AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



PRASAT NAKHON LUANG





Prasat Nakhon Luang is situated on the east bank of the Pa Sak River in Nakhon Luang District of Ayutthaya province. The former royal residence is near the confluence of the Pa Sak River (locally called Khlong Sakae) and Khlong Bang Phra Khru. The latter joins the Lopburi River at Nakhon Luang and thus serves as a connecting canal between the two main rivers. Prasat Nakhon Luang is one of the five royal residences or palaces outside the city of Ayutthaya cited in old documents.


The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya record that King Prasat Thong (reign 1629-1656 CE) sent a Siamese delegation to Angkor, Cambodia, in 1631 CE to bring back plans of the City of Angkor and its palaces. He then ordered a royal palace built based on these plans as a resting place north of Wat Theppha Jan (1), roughly halfway between Ayutthaya and Tha Ruea (2). Tha Ruea was the final debarkation point for the royal barges, from which travel continued overland towards the Buddha’s Footprint in Saraburi.


“In 993 of the era, a year of the goat, third of the decade, the King in His holy compassion sent artisans forth to copy and bring back plans of the Holy Imperial Metropolis and of the palaces of the Capital of the Kamphucha Country, and had the artisans create a holy royal palace, as a place to rest from the heat in the vicinity beside the Monastery of the Divine Moon, to be used when His Majesty would ascend to venerate the Holy Buddha’s Footprint. Then, using the name of the original which had been copied, it was named the Holy Imperial Metropolis. And in that year when the Holy Imperial Metropolis was built, the construction of the Monastery of the Holy and Glorious Omniscient One was completed. Its dedication was held and included great amusements and festivities of various sorts.” (3) [1]





(View of Prasat Nakhon Luang - July 2014 CE)



Prince Damrong Rajanubhab presumed that the area near Wat Theppha Jan was already in use during the reign of King Songtham (Intharacha) (1610/1611-1628) as a resting place on the route to Saraburi after the discovery of the Buddha’s Footprint. The old documents mention that Prasat Nakhon Luang had a single prang (a corn-cob-style stupa) and several spired mondop (mandapa a square structure with a spired or pyramidal roof) arranged in rows within the palace grounds.

The documents record not only royal journeys to the Buddha’s Footprint but also other visits to Nakhon Luang, such as the gun-firing rite in the dry season and the mixing rice ceremony later in the year. The Phithi Ying Puen (ceremony of firing the gun) was part of a rite in which the Atthanathiyasut was chanted on festival days to drive away spirits. In the tenth month, the king travelled here to offer Khao Yakhu, a drink made by boiling rice and sugar, to the chapter of monks and the abbot of the monastery. He also held the royal Pathrabot ceremony, mixing celestial rice at Nakhon Luang Palace. Young rice was prepared and presented to the Brahmans, probably as part of the annual cycle of fertility rites.

“The Phranakhon Luang Prasat has a single prang tower, and several mondop peaks in rows in the palace grounds. It is for day and overnight stays when the king travels to pay respect at the Buddha’s Footprint. Also, sometimes in the dry season the king visits there for the gun-firing rite. Sometimes in the tenth month the king travels there to offer khao yakhu to the chapter of monks and abbot of the wat, and to conduct the royal ceremony of mathupayat, mixing celestial rice in the Nakhon Luang palace. In the tenth month, the king travels by water because people plant paddy on the road. In the fourth month, the king travels by land because the land is perfect with no obstacle to the king’s progress." [2]





(View of Prasat Nakhon Luang – August 2007 CE)



In the same year, a scaled-down copy of the sanctuary was built as a residence for King Prasat Thong next to Prasat Nakhon Luang. It was called Tamnak Phra Nakhon Luang. Only faint traces of this residence remain today, while the monks of Wat Nakhon Luang maintain the Khmer-style sanctuary itself.


The Burmese must have plundered the royal residence and the sanctuary during the Burma–Siamese War of 1766-7 CE. The central prang presumably collapsed during the plunder or in later years.


W.A.R. Wood wrote that King Prasat Thong erected Prasat Nakhon Luang, based on a design copied from the royal Khmer palace at Angkor Thom, to mark Cambodia’s renewed allegiance to Siam. Relations with the vassal state of Cambodia were troubled after the death of King Srisuphanma of Cambodia in 1618 CE. Although the royal chronicles record no invasion of Cambodia during the reign of King Prasat Thong, it is assumed that a show of force was sufficient to renew Cambodia’s allegiance. [3]


In the VOC Dagh Register of Batavia, we find a record for 1630 CE that the King of Siam dispatched a large fleet, under the command of the King of Ligor, to Cambodia to curb reports of an intended attack on Siam. [4]


In 1631 CE, a new king took the Cambodian throne when Chau-phnhéa-nu, aged 23, was crowned Prea-bat-sombach-prea-ang-tong-réachéa-thiréach-réaméa-Thupphdey-barommopit. This might indicate that Cambodia had returned to its position as a vassal state of Siam at that time. (4) [5]





