Thailand - Ayutthaya - Temple Wat Maha That - 2018. in (4K)
Wat Maha That or the Monastery of the Great Relic is located on the city island in
the central part of Ayutthaya in Tha Wasukri sub-district. The temple is situated on the
corner of the present Chikun Road and Naresuan Road. The monastery stood on the
west bank of Khlong Pratu Khao Pluak, an important canal, which has been filled up
somewhere in the early 20th century. In ancient times the temple was likely fully
surrounded by canals and moats. The structure has been registered as a national historic
site by the Fine Arts Department on 8 March 1935 and is part of the Ayutthaya World
Heritage Historical Park.
The exact date of the establishment of Wat Maha That is difficult to assess.
The Luang Prasoet version of the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya put its construction in
736 Chula Sakarat (CS) or 1374 of the Christian Era, during the reign of King
Borommaracha I (r. 1370-1388), somehow 23 years after the establishment of
Ayutthaya. The chronicles mention that the central prang had a height of 46 meter.
In 736, a year of the tiger, King Bòromracha I and the Venerable
Thammakanlayan first erected the great, glorious, holy jeweled reliquary,
towering one sen and three wa, to the east of the royal lion gable.
Later versions of the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya state that Wat Maha That was
established by King Ramesuan (r. 1388-1395) after his attack of Chiang Mai in 1384
(746 CS). But this date is not corroborating with his period of reign.
Then the King went out to observe the precepts at Mangkhalaphisek Hall. At ten
thum he looked toward the east and saw a Great Holy Relic of the Lord Buddha
performing a miracle. Calling the palace deputies to bring his royal palanquin, he
rode forth. He had stakes brought and pounded into the ground to mark the spot.
The great holy reliquary which he built there was nineteen wa high, with a nine-
branched finial three wa high, and named the Maha That Monastery. Then the
King had the Royal Rite of Entering the Capital performed and festivities were
held in the royal residence.
In general, historians bet on the two horses and take as granted that the construction of
the monastery was started by King Borommaracha I and completed in King Ramesuan’s
reign. In the second version the prang was 38 meter high with on top, a finial of 6 meter.
An earlier source , Jeremias Van Vliet, a chief merchant of the Dutch East India
Company in Ayutthaya, wrote in his Short History of the Kings of Siam in 1640, that it
was Prince U-Thong, the later King Ramathibodhi I, who built Wat Maha That.
Then Thao U Thong began to re-establish the city on the fifth day of the waxing
fourth moon (in our reckoning being the month of March) in the Year of the Tiger
and called it Ayutthaya. He also built three temples which are still considered to be
the most important in the whole kingdom: the Nopphathat, the most holy;
Ratchaburana, the same size and shape as the Nopphathat but not visited by the
kings because of a prophecy that the first king who goes in there will die shortly
thereafter; and Wat Doem still the foremost [monastic?] school. After Thao U
Thong had built the aforementioned city, he had the entire population called
together and declared himself king.