AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



THE KHOCHA PRAWET MAHA PRASAT





The Khocha Prawet Maha Prasat was one of the five palaces outside the city, as recorded in old documents. According to the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya, King Narai (reign 1656-1688 CE) ordered its construction in 1657 CE. It consisted of a main building and an assembly hall, reserved for the performance of all royal ceremonies in the Phaniat area (1). Here, the Brahmans performed various royal rites. King Narai had a divine statue cast, 50 cm high, gilded with gold and ornamented with niello (2). The statue, adorned with a ring, was reserved exclusively for the performance of the Royal Ceremony for Elephant Works.


“Now in that year of the monkey, eighth of the decade, the king ordered one statue of the Holy Divine Works to be cast, approximately a little over a sòk high. It was covered in gold and ornamental paraphernalia and decorated with a ring of Royalty niello. During the year of the cock, ninth of the decade, the Holy Feet of the Supreme Paramount Reverence and Holy Buddhist Lord Omnipotent issued a holy royal proclamation commanding Phraya Cakri to prepare a building for the Royal Ceremony of the Register of Brahma and an assembly hall to be reserved for the performance of all the holy royal ceremonies on the prairie in the Vicinity of the Elephant Corrals." [1]


In the same chronicles, we read that in 1661 CE, Chao Phraya Kosathibodhi Pan proceeded in the royal throne barge to the landing place near the elephant kraal to watch and oversee a warfare training session at Phaniat, before leaving for Chiang Mai with an army. Pan encamped at the pavilion, "which constituted the site of the royal seat".


"When an auspicious moment prevailed, orders were accordingly given to beat the victory gongs and to play the conch shell trumpets and musical instruments in a loud and resounding tumult—the victory drums booming boisterously—to the point where the earth and waters were about to be destroyed, and to set the military procession in motion to advance by densely protective squadrons and to proceed by the water routes all the way to the landing place in the vicinity of the elephant corrals. Caophraya Kosathibòdi accordingly disembarked from the holy throne barge and, surrounded in great profusion to the left and the right, before and behind, by all his various thao phraya and officials in royal service, encamped at the pavilion which constituted the site of the royal seat." [2]





(The Khocha Prawet Maha Prasat - Picture taken September 2002 CE)



The old palace was looted and burned down by the Burmese in 1767 CE at the fall of Ayutthaya.


"Meanwhile, Nemiao, the general of the armies in the stockade at the Three Fig Trees [Pho Sam Ton], thereupon had the Burmese troops advance to set fire to and burn down that palace at the Elephant Corrals." [3]


From the testimony of the imprisoned residents of Ayutthaya, we know today that the Khocha Prawet Maha Prasat had a single mondop spire, four-level roofs, and wings extending from the main building in two directions, as in the Jakkrawat Phachaiyon Maha Prasat (3).


The Khocha Prawet palace was open, without walls, and had two storeys. It was situated on a mound at the elephant enclosure, where the king watched the capture of wild elephants and the herds that led them. There was a crow’s-wing fence of posts behind this palace, and two large brick pavilions for royal victuallers to store provisions. [4]


Jeremias Van Vliet, a VOC merchant of the Dutch settlement, wrote in one of his works that the Kings were crowned at Phaniat (likely the Ratcha Abhiseka or coronation ceremony). His texts - as well as the royal chronicles - also refer to a boat landing in the area. The landing must have been somewhere in the vicinity of the old kiln, along the old stretch of the Lopburi River, now called Khlong Hua Ro.


