a field trip to Ayutthaya: Wat Phra Si Sanpeth

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I'm thrilled to be on my second UNESCO Heritage Site for the year. This time, I was in the Wat Phra Si Sanphet in Ayutthaya, which was revered as the holiest temple in the former royal palace of the Kingdom of Siam. Ayutthaya, the former capital of the kingdom, was razed to the ground by the Burmese in 1767, leaving the palace in ruins. UNESCO deemed it a heritage site because of its role in the development of Thai art.


What Phra Si Sanphet is remarkable because it has three chedis (mound-like buildings that serve as chapels). Our tour guide said that there used to be a huge Buddha statue in the premises but it was destroyed along with everything else in this palace complex.


Today's calm atmosphere must be a far cry from its violent past. Under the shade of what seems to be an acacia tree, we have a great view of a pond and the gardens surrounding it.


However, the presence of headless statues serves as a reminder that war happened here three centuries ago. The Burmese occupation was short-lived, however, because it was also fighting the Chinese on another front.


The three chedis are all that survived through the centuries of peace and turmoil. A closer look at their details reminded me of Dr Paul Zafaralla talking about Chinese-stylised clouds along the sides of the Paoay Church. These chedis aren't, in any way, Earthquake Baroque.


Instead, they appear to take on a bell-like shape, with stairs from the ground to the entrance. The presence of gardeners just illustrate how big these chedis really are. Unlike the Disney castles, the closer I got to the chedis, the larger they became.


It's my first time to get out of Bangkok so seeing this site is a treasured memory. Too bad we didn't have a lot of time to immerse ourselves in the history of Ayutthaya. I'll just content myself with reading up on it. After all, being here makes Southeast Asian history lessons all the more interesting.

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