Wat Khwang was located on Ayutthaya’s city island in the northeastern corner in Ho Rattanachai Sub-district. It was situated north of Wat Prasat and the Ho Rattanachai Canal (1). The monastery is often referred to as Wat Fang in old documents.
Hengpujaroen wrote that according to some old documents, the walls around the Chan Kasem Palace or Front Palace had a length of 50 Sen (2) or approximately 2000 m. The palace occupied thus an area roughly going from the Unmilled Rice Gate Fortress (Pom Pratu Khao Phluak) and Wat Tha Sai towards the Maha Chai Fortress, going down to the Ho Rattanachai Gate and running back along the Ho Rattanachai canal towards the Unmilled Rice Gate. The palace area should have included at least eight monasteries, one of which was Wat Tha Sai. The issue of such large palace ground as mentioned here was heavily discussed by scholars and rejected. [1]
A fortress being part of the defence wall erected around 1580 CE, stood east of the temple along the Front City Canal and was called Pom Wat Fang.
Nothing remains of the former monastery, which should have been where the present "Chomsurang Upatham School" is situated.
Its historical background and period of construction are unknown.
The main Buddha statue of this temple was moved to Wat Prasat.
The temple is mentioned in the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya in the period just before the first fall of the city in 1569 CE, when the King of Hongsawadi ordered the construction of a causeway from probably the vicinity of Wat Saphan Kluea towards Wat Fang.
"When the inventory of all the troop supplies ordered by the King completed, the King of Hongsawadi had preparations made for attacking the Capital and order causeways laid extending in towards the front ramparts of the city from three points from the positions of the Uparat the first was to be laid extending in to Fang Monastery and a second to Ian Village, and from the positions of the King of Ava a third was to be laid extending in to the corner of Kaeo Island." [2]
Close to Wat Fang monastery and to the mouth of Khlong Ho Rattanachai was one of the former five eastern ferries across the Front City Canal - linking the city with Wat Nang Chi on the opposite side. (3)
In the late Ayutthaya period (1629 - 1767 CE), shops and workshops were making and selling heads and skeletons of spinning wheels and chests for cotton around Wat Fang, and there was also a fresh market called the Wat Fang Market. [4]
Wat Khwang on the maps:
The site is shown on a 19th-century map named as Wat Fang (วัดฟัง). Wat Fang stood here outside the city walls, adjacent to the Wat Fang Fortress and east of Wat Prasat.
Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map drafted in 1926 CE indicates Wat Khwang (วัดขวาง) slightly in another position than Wat Fang shown on the 19th-century map. Wat Khwang is drawn northwest of Wat Prasat and seemingly on the premises of the Chomsurang School, or rather the Chomsurang School was built on the premises of Wat Khwang. 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.
Based on a 2007 GIS Fine Arts Department map, traces of Wat Kwang were found in geographical coordinates: 14° 21' 48.40" N, 100° 34' 38.20" E.
Footnotes:
(1) Khlong Pratu Ho Rattana Chai had its mouth at the Front City Canal (Khu Khue Na). The canal ran south of Wat Prasat towards Wat Senasanaram, where it met Khlong Makham Riang and continued towards Pratu Khao Pluak in the Ayutthayan period. The canal is called by the locals Khlong Wat Prasat due to the vicinity of that temple. There is a modern water gate at its junction with the main river.
(2) Sen is a traditional Thai unit of length equal to 40 m.
(3) In the Ayutthaya period, there were twenty-two ferry routes. In the eastern area, the four other crossings were: Tha Chang Wang Na to Tha Wilanda, north of Wat Khwang Fortress to Wat Taphan Kluea, South of Wat Pa Thon to Wat Phichai and north of Rachakrue Fortress to Wat Ko Kaeo. [3]
References:
[1] Hengpujaroen, Nantana (2003). The study of Chantharakasem Palace for developing the Management Plan. Bangkok: Silpakorn Fine Arts University.
[2] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 62. Source: Thonburi fragment (1779) Khurusapha (1963).
[3] Rachathanin, Phraya Boran. Athibai Phaenthi Phra Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya kap khamwinitjai khong Phraya Boran Racha Thanin. Explanation of the map of the Capital of Ayutthaya with a ruling of Phraya Boran Rachathanin - Revised 2nd edition and Geography of the Ayutthaya Kingdom. Ton Chabab print office. Nonthaburi (2007). p. 91.
[4] 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. p. 64.
