The Magnificent Temples of Ayutthaya

The ancient city of Ayutthaya in Thailand carries the legacy of Ayodhaya (India), the kingdom of Lord Rama, the hero of the Hindu epic Ramayana. Ayutthaya is known for some of the most beautiful and evocative Buddhist temples in the world.

Ramayana in Thailand

Hindu epic Ramayana had a profound impact in East Asia, from Myanmar and Thailand to Indonesia and Vietnam. Even in China, the stories of Sun Wukong seem to be inspired by Hanuman in Ramayana.

The two Indic religions, Hinduism and Buddhism, travelled from India to ancient Siam (Thailand). The influence of Hinduism was earlier, leading to the popularity of Ramayana. Thus the kings of Siam took the name of Lord Rama, considered to be an Avatar of God Vishnu. Rama's kingdom was in Ayodhaya and thus, the capital of Siam kings was also named Ayotthaya.

Thailand shows the combined influence of Buddhism and Hinduism, where the two Indic religions have blurred boundaries. Many traces of this ancient Hindu influence are visible in the Buddhist temples of Ayotthaya today, like the statue of the God Ganesha at a small shrine in the Wat Phra Si Sanphet temple below.

Apart from the names of the capital city and the king, many traces of Ramayana continue to be strong, including the representation of Ramakien (Ramayana) in the different art forms of Thailand. The image below shows the statue of Garuda, another character from Ramayana, from the Wat Ratchaburana temple in Ayutthaya.

Brief History of Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya, located in the valley of the river Chao Pharaya, was the old capital of Siam (Thailand) till about 150 years ago. The city was founded in 14th century on a river island. The Autthaya kingdom had different wars with the Burmese kingdom. After one such war in the 18th century, the city was destroyed.

Visiting Ayutthaya

I was in Thailand for work and had only a few hours free to be a tourist. I decided to visit Ayutthaya, even if I knew that I will have little time to visit it properly.

I took an early morning mini-bus from the North Bus Stand in Bangkok and the journey took around an hour and a half. I only had about 2 hours for my sight-seeing in Ayutthaya. I decided to focus on visiting a few Buddhist temples in the area along the Muang river as it goes and joins Chao Pharaya river.

I had got down from the mini-bus near Chao Phrom market. There were elephant-tours to visit the city but I didn't have the time for a leisurely elephant tour. So, from the market I walked to the Uthong road, near the Muang river, where I rented a bicycle.

With a map of the old town in my hand, I started on my bicycle towards Wat Maha That temple. "Wat" means a Buddhist temple. Wat architecture includes spires (Prangs), Stupas (Chedi) containing sacred relics, and statues of Buddha and Bodhisattvas.

Suddenly on the right side of the road, I saw the ruins of an old Wat, which was not shown on the tourist map. It had a tall chedi and the broken head of big Buddha statue in front of it. I thought that it was very beautiful.

Wat Maha That

Wat Maha That is located to the east of the Grand Palace. At one time it was the royal temple. Buddha relics were enshrined in the main Chedi of this temple. The supreme patriarch of the Buddhist monks resided in this temple.

Its construction was started in the 14th century during the reign of king Phra Borommarachatthirat I but was completed 20 years later during the reign of Uthong king Ramesuan. Its main Pagoda had collapsed in early 17th century and was rebuilt some years later by king Prasat Thong.

The monastery and the temple were destroyed by the Burmese in the 18th century. Thus, almost all the Buddha and Bodhisattvas statues at Maha That temple are headless and broken in different parts.

Wat Thammikarat

After Maha That temple, I went towards Wat Thammikarat. This temple area includes different buildings, old ruins as well as, a working temple. Some parts of this temple pre-date the establishment of Ayutthaya city, when it was known as Wat Mukaraj.

One of the first buildings of this complex is a bell-shaped Chedi with an octagonal base. It has a row of 52 royal Singhas (lions) all around it.

Opposite the Chedi are the ruins of a Viharan (hall) called "Harn Song Dhamma" used by the monks for prayers. It has a Buddha statue and a shrine for prayers.

A distinct mark of this Viharan are statues of roosters, brought as offerings by the faithful. There is a legend of a cock-fight competition between a Burmese and a Thai prince associated with this Viharan. It seemed to be a very popular religious place for the Thai people, though I could not find someone who could speak English to explain its significance to me.

Finally behind the ruins is the still active Buddhist temple Wat Dhammikaraj which includes the golden statue of a monk. On one side of the Chedi, I saw a shrine with a blue coloured Buddha covered with yellow wrap, I thought that it was beautiful.

