AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



WAT KHOK SUNG





Wat Khok Sung, or the Monastery of the High Mound, was situated off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya in the Samphao Lom Sub-district (1).


The site can be found along road No 3469. In situ is a high brick mound covered in vegetation.


Wat Khok Sung stood east of Wat Thong and north of Wat Wihan Khian.


The monastery was about 200 meters off the east bank of the Khu Cham (2).


Its historical background and period of construction are unknown.


The site is mentioned on Phraya Boran Ratchathanin's map of 1926 CE and found on all Fine Arts Department maps.


Wat Khok Sung is in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 33.28" N, 100° 33' 57.13" E.





(View of Wat Khok Sung)



Footnotes:


(1) Sub-district called after the village Ban Samphao Lom near the Chao Phraya River. The village is on the Monthon Krung Kao map (1916 CE). John Bowring (1857, London, John W. Parker and Son, West Strand), in his book ‘The Kingdom and People of Siam’, wrote: "Between the modern and the ancient capital, Bangkok and Ayuthia, is a village called the “Sunken Ship,” the houses being erected round a mast which towers above the surface at low water."

(2) 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.



Selected PICTURES



Pictures taken February 2009 CE



MAPS



Map 1 - Detail of Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map 1926 CE. Wat Suwandararam, Ayutthaya.
Map 2 - Detail of a 1957 CE Fine Arts Department map. Amatyakul, Tri (1957). Guide to Ayudhya and Bang-Pa-In. Bangkok, Prachandra Press.
Map 3 - Detail of a 1974 CE Fine Arts Department map. Courtesy Dr Surat Lertlum, Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy.



Map 4 - Detail of a 1993 CE Fine Arts Department map. Courtesy Khun Supot Prommanot, Director of the 3rd Regional Office of Fine Arts.
Map 5 - Detail of a 2007 CE Fine Arts Department GIS map. Courtesy of the Fine Arts Department 3rd Region.
Map 6 - 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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