Monument of King U – thong who founded the kingdom of Ayutthaya in 1350 C.E.
Getting to Ayutthaya is very easy as you can drive your car just about 86 kilometers along highway 1 from Bangkok and then turn left onto highway 32 at Wang Noi or you can take a bus from Bangkok (Northern Bus Terminal) and it departures at 40-minute intervals from 5am-7pm everyday.
Before I arrived Ayutthaya, I thought that ancient city is located in one area like Sukhothai that I have been visiting there last two years, but it is located in different places, so it took me along time to go from places to places. At first, I decided to visit 9 ancient temples at Ayutthaya as number “9” is the lucky number of Thai people and I believe that if I visit all of nine temple, it will bring me a good luck and make me have a good life.
However, Sightseeing nine temples in a day is not possible, so I visited only 4 temples: Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Wat Mahathat, Wat Chaiwattanaram and Wat Na Phra Meru.
Wat Pra Si Sanphet which is considered as the grandest temple in the city
When I first arrived at this ancient temple I was very surprising with three big pagodas that the eastern and central chedis of the temple were built by King Rama Thibodi II in 1492 in order to enshrine the ashes of his father and elder brother. When King Thibodi II died, his ashes were enshrined in the third large chedi, which was built by his son King Boromaraja IV in 1530. It is believed that other smaller chedis house the ashes of other members of the royal family. Moreover, these are remains of the wiharn which once house a 16-meter tall Buddha image made from gold, but now there is no such beautiful golden image as the Burmese troop set fire to melt the gold, so I can not imagine that if this Buddha image still remained with gold, how beautiful it would be.
อุทยาน ประวัติศาสตร์ ชาติกรุงศรี
ทุกถิ่นที่ ล้วนมี แต่เศร้าหมอง
ศึกพม่า รามัญ มายึดครอง
เผาเรือนรอง เพื่อนพ้อง คะนองใจ
เห็นเจดีย์ สามองค์ อิฐแตกสิ้น
อกแดดิน ต้องสิ้น ถิ่นสมัย
สองพันสาม ร้อยสิบ ต้องอาลัย
เหมือนสิ้นใจ เพราะสิ้นชาติ มิอาจคลัน
Wat Mahathat means the 'Temple of the Great Relic' as many objects discovered were a relic of Lord Buddha and golden Buddha images placed inside a golden casket, but now they were housed in Bangkok’s National Museum.
The above photo shows the famous Buddha head in the tree
Wat Mahathat has the famous statue of the Buddha head in the tree and when I saw it I think the head is from a Buddha statue and over many years a large huge tree grew over it and I wonder that how old the tree and Buddha are as the temple has been lasting for hundreds of years and also wonder about what life must have been in the past when the tree started growing.
Wat Chaiwatthanaram
Wat Chaiwattanaram, one of the most imposing and beautiful ancient Buddhist monasteries, was established by the command of King Prasatthong in 1630 A.D. It was believed that King Prasatthong established the temple in order to make merit for his mother. The temple also use as the place perform religious rites and a cremation site for princes, princesses and other members of the royal family.
You will see that its architecture was similar to that of Angkor Wat since it was inferred that the temple might have been built to commemorate the king's victory over Cambodia. Therefore, this temple is my most impressive ancient temple because of its amazing architecture with 120 gilt lacquered Buddha images and it is still in relatively good condition. Its architecture reminds me to think of the most popular Khmer architecture like Angkor Wat in Cambodia and reflect me that it is glorious era during the Ayutthaya period.
Wat Na Phra Meru
Wat Na Phra Meru is the only temple that survives the destruction of the war. The temple is very beautiful and the Buddha is truly unexplainable because of its bright of gold in the dark building. When I saw this temple, I think most Ayutthaya temples were look like this temple in that time.
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