Wat Tha Rap, or the Monastery of the Flat Landing, was located off the city island in the southern area of Ayutthaya in the Samphao Lom Sub-district (1).
It was situated east and near Wat Phutthaisawan, squeezed between the latter and the Khu Cham (2).
Pinpointing the exact spot of this site is not easy, as well as its correct name.
A 19th-century map and a 1974 CE Fine Arts Department (FAD) map call the site Wat Tha Rap or the Monastery of the Flat Landing.
The 1993 and 2007 CE FAD maps mention Wat Tha Sai (Monastery of the Sand Landing).
In January 2009 CE, I visited the Wat Phutthaisawan School. On its premises, near the bank of the Chao Phraya River, an old brick wall became visible due to river bank erosion and flooding of the river (14° 20' 27.12" N 100° 33' 36.59" E). This brick wall could have been the outer wall of Wat Tha Rap, as indicated on the 1974 CE FAD map.
In April 2011 CE, the construction of a new embankment was ongoing in this spot and this brick wall unfortunately disappeared.
Its historical background and construction period are unknown, but we know there was a boat ferry near the mouth of the Chakrai Noi Canal on the west bank in connection with the landing at Wat Tha Rap.
In the manuscript 'Testimony of the King from Wat Pradu Songtham', a document likely compiled in the early Rattanakosin period, it is written that there was a land market at Wat Tha Rap in front of the house of Jao Sua Chi. There was a long row of sixteen two-storey brick houses with shops in the lower storey and living quarters above at the entrance to this market was an iron forge, a shoe workshop, and a maker of red pipe tobacco. [1]
The site is not indicated on Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map drafted in 1926 CE.
Based on the 2007 CE FAD map, Wat Tha Sai was in geographical coordinates: 14° 20' 29.05" N, 100° 33' 43.12" E, near the Medina Tussalihat Mosque.
(Old bricks on the premises of the Phutthaisawan School)
