Sukhothai, 3/10/2019

This time I decided to look outside the Historical Park and walked along the road towards to New Sukhothai. The further I walked the hotter it got so by the time I got to the furtherest point I was covered in sweat, so much so that later when I sat down to have some lunch the swear kept coming out for a while after I sat down, despite the restaurant air-conditioning.

Stop 1 Wat Traphang Thong - วัดตระพังทอง, is located on a man made island in the middle of a baray across the road and a short distance from my guesthouse. It is the only active monastery and temple within the city walls; modern buildings, well 1917 is still modern when measured against the age of the city, combine with the ruins dotted around the grounds. The complex was originally constructed around the same time as the foundation of the city in the 14th century to house a “Buddha footprint”. The name translates to Temple of the Golden Lake. Across the baray to the east is a permanent market which seemed to belong to the temple. See Asian Historical Architecture

Stop 2 Remnants of the old Sukhothai City earth ramparts, beyond some sites mentioning, all probably from the same source, that the ramparts were built in a rectangle 2km wide (east west) and 1.6km high (north south) with city gates at each of the four cardinal points, there's not much information available. In front of the wall was a moat  made by skillful engineering of existing rivers: the Soa Ho and the Mae Ramphan; and the digging of canals to join the two along the southern side.   

Stop 3 Wat Ton Makham - โบราณสถานวัดต้นมะขาม, I haven’t been able to find any information on this small temple beyond the sign in front of it, which doesn’t say much beyond that it was unusual because the main chedi was built before the vihãra (assembly hall).

Stop 4 Wat Traphang Thong Lang - วัดตระพังทองหลาง, not to be confused with the other two Wat Traphangs, one in the historical park and the other just outside, this one is about 1.5km east of the old city and set well back from the road. It also contains a “working” monastery in the grounds, with the older parts off to one side. As I was walking around I saw no other visitors save some cattle under charge of a herdsman in the long grass off to one side. See Sukhothai - Wat Traphang Thong Lang

After spending the morning walking around I decided to take up the offer from my guesthouse to use one of the buggies they had for rent, which could only be use outside of the central Historical Park enclosure. This was the opportunity to go further afield than I could otherwise manage and see some of the seldom visited temples outside the old city walls. 

Stop 1 Wat Sorasak - วัดสรศักดิ์, this was built in the early to middle 15th century on land granted to “Intha Sorasak” by the then governor, located close to the Royal Palace. The square base of the chedi is surrounded by “24 statues of elephant forequarters.” The Asian Historical Architecture site says that using “elephant statues to "support" a chedi was fairly common in the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods” and was derived “from the Anuradhapura temple in Sri Lanka”.

Stop 2 Wat Son Khao - วัดซ่อนข้าว, about 200 metres from Wat Sorasak and was “probably built about a century later in the late Sukhothai period (early 15th century)”. See Asian Historical Architecture  

Stop 3 Wat Pa Phai - โบราณสถานวัดป่าไผ่, through the North Gate in the old wall the temple is currently undergoing some restoration work, mainly paths from what I could see. Remnants of the old moat that originally surrounded the temple still exist- containing a few puddles. Current thinking is that the temple was originally constructed during Khmer rule “as a Mahayana Buddhist sanctuary during the reign of King Jayavarman VII” (r.1181 – 1218) and later converted to “Theravada Buddhist” use. See Asian Historical Architecture

Stop 4  Wat Mumlangka - วัดมุมลังกา, sorry information on this temple is impossible to find.

Stop 5 Looking into the Sukhothai Historical Park from the North.