Wat Phichaya Yatikaram Worawihan, commonly called Wat Phichai Yat or Wat Phichaiyat, is a second-class royal Theravāda Buddhist temple (Worawihan) in Bangkok’s Thonburi area.
The temple probably dates from the Ayutthaya period, when the area was a busy port. It was abandoned by the early Bangkok era. Between 1829 and 1832, Somdet Chao Phraya Borom Maha Phichaiyat (Tat or That Bunnag, then titled Phraya Si Phiphat) restored it on a large scale. He used Chinese materials including ship ballast, colored tiles, and stones.
He offered the completed temple to King Rama III, who gave it royal status and the name Wat Phraya Yatikaram. King Rama IV later changed the name to Wat Phichaya Yatikaram. The Fine Arts Department listed it as a national ancient monument in 1949.
Two white chedi with gold details stand on tall pedestals along the path. Chinese influences from the Rama III period appear in the decorations, eaves, and materials.
The ubosot (ordination hall) has a Chinese-style exterior without ...
The royal palace, known as the Khocha Prawet Maha Prasat, also referred to as the Phaniat Palace or Tamnak Phaniat. It was one of the five principal royal residences located outside the walls of Ayutthaya. According to the Royal Chronicles, King Narai ordered its construction in 1657 specifically to serve as a vantage point and ceremonial hall for events at the nearby elephant grounds.
It stood on a raised mound overlooking the enclosure so that the king and his court could observe the trapping ceremonies in comfort.
The building was looted and burned by Burmese forces during the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767. In the early Bangkok period a simpler residence rose on the same foundations.
The present L-shaped two-story brick building, designed in a Western style with wooden floors, a tiled roof, balconies, and a basement, dates from the late nineteenth century and was restored by the Fine Arts Department in 1999.
The Elephant Kraal itself, known in Thai as Phaniat Khlong Chang, stands about four kilometers ...
Wat Sala Pun, also known as Wat Sala Pun Worawihan or the Monastery of the Pavilion of Lime, is an active second class royal temple located off the city island in the northwestern area of Ayutthaya. It sits on the north bank of Khlong Mueang, the former course of the Lopburi River, near Wat Phanom Yong and Wat Phrom Niwat.
The name derives from the nearby Ban Sala Pun village, where residents once operated furnaces to produce and sell red lime, and the temple served as the religious center of that community, which also featured a local market.
The exact date of construction and the identity of its founder remain unknown, though it dates to the Ayutthaya period, likely the middle or late era. The site appears on historical maps, including Phraya Boran Rachathanin’s map of 1926.
After the fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 the temple fell into disuse and became abandoned. It was restored in the early Rattanakosin period, with major renovation recorded around 1812–1816 during the reign of King Rama II, when ...
Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon occupies a site that may reach back far earlier than the Ayutthaya kingdom itself. Historians and archaeologists point to traces of a large surrounding moat and the outline of an ancient baray, or rectangular reservoir, near the southwestern edge of the present monastery. These features are characteristic of Khmer temple planning, in which a broad outer moat symbolized the cosmic ocean encircling Mount Meru. The evidence suggests that an important religious complex, possibly Khmer or linked to the earlier Dvaravati culture of the sixth to eleventh centuries, once stood here, though no standing structures from that period remain visible today.
The monastery that visitors now see was founded in 1357 by King Ramathibodi I, known as U-Thong, the first ruler of Ayutthaya. After two royal princes, Chao Kaeo and Chao Thai, died of cholera, the king ordered their remains cremated and a sacred site established at the place of the ceremony. A stupa and preaching hall were raised, and the ...
