Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya
The temple of the Buddha head held in the roots of a banyan tree - the single most photographed image in Ayutthaya.
Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya
Wat Mahathat was one of Ayutthaya's most important royal temples, founded in the fourteenth century and holding relics of the Buddha. Its central prang collapsed long ago, and what remains is a wide field of brick bases, ruined chedis and rows of Buddha images whose heads were struck off during and after the sack of 1767.
One of those heads came to rest at the foot of a banyan tree and has been slowly enclosed by its roots. That image is the best-known single sight in Ayutthaya. It sits lower than head height, and visitors are asked to crouch so as not to stand above it - a rule that is enforced, and a reasonable one at a Buddhist site.
The temple is in the central cluster, an easy walk from Wat Ratchaburana across the road.
- Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya — The riverside temple of 1630, built to a Khmer plan and the most complete ruin in Ayutthaya.
- Wat Lokayasutharam, Ayutthaya — The great reclining Buddha of Ayutthaya, lying in the open on the west side of the island.
- Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya — The royal temple of the Ayutthaya palace, and its three restored chedis.
- Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya — A 1424 temple with a climbable prang and a crypt holding some of Thailand's oldest surviving murals.
- Ayutthaya Historical Park — The UNESCO World Heritage remains of Thailand's second capital, on an island between three rivers.
- Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, Ayutthaya — A working monastery outside the old city, with a great chedi and a courtyard of saffron-robed Buddhas.
