AYUTTHAYA HISTORICAL RESEARCH



THE WOODEN FORTS OF AYUTTHAYA





Simon de La Loubère (1642-1729 CE), a French diplomat leading an embassy to Siam in 1687 CE is the first to indicate a wooden fort, east of Ayutthaya on his map ‘Carte du cours du Menam depuis Siam jusqu'à la mer / copiée en petit d'après une fort grande faitte par Mr. de la Mare’ engraved by Ertinger, Franz (1640-1710 CE). This fort must be the ‘Thong Na Hantra Fort’ mentioned in the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. [1]


“Caophraya Maha Sena, in command of ten thousand men wearing green tunics and green hats, went out to encamp at Thòng Na Hantra Fort in Dòkmai Village.” [2]





(Detail of La Loubere’s map - 1693 CE)



The fort was situated in the fields in front of Ban Hantra, or the Village of the Division of the Seal, as Cushman translates it, thus east of Ban Hantra. (1) We find the indication of this fort also on John Crawfurd's map published in the ‘Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China, exhibiting a view of the actual State of these Kingdoms’ published in 1830 CE. As written in Crawfurd's appendix, the map was prepared by his friend Captain Taylor, who drew his materials from the Siamese authority, from La Loubère and Dr Francis Buchannan Hamilton thus, very sure the map was based on La Loubère/La Mare. [3]

Based on the detail in the map of La Loubère, it must have been a pretty large fort (if compared with the palace area on the same map) with four bastions. I presume this wooden fort was renovated with the help of the French, as it looks very much like a typical French fort design, as star-shaped with bastions and thus permitting defensive firing in several directions against the enemy.




(Detail of Crawfurd’s map – 1828 CE)



The fort was a forward army headquarters for defence purposes of the city and must be looked for east of the present Asian Highway. The fort must have been destroyed either in 1760 or 1767 CE at the fall of Ayutthaya by the Burmese. Maybe LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) could help correctly position this fort.


I presume there were wooden forts in the cardinal directions around Ayutthaya. The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya mentions the Thai Khu Fort and the Campa Fort.


The Thai Khu Fort stood likely in the south, as the area is still called Thai Khu, and lanes bear the same name with an additional numeral.


The Campa Fort was probably in the west of Ayutthaya, below the Maha Phram Canal (2) in the area of Ban Pom (บ้านป้อม - Village of the Fort). On a 19th-century map of Ayutthaya, based on the content of the ‘Description of Ayutthaya’, there is a fort named ‘Pom Jampaphon’ in a location where there was never a fort. This fort could have been the forward headquarters in the west, named ‘Pom Campa’ in the chronicles and thus likely a miswriting in the old texts.


“Phraya Phra Khlang, in command of ten thousand men wearing yellow tunics and yellow hats, encamped at Thai Khu Fort. Phra Sunthòn Songkhram, in command of ten thousand men wearing black tunics and black hats, encamped at Campa Fort.” [4]


The Thai Khu and Campa Forts are only mentioned in the RCA during the 16th century. There is no proof these forts survived the first fall of Ayutthaya in 1569 CE and were restored after.





(Cannon at the Chanthara Kasem National Museum - April 2015 CE.



Footnotes:


(1) I could not locate Ban Dokmai in the Hantra Sub-district.

(2) The Maha Phram Canal is situated northwest of Ayutthaya in the Bang Ban Sub-district. The waterway is, at present, not much more than a moat, running north of Bang Ban's district office towards Ban Pom. The Maha Phram Canal runs between Wat Khanon and Wat Rat Bua Khao and joins there the Chao Phraya River. The canal was dug to give Ayutthaya access to the Chao Phraya River, which in the Ayutthaya period ran through the present Bang Ban Canal, a few kilometres west of the city. This western entry/exit of Ayutthaya was very important as the waterway was used to travel to the northern cities. The Maha Phram Canal started north of Ban Kop Jao, ran through Ban Maha Phram and had its mouth near Wat Khanon in Ban Pom. The canal joined here with a waterway coming down from Ban Mai (Makham Yong), which ran into the Lopburi River at Hua Laem (Cape Head), northwest of Ayutthaya City, in front of Sattakop Fortress. The Catholic Seminary of the Holy Angels, established by the French in the 17th century, was situated on the canal's southern bank at Ban Maha Phram.


References:


[1] Du Royaume De Siam, par Monsr. De La Loubère, Envoye extraordinaire du Roy auprès du Roy de Siam en 1687 & 1688. Tome Second. A Amsterdam, Chez Abraham Wolfgang, près de la Bourse, 1691. (English version 1693 CE).

[2] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 32.

[3] Crawfurd, John (1828). Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin-China: exhibiting a view of the actual State of these Kingdoms. H. Colburn and R. Bentley. London.

[4] Cushman, Richard D. & Wyatt, David K. (2006). The Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya. Bangkok: The Siam Society. p. 32.



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





HISTORY OF AYUTTHAYA



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