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Published: March 3rd 2007
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The thrill of market and temple hopping eventually wore off.
After about a week-and-some in Chiang Mai, the trio (Sodahead still suffered from his ankle ailment) to my delight made the decision to go south to the province of Sukhothai! We hired a car and driver for the day to take us the four hours to the town. Along the way we discovered that our driver, Boonphat, spoke perfect English and had been more around the United States than any of us! He has founded an organization called The New Life Ministries Foundation, and it has about a dozen projects going on at the moment--Children Education Sponsorship Project, Tribal Culture and Environment Reservation Project, and Emergency Humanitarian Relief Project are just naming a few. He was inspired to do so after a couple from America sponsored him as a boy when he still lived in a village--this enabled him to go to college and get a degree in teaching. If you want more information you can e-mail him at "nlmft@yahoo.com"
Sukhothai (Dawn of Happiness) flourished as Thailand's previous capital from the mid 13th century to the late 14th century. This era is labeled the "golden age" of
Thai civilization--the religious architecture and art of the time are considered to be the most classic of styles. In 1350, the mightier state of Ayutthaya exerted its influence over Sukhothai, it usurped all administrative power, leaving Sukhothai a deserted kingdom. In 1569, Ayutthaya fell to Burmese forces that thoroughly sacked and plundered the city, and forcibly removed much of Ayutthaya's population to Burma. The final result was the decapitated Buddha images and smouldering ruins left in Sukhothai.
It's about 330 km south of Chiang Mai and compared with other cities is, for lack of a better word--quiet. The most activity we stumbled upon was a market in the centre of town and a local dance performed on a small outdoor stage. But then again, we did not come for resounding bass beats or hoards of tourists. We came to see crumbling chedi's and massive buddha structures--the Sukhothai ruins. The historical park is one of the most impressive of Thailand's World Heritage sites. It includes the remains of 21 sites and large ponds within the nearly diminished old walls. There are an additional 70 sites within the 5 km radius! The ruins are divided into 5 zones--central, north, east, south,
Full on view of the Buddha image
The string on the wrist lead down to the ground, where a sash was eventually going to be strung up during the ceremony by one of the monks. and west--each of which has an ever increasing admission fee starting at 20B and ending at about 140B. The sites architecture is most typified by the classic lotus-bud stupa and other rich forms introduced and modified during the period. We took a local bus to the park at 7:00 am to beat the major
falang crowd, and managed to arrive there when the park was still empty of tourists! We considered renting bikes but ultimately chose a tuk-tuk to take us around (after we had been going for an hour I was really thankful we had, the temperatures rose and we probably would've gotten lost if we had had to follow the directions of the map we recieved). We visited mostly the main temples, or at least our tuk-tuk driver seemed to find the smaller ones unimportant and completely bypassed them.
The first temple we visited was called Wat Sorasak. The outstanding characteristic of this temple is the different pattern of Ceylonese chedi that was very popular during the Sukhothai period. An example of ths particular chedi is the round-shaped chedi with elephants encircling its base. This is due to the belief that elephants are the animals that support
Bloody massive!
A passage on both the left and right wall that leads to the top has been blocked so that it is no longer possible to view the inscriptions that line the tunnel ceiling. Buddhism. Another belief is that they are the creatures that reside at the foothill of Mount Sumeru which is the residence of the gods.
Wat Saphan Hin (The Temple of Rock Bridge) is situated at the top of a hill about 200 metres high. It was inscribed that His Former Majesty King Ramkhamhang rode on an elephant by the name of Rujakiri to pay his respects to the Buddha image Phra Attarot, during the new and full moon of every month. There was some form of ceremony occuring when we arrived, so we didn't linger for long.
Wat Si Chum is northwest of the old city and there sits a colossal 14.7 meters (48ft) Buddha image called Phra Atchana. The temple was built more than 700 years ago and is mainly a large square
mondop building, which houses the huge image. This one was my favorite of the other temples!
Wat Chedi Ngam has no evidence of when it was constructed but undoubtedly bears the architecture of the Sukhothai period. The ancient monuments include the main chedi in the shape of a bell on a square base with porches to enshrine the Buddha images on four sides
of its lower base. The foundations for a group of monk cells are located on the western side. The temple was excavated and restored in 1965.
Wat Traphang Nguen is situated to the west of Wat Mahathat. The main chedi is in a lotus-bud shape, there are 4 niches--each of them housing a plaster Buddha image.
Wat Mahathat is a remarkable and very important temple of Sukhothai and it consists of more than 200 chedis. The lotus-bud shaped chedi is the main of this temple. Wat Mahathat is the largest temple in the entire park! Eight standing Buddhas are let in to the protective niches on both sides of the
mondops. Numerous crumbling chedis are located around this impressive group of ruins, in which the ashes of the deceased members of the royal family were interred.
The next day we took the local bus to The Ramkhamhaeng National Museum. Under auspices of Thailand’s Fine Arts Department, Ramkhamhaeng National Museum features a variety of historical pieces found in Sukhothai and surrounding areas. Antique arts are the main focus of the museum and it displays document development during the pre-history of the Sukhothai area and throughout the era.
It gives an insight into people’s way of life during the era and also covers issues such as architecture and belief systems. We were obligated to put our belongings (which included our camera) into a locker because photographs were prohibited, although we were able to get it back and get a few snapshots of the outside.
After returning from the museum the clerk at the hotel desk handed us an invitation to a traditional Chinese festival celebrating His Majesty the King of Thailand! Although instead of being decked out in yellow (hundreds of Thai people wear yellow on a day-to-day basis to show their respect for The King) everyone was wearing bright red (although this is probably because it was a Chinese festival). It was very crowded and I'm assuming that the majority of Sukhothai must have come to celebrate.
All in all, I really need to let the pictures speak for themselves.
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