Wat Chaiwattanaram
Historic City of Ayutthaya, Thailand
Your base for this sight is the Unesco World Heritage City of Ayutthaya. For travel information on Ayutthaya, read the AsiaExplorers Ayutthaya Travel Guide. For day trips to Ayutthaya, use Bangkok as your base. Read the Bangkok Travel Guide for more information.
Wat Chaiwattanaram of Ayutthaya, Thailand, was built in 1630 by King Prasat Thong (1635-1655, refer to Ayutthaya History) to celebrate his victory over the Khmers. And to make merit for his mother, he sited the temple on his mother's old residence.
The main corncob-shaped prang of Wat Chaiwattanaram surrounded by the four smaller chedis.
This beautiful temple is located on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River, overlooking Ayutthaya island. It is one of the few temples in Ayutthaya which are lit at night. The architectural style is reminiscent of Khmer temples, like Angkor Wat, where a main prang is surrounded by four smaller chedis, as a symbolic representation of Mount Meru.
A gallery of 120 stucco images can be found running along the four sides of the temple. Within the lesser studas are twelve crowned Buddha images. The ordination hall is located to the east of the main prang. The main prang is 35 meters high. The four chedis surrounding it have seven levels.
Wat Chaiwattanaram was a temple where the king and his descendents could perform religious rites. It has also been used for the cremation of the members of the royal family of Ayutthaya. The temple was used as an army camp when Ayutthaya was besieged by the Burmese, in the attack of 1767. When Ayutthaya fell, Wat Chaiwattanaram suffered massive destruction, looting and decapitation of its many Buddha figures. Restoration work was begun by the Fine Arts Department in 1987, and completed in 1992.
Ayutthaya Travel Guide
Useful information on the ruins and tourist attractions in Ayutthaya
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