| WAT PHANAN CHOENG (วัดพนัญเชิง) |
| Following the Luang Prasoet version of the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya, Phra Phanan Choeng was built in 1324, 26 years before King U-Thong founded Ayutthaya. [1] At origin the Buddha image stood in the open. There is no record about its construction, although there is a legend written down in the Phongsawadan Nua or Northern Chronicles: At some time before the Ayutthaya period, there was a Thai King named Phra Chao Sai Namphung requesting the emperor of China’s daughter to be his wife. She travelled from China to this area by boat. When she arrived, the King was not there to greet her. She was heart-broken. She waited for a long time but the King did not come. Finally, she killed herself by holding her breath. The King was very sad, so he had this temple built at her cremation site in order to gain merit for her soul, and he named the temple “Wat Phanan Choeng". [2] The monastery is located in the southeastern area at the confluence of the Chao Phraya and the Pa Sak Rivers. The Buddha image - made of brick and mortar and covered with stucco - sits in the classic posture of Subduing Mara. It measures (approx) 14 meters at the lap and 19 meters in height including the ornament above the head. Thai people call it Luang Pho To or Great Reverend Father, Chinese or Thais of Chinese origin call it Sam Po Kong. It is one of the largest, oldest, beautiful and revered Buddha images of Thailand. Gijsbert Heeck, a Dutch doctor of the VOC, described in 1655 Phra Phanan Choeng in his Journal as follows: Outside the famous, well-known old royal capital Ayutthaya in the Siam River, not far from the Dutch lodge one sees a very old and exceptionally high temple with a double roof one above the other. Let in (by one of the talapoins, priests, or guardians) we saw a frightfully high, large, and heavy image, (we estimated) some twenty times larger than the largest image we had seen anywhere. It sat cross legged, but even so one looked up to him as at a tower. From one knee to the other measured a width of 42 of our feet, and his thumb thick in circumference, l9 inches wide, and as long as a common rattan. The fingers and nails were exceptionally long and broad relative to his hands and feet. His knees seemed like small mountains, and the back was so broad that it looked like the wall of a lofty church. His mouth, nose, eyes, and ears were all matching and so well proportioned that we could see little or no reason to judge it too thick or too thin, too long or too short, too broad or too narrow This astonishingly large image was richly gilded from top to bottom, looking more a golden mountain than a human figure. [4] The story goes that the image have shed tears when the Burmese took Ayutthaya in 1767. Though an old temple, Wat Panan Choeng has never been deserted by its followers. Continuous development has been made through time, as evidenced by the existing landscape and Thai architectural structures decorated by art motifs from different periods. The monastery has four principal buildings in its sangkha area: an ordination hall, a vihara, the large vihara and a small Chinese building. The ordination hall contains three Buddha images all in the posture of subduing Mara. Two images are assumed to have been built during the Sukhothai period around 1357. They were covered with stucco, lacquered and gilt, probably to hide their value from the Burmese invaders in 1767. In 1963 during a cleaning process, the stucco came off and the metal became visible. One image is in gold measuring a width of 145 cm and a height of 190 cm.) The second one is made from an alloy of copper, silver and gold and measures at width 170 cm and at height is 228 cm. The third image in the middle of the pedestal is an Ayutthaya stucco image covered with gold (width 182 cm - height is 256 cm). The ubosot has beautiful mural paintings although from recent times. The vihara located parallel and to the north side of the ordination hall has a Buddha image in the subduing Mara posture and also very nice Chinese mural paintings. The large vihara behind the buildings above houses Luang Phor To. The large wooden entry doors are carved with beautiful floral designs, while the middle of the panels are decorated with deities and mythical animals, all in traditional Ayutthayan art. Inside the walls have hundreds of niches, each containing Buddha images and suggesting the principal image sitting in the middle of the Buddhist universe. The last structure is the Chinese shrine of Lady Soi Dok Mak (Betel Nut Blossom), a local goddess. It is a traditional designed Chinese building, with a courtyard in the middle and the outer wall essentially