Wat Mahathat
Wat Mahathat
The most splendid wat of the present ruined city (and one of the oldest and most important in Thailand) is the Wat Mahathat. It was near the earlier Royal Palace (a wooden building of which no trace remains), and this wat alone covered an area of 4 ha, surrounded by 185 chedis, six wiharns of varying size, a bot, and eleven salas. The towering main chedi at the center of the site is most impressive, with both a wiharn and a bot. Built in a purely Sukhothai style, the top is crowned by the tip of a lotus bud. The middle section resembles the Khmer prangs, and the high square base is decorated by a procession of worshippers with 40 figures of about 1 m high on each side. The niches of the four corner chapels show fine stucco work, rosettes, scenes from the life of Buddha, and gods and demons in conflict. The central chedi once contained the gilded statue of the Phra Buddha Shakyamuni, which King Rama I had brought to the Wat Suthat in Bangkok at the end of the 18th c.