Wat Khok Dokmai of the Monastery of the Flower Mound was located on Ayutthaya’s city island in Ho Rattanachai Sub-district near a locality called Bang Ian.
The monastery was situated between Khlong Na Mueang (1) or the Front City Canal (at present the Pa Sak River) and Khlong Makham Riang (2), just west of Wat Pho Ngam, which was situated on the east bank of the Front City Canal.
The monastery stood in the middle of a slightly elevated area. The area has been completely urbanised, and no traces of the former temple were found above ground level.
Historical data about the monastery and its construction are unknown.
Wat Khok Dokmai on the maps
Wat Khok Dokmai shows on a 19th-century map by an unknown surveyor but is not named. The monastery stood south of Wat Langka, northwest of Wat Pa Ek, and west of Wat Pho Ngam.
The site also features on Phraya Boran Rachathanin’s (PBR) map of 1926 CE. The monastery stands southeast of Wat Langka and north of Ban Pa Thon. Phraya Boran (1871-1936 CE) was the Superintendent Commissioner of Monthon Ayutthaya from 1925 till 1929 CE but occupied important functions since 1896 CE in Monthon Ayutthaya.
The 1974 CE Fine Arts Department map indicates Wat Khok Dokmai, but this map is more or less based on PBR’s map. The 1993 CE FAD map shows the temple but in a different location than the 2007 CE GIS FAD map.
The last Fine Arts Department (FAD) locates the temple in geographical coordinates: 14° 21' 24.05" N, 100° 34' 41.85" E.
Footnotes:
(1) Khlong Na Mueang or Khu Khue Na (Front Moat) ran east of the city of Ayutthaya. The former moat is said to have been dug in the reign of King Ramathibodhi I (U-Thong). It was initially a defensive moat or could have been a separation ditch (borderline) between the ancient city of Ayodhya situated in the oxbow of the Pa Sak River and the new established city of Ayutthaya in the oxbow of the Lopburi River. The Royal Palace stood on the premises of the present ruins of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, and the earthen walls surrounding the city were likely not further than the moat, which became later known as Khlong Pratu Khao Pluak.
(2) Khlong Makham Riang, or the Canal of the aligned Tamarind Trees, was before called Khlong Nai Kai. It is a still existent canal situated east on Ayutthaya's city island. The canal was a shortcut in the oxbow of the old Lopburi River. It has today its origin at Khlong Ho Ratana Chai below Wat Senasanaram and the Front Palace, and its mouth at the present Chao Phraya River, west of Phet Fortress. At the mouth was one of the eleven water gates of Ayutthaya called Pratu Nai Kai. The southern exit, which has today a water regulator, has been altered, as the original mouth of the canal was about 170 metres more south, close to Pom Phet. Khlong Makham Riang is one of the three large canals running north to south, of which two still are in existence.
