AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



WAT CHI CHIANG SAI





Wat Chi Chiang Sai is a defunct temple once situated in the Historical Park in the Pratu Chai Sub-district. The monastery stood south of Wat Phra Si Sanphet and the Grand Palace, where now the ruins of Wihan Klaep are situated.


The earliest chronicles (Luang Prasoet) put the monastery's establishment in 1538 CE (900 Chula Sakarat) in the reign of King Chai Ratcha (1534-1547 CE), while the post-Ayutthayan chronicles mention its construction in 1518 CE.


“In 900, a year of the dog, the King first had the earth piled up at the Chi Chiang Sai Monastery in the sixth month, and founded the Lord Buddha image and the holy monument there.” [1]


I only found two sources which talk about this monastic structure: Jeremias Van Vliet's diaries and the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. No maps showing the temple seem to be in existence.


Van Vliet writes that King Chai Ratcha ordered the construction of Wat Chi Chiang Sai in the 1530s. Likely, King Chai Ratcha ordered the structure built on the occasion of his throne ascendancy and the building was finalised four years later. The year 1538 CE, mentioned in the Luang Prasoet Chronicle, concurs with that period.





(Wihan Klaep at the Sanam Na Jakrawat, south of Wat Phra Si San Phet)



The temple stood in the courtyard of the Grand Palace and was, according to Van Vliet, at one time the largest and the highest of the kingdom. The pillars were larger than three fathoms thick (5.5 m). I presume he pointed out the circumference of the pillars, which sets the pillar diameter at more than 1,8 m.


Anyhow, time took its toll, and the temple decayed. Van Vliet wrote that many monarchs after King Chai Ratcha undertook its reparation but had to abandon it.


"Many of the previous kings have commenced the repair of the temple, but everybody who worked at it died soon. The chiefs, overseers, and work-masters lost their senses, went mad, blind, and so on, so that after the loss of many persons the work had to be stopped". [2]


People believed that the temple was cursed, and the Brahmins spoke about an old prophecy saying that Wat Chi Chiang Sai could only be rebuilt by a true heir of King Chai Ratcha. King Chai Ratcha belonged to the House of Suphannaphum, a dynasty extinct after the first fall of Ayutthaya in 1569 CE.


When King Prasat Thong (reign 1629-1656 CE) came to power after nearly wiping out the complete Sukhothai Dynasty, Wat Chi Chiang Sai was in very bad shape. The structure was damaged and knocked down by lightning.


The beginning of the Buddhist millennium (1000 Chula Sakarat) occurred in March 1638 CE, and King Prasat Thong was convinced that some frightful calamity would come over the Kingdom of Ayutthaya to mark the thousandth year of the Era and he would lose the crown. To accumulate the necessary merit to try to avert the prophesied calamity, he built and repaired many temples. He even tried to alter the name of the millennium year, as the Year of the Tiger was considered inauspicious, and wanted to turn it into the Year of the Pig. The King of Burma, Thalun (reign 1584-1648 CE), felt little interest and finally, the name change did not happen. [3][4]





(Phra Mongkon Bophit, the main Buddha image of Wat Chi Chiang Sai before a new vihara was paid by the Burmese Government in 1956 and finalised in 1957 CE.



In 1637 CE, King Prasat Thong wanted to rebuild Wat Chi Chiang Sai, but it was prevented by the dissuasion of the mandarins and the Brahman priests, who said that it was not a lucky time.


But the ‘King of the Golden Castle’ was too eager to look for the fabulous treasures which were said to be buried under this temple. In 1639 CE - after the millennium passed - he ordered the main copper Buddha image - the present Phra Mongkon Bophit - to be moved a few tens of meters and razed the Chi Chiang Sai monastery to the ground. The temple was demolished and levelled, and its location received a new function as a royal cremation ground called "Sanam Na Jakrawat".


A new structure was built to cover Phra Mongkhon Bophit. The Brahmans professed that the King would die before its finalisation because "the rebuilding was not begun out of pure devotion, but out of His Majesty’s hope of finding great treasures in the demolition of the former temple". Finally, the old Kalahom survived Wat Chi Chiang Sai's curse, the new Buddhist millennium, and the prophecies of the Brahmins, as he died of old age in 1656 CE. [5]


In the Vingboons atlas, we find a watercolour (1) painting named "Afbeldinge der stadt Iudiad Hooft des Choonincrick Siam". In this painting, south of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, we find a large circular building. This building is likely the structure King Prasat Thong built to house Phra Mongkhon Bophit after he razed Wat Chi Chiang Sai.


Regarding the translation of the name of Wat Chi Chiang Sai, I remain in doubt. I do not have the Siamese writing of the name from the Luang Prasoet chronicle. Nevertheless, I want to give it a tentative translation after the Dutch wording. "Chi" could come from the Thai word "ศรี", meaning "glorious". "Chiang" I tend to translate as "city", while "sai" could have been "ชัย", "victorious". Putting it all together, Wat Chi Chiang Sai would be tentatively translated as the "Monastery of the Glorious City of Victory" as Van Vliet wrote ", In Judia, in the courtyard of the king's palace, stands a temple of such extraordinary size and height that a similar cannot be found in the whole country." Wat Chi Chaing Sai could as thus have been named after the City of Ayutthaya.


Some historians assume Wihan Klaep was an element of Wat Chi Chiang Sai, but I doubt this. I believe the small temple was simply part of the crematory ground called ‘Sanam Na Jakrawat’, or it was established as a memorial for the last King of Ayutthaya, Ekathat (reign 1758-1767 CE) who was buried here by the Burmese (1) and later exhumed and likely cremated here by King Taksin after the fall of Ayutthaya. [7]





(Wat Phra Mongkhon Bophit on Vingboon's drawing published in 1665 CE)



Footnotes:


(1) A Mon residing in Siam who received the title Suki (Burmese: Thugyi) from the Burmese General Nemiao Sihabodi and was in charge of the Burmese rear guard located north of Ayutthaya at Pho Sam Ton. (Rajanubhab, 1917)


References:


[1] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 20.

[2] Baker, Chris Pombejra, Dhiravat na Van Der Kraan Alfons & Wyatt, David K. (2005). Van Vliet's Siam. Silkworm Books. p. 157.

[3] Frankfurter, O. A proposed change in the Siamese era Frankfurter Chulasakaraj 1000 (A.D. 1638).

[4] Wood, William, A.R. (1924). A History of Siam. Chalermnit Press. p. 181.

[5] Baker, Chris Pombejra, Dhiravat na Van Der Kraan Alfons & Wyatt, David K. (2005). Van Vliet's Siam. Silkworm Books. p. 243.

[6] Baker, Chris (2013). The Grand Palace in the Description of Ayutthaya: Translation and Commentary. Journal of the Siam Society, Vol 101.

[7] Rajanubhab, Damrong (Prince) (1917). Our Wars with the Burmese. White Lotus, Bangkok (2000). p. 357.



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





HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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