Footnotes:
(1) Correctly written, it should be Wat Sri Pho, but in Thailand, the (r) is often omitted for example, in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya and Nakhon Si Thammarat as the consonant is in this cases not pronounced. 'Sri' comes from the Pali word 'Siri' (the language of the Tipiṭaka, which is the sacred canon of Theravāda Buddhism) and stands for luck, glory, wealth, beauty, splendour or magnificence. The word is honorifically only added at the beginning of proper names.
(2) 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."
(3) Khlong Nam Ya (Nam Ja) had its origin near the Takhian Canal (north and opposite Wat Samphao Lom) and its mouth near Wat Pak Nam Trai Samakkhi on the present Noi River. It was a canal connecting the old Lopburi River (encircling Ayutthaya) with the old bed of the Chao Phraya River before the latter was deviated in the mid-19th century towards Hua Laem, the northwestern point of Ayutthaya's city island. The old canal is largely silted and is known today as two stretches, Lam Rang Prakan (Khlong Pra Kan) and Khlong Ban Khlueng.
(4) Khlong Takhian is a still existing canal south of Ayutthaya's city island, running mainly through Pak Kran and Khlong Takhian sub-districts. The canal is named after the Malabar Ironwood, a tree often used for making boats and ship masts. The canal originates at the Chao Phraya River near the St Joseph Church in the former Cochin Chinese Settlement. It has its mouth further south, back in the Chao Phraya River, below the former Portuguese settlement and opposite the northern tip of Rian Island (Ko Rian). The canal was a man-made shortcut or 'Khlong lat' between two stretches of the old Lopburi River at a time the waterway was surrounding Ayutthaya, used by boats to avoid the heavy current of the river and the turbulent waters near the Bang Kraja confluence. Takhian is likely a corruption of the name of a former village called Ban Tha Khia near the mouth of the canal.
(5) Not many people realise the Chao Phraya River was not running on the west side of the city island in the Ayutthaya period. At that time, it was the Lopburi River that flowed around Ayutthaya. Today's Chao Phraya River ran through the Bang Ban Canal to Si Kuk and from there to Bang Sai (historical site: Chedi Wat Sanam Chai), where the Lopburi River joined the Chao Phraya River. At the time, the Chao Phraya River was situated about ten kilometres west of the centre of Ayutthaya. The city was linked to the ancient Chao Phraya River in the northwest of Ayutthaya via the Khlong Maha Phram and in the southwest via the Khlong Nam Ya. Steve Van Beeck (1994), in 'The Chao Phya: River in Transition" (Oxford University Press - New York.), writes that "It was not until 1857 that an alternative path was created [for the Chao Phraya River]. A 5-kilometre channel was dug from the entrance of Wat Chulamani to Ban Mai. The river responded by following this new course and abandoning the old one, in effect making a secondary river of the stretch that ran from Ban Mai, and into the Chao Phya Noi. Half as wide as the river above and below it, the 1857 Ban Mai shunt funnels the Chao Phya down to Ayutthaya."
