In 1637 CE, King Prasat Thong wanted to rebuild Wat Chi Chiang Sai, but it was prevented by the dissuasion of the mandarins and the Brahman priests, who said that it was not a lucky time.
But the ‘King of the Golden Castle’ was too eager to look for the fabulous treasures which were said to be buried under this temple. In 1639 CE - after the millennium passed - he ordered the main copper Buddha image - the present Phra Mongkon Bophit - to be moved a few tens of meters and razed the Chi Chiang Sai monastery to the ground. The temple was demolished and levelled, and its location received a new function as a royal cremation ground called "Sanam Na Jakrawat".
A new structure was built to cover Phra Mongkhon Bophit. The Brahmans professed that the King would die before its finalisation because "the rebuilding was not begun out of pure devotion, but out of His Majesty’s hope of finding great treasures in the demolition of the former temple". Finally, the old Kalahom survived Wat Chi Chiang Sai's curse, the new Buddhist millennium, and the prophecies of the Brahmins, as he died of old age in 1656 CE. [5]
In the Vingboons atlas, we find a watercolour (1) painting named "Afbeldinge der stadt Iudiad Hooft des Choonincrick Siam". In this painting, south of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, we find a large circular building. This building is likely the structure King Prasat Thong built to house Phra Mongkhon Bophit after he razed Wat Chi Chiang Sai.
Regarding the translation of the name of Wat Chi Chiang Sai, I remain in doubt. I do not have the Siamese writing of the name from the Luang Prasoet chronicle. Nevertheless, I want to give it a tentative translation after the Dutch wording. "Chi" could come from the Thai word "ศรี", meaning "glorious". "Chiang" I tend to translate as "city", while "sai" could have been "ชัย", "victorious". Putting it all together, Wat Chi Chiang Sai would be tentatively translated as the "Monastery of the Glorious City of Victory" as Van Vliet wrote ", In Judia, in the courtyard of the king's palace, stands a temple of such extraordinary size and height that a similar cannot be found in the whole country." Wat Chi Chaing Sai could as thus have been named after the City of Ayutthaya.
Some historians assume Wihan Klaep was an element of Wat Chi Chiang Sai, but I doubt this. I believe the small temple was simply part of the crematory ground called ‘Sanam Na Jakrawat’, or it was established as a memorial for the last King of Ayutthaya, Ekathat (reign 1758-1767 CE) who was buried here by the Burmese (1) and later exhumed and likely cremated here by King Taksin after the fall of Ayutthaya. [7]