joining the two separate buildings together. The shrine is in the two-storey building in the rear. The lower floor is dedicated to Mae Kuan Yin, the bodhisattva of compassion, while on the upper floor the image of Lady Mother Soi Dok Mak is enshrined. The window shutters and doors are highly decorated with dragons and phoenix birds. The shrine remains very popular with members of the Chinese community to this day. The area where Phra Phanan Choeng was built, has been home to a large Chinese community, settled on both sides of the Chao Phraya immediately south of the city in an area presently known as Bang Kraja (Bangkacha) since times prior the establishment of the Ayutthaya in 1351. In 1282 two hundred Chinese Sung refugees came to settle in Ayodhya. Charnvit Kasetsiri relates that Ayodhya had grown considerably, since it could afford to construct one of the largest Buddha statues of Siam. The presence of Chinese in the area at this early time does not appear unusual, since Chinese settled in various ports and markets of the gulf of Siam well before the 13th century. A number of Chinese were active in trade on the Malay Peninsula and in southern Siam between the 13th and 14th century. [5] The large Buddha image has been repaired many times during Ayutthaya’s period of rule. King Mongkut (Rama IV) ordered a restoration in 1854 and named the statue Phra Buddha Trai Rattana Nayok. [3] The temple and the Buddha image were damaged by fire on 21 December 1901. King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) ordered its restoration, what was finished the year after. The cheeks and the lower jaws of the image broke in pieces on 15 March 1928. In 1929 the Royal Institute had the necessary reparations made. In olden times there was a boat ferry between Wat Phanan Choeng and a landing at Hua Sarapha, east of Pom Phet near the arched gateway of Talat Rong Lek. In Ayutthayan times there were twenty-two ferry routes between the main land and the city island. The southern area had six ferries; the five other crossings were: Tha Hoi to Wat Pa Jak, Tha Phra Rachawangsan to Wat Khun Phrom, Tha Dan Chi to Wat Surintharam, Tha Chakrai Noi to Wat Tha Rap and Tha Wang Chai to Wat Nak. [6] See "The Boat & Ferry Landings of Ayutthaya". References: [1] The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya – Richard D. Cushman (2006) - page 10 / Source: Luang Prasoet. [2] http://ilwc.aru.ac.th/Contents/FolktaleEng/FolktaleEng81.htm (10 Apr 09) [3] Ayutthaya, a world heritage (2000) - page 96/97. [4] A Traveler in Siam in the Year 1655: Extracts from the Journal of Gijsbert Heeck - Barend Jan Terwiel (2008) - page 65. [5] The Rise of Ayudhya - Charnvit Kasetsiri (1976) – page 67/68, 81, 85. [6] Explanation of the map of the Capital of Ayutthaya with a ruling of Phraya Boran Rachathanin - Revised 2nd edition and Geography of the Ayutthaya Kingdom - Ton Chabab print office - Nonthaburi (2007) - page 91. |
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| "In 686 of the Lesser Era, a year of the rat, the image of Lord Buddha, Lord Phanaeng Choeng, was first installed.” |
| Text & photographs by Tricky Vandenberg - August 2009 Updated February 2015 |
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| (View from the east) |
| (View from the Pa Sak River) |
| (The main Buddha image, Phra Phanan Choeng) |
| (Inside wall of the Vihara Phra Phanan Choeng) |
| (Old Buddha images in the ubosot) |
| (Buddha image in the northern vihara) |
| (Chinese shrine in situ) |
| (Lady Soi Dok Mak Shrine) |
| (Murals at Wat Phanan Choeng) |
| (Detail of a 2007 Fine Arts Department GIS map - Courtesy of the Fine Arts Department - 3th Region) |
| (Detail of a 19th century map - Courtesy of the Sam Chao Phraya Museum - map is orientated S-N) |
| (Detail of Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map - Anno 1926) |
| Wat Phanan Choeng in the early 20th century at a time that the ordination hall and vihara were not yet roofed over. Photo taken from the book Siam and China - Salvatore Besso - London: Simpkin, Marshall, hamilton Kent & Co. Ltd (1912) |
| (Bronze Buddhas image in the attitude of persuading the relatives not to quarrel in Ayutthaya style dating back to the 17-18th century and originating from Wat Phanan Choeng displayed at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum.) |
(Bronze Buddha image in the
attitude of calming the ocean
in Ayutthaya style dating
back to the 17-18th century
and originating from Wat
Phanan Choeng displayed at
the Chao Sam Phraya
National Museum.)
attitude of calming the ocean
in Ayutthaya style dating
back to the 17-18th century
and originating from Wat
Phanan Choeng displayed at
the Chao Sam Phraya
National Museum.)