I was really looking forward to this week-end since we were flying to the thirteenth century capital of Thailand, Sukkotai. Ayyuthia, abut an hour from Bangkok and the second capital of Thailand was just fantastic and I was led to understand by a history colleague that this was way better than Ayyuthia, my favourite place in Thailand so far.
The trip kind of got started on a sour note as they would not let me take my backpack on the plane because I had my nail scissors inside. With about 30 minutes to go before the flight, I retrieved my knapsack and ran back to the check in counter to put my bag in the storage carriage. Sounds easy…right? What you have to understand is that just getting my bag back was a major hassle, then running about 2 kilometers to get back to the check counter, only to be told that it was too late. After lots of tears and gasping for breath, they took pity on me and let me send the bag underneath the plane. Problem solved…right? Wrong, I now had to run all of the way back to make the plane.
However, when we arrived at the Sukkotai airport, it was all worth it. As you can see from the pictures, it is an absolutely charming airport, welcome drink, snacks and all. It just had a great feel to it, especially when they came and literally handed me my bag.
Now, to get the serious business of siteseeing. We got our bicycles in this 40 degree heat and headed out the historical ‘park’ to see all of the monuments. Most of the buildings were Wats or temples and they are all constructed the same way. Each temple had an outer courtyard where the people came to meet and greet, and inner coronation room just for the monks and behind that a Buddha image. Most of them were built based on the ordinal points. You can see from the pictures that all that is left from the meeting area are the pillars obviously to hold up some kind of roof. The bigger wats are surrounded by a wall and a moat and you can see the influence of the Kmers which ruled this area in the 14th century. When you look at the Stupa’s, the bell shaped things you see in the pictures you often see serpents surrounding some of the base which is a Cambodian influence.
What I can’t quite figure out is why there are so many different wats, often very close to each other. I am going to have to research to find out how many people lived in the area in the 13 and 14th centuries. Did people congregate to do business, pray and reflect or did they actually live within the walls of the Wat and therefore needed protection from each other? As I think of Toronto, we certainly do not have so many places of worship per person as they had in Sukkotai. There were literally major temples with hundred of yards of each other.
I am also trying to get a grasp of the significance of the Buddha and what it stands for. From what I have read, the early religions were animistic, that is, they believed in the spirit world. I still see this all over Bangkok and Thailand. Every home or business has the alter outside and in the mornings garlands and food are offered up. Each time a taxi passes one they make the wai. Frankly, I wish they would just keep their hands on the wheel.
The next evolution of religion came latger as gods were assigned to help answer questions, I suppose. Finally, this rich guy in India, protected all his life by his parents, gave up his wife and new child and at the age of 29 gave up materialism, shaved his head and entered the world as an aesthetic. Certainly the modern notion of family values did not apply at this time. What I could not figure out for ages was how this influence got to Thailand from India, but in looking at a map today I see that you can go overland from northern India to Thailand via Burma. So, Hinduism spread from India, somehow transformed via the Buddha to Buddhism and spread throughout the southeast.
So, instead of multiple Gods, there was one god, Buddha that is worshipped, even though that is not really the case since Buddha simply means you have reached the ultimate stage of enlightenment and Gotama would certainly not have wanted to be worshipped. Having said that, all of the various Buddha poses you see in the pictures of Sukkotai represent various poses such as tranquility, humility and so on and as you visit Wats throughout Thailand there are often multiple images of Buddhas in different poses
I have my reading cut out for me. Can’t wait to go to Angkor Wat during Songkran in April. From what I have heard, everything pales in comparison.
The trip kind of got started on a sour note as they would not let me take my backpack on the plane because I had my nail scissors inside. With about 30 minutes to go before the flight, I retrieved my knapsack and ran back to the check in counter to put my bag in the storage carriage. Sounds easy…right? What you have to understand is that just getting my bag back was a major hassle, then running about 2 kilometers to get back to the check counter, only to be told that it was too late. After lots of tears and gasping for breath, they took pity on me and let me send the bag underneath the plane. Problem solved…right? Wrong, I now had to run all of the way back to make the plane.
However, when we arrived at the Sukkotai airport, it was all worth it. As you can see from the pictures, it is an absolutely charming airport, welcome drink, snacks and all. It just had a great feel to it, especially when they came and literally handed me my bag.
Now, to get the serious business of siteseeing. We got our bicycles in this 40 degree heat and headed out the historical ‘park’ to see all of the monuments. Most of the buildings were Wats or temples and they are all constructed the same way. Each temple had an outer courtyard where the people came to meet and greet, and inner coronation room just for the monks and behind that a Buddha image. Most of them were built based on the ordinal points. You can see from the pictures that all that is left from the meeting area are the pillars obviously to hold up some kind of roof. The bigger wats are surrounded by a wall and a moat and you can see the influence of the Kmers which ruled this area in the 14th century. When you look at the Stupa’s, the bell shaped things you see in the pictures you often see serpents surrounding some of the base which is a Cambodian influence.What I can’t quite figure out is why there are so many different wats, often very close to each other. I am going to have to research to find out how many people lived in the area in the 13 and 14th centuries. Did people congregate to do business, pray and reflect or did they actually live within the walls of the Wat and therefore needed protection from each other? As I think of Toronto, we certainly do not have so many places of worship per person as they had in Sukkotai. There were literally major temples with hundred of yards of each other.
I am also trying to get a grasp of the significance of the Buddha and what it stands for. From what I have read, the early religions were animistic, that is, they believed in the spirit world. I still see this all over Bangkok and Thailand. Every home or business has the alter outside and in the mornings garlands and food are offered up. Each time a taxi passes one they make the wai. Frankly, I wish they would just keep their hands on the wheel.
The next evolution of religion came latger as gods were assigned to help answer questions, I suppose. Finally, this rich guy in India, protected all his life by his parents, gave up his wife and new child and at the age of 29 gave up materialism, shaved his head and entered the world as an aesthetic. Certainly the modern notion of family values did not apply at this time. What I could not figure out for ages was how this influence got to Thailand from India, but in looking at a map today I see that you can go overland from northern India to Thailand via Burma. So, Hinduism spread from India, somehow transformed via the Buddha to Buddhism and spread throughout the southeast.
So, instead of multiple Gods, there was one god, Buddha that is worshipped, even though that is not really the case since Buddha simply means you have reached the ultimate stage of enlightenment and Gotama would certainly not have wanted to be worshipped. Having said that, all of the various Buddha poses you see in the pictures of Sukkotai represent various poses such as tranquility, humility and so on and as you visit Wats throughout Thailand there are often multiple images of Buddhas in different poses
I have my reading cut out for me. Can’t wait to go to Angkor Wat during Songkran in April. From what I have heard, everything pales in comparison.
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