Wat Chaiwatthanarum, Ayuthaya

Ayuthaya Thailand (population 90,000), the royal capitol of Siam from 1350 to 1767, has a fascinating history.  It’s located an hour and a half north of Bangkok.  It’s a cheerful little modern city built in an around a beautiful but sad old city.  In its day, Ayuthaya had a population of 1,000,000 and had a reputation for being one of the most amazing cities in the world … and the most “glittery.”  According to Kosoom, the well-traveled Thai lady who owns the lovely 100 year old teak Baan Lotus Guesthouse where I stayed, all of the Buddha statues in the city (we’re talking tens of thousands) and many of the temple stupas (again, the numbers are quite high) were covered in pure gold.  Many of the smaller statues were made entirely of gold.  When the sun glinted off of them, I can imagine that the city must have looked like a giant disco ball.

Burma, historically never on fabulous terms with its Siamese neighbor, invaded Ayuthaya in 1767 and utterly sacked the city. Except for the one temple in which the invading army was staying, the Burmese burned the entire city and destroyed all of the temples. They looted the smaller golden statues and melted the gilded outer layer from the rest.  Kosoom tells me that the gold Shwedagong pagoda in Rangoon (now Yangon) in modern day Burma/Myanmar was manufactured almost entirely from the gold melted by the Burmese in Ayuthaya and taken back to Burma.  

In addition to burning and looting the city and doing unimaginable things to its conquests, the Burmese army did the unthinkable.  Despite also being Buddhist, they melted golden Buddhas and decapitated the majority of the remaining stone ones.  Kosoom contends that this act of utmost disrespect is the reason for all the sorrow and bad luck currently experienced by that most unfortunate country.  The temple ruins in Ayuthaya still house the headless Buddhas.  Oddly, despite being headless, the statues still seemed to me to retain a curious life force. They continually drew my eye (and that of my camera) even after seeing hundreds.  

decapitated Buddha statues

Ayuthaya is surrounded on all sides by water and for this reason was selected to be the then capitol.  The king believed that the moat-like rivers provided strategic protection, making the city was undefeatable (in fact, that’s what the name Ayuthaya means).  Obviously, and very unfortunately for the Thais, he was wrong. 

The water did allow me to take a boat tour of the island city, however, on the first evening I was in town.  Due to global warming, Thailand’s rainy season, which normally ends in September, has drawn on into early November.  The excessiveness of the rains was very evident as our quaint, low-ceilinged boat made its way through the swift brown current.  The waters had already invaded some of the low lying riverside houses, but apparently unsatisfied, was greedily licking its chops over others, already creeping inches onto steps and patios.  It seemed to me that this town was just a few rains away from a serious flood problem.  Sadly, more rain is in the forecast.  Yet, none of the the families seemed to be taking any visible precautions against the waters.  I saw no sandbags, save at Wat Chaiwatthanarum, one important temple ruin site.  Instead, the families of these houses waved and smiled cheerfully at our boat as we puttered past.  As children will, many were making great use of the river’s proximity to their door treating the waters like personal right-in-your-backyard swimming pools.  

kids swimming in the river

Besides getting a voyeuristic peek into the lives of the Thai families who lived on the river, the tour itself was quite interesting. More precisely, the stops were interesting.  Our guide spoke very little English so we didn’t get much in the way of explanation for the three temples we visited. The guide would only quip, “Twenty minutes here” before turning us loose to plunder with our cameras. 

Each of our three stops was on the non-island side of the river.  The first stop on the tour was Wat Phananchoeng, a very active and modern temple.  Before entering the temple, we amused ourselves watching about ten young monks attempting to retrieve a gangplank that normally connected one of the docks to the mainland but which had been submerged by the waters in all the heavy rains.  

the bright lights and "over the top" feel of this "shrine" made me feel like I was in a casino

I wandered around the temple which had at least six different rooms.  As best I could tell, one had nothing to do with another (pretty much “pick your worship spot”) although I noticed that each seemed to get more glittery as they progressed.  The last couple of rooms seemed to me downright gaudy and I immediately dubbed the temple “Buddha visits Las Vegas.” With all the noise and flashing lights, I expected to see slot machines.  The machines were missing, but the opportunity to put money in little slots was not.  

