WAT DUSIT





Wat Dusit (1), or the Monastery of the Joyful Heaven, is located off the main island in the eastern part of Ayutthaya, in the Phai Ling Sub-district. It can be seen just off Road No 3477, leading from Wat Sam Pluem roundabout to Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. The monastery stood near the east bank of Khlong Dusit (2).


In situ are the foundations of a monastic hall, some traces of walls, and a few collapsed chedis. Most structures crumbled to the ground, making it challenging to identify. There are still some broken boundary stones (sema) and remnants of broken Buddha images on site. The brick floor is still level and easy to see in some places, while several trees have grown over the remains of some structures. The ruin has not been renovated yet.


Locals have encroached on the ruin, and houses are adjacent to the site, while rubbish is scattered close by.


A shrine for Chao Mae Dusit has been established near the ruin, and merit is made to Mae Chao Dusit here every year.


Historical data about the monastery and its construction are unknown.





(The shrine for Mae Dusit on the site of Wat Dusit)



History


Chao Mae Dusit's original name was Mom Ampai (อำไพ), nickname Bua (บัว), and she is said to have been the daughter of King Ekathotsarot (reign 1605-1610/11 CE). She had a child called Lek (who later received the title of Chao Phraya Kosathibodi) and became, in the same period, the wet nurse of King Narai (reign 1656-1688 CE). Fifteen years later, she gave birth to another child called Pan, who also received at a later stage the title of Chao Phraya Kosathibodhi. [1]


"Meanwhile, Luang Sòrasak had gone to have an audience with the Lord Mother of the Monastery of the Joyful Heaven, who was the mother of Caophraya Kosa Lek and of Caophraya Kosa Pan and who had been the principal holy nurse of the Supreme Holy Buddhist Lord Omnipotent." [2]


Some sources state that next to Narai, Chao Mae Dusit was also a wet nurse to King Petracha (reign 1688-1703 CE), and they were brought up together. In the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya is written how Chao Mae Dusit intervened by King Narai in favour of Dua (Luang Sorasak, son of Petracha) after his violent interaction with Chao Phraya Wichayen (Phaulcon), accusing the latter of harming the Buddhist religion.


"And, after having rendered homage, he prostrated himself to make a report of the events whereby Caophraya Wichayen had acted to cause turmoil in the Holy Buddhist Religion just like that and [whereby], having prostrated himself to inform His Holy Grace, [the King] did not deem it worthy of punishment. “The Servant of the Holy Buddhist Lord is filled with sorrow for the Holy Buddhist Religion as Caophraya Wichayen will act to cause the Holy Buddhist Religion to decay and deteriorate like that. Therefore I struck the lord chief magistrate of caophraya rank in the mouth, and thereafter fled on down. Now, at this moment, the Supreme Holy Buddhist Lord Omnipotent has manifested His holy rage and would inflict His holy royal punishment upon the Servant of the Holy Buddhist Lord. I beseech You to manifest Your holy compassion by showing Your favor to my head and my pate, and invite Your Highness to go up and ask once for a holy royal pardon for the Servant of the Holy Buddhist Lord!” Thereupon the elderly person of the Lord Mother, having listened to such as that, perceived the misdeeds whereby that Caophraya Wichayen had done wrong. Therefore Her Highness went with a royal throne boat up to the Municipality of Lopburi and, proceeding to the enclosed passageway to the water of the regular docks. took Luang Sòrasak on up to the Holy Royal Palace Enclosure. [D: Now] after first ordering him to remain outside the [gate] screens, Her Highness went in for an audience inside. Now the Supreme Holy Lord Omnipotent, after speaking and gazing with His holy eyes and seeing her, performed the act of standing up in respectful welcome and invited Her Highness to sit and share His royal mat. Now after raising His holy hands in respectful salutation to His forehead, the King asked, “For what business has the Holy Mother come up?” Thereupon the elderly person of the Lord Mother prostrated herself to inform the King completely about all those circumstances in every detail. The Supreme Paramount Reverence and Holy Buddhist Lord Omnipotent, after being thus informed of the circumstances, issued a holy royal proclamation to have Luang Sòrasak summoned for an audience and thereupon admonished him at great length. Then the elderly person of the Lord Mother having prostrated herself to beg the King for His holy royal pardon, the King manifested His holy compassion by being pleased to make the holy royal grant of it to him. Then the King related all of those actions which Luang Sòrasak had performed against Caophraya Wichayen so the elderly person of the Lord Mother was completely informed of all the details. Then the King bespoke her to remain at the Holy Royal Palace Enclosure for two or three days and ministered to her by showing respect in fine fashion. Thereafter [the King] invited Her Highness to go back down to the Celestial Capital and Grand Metropolis. [2]


An information board at this site tells us that Chao Mae Dusit died in 1682 CE and was cremated at Wat Samana Kottharam. King Narai, along with military and civil servants, were present.


Engelbert Kaempfer, a German physician working for the Dutch East Indian Company (VOC), described his visit to Wat Pradu, the Phra Khlang’s Temple, in June 1690 CE, in which he participated in the funeral of the wet nurse of the Phra Khlang, Kosa Pan in the reign of King Phetracha. He remarks that the mother of the Phra Khlang died about 15 months before.


"On the Twelfth of June [1690 CE], at four in the afternoon, the funeral of the Berklam’s or Chancellor's of Siam, who had also the Berklam's direction of foreign affairs, his Mother was buried with great pomp and solemnity. The Siamites call also their Nurses mothers, and those brothers and sisters, who sucked the same breasts. This was only the Berklam's Nurse, for his Mother died, and was buried about fifteen months before." [3]


If Kaempfer states that the mother of Kosa Pan died about fifteen months before, the date of death should be approximately March 1689 CE. If she got her first child around the age of 18, she was probably 75 years of age.





(Remnant of a monastic structure of Wat Dusit)



The site is in geographical coordinates: 14° 21' 3.79" N, 100° 35' 30.00" E.
Further north, there is another monastery called Wat Dusittharam. The suffix "tharam" was added merely to distinguish between the two temples. The suffix is used in Sanskrit for a comparative and superlative form (great - greater, string - stronger). [4]
Footnotes:

(1) Wat Dusit earns its name from the Sanskrit word "Tush", meaning "to be content" or "that in which all desires are satisfied". It is referring to the "Tushita Heaven", the "joyful heaven or the heavens of the joyous", the fourth Deva heaven above the earth in which the almost perfect beings, about to become Buddhas, pass their last angelic life before being born on earth to assume the Buddha hood. [5](2) Khlong Dusit flows through the Phai Ling Sub-district. As Khlong Hantra, Khlong Kramang and Khlong Khao San, this canal was likely once a stretch of the Pa Sak River [6].
References:

[1] Information board in situ.[2] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 305/6.[3] Kaempfer, Engelbert (1727). The History of Japan (Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam). John Gaspar Scheuchzer.[4] Whitney, William Dwight (1979). A Sanskrit grammar including both the classical language, and the older dialects, of Veda and Brahmana. Leipzig, Breitkopf and Härtel. p. 159 #473.[5] Alabaster, Henry (1871). The Wheel of The Law. London: Trubner & Co. p. 177.[6] Rajanubhap, Damrong (Prince) (1917). Our Wars with the Burmese. White Lotus, Bangkok (2000).