WAT TALUM PHUK





Wat Talum Phuk was located off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya in the Samphao Lom Sub-district (1). In situ is a brick mound.


The monastery is likely named after a small tree of the species Randia uliginosa (Retz.) Poir or Tamilnadia uliginosa (Retz.) Tirveng & Sastre in the Rubiaceae family. Wat Talum Phuk was situated southeast of Wat Wihan Khian and east of Wat Phra Non (1).


There were no traces of any brickwork, although fragments of broken Buddha images still can be found. It is quite a large site, with broken bricks embedded in the soil over a large area.


Its historical background and period of construction are unknown.


The monastery is not mentioned on Phraya Boran Ratchathanin's map drafted in 1926 CE, nor on any Fine Arts Department maps, and the site's identification cannot be confirmed.


Wat Talum Phuk was in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 29.29" N, 100° 34' 1.97" E.





(Buddha image near the site of Wat Talum Phuk)



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."