Wat Phra Si Sanphet

This was the most important temple of ayutthaya before its destruction in the 18th century by the Burmese. However, it did not start as a temple, rather it started as the first royal palace when Ayutthaya had become the capital in 1351. After about a hundred years, the royal palace was shifted to another building and this place was converted into a temple.

It was a royal temple and no monks lived here.

A 16 metres high Buddha statue covered with gold was installed in the Viharan of Wat Phra Si Sanphet in 1499. Most of the temple, except for some bell-shaped Chedis, was destroyed by the Burmese in the 18th century. Just across from Si Sanphet ruins, a new building hosts a new giant statue of Buddha today.

Conclusions

My visit to Ayutthaya was very brief. I could visit only a small part of the temple-ruins present in this beautiful town. The ruins of broken Buddha and Boddhisattva statues had a strong emotional impact on me.

The Burmese were also Buddhist, so why did they destroy the Buddhist temples of Ayutthaya? I don't know the answer to this question. Perhaps it was just for looting and not because they did not like the Thai religious ideas.

I wish one day to return to Ayutthaya and spend a few days there, going around the town, and soaking in its atmosphere of beauty coupled with destruction and timelessness.

If you like old ruins of Buddhist temples, visit Ayutthaya, it has wonderful atmosphere and the old ruins of the temples declared as world heritage by UNESCO are unforgettable.

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Bangkok visit - An Eskimo in the desert

I was on my way back from south China and I had a 24 hours stop-over in Bangkok. Tussnai, from Bangkok, who had done her thesis with me more than ten years ago, helped me to find an apartment for my stay and it was one of the nicest place that I had ever stayed at! A penthouse apartment on 29th floor, with Scandinavian furniture, clean linear layout, a huge plasma TV on the wall, a lovely music system and a balcony that jutted out over the skyscrapers, trafic jams and malls, all for 45 Euro a night.

The people in Bangkok are so courteous, from the taxi driver to the person at the tourist desk. So I had collected maps and list of places to see during my brief stay, and then spent hours planning my itinerary for the morning. The only thing I had not counted was the hot humidity of Bangkok. And I was dressed for winter. In Italy when I had left, it was already quite cold. In south China, I had been travelling in the mountains 2,500 to 3000 meters high, so it was nice and cool. Thus, all the clothes in my suitcase were winter clothes.

Bangkok was hot and humid. By the time I reached the Diamond Budha temple I was sweating profusely. And after about two hours I finally gave up, completely exhausted by my ankle high winter shoes, full sleeved thick shirt and caudroy pants. I felt like an Eskimo in a desert. So all my tourist visit plans were forgotten and I spent the afternoon enjoying films in that beautiful apartment. Still I did manage to click some nice pictures in those morning two-three hours. Here is a sample:

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Note: This post was originally written in 2007

Bangkok Diary - Part 3

(A post from 2009, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

It is already two weeks since I came back from Thailand and I have yet to finish my Bangkok diary. The last few weeks have been full of travels. First in India, then in Thailand, the to London in UK and finally to Brindisi in south of Italy. So I have loads of pictures from these journeys but there is no time for writing blogs!

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I saw the canal next to our hotel straight away and while I was standing on the bridge near Mahanak market, I saw the boats also. But I had not realized that these boats are like vaporetto in Venice, cheap public transport (though in Venice they are no longer cheap).

They have blue plastic sheets around the edge of the boat so while it goes in the water, they pull those sheets up to protect the passengers from the water-spray and thus I didn't see the people inside those boats till I actually walked along the canal.

With gestures, I asked about the final destination of the boats but I couldn't understand. However, I could understand that the ride costed only 10 Baht, about 12 Rupees. So I decided to try going towards the river.

However I was disappointed that the boat terminated at the next stop, close to Wat Sraket or the golden mount. As I came out of the boat station, I was amazed to find myself exactly on the same place where I had lost my way during my last trip to Bangkok in November 2007.

So this time I could give names to the two lovely temples at the huge crossing between Lan Luang, Nakhon Sawan road, Ratchadamnoen Nok road and Klang road. The temples of Wat Ratchanaddaram and Wat Thepthidaram.

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Next to Wat Thepthidaram there are numerous shops where they sell the different god statues from mainly from Buddhism and Hinduism.

Covered with transparent plastic sheets, I felt as if the gods were being suffocated, unable to breathe.

The black statues of the Gurus on sale on the pavement also made me think. Once they are placed in the temple, you are supposed to take off your shoes and pray in front of them. Yet, unsold, they are nothing, they wait on the pavements as people hurry around, uncaring about their saintliness.

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The colourful mannequins in the market do not have Thai faces, they look more like Europeans, except that they have colourful hair and they have expressions. Some of them are laughing, a few are sad, looking like persons turned into stone.

