Late afternoon and the light appeared quite spectacular as I walked the short distance to Wat Chai Watthanaram (วัดไชยวัฒนาราม), which was close where I was staying.
The temple “was constructed by King Prasat Thong (r. 1629-56) during the first year of his reign” on the western side of the Chao Phraya River opposite the city island. It “was built on the site where his foster-mother, the wife of Okya Sri Thammathirat, resided”; its intended roles were to house her ashes, provide symbolic proof “of the king's fitness to rule” and through its architectural Khmer style to serve as a “reminder of the king's conquest of the Khmer empire and its annexation by the Ayutthayan kingdom”.
The dedication took place in 1649, about 20 years after construction commenced. From then on “Ayutthayan Kings would regularly make pilgrimages to this sanctuary and attend royal funerals”. “In the last Burmese war with Ayutthaya (1764-1767), the site may have been used as a stronghold as witnessed by the reinforcement of the walls and the surviving remains of cannons and cannon balls. After the destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese, the temple was deserted, prey for the jungle and looters for 220 years.”
It is one of the better preserved Ayutthayan temple complexes although it’s subject to inundation when the Chao Phraya River floods.
See also Asian Historical Architecture and Ayutthaya History.
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
Wat Chai Watthanaram or the “Monastery of the Victorious and Prosperous Temple”
