Discovering Ancient Ruins

A monk enters the vault in Wat Ratchaburana
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...Most sites around Ayutthaya are wats, or temples, and feature numerous prangs,  the Thai word for a conical shaped towers, reflecting Khmer influence. Much of the detail in the brick work can still be recognised through the crumbling remains and points to a timeless empire established in 1350 by King U-Thong. Once so spectacular it can even be compared with the splendour of the Aztecs and strength of the Romans.

It is late in the day when I spot the prang of Wat Phra Ram over the tree tops. Today the wat finds itself beside a modern day Ayutthayan intersection. It is a small single-prang wat built in the early-Ayutthaya period, where the main feature of a temple was the prang.

Wat Mahathat exhibits a small if not extraordinary feat of nature, The Head of a Sandstone Buddha.

I find it a rich experience being here alone, wandering over soft damp grass carpeting the ruins as the sun creates eerie shadows of trees through mysterious passage ways and over countless headless statues.

In 1767 when the Burmese sacked Ayutthaya, not only did they consider the enemy being the Thai people but also the many statues of Buddha placed around every wat’s walls. This resulted in each and every statue in Ayutthaya loosing it’s head to the Burmese sword.

From the adjacent lake to Phra Ram I can see the prangs of other wats not far away. Wat Ratchaburana and Wat Mahathat were both constructed in the middle-Ayutthaya period, where more emphasis was being placed on buildings surrounding the prang.

Today they are separated by a busy road, where I disembark as my tuk-tuk pulls over and I pay my driver.

Ratchaburana has an accessible vault deep inside its prang, which was not discovered for hundreds of years after the Burmese invasion.

As a group of visiting young monks climb the prang, I spy an opportunity for the perfect photograph. I position myself and wait patiently in the hot sun for them to emerge from the vault.

After fifteen minutes the possibility of an exit on the other side of the prang dawns on me so I get up to check. Touché. Fortunately there aren’t too many people around.

Wat Mahathat across the road is of similar size to Ratchaburana but exhibits a small if not extraordinary feat of nature. The Head of a Sandstone Buddha, which has been removed not by the Burmese but by the roots of a Bodhi tree and is now held securely in an impossible tangle...