Architecture
The ordination hall is in early Rattanakosin architectural style, visible at the three entrance doors. This building stands on a slightly curved foundation in the middle of the longer side in the style of a Chinese junk, as is typical of the late Ayutthaya and early Rattanakosin periods. The Buddha image in the attitude of subduing Mara is enshrined inside the building. It is 2 meters tall with a width of lap span of 1.5 meters. To the back of the Buddha image is the mural painting portraying the Buddhist cosmology and on the front wall showing the Buddha subduing Mara. Above the windows along the wall is the mural painting of deities. The walls between each window have mural paintings from Jatakas, tales about the Buddha’s last ten lives before enlightenment. All the mural paintings were probably painted in the reign of King Rama I and were repainted continuously. The ordination hall has double plate boundary stones.
The principal stupa is bell-shaped, located on a triple torus moulding, surrounded by elaborated recessed stupas, emulating the style of the Ayutthaya stupa. The stupa is on a platform with a balustrade, which is typical of the art style in the reign of King Rama IV.
The vihara was likely constructed in the reign of King Rama IV because the royal crown (Mongkut), the emblem of King Rama IV, appeared in the architecture at that time. The monastic building is similar to the ordination hall, except it has a straight-line foundation instead of a slight curve in the middle of the longer side as in the style of a Chinese junk. Inside there are the mural paintings of King Naresuan’s biography painted by Phraya Anusat Chitrakorn (Chan Chittakon) in the renovated hall in the reign of King Rama VII.
Behind the vihara is a sizeable bell-shaped chedi in the Ayutthaya style sitting on an upraised platform with a staircase on the west side. Ten small chedis, painted white, surround the main stupa.
On the southeast corner of the monastery is a renovated bell tower with multiple entrances at its base. The outer monastery walls have an entry in each cardinal direction except on the east side, where there are two entries.
Wat Suwandararam on the maps
I believe Wat Thong, the later Wat Suwandararam, shows on the Iudea painting and the "Afbeldinge Der Stadt Iudiad Hooft Des Choonnicrick Siam" drawing of the Dutch cartographer and watercolourist Johannes Vingboons (1616-1670 CE). He based his watercolour paintings and maps on reports and sketches made by sailors and merchants on their travels under the orders of the Dutch East India Company. These paintings would be the earliest depiction of the monastery. In both paintings, the temple is shown with a monastic building and a chedi, surrounded by an outer wall. These drawings date back to 1665 CE. The case being, it is unlikely that the grandfather of Rama I ordered the construction of this temple as this temple appears already on drawings made around 1665 and based on earlier information. There is also a possibility that the location could match with the ‘Chinese Pagodas’ of Bellin’s map, but I do not know of anything excavated in the Chumchon Pom Phet School area.
Engelbert Kaempfer also shows Wat Thong on his sketch and draft map. Kaempfer (1651-1716 CE) was a medical doctor working for the Dutch VOC (Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) who surveyed Ayutthaya in June 1690 CE. Wat Thong is marked with a double stupa on the west side of a plain path leading north from the harbour to Pa Thon Road.
Bellin's map shows a slightly different landscape. Wat Thong stands here at the confluence of the side canal of Khlong Nai Kai (Makham Riang Canal) and a canal leading from the temple to another canal running parallel with Pa Thon Road through a rural area. Kaempfer has a path through a rural area, while Bellin has a small waterway, maybe a ditch north of the temple. South of the temple is a path leading from the harbour to the temple, identical to Kaempfer's sketch. Bellin's location of Wat Thong corresponds to the site still surrounded by water, east of present Wat Suwandaram. Bellin’s map ‘Plan De La Ville De Siam’. Jacques-Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772 CE) was one of the most important cartographers of the 18th century. He was a hydrographer and 'ingénieur hydrographe' at the French 'Dépôt des cartes et plans de la Marine'. The map ‘Plan De La Ville De Siam’ of the French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin (1703-1772 CE), based on a Jesuit survey in 1687 CE and published as plate No. 4 in volume 9 of the 1752 CE French edition of Abbé Antoine François Prévost's l'Histoire Générale des Voyages.
A 19th-century map of an unknown drafter shows Wat Suwan north of Pom Phet and surrounded by water linking Khlong Makham Riang via the side canal to the Front City Canal (later Pa Sak River). The monastery is not indicated with a stupa.
Phraya Boran Ratchathanin's map of 1926 CE shows Wat Suwan, but not anymore surrounded by water. The canal linking the side canal of Khlong Makham Riang to the Pa Sak River is still visible. Today this canal has been filled in. Phraya Boran (1871-1936 CE) was the Superintendent Commissioner of Monthon Ayutthaya from 1925 till 1929 CE.
Wat Suwandararam was one of the three religious schools in Ayutthaya where Dhamma courses were taught at a primary or secondary level (Nak Tham and Barian), the other two being Wat Senasanaram and Wat Phanan Choeng. King Mongkut believed that better education would contribute to his reform movements, so monastery schools were set up across the provinces and monks were encouraged to learn modern pedagogical methods. [4]
Wat Suwandararam is classified as the second grade of a second-class royal temple with the suffix 'Ratchaworawihan' in its name.
The monastery is in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 55.11" N, 100° 34' 42.28" E.