Story
The story of Wat Phra Sri Sanphet
The three chedis in front of you are all that stands of what was once the holiest temple of Ayutthaya. In 1350 King U Thong ordered a royal palace on this very ground; it was completed in 1351, and he made Ayutthaya the capital of his kingdom. In 1448 King Borommatrailokkanat built a new palace to the north and turned the old grounds into a holy site.
His son, King Ramathibodi II, built two chedis in 1492 for the ashes of his father and his brother. He also had a gigantic Buddha image cast: 16 metres high, with a bronze core of about 64 tons, covered with about 343 kilograms of gold. In 1529 a third chedi was built for Ramathibodi II's own ashes.
This was a royal temple, used only by members of the royal family. In 1767 the city was destroyed; the temple was set on fire and the gold melted. The three chedis were restored by the Fine Arts Department in 1956.
This story is compiled from Wikipedia and other open sources; dates and numbers are checked against the source. The text is shared under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence. Source ↗
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