(The pavilion housing the footprints of the Buddha - July 2017 CE)



Prasat Nakhon Luang served as a place for Siamese kings to stay during the day and overnight along the river. Theodorus Jacobus van den Heuvel, Chief of the Dutch VOC settlement from 1735 till 1740 CE, wrote in the Daily Register on Thursday 7 March 1737 CE during his journey to the Phra Phuttha Bat, the following:


“In the afternoon, having proceeded to a village named Banarrejek [Ban Aranyik] we stayed there and the King, who that afternoon had rested and eaten in the pagoda Prana Coenlouang [Phra Nakhon Luang], passed us even more closely than in the morning, but the order of the vessels which rowed ahead and followed was now quite irregular and confused.” [6]


Prasat Nakhon Luang stands with Wat Chai Watthanaram and the two chedis of Wat Chumphon Nikayaram, among the most important monuments of the Third architectural sub-period (1629-1732 CE), which saw the revival of the Khmer style, with the prang as the monastery's principal monument. [7]





(The four footprints of the Buddha - July 2017 CE)



On the site, north of Prasat Nakhon Luang, stands a pavilion on a mound, housing an unfinished Dharma Chakra, or “Wheel of the Law”, an early representation of the Buddha’s teaching. People carved Wheels of the Law, or Doctrine, long before the first image of the Buddha. This unfinished wheel, resembling the moon, is said to have floated to this area along the Pa Sak River, hence the name Pra Jan Loi, or Floating Moon. The stone was initially kept at Wat Theppa Jan and, in 1899 CE, moved to Prasat Nakhon Luang, where it was enshrined in a special hall. [8]


During the reign of King Chulalongkorn (1873-1910 CE), a new structure was built on the foundations of the old sanctuary. The Western-style building contains four footprints of the Buddha carved in stone, each about two and a half metres wide and five and a half metres long. Prasat Nakhon Luang was registered as an ancient monument by the Fine Arts Department and published in the Royal Gazette, Volume 52, Issue 75, dated 8 March 1935 (B.E. 2478). [9]


The Fine Arts Department has excavated, restored, and repaired the site since 1981, completing the work in 1994 CE. Kasikorn Bank provided partial support for the project. Prasat Nakhon Luang is at geographical coordinates: 14° 27' 55.40" N, 100° 36' 41.23" E.





(The unfinished Dharma Chakra called the floating moon - November 2012 CE)



Footnotes:


(1) Wat Theppha Jan is the monastery called Wat Theppha Jan Loi today, along Rd No. 329 from Bang Pahan to Nang Khae.
(2) Tha Ruea: Literally boat landing, a village along the Pa Sak River in Ayutthaya province. King Song Tham built a residence here called Tha Chao Sanuk, of which some remnants can still be seen on the premises of today’s Wat Tamnak Phra Kaeo Songtham. The king used the accommodation on his journeys to the Buddha’s Footprint.
(3) 993 Chula Sakarat = 2174 Buddhist Era = 1631 CE.
(4) To celebrate his suzerainty over Cambodia, King Prasat Thong built Wat Nakhon Luang, a large-scale architectural model of Angkor Thom in sandstone and laterite, on the Pa-Sak River between Ayutthaya and Tha Rua. (Ref: Luang Boribal Buribhand and A.B. Griswold. Sculpture of peninsular Siam in the Ayuthya period. Journal of the Siam Society. Vol. 38.2 (1951). p 8.

References:

[1] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 216.
[2] Baker, Chris (2014). Final Part of the Description of Ayutthaya with Remarks on Defense, Policing, Infrastructure, and Sacred Sites. Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 102, p. 204.
[3] Wood, William, A.R. (1924). A History of Siam. Chalermnit Press.
[4] Dutch Papers: Extracts from the "Dagh Register" 1624-1642. Printed by order of the Vajiranana National Library. Bangkok, 1915. Extracts from the daily journal kept in Batavia Castle, containing an account of events occurring over the Netherlands-Indies and more especially concerning Siam.
[5] Moura, Jean (1883). Le Royaume du Cambodge, Tome Deuxième. Ernest Leroux, Paris.
[6] Raben, Remco Dhiravat na Pombejra (1997). In the King’s Trail: An 18th Century Dutch Journey to the Buddha’s Footprint. Theodorus Jacobus van den Heuvel. Bangkok, the Royal Netherlands Embassy. p. 13.
[7] Krairiksh, Piriya (1992). A Revised Dating of Ayudhya Architecture (II). Journal of the Siam Society. Vol 80.2.
[8] Text from the Fine Arts Department in situ.
[9] Amatyakul, Tri (1957). Guide to Ayudhya and Bang-Pa-In. Bangkok: Prachandra Press. p. 61-2 and text from the Fine Arts Department in situ.



Selected PICTURES



Pictures taken December 2002 CE



Pictures taken August 2007 CE



Pictures taken July 2014 CE



Pictures taken February 2018 CE



The Floating Moon Pavilion



When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
(Alexis de Tocqueville)





HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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