Banagkok ois looking to burnish its credentials as Southeast Asia’s main culture hub with an inaugural Asean Expo this week that also celebrates the anniversary of the capital’s founding.

The event – formally called “The 234th Year of Rattanakosin City under Royal Benevolence” – takes place at Sanam Luang, the royal grounds, from Wednesday through Saturday.

“Bangkok is one of the world’s important metropolises and has long history and rich culture,” says Culture Minister Veera Rojpojanarat. “As the only country in Southeast Asia never colonised by Western powers, Thailand has been able to preserve its arts and cultural heritage even as it offers its contemporary arts to the world.”

Culture and Sport and Tourism ministries are helping the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration expand the city’s customary birthday celebrations with a regional showcase of art, history, film, fashion and cuisine.

Displays and performances are also lined up in the nearby National Theatre, National Museum, Museum Siam and the Asean Central Centre on Rachadamnoen Klang Avenue.

Among the exposition’s nine themes, visitors will be able to revisit the epic artistry of the Ramayana in a five-day Asean Plus Ramayana festival at the National Theatre, featuring more than 200 performers from around the region and also India, its country of origin.

Urusaya lntrasuksri of the Culture Ministry points out that India and much of Southeast Asia share a common heritage, and the aim of the festival is to highlight both the similarities and differences in the way the various countries present the beloved story onstage. A thrilling adventure filled with parables of virtue, the Ramayana (known in Thailand as the Ramakien) has been endlessly retold orally, as theatre, in films and in literature – even in comic books.

Ten young Thai designers put textiles from across Asia to ingenious use in the exhibition “Asean Legacy to Contemporary Fashion”, which also looks at how unique fabrics have developed around Southeast Asia.

A fashion show on Wednesday evening will Thee Tanatkritsakorn’s cocktail dress made from a traditional Malay fabric called “socket” and Laksana Chantaropasakorn’s layered mini-dress in Myanmar’s colourful acheik-luntaya silk.

Kanitsorn Urairat will show a shouder-less mini-dress rendered from a Filipino textile that originates in pineapple husks. Panupong Intamon and Thasachai Utta both contrived cocktail dresses, the former uses Singaporean patah and the latter a fabric from Brunei.

“Asean Arts and Crafts” will have all sorts of handmade marvels on sale as well as artisans demonstrating their talents. Thailand’s Fine Arts Department will have a traditional goldsmith and a maker of khon masks at work.

In “Asean Wonders” you can view miniature replicas of such landmarks as the Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon.

And “Asean Kitchen: A Taste of Asean” will be serving Indonesian tumpeng, ambuyat from Brunei, Burmese lahpet and the famed Thai treat tomyam kung.

“The Roots of Asean’s Culture” in the Maha Surasinghanat Building at the National Museum will have hundreds of Khmer Buddha statues and art from Java, and scholars will discuss “Common Identity in Asean Literature” on Wednesday and Thursday at the Banditpatanasilpa Institute near the National Theatre.

Southeast Asia on film

In conjunction with the Asean Expo, the Culture Ministry and SF cinemas are hosting the second Bangkok Asean Film Festival, with recent titles and three classics screening from Friday through April 28 at CentralWorld.

The festival opener, an invite-only affair on Thursday, is “Distance”, a joint Thai-Chinese-Singaporean production, about how people living in far-flung places can relate – and not relate. Produced by Singaporean Anthony Chen, it features turns by Sivaroj Kongsakul of Thailand, Tan Shijie from Singapore and Xin Yukun from China, who each direct Taiwanese actor Bolin Chen in different stories.

Other films include “A Copy of My Mind” from Indonesia, which vied for top honours at the 2015 Venice Film Festival and was shown in Toronto and Busan. Others are the award-winning Thai documentary “The Songs of Rice” by Uruphong Raksasad, ” 3.50″ from Cambodia, “City of Jade” from Myanmar, “Taklub” from the Philippines, “3688” from Singapore, “Bitcoins Heist” from Vietnam and “Day and Night” from Malaysia.

The classics to be screened with Thai and English subtitles are “After the Curfew” (1954) from Indonesia, “Manila in the Claws of Light” (1975) from the Philippines and “The Snake Man” (1970) from Cambodia.

After Bangkok, the Asean Film Festival shifts to Khon Kaen from April 28 to May 4, Surat Thani from May 6 to 12 and Chiang Mai from May 13 to 19.

For the schedule, check http://www.SFCinemaCity.com.

GETTING ALONG FINE

– The official opening of “The 234th Year of Rattanakosin City under Royal Benevolence” is at 6.30pm on Wednesday at Sanam Luang.

– The next morning at 6.30, food will be distributed among 235 monks assembled on the royal ground, followed by a ceremony honouring the kings of the Rattanakosin Era.

– Asean Plus Ramayana performances will be at Sanam Luang, the National Theatre, the Asean Cultural Centre and Museum Siam from Wednesday through Saturday.

– The schedule is at http://www.ThaiWHIC.go.th/en/EventsDetail.aspx?pid=12. Seats can be booked at (02) 224 1342.