Nude handless mannquins, covered with transparent plastic sheets where like dead corpses, their mouths stretched in death grins, were infinately sad.

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I loved the boat journey on the canals. The boats are so cheap and fast. Yet they don't do publicity about them like they do for the more modern sky train and metro rail systems.

Only problem with these boats is the agily required to get in and out of them. If you are elderly or have stiff joints, like I discovered that I had, raising up the legs to get in, hanging on to the rope support, etc., it may be more dignified to ask for a taxi!

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This post was originally written in 2009

Bangkok Diary - Part 2

(A post from 2009, edited & corrected in 2013)

 

Thai people are always so gentle and smiling. I don't remember any encounter with a person who talked to me with anger or irritation.

However, I did meet a crazy taxi driver. He had a picture of himself with his son on his dashbaord and a small golden Buddha statue. He drove like a maniac on the run. On the highway, he wove in and out of the traffic, overtaking from right and left, and when required passing on the emergency lane while I was holding on to the seat with a thumping heart and praying silently. In between he had long and vivacious telephone conversation so that he missed the turnings and then backed straight into the traffic, uncaring of braking cars all around. He whistled at all the women, made some easy-to-understand gestures to explain what he would like to do with them and when some of them looked back at him with disgust, he broke into loud laughter.

Every now and then, after such an encounter, he would turn back to look at me and wink. Dumb sod, driven by testostrone with his brain in his dick, I repeated to myself while smiling back at him. How do you deal with such macho types? They give me an inferiority complex even while I tell myself that such excessive machoness must be a sign of some deep sense of inadequacy.

"How long are you going to take? Should I wait for you?", he asked when we reached our destination, while I mopped my brows. No more taxi for me today, I told him, I will take the sky train for going back.

Another picture that remains in my mind is that of groups of men intent on their billiard tables in narrow market streets.

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Temperatures were not so high but the humidity was bad and it brought back memories of Chenai, when it was still Madras. Fortunately all the meetings were in air-conditioned buildings and all the taxis were also air-conditioned. So the trick was to work during the day and go out only early morning or in evening, when cool breeze was so pleasant. Even local Bangkokites (BTW, how do you call Bangkok inhabitants? Bangkokies? Bangkokinese? Bangites?) shared this view since in the afternoon, every one seemed to prefer lazy siestas.

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I loved the dresses of the Thai air-hostesses. They must be the best dressed airlines crew of the world. Their purples, magentas, and occasional yellows, blacks and grey coloured traditional dresses in silk make them seem like statues from some ancient temples. In fact, I think that if I have choose colours for Thailand, I would choose purple and magenta like in the lotus flowers in a temple below.

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Bangkok is rich in temples and religious symbols. The Buddhist monks fascinate me with their orange robes and they didn't seem to mind when I stopped to click their pictures.

Thai people have a special relationship towards their King, that was so strange to me. It reminded me of the kind of faith people in an Indian village can have for religious figures like Ram or Hanuman, full of reverence and awe. Like this statue of the king, where one person came to me to ask me to pray before taking its picture.

Other statues, in spite of obvious differences in facial traits, provoke old memories like this statue in an old Buddist temple in Mahanak that made me think of "chalat musafir moh liya re pinjre wali muniya" from Teesri Kasam.

I was fascinated by the Buddha statues in different postures. At one level I find it a little strange that statues of Gautam Buddh who left his palace to become a bhikshuk and preached about non-attachment are almost always of gold. Though as a child I used to go often to the Buddh temple in Birla Mandir in Delhi, I knew about the basic story of Gautam Buddh and had even been to Lumbini, my knowledge about his teachings was relatively limited.

Bangkok visit stimulated me to buy and read Pankaj Mishra's book, An End to Suffering - The Buddha In The World (Picador India, 2004). If you have not read it and you are interested in Buddha and Buddhism, I recommend this book. It is an immensly readable mix of auto-biography, anecdotes and reflections about Gautam Buddha's life and teachings.

Along with Buddhism, Thailand also has signs of Hinduism. Brahmin priests are part of Kings religious ceremonies. Like the Garuda statue on royal buildings that carry the queen's name.

I was also struck by the statues in black stone of some kind of priests or gurus. Perhaps looking at all the gold coloured statues was responsible for this effect, but when I saw them against the backdrop of colourful frescoes, I thought that they looked striking.

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The giant swing, Sao Ching Chaa, was used for some kind of ritualistic event in the past. However, many persons involved in the ritual who were supposed to swing on it lost their lives and the ritual was stopped in the last century. There has been some idea of restarting the ritual as part of the tourist attraction events. Now in the middle of a traffic island, it looks like an awkward giant left there from an alien ship.

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This post was originally written in 2009