WAT KHOK PHRA NON





Wat Khok Phra Non, or the Monastery of the Mound of the Reclining Buddha, is situated off the city island in the eastern area of Ayutthaya in the Phai Ling Sub-district. It is located about 200 metres from the exit of the Ayutthaya Provincial Sports Complex.


Wat Si Liam (restored ruin) stood north, Wat Pho Phueak (restored ruin) east, Wat Maklam (restored ruin) south and Wat Rerai (defunct) west.


In situ is a very high and large brick mound covered in vegetation with some remaining broken brickwork.


The site has been partly renovated by the Fine Arts Department on the eastern side after the extensive flooding of October-November 2011 CE. Local people stated that the premises belong to Wat Yai Chai Mongkol as well as the other sites in the vicinity. It is believed that under the remaining brick mound, there is still a reclining Buddha image buried (hence the name of the temple).


The site was dismantled to recuperate the bricks for construction purposes at Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon. Also, here, locals told us that all the temple sites near Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon were stripped of bricks and sold to contractors from Bangkok. (1)


There were several laterite blocks on top of the mound. After enquiry, it was said that the stones were dug out very deep (likely the foundations) and as no use for the contractors (apparently only bricks were requested), the stones were thrown back onto the brick mound.





(View of Wat Khok Phra Non)



Wat Khok Phra Non was likely accessed in olden times by a canal system linked to Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon.


Historical data about the monastery and its construction are unknown.


The monastery is mentioned on a Fine Arts Department (FAD) map drafted in 1993 and an FAD GIS map of 2007 CE.


The site is situated in geographical coordinates: 14° 21' 2.54" N, 100° 35' 41.80" E.


The 2007 GIS map indicates the site of Wat Maha Thalai next to Wat Khok Phra Non. The location of Wat Maha Thalai is wrong as the site is on the premises of the Ayutthaya Provincial Sports Complex.


Footnotes:


(1) The Ayutthaya monasteries were sacked and plundered by the Burmese and further dismantled after the fall of Ayutthaya to reconstruct the Siamese capital in Bangkok. Most parts of the wall and the forts were dismantled in the reign of King Rama I (1782 - 1809 CE), who had the bricks taken to be used in constructing the city walls for the new capital in Bangkok. In 1784 CE, bricks from the ruins of Ayutthaya were used to build a barrage in the Lat Pho Canal at Phra Pradaeng to halt the intrusion of saline water farther inland. Another round of collecting building material occurred in the reign of King Rama III (1824 - 1851 CE) when remaining bricks and laterite stones, including those of the Thamnop Ro causeway and the Elephant Bridge, were sent down to Bangkok to be used in the construction of a giant stupa, a copy of Ayutthaya's Chedi Phukhao Thong, called Wat Saket which collapsed into rubble. Ayutthaya's temple bricks were also used to strengthen the bed of the Bangkok - Ayutthaya - Lopburi railway track at the end of the 19th century. When, in the last century, the demand for antiques increased, and the amulet markets mushroomed, Ayutthaya's ruins were plundered one more time. During the fifties and early sixties, witnesses recount, it was common for locals in the Ayutthaya area to collect the bricks of the ruins. The bricks were locally used to help expand other temple sites but were mostly sold to contractors and shipped on a large scale as there was a demand from Bangkok. Trucks and boats from Bangkok collected the bricks at 20 Baht a load.