Wat Nang Chi, or the Monastery of the Lady Nun as Cushman translated it, was located off the city island in the eastern area of Ayutthaya in the present Hua Ro Sub-district.
The temple stood at the confluence of Khlong Wat Nang Chi and the Lam Khu Khua Na (Front Moat), which later became the Pa Sak River. The monastery stood on Khlong Wat Nang Chi’s north bank. Wat Krajom was situated north of Wat Nang Chi, while Wat Yom stood south, all on the main river bank. Wat Pradu stood to the east.
In situ, only traces of scattered bricks were found.
Wat Nang Chi is mentioned in the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya as the location where the Burmese set up one of their stockades with bastions, in which large guns were fired off on the City of Ayutthaya during the Burmese-Siamese war of 1766-67 CE after they completed the encirclement of the city. [1]
Engelbert Kaempfer, a German medical doctor working for the VOC in the 17th century, mentioned the existence of a monastery off the city island called Wat Nang Chi, which was situated in a village where monks and nuns lived promiscuously together.
"There are also Nuns among them, whom they call Nanktsij, or Bagins, who wear such pieces of cloth like the Monks, but of a white color instead of yellow. These nuns in former times lived among the Priests near the Temples, but it having happened at a place a league above Judia, where the religious of both sexes lived promiscuously together in the same village, that several of the nuns proved with child, they have since been removed from the temples to particular houses, the better to keep their vow of chastity. The temple of that place still bears the name of Wad Nantsij, or the Temple of Nuns." [2]
Kaempfer indicated the position of Wat Nang Chi in his sketches and maps.
The temple’s period of construction is not known.
A market was held near the temple in former times. “Talat Nang Chi” was one of the 32 land markets outside the city of Ayutthaya. [3]
During the last Burmese war, the Monastery of the Lady Nun was one of the locations where the General of the Burmese armies, Nemiao, ordered the building of a stockade (fort) with bastions from where with large guns Ayutthaya was fired at, leading to the fall of Ayutthaya in April 1767. [4]
"Meanwhile, Nemiao, the general of the armies in the stockade at the Three Fig Trees, thereupon had the Burmese troops advance to set fire to and burn down that Palace at the Elephant Corrals. Then he had them set up stockades at the Elephant Corrals, at the Monastery of the Holy Red Funeral Monument, at the Monastery of the Three Preaching Halls, at the Monastery of the Spired Building at the Monastery of the Tent, at the Monastery of the Lady Nun, at the Monastery of the Jubilant Lady and at the Monastery of the Glorious Fig, and he had them erect bastions in each and every stockade, take large and small guns up into them, and fire them off into the Capital."
Phraya Boran Ratchathanin wrote in the late twenties of the last century that Wat Nang Chi was situated south of the bridge landing of Wat Pradu Rongtham, a still existing landing today. He added that at that time, the monastery had collapsed nearly completely.
There was a boat ferry between the monastery and a landing close to the mouth of Khlong Ho Rattana Chai, connecting the city. [5]
The monastery is indicated on a 19th-century map and Phraya Boran Ratchathanin's map drafted in 1926 CE.
Wat Nang Chi was in geographical coordinates: 14° 21' 43.63" N, 100° 34' 52.56" E.
Footnotes:
(1) In the late Ayutthaya era, there were twenty-two ferry routes. In the eastern area, the four other crossings were: Tha Chang Wang Na to Tha Wilanda, north of Wat Khwang Fortress to Wat Taphan Kluea, south of Wat Pa Thon to Wat Phichai and north of Ratchakrue Fortress to Wat Ko Kaeo. [4]
References:
[1] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 517.
[2] Kaempfer, Engelbert (1727). The History of Japan (Together with a Description of the Kingdom of Siam). John Gaspar Scheuchzer. London. Hans Sloane, Praes. Soc. Reg.
[3] Ratchathanin, Phraya Boran. Athibai Phaenthi Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya kap khamwinitjai khong Phraya Boran Racha Thanin. Explanation of the map of the Capital of Ayutthaya with a ruling of Phraya Boran Ratchathanin - Revised 2nd edition and Geography of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Ton Chabab print office. Nonthaburi (2007). p 94.
[4] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 517.
[5] Ratchathanin, Phraya Boran. Athibai Phaenthi Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya kap khamwinitjai khong Phraya Boran Racha Thanin. Explanation of the map of the Capital of Ayutthaya with a ruling of Phraya Boran Ratchathanin - Revised 2nd edition and Geography of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Ton Chabab print office. Nonthaburi (2007). p. 90.
