The Pavilion of Enlightened is located in Ancient Siam (also known as Ancient City or Muang Boran), the world's largest open-air museum, located near the crocodile farm in Samut Prakan province, just outside Bangkok. This 320-acre "city" museum was built by Lek Viriyaphant and features 116 structures of Thailand's famous monuments and architectural attractions. The layout of Ancient Siam roughly corresponds to the shape of the kingdom, with the monuments geographically correctly placed. Some of the buildings are life-size replicas of existing or former sites, others are scaled-down models or creative designs not based on historical structures.
The Pavilion of Enlightened is one such "creative design" that is not based on a historical structure. He presents the story of 500 enlightened monks to show that people of different backgrounds, with different codes of conduct and different merits can all become enlightened and achieve Nirvana. This concept is based on Mahayana Buddhism, which holds that religious teachings and training require adapted strategies to appeal to people of different ethical and spiritual levels.