AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



WAT WIHAN KHAO





Wat Wihan Khao, or the Monastery of the White Prayer Hall, is off the city island, in the northeastern area of Ayutthaya, in the Hantra Sub-district. Wat Khok (defunct) stood to the north, Wat Ayothya to the east, Wat Pradu (defunct) to the south, and the railway to the west.


In situ is a brick mound covered in vegetation and the remnants of a bell-shaped chedi. Its style is associated with the middle Ayutthaya period (1488-1629 CE), although there are no records of its original construction or historical context.


The chedi of Wat Wihan Khao stands alongside the large chedi of Wat Ayothya. The site has been the target of treasure farming in the past, as evidenced by the many holes looters have dug into this chedi. One hole is burrowed all the way through, so that you can see the sky on the other side. Other holes have caused large cracks. Given that seasonal flooding is common in this area, the temple’s stability is in question. There are traces of an east-oriented, unexcavated monastic structure, with shattered pieces of Buddha images.


The site is located at the following geographical coordinates: 14° 22' 4.78" N, 100° 35' 11.06" E.





(View of the chedi of Wat Wihan Khao - Picture taken February 2009 CE)



Latest


The site of Wat Wihan Khao is part of an archaeological project budgeted at 3,190,000 baht and initiated by the Office of Fine Arts Region 3. The project comprises the excavation, restoration, and preparation of restoration plans for the ancient site of Wat Wihan Khao. It began on 12 September 2025 and will be finalised on 9 May 2026 CE.


I visited the site, about 150 m long and 55 m wide, on 1 March 2026. A section of the west side of the temple grounds was likely cut during the construction of the Bangkok–Ayutthaya Railway in the 1890s (1).


The most visible part of the site, the chedi, stood east of a large monastic structure, either a prayer hall (vihara) or, more likely, an ordination hall (ubosot). The hole in the chedi was filled with bricks, and the structure now has metal supports. (2)


An inner wall surrounded the brick chedi and the elevated monastic hall. Outside the inner wall, many other structural foundations are visible. At first sight, there was also an outer wall surrounding the Buddhist complex. Large broken pieces of Buddha images, including part of a Buddha head, lay on top of the main monastic structure.


Two excavated lime pits were visible, and I suppose there must be traces of a local kiln somewhere, as the bricks and tiles were usually made in situ.


A small section of a brick road in the classic Ayutthaya style was seen on the south side, leaving the question of where it headed.


As the excavation project has been ongoing for a few months, we will have to wait for the site’s ground plan to be drawn before we can assess its significance. I have to say, I was rather impressed by this large site, about half the size of Wat Maha That or Wat Ratcha Burana in Ayutthaya.


On a detail of a 2007 Fine Arts Department GIS map, a temple was also indicated nearby as Wat Sing Narai. I mentioned that the denominations of Wat Sing Narai and Wat Wihan Khao on this map should be swapped. It remains to be confirmed whether Wat Sing Narai in this area actually existed. In any case, the small brick road discovered on the site seems to lead to what is supposedly Wat Sing Narai. Time will tell.





(View of the excavation site of Wat Wihan Khao - Picture taken March 2026 CE)



Many historians believe, and publications indicate, that Wat Ayothya was once one of Ayutthaya's principal temples, known as Wat Deun or Wat Doem. Jeremias Van Vliet, a Dutch merchant of the VOC, wrote in 1638 CE:


“Within the jurisdiction of Judia are the four principal temples of the whole country namely, the king’s temple, Wat Syserpudt, the Nappetat, Wat Deun (which temple is devoted to the moon and where the highest school is established), and Thimphiathey.” [1]


Although there is currently no valid proof that Wat Doem, as mentioned by Van Vliet, was the location of Wat Ayothya, there is also no indication that Wat Ayothya was dedicated to the moon, nor that any ecclesiastic high school was situated here before.


It is clear from the ground plan and the aerial view that Wat Ayothya was a large monastery in earlier times. I mentioned earlier that the ruins of the monastery called Wat Wihan Khao may once have been part of this monastery, with the premises clearly aligned with the monastic structures of Wat Ayothya.





(View of the excavation site of Wat Wihan Khao - Picture taken March 2026 CE)



Footnotes:


(1) The Bangkok–Ayutthaya railway was part of the first state railway line in Siam, initiated during the reign of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V). On 9 March 1891 CE, Rama V issued a royal proclamation ordering the construction of the line north from Bangkok. The project was carried out in the 1890s, and the first section—Bangkok to Ayutthaya—was completed and opened to service in 1897 CE. This marked the beginning of Thailand’s state railway system, with Ayutthaya among the earliest provincial destinations connected to the capital by rail.(2) The Ayutthaya monasteries were sacked and plundered by the Burmese and further dismantled after the fall of Ayutthaya to reconstruct the Siamese capital in Bangkok. Most of the wall and the forts were dismantled during the reign of King Rama I (1782-1809 CE), when the bricks were taken to construct the city walls of the new capital in Bangkok. In 1784 CE, bricks from the ruins of Ayutthaya were used to build a barrage in the Lat Pho Canal at Phra Pradaeng to halt the intrusion of saline water farther inland. Another round of collecting building material occurred in the reign of King Rama III (1824-1851 CE), when remaining bricks and laterite stones, including those of the Thamnop Ro causeway and the Elephant Bridge, were sent down to Bangkok to be used in the construction of a giant stupa, a copy of Ayutthaya's Chedi Phukhao Thong, called Wat Saket, which collapsed into rubble. Ayutthaya's temple bricks were also used to strengthen the bed of the Bangkok-Ayutthaya-Lopburi railway track at the end of the 19th century. When, in the last century, the demand for antiques increased, and the amulet markets mushroomed, Ayutthaya's ruins were plundered one more time. As witnesses recount, during the fifties and early sixties, locals in the Ayutthaya area commonly collected bricks from the ruins. The Department of Religious Affairs agreed to allow merchants to excavate bricks from abandoned temples and load them onto boats for sale. The bricks were locally used to help expand other temple sites, but were mostly sold to contractors and shipped in large quantities, as there was demand from Bangkok. Trucks and boats from Bangkok collected the bricks at 20 Baht a load.


References:


[1] Baker, Chris Pombejra, Dhiravat na Van Der Kraan Alfons & Wyatt, David K. (2005). Van Vliet's Siam. Silkworm Books. pp. 120, 155.



Selected PICTURES



Pictures taken February 2009 CE



Selected PICTURES



Pictures taken March 2026 CE



MAPS



Map 1 - Detail of a 1974 CE Fine Arts Department map. Courtesy Dr Surat Lertlum, Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy.
Map 2 - Detail of a 1993 CE Fine Arts Department map. Courtesy Khun Supot Prommanot, Director of the 3rd Regional Office of Fine Arts.
Map 3 - Detail of a 2007 CE Fine Arts Department GIS map. Courtesy of the Fine Arts Department 3rd Region.
Map 4 - Google Earth.



When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.
(Alexis de Tocqueville)





HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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