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dirtydog

Now normally these Temple tours are like visit 9 temples or wats in a day or some other auspicious number, pretty sure it was 9 anyway, but this tour from Pattaya is visit 12, which is ok once you get to Ayutthaya as it has a load of temples, albeit most of them in crumbling ruins, but they look better that way.

So off we sent the old Thai mother inlaw to this make merit and see a load of temples tour, there were 3 other old foggies, about 500 pictures taken and about 30 odd good ones.

Some of the temples they visited with descriptions.

Wat Phanan Choeng, Ayutthaya Thailand
Located on the Chaophraya riverbank in the south of the city. There is no definite evidence regarding the founder or when the temple was founded, but it was believed that it was built before Ayutthaya was established. The large Buddha image in the Wihara called ?Phra Chao Phanan Cherng? was built in 1324. In 1854, King Rama IV restored the image and re-named it ?Phra Puttha Trairatana Nayok?. The image is a seated Buddha in the attitude of subduing mara and is considered the oldest and largest seated Buddha image in Thailand with 20.17 meters wide and 19 meters high from knees to head.

and some without descriptions;

Wat Pichaisongkram, Ayutthaya Thailand‏


Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya‏

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.



Wat Suwandararam is also called Wat Thong, because the father of King Rama I built it and his name was Thongdee. It was completely destroyed by the Burmese and rebuilt in 1785. Besides the beautiful temple buildings in late Ayutthaya-style, it is famous for it's beautiful murals which cover significant historical events in both the Ubosot and the Viharn building as well as the presiding buddha image of Phra Phrathan Wat Suwandararam.



Wat Ka Rong or the "Monastery of the Crying Crow."


On with the pictures, and here are the participants of this tour.





Do like all the old brickwork on these temples.





Some of the statues at some of the temples.








We have all seen reclining buddhas before no doubt.





This guy needs to do something with his hair.













More to come tomorrow

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dirtydog

A few pictures of Ayutthaya Temples and Buddha statues.

kingwilly

nice pics DD.

how did you get suckered into that?

dirtydog

I wasn't, they left Pattaya at 4am, I don't do 4am.

Bangyai

Nice pics DD. Ayudhaya is just 45 minutes up the road for me and I have to agree with you that the red brickwork and tropical setting is very photogenic. With a little effort its hard to take a dud photo. Keep meaning to go on a daytrip myself and take a new batch .

dirtydog

And a few more Ayutthaya Temple photos.

dirtydog

Last lot of Ayutthaya Temple pictures.