The temple was filled with Thais. All that I spoke with were from Bangkok there to make merit.  I observed them doing so by ringing bells, placing flowers in vases, lighting candles and incense, depositing money in slots and into little note holders that stuck out of a bamboo tree, even placing strands of flowers on and applying gold leaf to many of the thousands of Buddha statues around the temple.  Oh yes, and praying.  In between all the merit making, the dutiful Thais posed for photos in front of the various Buddhas.  The “shhhh, you’re in a church” approach we’re accustomed to in the West doesn’t come into play here. Thais easily and naturally intermingle merit making with merry making.  In the background of all the merit making in one room was the constant sound similar to mariachis shaking.  The source of the percussion was a group of sticks being shaken together in a container.  I’m told that these sticks somehow reveal the week’s winning lottery ticket number.  Undoubtedly, the magic number seeker had made merit in some way before consulting the sticks. 

100 Buddha statues at Wat Putthaisawan

Twenty minutes wasn’t nearly enough in this religious carnival.  Although I didn’t understand most of what I saw and heard, I was still fascinated and could easily have spent an hour or more photographing and chuckling with amusement.  But alas, that’s the pitfall of group tours.  Twenty minutes was up.  Time to move on.  

The second stop was Wat Putthaisawan.  Although it wasn’t more quiet than Wat Phananchoeng, it was less bustling and the sounds were of a different sort.  We had arrived at prayer time and a multitude of monks were cloistered away inside one of the buildings chanting.  I’m not sure how long the chants went on, but they were still audibly perfuming the air when we left twenty minutes after we arrived. 

This temple contained ruins from Ayuthaya’s golden age and the monks’ chants provided a lovely, peaceful backdrop as I took in the sights.  At least it would have if I had been leisurely making my way through the sights. The first stop had given me a reality check on how quickly twenty minutes zips by, so I didn’t linger.  Rather, I practically ran (respectfully of course)  through the vast temple grounds which contained even more camera candy than the first Wat, trying to collect as many visual memories as possible and still be back at the dock on time.  I’m not used to being pressured by time when I photograph.  Although I’m a prolific photographer and naturally shoot fairly quickly, I also like to take time to look around and contemplate what I’m shooting.  Because I didn’t want to keep others waiting, the contemplation element was missing at this venue, but such is life.

head of the large reclining Buddha

I didn’t have time to count and confirm, but I was told that a newer section of this Wat shaped in a square with an open air courtyard contained 100 Buddha statues.  I noticed that each of them had a string tied to one of Buddha’s fingers and running up to the ceiling. I’m not sure what this symbolized, but there was no one around to ask … and I didn’t have time anyway.  Such a shame to be in a hurry.  

I scrambled through the courtyard area (snap, snap, snap with my camera) to my main goal - some old ruins that I had seen from the river.  There I found a number of lovely surprises.  Remnants of an old brick wall stood in a grassy courtyard. Peeking through some windows in the wall were a very large reclining stone Buddha kept company by four smaller seated Buddhas all of which were decked out in the traditional orange yellow robes.    

Beethoven Buddha

I peeked around the wall and saw that I could walk back to the Buddha statues. I wasn’t sure if it was required here, but just in case out of respect I ditched my shoes and visited the Buddhas up close.  Most of the visitors to the temple seemed to be concentrating on the first courtyard so I had this area all to myself.  Although I was hurrying, the absence of other people did make me feel like I could be a bit more contemplative as I clicked away.  

In another part of the ruins, sitting rather unceremoniously in front of a pile of rubble and  behind what looked like a trash bucket (but was actually a sandfilled clay pot in which worshippers could place incense) was an armless, legless statue that looked more like a quadruple amputeed Beethoven than Buddha.  But he had the orange robe on so I had to show respect to the poor chap.  

Once again, twenty minutes flew by and it was time to get back to the dock.  Just as I was headed that way, I noticed a rainbow in the sky right behind one of the old stupa ruins.  I couldn’t resist.  Click, click.  Our boat puttered away to the sounds of the monks’ lovely chants.

Wat Chaiwatthanarum should have been our final stop on the tour but it was inaccessible due to a wall of sandbags placed there because of the threat of flooding.  These temple ruins are probably the most fabulous in all of Ayuthaya and are a favorite sunset destination for many Thais and tourists.  The views from the boat were lovely, but unfortunately we had to settle for just that.

