Sukhothai

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Today was mostly a travel day with about 6 hours total on the bus. We stop to visit with some rice farmers along the road. They can get $400-500 twice a year with each crop, assuming no floods like last year. This is tough work but their families have been doing it for generations..

Sukhothai is the first capital of Thailand (Siam) from 1238-1362. The ruins of the original city's temple ruins, Wat Mahathat, are supposedly the best preserved in Thailand, and they were spectacular. We saw so much here it's hard to get started.

It's World Heritage Site so there is a lot of protection of the current remains. There are 2 standing Buddhas there that are original to the site. There is also an original bronze Buddha but it was removed to a museum in Bangkok. What Buddha statues left, and it's only a handful, are in pieces. Hands were removed over the years causethee hand of a Buddha is very lucky. There are hundreds of pedestals where Buddhas once stood and that is all that's left. But it is amazing to see the complexity of the site.

Trivia: the King of Siam that re-discovered this site and began restoration was King Rama IV, the king of the King and I fame.

The site was abandoned in 1362 when the King at that time moved the capital to Ayutthaya, where we were yesterday.

Another older temple is on these grounds also that dates from the Cambodia-Khmer reign, pre-Thai. That makes it about a thousand years old. There are 3 surviving towers and they found bones of ox underneath. The ox is transport for the Hindu god. Buddhism took hold after the Khmer left.

There are 300 water wells used for the residential section next to the temple grounds. 1 well could serve 5-6000 people so this place was huge!

I guess thebiggest news is that we met Miss Thailand 2009 there. A documentary is being filmed on the grounds about the history of the temple and town and she is playing a consort to the King. That was our brush with fame for the day.

Back to the hotel for a massage!

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Photos

Temple at Sukhothai
surviving towers from Cambodia Khmer regime