Wat Na Phra Men

About

Wat Na Phra Men rests on the northern edge of the old city moat of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya, along Khlong Sra Bua, the former course of the Lopburi River, directly opposite the ruins of the royal palace. Its name means roughly 'Temple before the royal cremation', a reference to its likely role as a cremation ground for early Ayutthaya kings.

The wat's foundation legend places it in the reign of Ramathibodi II, with Prince In credited as the builder in 1503, though no firm documentary evidence confirms the date. The Temple stands as the rare survivor of the catastrophe that befell Ayutthaya in 1767: Burmese forces are thought to have established a military headquarters here, sparing it the destruction visited upon the city's other sanctuaries.

The ubosot follows the Ayutthaya style, its interior columns crowned with closed-lotus capitals. The richly carved gable depicts Vishnu mounted on Garuda above the demon Rahu, framed by two nagas and a court of twenty-six devas.

Inside, the principal Buddha image, a large bronze figure shown in royal attire and in the gesture of subduing Mara, was named Phra Buddha Nimitr Vichit Maramoli by King Rama III. In a side vihara stands Phra Khanthararaj, a green-stone seated Buddha believed to date from the Dvaravati period more than fifteen hundred years ago, one of only five such images preserved in Thailand.

History

Tradition holds that Prince In built the Temple in 1503 during the reign of Ramathibodi II, though no documentary record confirms this, and the site's older name, Wat Phra Meru Rachikaram, suggests it once served as a cremation ground for early Ayutthaya royalty. When Burmese forces overwhelmed the capital in 1767 they made this Temple their military headquarters rather than destroying it, sparing its carved gables and gilded columns from the fire that consumed the rest of the city. The Fine Arts Department registered the compound as an ancient monument in 1935 and has maintained it since.

Significance

The ordination hall's crowned bronze Buddha, seated in royal attire and named Phra Buddha Nimitr Vichit Maramoli by King Rama III, is one of the few surviving Ayutthaya images to wear the regalia of a monarch rather than a monk. Beside it, in a smaller chapel, sits Phra Khanthararaj, a green stone Buddha of the Dvaravati period believed to be more than fifteen hundred years old and counted among only five such images preserved in Thailand. Together they make the Temple a rare, continuous witness to Ayutthaya's religious life before and after the city's fall.

Architecture

Ayutthaya-period Thai Temple architecture; ordination hall (ubosot) with octagonal lotus-capital columns