WAT TAMA





Wat Tama (1) was located off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya in the Samphao Lom Sub-district (2). The site was on the west bank of Khu Cham (3). Wat Tawet stood to its north, while Wat Bandai Nak was to its south.


There are no traces of the monastery above ground level.


Historical data about the monastery and its construction are unknown.


The name of this sanctuary gives the impression of being a Muslim site and could have been a mosque or a Muslim prayer house (Surau).


The area along the banks of Khu Cham in the Ayutthaya period was populated by the Cham people, primarily Muslims who migrated from the coastal regions of Vietnam and Cambodia along the South China Sea.


In the 'Description of Ayutthaya', a document probably compiled early in the Bangkok era from the memories of people who had lived in Ayutthaya before 1767 CE, it is written that the Cham living in Thai Khu Village, south of the city, weaved and sold lantai mats, a high-quality soft mat made from a type of rattan, and samuk punnets, small basketwork containers. The Cham of Wat Kaeo Fa weaved cloth. Merchants brought cloth from the Khaek and Cham of Wat Kaeo Fa and Wat Lotchong to sell at shops in the Betel Bag Market, also called Green-Cloth Market. [1]


The site is not indicated on a 19th-century map, nor Phraya Boran Ratchathanin's map drafted in 1926 CE, but features on a 1974 CE Fine Arts Department map.


Based on a 2007 CE FAD map, the site was in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 8.13" N, 100° 33' 47.84" E.



Footnotes:


(1) Maybe derived from มหาตมะ (มะหาดตะมะ), a high-minded person, one who has supernatural power.

(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) 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. References: [1] 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.