Cultural Arts Center and Buraphachan Park

Name of a venue in Songkhla's Ra Noht (ระโนด) District that organizes cultural events, promotes culture and arts, and also features a permanent exhibition on the culture and life of the region, most notably a room with a collection of model boats, and some elephant bones. The complex has an observation tower, known as ho chaleum phra kian (หอเฉลิมพระเกียรติ), a museum, an office building, and a park with a large pool, a children's play ground, tennis courts, and a swimming pool. At the main entrance is a bronze statue of Ganesha, the protector of the arts (fig.), flanked by the statues of four teachers. In Thai, it is known as suhn silpa wattanatham lae suan buraphachan (ศูนย์ศิลปะวัฒนธรรมและสวนบุรพาจารย์) also spelled soon silp wattanatham lae suan buraphajahn (ศูนย์ศิลปวัฒนธรรมและสวนบุรพาจารย์). Buraphachan, literally means the ‘first teachers’, and may in some cases refer to ones parents; it may hence be freely translated as ‘ancestors’, but it can also be translated as ‘teachers of the east’. 回.