AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



WAT KAEO FA





Wat Kaeo Fa, or the Monastery of the Azur Glass, is a ruin located off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya in the Khlong Takhian Sub-district. The monastery was one of the many on the west bank of Khu Cham (1).


Wat Bandai Nak stood north, Wat Jaeng south on the other side of the moat and to the west was Thung Pak Kran (2).


The site is large and covered plentiful with old bricks. The monastic building is covered in vegetation, while a standing pillar is still visible as a lone witness of the past. To the west, remnants of a sizeable chedi-like structure consisting of bricks and laterite can be seen. The chedi as, the rest of the monastic site has been plundered in earlier times.


Its historical background and period of construction are unknown.


The 'Description of Ayutthaya', a document probably compiled early in the Bangkok era from the memories of people who had lived in Ayutthaya before 1767 CE, mentioned that the Cham of Wat Kaeo Fa weaved cloth. Merchants brought cloth from the Khaek and Cham of Wat Kaeo Fa and Wat Lotchong to sell at shops in the Betel Bag Market, also called Green-Cloth Market. [1]


The site is in geographical coordinates: 14° 19' 54.41" N, 100° 33' 54.11" E.





(View of the site of Wat Kaeo Fa)



Footnotes:


(1) Khu Cham, or the Cham Moat, is an existent canal situated off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya, running through the Samphao Lom and Khlong Takhian sub-districts. The canal splits off from the present Chao Phraya River about 500 meters east of Wat Phutthaisawan and runs south to join Khlong Takhian, nearly at the latter’s confluence with the Chao Phraya River.

(2) Thung Pak Kran is difficult to demarcate as the sub-district of Pak Kran, in my opinion, does not correspond with its old boundaries. Thung Pak Kran was an area southwest of the city of Ayutthaya bordered more or less on the north by Khlong Klaep leading to Wat Suren, on the east by the Lopburi River (Chao Phraya River), on the south partly by Khlong and Khlong Takhian—several canals cut through the area. North of Thung Pak Kran was Thung Prachet (Worachet).


References:


[1] Baker, Chris (2011). Before Ayutthaya Fell: Economic Life in an Industrious Society. Markets and Production in the City of Ayutthaya before 1767: Translation and Analysis of Part of the Description of Ayutthaya. Journal of the Siam Society. Vol. 99.



Selected PICTURES



Pictures taken January 2009 CE



MAPS



Map 1 - Detail of Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map 1926 CE. Wat Suwandararam, Ayutthaya.
Map 2 - Detail of a 2007 CE Fine Arts Department GIS map. Courtesy of the Fine Arts Department 3rd Region.
Map 3 - Google Earth.



When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
(Alexis de Tocqueville)





HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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