Wat Phra Si Sanphet
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Wat Phra Si Sanphet (also Sri Sanphet , Thai วัด พระ ศรี สรรเพชญ ) was the royal temple on the site of the old royal palace in Ayutthaya before the city was completely destroyed by the Burmese in 1767 . It was the largest and most beautiful temple in Ayutthaya, as the Wat Phra Kaeo in Bangkok also represents today.
Building history
From the founding of Ayutthaya in 1350 by King Ramathibodi I until 1448, the king's palace stood at this point, before King Borommatrailokanat had the palace moved a little further north and in 1448 ordered the construction of a wat on the old site, which was the Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai should be the same. His son, King Ramathibodi II , had two chedis built in 1492 in which the ashes of his father and his brother, King Borommaracha III. was buried. Another chedi was built under King Borommaracha IV in 1592.
1479 ( CS 841) was a great viharn built and "of the waxing moon in the 6th month Sunday, the 8th day," ordered the King Ramathibodi II. The preparation of a 16-meter-high gilded Buddha statue , the Phra Si Sanphet Phuttha was called . This statue was erected in 1483 ("in the year 845 CS in the year of the rat, on Friday the 11th of the 8th waxing moon"). The chronicler described her height as “8 wah high, the face 4 sok long and 3 sok wide, at the chest it was 11 sok . Metal weighing 53,000 Kati was used, 286 Kati of gold alone "(1 Wah was about 2 m long, 1 Sok about 50 cm, 1 Kati weighed about 1.2 kg, see also: Old weights and measures (Thailand) ). She was the object of the highest veneration. The gold leaf is to the tradition of a weight have had about 2 t. Other chronicles put the erection of the viharn and the casting of the statue 20 years later on 1499. Still others say that the viharn and statue are said to have been made by King Ekathotsarot (r. 1605–1610).
In 1741, King Borommakot had the temple renovated, "which took over a year". However, other sources speak of a period between 1742 and 1744.
Other members of the royal family were later buried here in Chedis.
This is the version of the "official" Thai historiography based on the study of the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab . Research by Piriya Krairiksh, President of the Siam Society in 1992 , shows a somewhat different picture. Piriya examined contemporary representations, including the painting "Judea" (now in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam ) and drawings by Johannes Vingboons, as well as reports by Engelbert Kaempfer (1727), Guy Tachard, Jeremias Van Vliet and others. Accordingly, the statue of "Prodigius Colossus" (Guy Tachard, 1685) was first made, then the viharn was built around him. According to Van Vliet's records, it is even entirely conceivable that the Phra Phuttha Si Sanphet was first created by King Prasat Thong (r. 1630–1655). The king is said to have replaced a possibly existing statue with the large standing statue.
use
Wat Phra Si Sanphet was a temple of the royal family and as such did not have a sanghawat , i.e. no living area for monks. The wat was used exclusively for royal ceremonies.
In 1767 the Burmese conquered the capital Ayutthaya and began the extensive destruction and looting of the numerous temples and other buildings, including Wat Phra Si Sanphet. They set the building on fire to melt down the gold.
The three chedis were also destroyed, but were renovated again in 1956 .
Worth seeing
In its last stage of expansion before its destruction, the temple was an impressive structure. In the center of the complex were the three chedis on a raised platform, which today are the only buildings that have been restored. Of all the others, only the foundation walls have been preserved.
The chedis are built in the classic, Ceylonese design, which is reminiscent of a bell. In each direction there are small chapels, to which steep stairs lead. The roofs of the chapels are in turn crowned with a miniature chedi. Each of the three chedis is assigned a mondop on the east side , in which there may have been Buddha's footprints .
The terrace of the chedi with the mondop was surrounded by a cloister ( Phra Rabieng ) , in which a hall was integrated in the west and east, an arrangement that can still be seen today in many temples in the country. The building to the west actually consisted of four individual viharns arranged in a cross around a mondop. The building to the east was the Viharn Luang, the largest building in the temple. In it stood the statue of Phra Phuttha Si Sanphet, which gave the temple its name.
Four other halls are grouped symmetrically around the Viharn Luang. To the north stood a viharn, which was a little smaller than the viharn luang, but still large enough to accommodate the 10 m high statue of Phra Phuttha Lokanat. To the east of it was the Phra Tinang Chom Thong Throne Hall.
The Viharn Pa Le Lei, in which there was presumably a seated Buddha statue, stood south of the Viharn Luang. To the east of it was the Phra Ubosot .
A high wall surrounded the entire area, and four gate passages in the four directions provided access to the temple. Inside along the wall were alternating small chedis and low pavilions ( sala ) . Some of these small chedis are still preserved today.
Rescue of the Buddha statues
King Phra Phutthayotfa Chulalok ( Rama I , r. 1782-1809) ordered the relocation of the remains of the statue Phra Phuttha Si Sanphet to Bangkok and, since it was irrevocably destroyed, locked it in a specially built chedi in Wat Phra Chetuphon . The approximately 45 m high chedi was then covered with green tiles. The king gave it the name Phra Chedi Si Sanphetchayadayan for inauguration .
Another standing Buddha statue, the Phra Phuttha Lokanat (roughly: Savior of the World ), which was commissioned by King Ramathibodi II around 1500 , was also brought to this temple around the same time. It was set up in the "Eastern Viharn".
swell
- Richard D. Cushman (Ed. David K. Wyatt): The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya . Siam Society, Bangkok 2000, ISBN 974-8298-48-5 (literal translation and direct comparison of seven chronicles available today, from the foundation to King Taksin).
- HRH Prince Damrong Rajanubhab: A History of Buddhist Monuments in Siam . Siam Society, Bangkok 1962. Translated from the Bangkok 1929 edition by Sulak Sivaraksa .
- Piriya Krairiksh: A Revised Dating of Ayudhya Architecture (II). Journal of the Siam Society, Vol. 80, Issue 2 . Bangkok 1992. ISSN 0857-7099 . Online (PDF, last accessed October 31, 2012; 1.4 MB).
- KI Matics: A History of Wat Phra Chetupon and its Buddha Images . Siam Society, Bangkok 1979.
Web links
- Brief description of Wat Phra Si Sanphet in English with illustrations
- Description in English
Individual evidence
- ^ Karl Döhring: Buddhist temples in Siam . Bangkok and Berlin 1920, 3 volumes (greatly expanded new edition 2014) ISBN 978-3-7357-3903-2 , pp. 65, 462.
Coordinates: 14 ° 21 ′ 21 ″ N , 100 ° 33 ′ 30 ″ E