"He ordered the royal boats to be made ready and the mandarins to go by boat with him to the Phaniat (the place where the elephants are kept and the kings are crowned) in order to proclaim him king and swear oaths of allegiance to him." [5]





(The Khocha Prawet Maha Prasat - Picture taken March 2010 CE)



A Brahman statue was found here at the kraal during the reign of King Rama II (1809-1824 CE), when Prince Thepphonphak (1785–1837 CE), as Krom Phra Khochaban (director of the Royal Elephant Department), led the restoration of the kraal and supervised the elephant round-up. The statue was placed in a niche of the prang of Wat Phutthaisawan. When the King heard of it, he ordered the image moved to Bangkok. It was recast as an image of the Buddha wearing an ornament and plated with silver, and moved to the Phra Nak Hall. King Rama IV (reign 1851–1868 CE) placed the image at the Prasat Phra Thep Bidorn (the Royal Pantheon - The Shrine of the celestial Ancestors) in Wat Phra Kaeo at Bangkok. (4)


The royal residence was repaired by Rama I in a simplified version of the original, without a mondop spire (likely indicating its loss of royal status) and with only three-level roofs extending in two directions. It was repaired again in the reign of Rama III and twice in that of King Rama V. [6]


The palace reconstruction we see today at the elephant kraal has been reduced in size again, with only two-level roofs extending in two directions.


Krom Luang Thepphonphak received a commemorative shrine on the northwestern side of the Khocha Prawet Maha Prasat. The shrine is a small pavilion with a two-tiered roof, located along the road leading to Wat Borom Wong.


His Royal Highness Prince Abhayathat, Krom Luang Thepphonphakdi, was born on Tuesday, the 3rd day of the waning moon of the 9th month, Year of the Snake, 7th year of the reign, in the year 1147 of the Chulalongkorn Era, corresponding to 23 August 1785. He was the royal son of King Phutthayodfa Chulalok Maharaj (Rama I) and Chao Chom Manda Noi Kaeo. In his youth, he was called... "Prince Thepphonphakdi" (also known as "Prince Tiger").


In 1807 CE, King Rama I bestowed upon him the title of "Krom Muen Theppholphakdi." Later, during the reign of King Rama II, he was appointed to oversee the Department of Elephant Management. In 1832 CE, King Rama III (Phra Nangklao) promoted him to the rank of "Krom Luang Thepphonphakdi." He passed away during the reign of King Rama III on Tuesday, the 11th day of the waning moon of the 3rd month, in the year of the Rooster, 1199 in the Buddhist calendar, corresponding to 20 February 1837, at the age of 51.





(The commemorative shrine for Krom Luang Thepphonphak - Picture taken August 2010 CE)



Footnotes:


(1) Today in the Suan Phrik Sub-district.

(2) Niello is the process and the result of annealing (literally blackening) or fixing by fusion on a decoratively incised, polished metal surface (usually silver, but occasionally gold), forming an opaque, black (non-mercurial) amalgam of silver, copper and lead. [7]

(3) The Jakkrawat Phachaiyon Maha Prasat was built in the reign of King Prasat Thong in 1632 CE, astride the palace’s east wall (near the southern end) at the edge of the parade ground, from which the king reviewed his troops and enjoyed martial displays. The palace, however, had three storeys. [8]

(4) There is some mystery surrounding the discovery of this image. Amatyakul places the discovery in the reign of Rama I (1782–1809 CE). An information board at Wat Phutthaisawan also gives 1784 CE as the year of the discovery, and both sources refer to Krom Luang Thepphonphak as the discoverer. The problem is that this prince was born in 1785 CE and became director of the Royal Elephant Department in the reign of Rama II, thus, after the death of Rama I.


References:


[1] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 245.

[2] Ibid. p. 293.

[3] Ibid. p. 517.

[4] Baker, Chris (2014). Final Part of the Description of Ayutthaya with Remarks on Defence, Policing, Infrastructure, and Sacred Sites. Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 102, p. 204.

[5] Baker, Chris Pombejra, Dhiravat na Van Der Kraan Alfons & Wyatt, David K. (2005). Van Vliet's Siam. Silkworm Books. p. 228.

[6] Amatyakul, Tri (1957). Guide to Ayudhya and Bang-Pa-In. Bangkok: Prachandra Press. pp. 60-61.

[7] Journal of the Society of Arts (no. 2464 vol. XLVIII, page 250-2). George Christopher Molesworth Birdwood. London: Society of Arts (9 February 1900).

[8] Kasetsiri, Charnvit & Wright, Michael (2007). Discovering Ayutthaya. Toyota Thailand Foundation. p. 64.



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HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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