In 1424 A.D. King Intharachathirat passed away. His two sons, Chao Aye Phraya who reigned over Suphanburi, and Chao Yi Phraya who reigned over Sanburi, met in battle as each desired the throne. This took place at the approach to the Pa-Than bridge and ended with the death of both sons. A third son, Chao Sam Phraya came down from Phitsanulok and acceded to the throne where upon he declared his intention to organize a funeral for his father and his two brothers. Afterwards he ordered the building of a wat, namely Wat Ratchaburana, at the site of the cremation and at the place where his brothers fought and died he had two chedis created in which to keep their ashes.
In September of 1957 A.D. looter dug into a two-level crypt inside the main prang (Khmer type tower) and stole a great quantity of valuable material. Police arrested some of these looters. The Fine Arts Department proceeded to excavate the site and found Buddha images and many artifacts made of gold. Among these were a large number of votive tablets made of gold and lead. In 1958 A.D. the Fine Arts Department built a stairway so that one could go down into the crypt and look at the mural paintings which were also found there. Since the Buddha images and votive tablets discovered in the crypt were very numerous, the ministers of the goverment approved giving some of them to people who had contributed to the building of the Chao Sam Phraya Nation Museum, much of the collection in which was found at Wat Ratchaburana.
Technorati tags : Wat Ratchaburana /Ayutthaya /thai temple /wat /Thailand Temple
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Here is a 360 panorama taken from Wat Ratchaburana linked to a Google map of Ayutthaya.
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