Wat Chaiwatthanarum from the river as we floated by

Wat Kasatthirat became the sunset substitute.  A small, modern temple with no obvious outstanding features (other than it was the temple in closest proximity to Wat Chaiwatthanarum), it clearly paled in comparison to Wat C.  When I have my camera in hand though, I can almost always find some point of at least minor interest to enjoy and photograph.  Sure enough, a collection of orange and silver umbrellas caught my eye; more so a group of ceramic roof tiles on which things had been written (prayers perhaps) before being used.  

Sunsets don’t last long in Southeast Asia (at least not at this time of year).  We went from daylight to dark within fifteen minutes.  So the rest of the boat tour was by the light of lamps at various riverside houses.  Not being able to see much or photograph at all, I think we were all ready to wrap up the tour which ended at the night market.  My fellow tour and guesthouse-mates were a lovely young Swiss couple and delightfuly sweet and energetic Canadian family (Mom, Dad and their three extremely polite little girls).  We’d all spent most of the tour wide-eyed or noses in cameras so it wasn’t until we docked at the market that we actually introduced ourselves and began to socialize.  We all managed to find different things to eat at the market and I commenced a progressive dinner party, joining the Swiss couple first and then migrating to the family table.  

ceramic tiles with prayers written on them

We all shared food with each other so that we got to experience different tastes.  I experimented with a beautiful looking steamed “something” wrapped in a banana leaf.  I was never sure what it was exactly but the it had the texture of a hotdog so I’m assuming ground meat of some kind molded into the leaf.  Probably it was hot at some point but was “room temperature” by the time I got to it.  I finished it (“If it doesn’t kill the Thais to eat it, it won’t kill me” is my current motto.) but didn’t inflict it on anyone.  

Back at Baan Lotus Guesthouse, I got an interesting history lesson from Kosoom about Ayuthaya, Thailand, her neighbors (Thailand’s; not Kosoom’s) and her family (Kosoom’s; not Thailand’s).  When she learned that I used to be an attorney, she excitedly told me that her father had also been a lawyer as well as a judge.  The house that she now used a hotel had been in her family for many generations.  She even pointed out to me the room in which she had been born.  Her name meant Lotus after the gorgeous lotus pond behind the house.  

Baan Lotus lotus pond

Kosoom was very well traveled and spoke excellent English.  She had been all over Southeast Asia and had visited Europe and the United States on several occasions.  She currently has two brothers living in the US, both of whom are generals in the US military.   

She was a font of information regarding travel in Southeast Asia had definite opinions about Thailand’s various neighbors as well as their former colunizers.  She admired the English in part because they left great roads in Burma.  She did not trust the French, frequently describing them as “tricky,” primarily stemming from the current land dispute between Thailand and Cambodia that has the two countries almost at war.  Kosoom told me that when the French occupied Cambodia, they also wanted the Eastern half of Thailand.  “My very clever king,” she called him, “gave France four towns so that the whole of Thailand could stay in one piece.” Yet the French wanted more and drew their maps to reflect Cambodian ownership of a particular temple, Preah Vihear, and the land surrounding it.  Although the French no longer occupy Cambodia, their actions are having present day repurcussions.  Based on maps drawn by the French during the colonial era, the International Court of Justice declared the lands to be Cambodian in 1962.

“This is ridiculous!” Kosoom exclaimed. “The only door and path to enter the temple is on soil that everyone agrees belongs to Thailand.  If the international court had come here and seen this, they would have known that the temple and the land it sits on also belongs to Thailand and that the French maps were misdrawn.”  She got pretty excited and angry discussing the matter.  For a minute, I thought that this fine, well-bred lady was going to spit if either of us said “France” one more time.

Her distaste for the French was excerbated by the fact that Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam have bad roads which she blames on their former “landlord.”  Although I was delighted to let another country take the fall for once, in all fairness, I pointed out that my country probably had a bit to do with the holes in the roads as well.  Kosoom would hear none of it and ended the conversation, bringing it full circle shaking her head and saying “the French are tricky.”    I had done my duty in making my previous observation.  Fine with me to let another country take the hit for a change.

I headed to my room and settled in with my laptop.  I had enjoyed a lovely day in Ayuthaya, but, on reflection, decided I hadn’t seen enough of this charming city.  In particular, I wanted to see the temple that had been off limits due to flooding (there was an entrance on the road side of the temple).  As I drifted off to sleep, I was happy that I would be around a day longer than originally planned.

Additional photos for this and other blog entries can be found on the “Photos of Her Adventure” page of this blog.