaced in
May 1992, when people again took to the streets and engaged in
an equally dramatic and eventually victorious confrontation with
the generals in power. On the thirtieth anniversary of the October
1973 events, Bangkok’s most recent monument, officially named
‘Memorial to the Martyrs of October 14’, was unveiled a short distance
from the Democracy Monument. The memorial is formed by
a sunken area for temporary exhibitions, from which rises into the
open air a chedi-like conical shaft capped by a ‘torch of democracy’;
at street level a roofed gallery is delimited by a curved wall on which
are pasted giant photographs of the October demonstrations and
placards narrating the events.