Ken May lives a nomadic lifestyle that has lead to his teaching and
traveling across the globe. He eventually landed in Thailand in the year
2000 to instruct tourism studies students at the Rajaphat University Phra
Nakorn Sri Ayutthaya. And this is how the Ayutthaya Temple Project
began.
Estimates suggest that there are over 400 temples in Ayutthaya, but most
are off-the-beaten track and difficult to find. While walking, bicycling, and
boating around town, he was overwhelmed by how the modern city had
grown around ancient sites. The architectural skeletons of Ayutthaya's
ancient past are often stumbled across accidentally. Traces of these
abandoned ruins can be seen peeking out from behind apartment
buildings, elementary schools, government offices, and overgrown jungles.
Raw curiosity was the primary motivation. Ken May wanted to track
down every one of these temples, as well as the old canals, and learn
more about the ancient city from what remains. Unfortunately and
surprisingly, few locals in the city know anything about these ruins. The
Ayutthaya Temple Project was, therefore, an attempt to engage students,
expatriates, and other community members into taking more interest in
these sites while conducting and sharing their own research.
Ken May has had approximately 50 articles printed in the Bangkok Post
- mostly focusing on education and travel. He has also published two
travel-related books. His earlier research about temple ruins, The
Deserted Temples in Ayutthaya, was published by the Ayutthaya Studies
Institute in 2008; and Post Books released Road Rash: Western Tourists
and Expatriates at Play in Asia's Global Village in 2002. Both books have
now been entirely sold out. Additionally, he has contributed nearly 50
articles to a combination of popular websites and international
guidebooks.
He has a BA in Liberal Arts, an Area Studies Certificate in International
Development, and a Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. His
fields of study included sociology, anthropology, history, gender studies,
journalism, and English.
To contact Ken May e-mail:
Soulhouse69@yahoo.com
traveling across the globe. He eventually landed in Thailand in the year
2000 to instruct tourism studies students at the Rajaphat University Phra
Nakorn Sri Ayutthaya. And this is how the Ayutthaya Temple Project
began.
Estimates suggest that there are over 400 temples in Ayutthaya, but most
are off-the-beaten track and difficult to find. While walking, bicycling, and
boating around town, he was overwhelmed by how the modern city had
grown around ancient sites. The architectural skeletons of Ayutthaya's
ancient past are often stumbled across accidentally. Traces of these
abandoned ruins can be seen peeking out from behind apartment
buildings, elementary schools, government offices, and overgrown jungles.
Raw curiosity was the primary motivation. Ken May wanted to track
down every one of these temples, as well as the old canals, and learn
more about the ancient city from what remains. Unfortunately and
surprisingly, few locals in the city know anything about these ruins. The
Ayutthaya Temple Project was, therefore, an attempt to engage students,
expatriates, and other community members into taking more interest in
these sites while conducting and sharing their own research.
Ken May has had approximately 50 articles printed in the Bangkok Post
- mostly focusing on education and travel. He has also published two
travel-related books. His earlier research about temple ruins, The
Deserted Temples in Ayutthaya, was published by the Ayutthaya Studies
Institute in 2008; and Post Books released Road Rash: Western Tourists
and Expatriates at Play in Asia's Global Village in 2002. Both books have
now been entirely sold out. Additionally, he has contributed nearly 50
articles to a combination of popular websites and international
guidebooks.
He has a BA in Liberal Arts, an Area Studies Certificate in International
Development, and a Master's Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. His
fields of study included sociology, anthropology, history, gender studies,
journalism, and English.
To contact Ken May e-mail:
Soulhouse69@yahoo.com
Tricky Vandenberg is the pseudonym of a retired fellow, who got a
deep interest and fascination in Siamese history, after reading “A History
of Siam” written by William A.R. Wood (1924), a former Consul General
in Chiengmai.
Tasked by the ghosts of the thousands of souls perished on the battlefields
in and around the historic city of Ayutthaya, he studies and gathers the
maximum of knowledge on the former Siamese capital’s history in order
to build a historical site with Ayutthaya as a main focus point.
In depth information on Ayutthaya and its cultural heritage is rather spare
on the Internet. The aim of the site is to gather and publish a maximum of
information on historical sites in and around the city of Ayutthaya in order
to facilitate and encourage the level of public awareness and support,
necessary for the long-term survival of Ayutthaya's cultural heritage.
Information is gathered by studying books, theses, chronicles, documents
and reports available through open sources, as well by site visits.
The first objective of his quest is to locate, visit and catalog (site survey)
the remnants of all four hundred temples in and around the City Island of
Ayutthaya; a number the Dutch Merchant Jeremias Van Vliet mentioned
in his "Description of the Kingdom of Siam" written in 1638. Many of
them are only brick and dirt mounds, although with a story, remnants
which will vanish in time.
Objectives at a later stage will be: to revisit a number of these monasteries
in order to write a more extensive report - covering the archaeology,
history, architecture and art - (site study) on each of them; locate and
describe extensively all the other historic sites as palaces, forts, gates,
bridges, etc within the Ayutthaya municipality; situate all the water canals
and water gates, especially the ones mention in the old chronicles of the
city; research on foreign settlements.
To contact Tricky Vandenberg e-mail:
ayutthaya.history@yahoo.com
deep interest and fascination in Siamese history, after reading “A History
of Siam” written by William A.R. Wood (1924), a former Consul General
in Chiengmai.
Tasked by the ghosts of the thousands of souls perished on the battlefields
in and around the historic city of Ayutthaya, he studies and gathers the
maximum of knowledge on the former Siamese capital’s history in order
to build a historical site with Ayutthaya as a main focus point.
In depth information on Ayutthaya and its cultural heritage is rather spare
on the Internet. The aim of the site is to gather and publish a maximum of
information on historical sites in and around the city of Ayutthaya in order
to facilitate and encourage the level of public awareness and support,
necessary for the long-term survival of Ayutthaya's cultural heritage.
Information is gathered by studying books, theses, chronicles, documents
and reports available through open sources, as well by site visits.
The first objective of his quest is to locate, visit and catalog (site survey)
the remnants of all four hundred temples in and around the City Island of
Ayutthaya; a number the Dutch Merchant Jeremias Van Vliet mentioned
in his "Description of the Kingdom of Siam" written in 1638. Many of
them are only brick and dirt mounds, although with a story, remnants
which will vanish in time.
Objectives at a later stage will be: to revisit a number of these monasteries
in order to write a more extensive report - covering the archaeology,
history, architecture and art - (site study) on each of them; locate and
describe extensively all the other historic sites as palaces, forts, gates,
bridges, etc within the Ayutthaya municipality; situate all the water canals
and water gates, especially the ones mention in the old chronicles of the
city; research on foreign settlements.
To contact Tricky Vandenberg e-mail:
ayutthaya.history@yahoo.com
| ABOUT US |
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| "The construction of the buildings nowadays brings fame to its builders only, but archaeological sites bring honour to the Nation. Even a brick is valuable. We all should conserve them. If we don't have Sukhothai, Ayutthaya and Bangkok, Thailand has nothing left." (His Majesty King Bhumipol's speech when he presided over the opening ceremony of the Chao Sam Phraya National museum in Ayutthaya in 1961.) |
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