Wat Khao Phra Bat Noi

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Wat Khao Phra Bat Noi ( Thai วัด เขา พระบาท น้อย ; German: "Temple of the hill with the smaller footprint of Buddha") is the name of the ruins of a former Buddhist temple complex ( Wat ) in the west of the historic old town of Sukhothai in the UNESCO World Heritage Site Sukhothai Historical Park in Thailand .

location

Wihan of
Wat Khao Phra Bat Noi
(status: January 2014)
Octagonal chedi of
Wat Khao Phra Bat Noi
(status: January 2014)
Buildings of indefinite use
(status: January 2014)

Wat Khao Phra Bat Noi is located in the west of the old town of Sukhothai, a good two and a half kilometers as the crow flies outside of the western city gate (“Pratu Or”, “Or Gate”). It belongs to the chain of hills with the so-called monasteries of the forest monks , which topographically borders Old Sukhothai in the west. The closest neighboring temples are Wat Aranyik (200 to 250 meters northeast), Wat Chang Rop (230 to 290 meters east) and Wat Kamphaeng Hin (230 to 270 meters south). The entrance is located immediately west of Wat Chong Rop in the form of an elongated clearing that first extends about 250 m to the west and then bends to the south. The terrain rises by a total of ten meters.

Description and dating

The individual components of the temple complex follow the clearing described above. Specifically, these are a small assembly hall ( Wihan ), a chedi with a square floor plan, meditation cells for the monks, a building with an unspecified purpose and the base of a large, octagonal chedi.

The first chedi, unique in this construction in Sukhothai, rests with its brick construction on a laterite base with dimensions of 7.5 mx 7.5 m, which tapers upwards in three stages. This is followed by a floor with three further, also tapering steps, which are provided with niches on all four sides, which are closed at the top by cantilever arches . The niches once housed Buddha sculptures . The whole structure is crowned by a bell-shaped attachment, which is provided with a stucco cladding made of vertically corrugated strips. The once needle-shaped tip is no longer there. Due to the artistic design of the chedi, the temple is roughly assigned to the Ayutthaya period .

The Wihan, a brick structure with laterite columns, once housed statues of Buddha and reliefs of Buddha's footprints , which are now in the Ramkhamhaeng National Museum.

The architectural construction between the two chedis, the purpose of which is indefinite, was built from natural stone and brick and consists of a pedestal on which there is a small building with a square floor plan and a still fully preserved pointed roof.

The second, octagonal chedi is a massive laterite structure with a diameter of over 20 meters, the structure of which has unfortunately been lost.

literature

Web links

Commons : Wat Khao Phra Bat Noi  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wihan: 17 ° 1 '8.5 ″  N , 99 ° 40 ′ 17.2 ″  E
  2. ↑ Chedi with a square base: 17 ° 1 ′ 8.4 ″  N , 99 ° 40 ′ 16.9 ″  E
  3. ↑ Indefinite building: 17 ° 1 ′ 8.17 ″  N , 99 ° 40 ′ 15.7 ″  E
  4. ↑ Chedi with an octagonal base: 17 ° 1 ′ 7 ″  N , 99 ° 40 ′ 15 ″  E

Coordinates: 17 ° 1 ′ 7 ″  N , 99 ° 40 ′ 15 ″  E