In the early Ayutthaya period there

In the early Ayutthaya period there was no place specially used for cremations. When a King died an area would be chosen for that royal ritual. After the ceremonies had been performed the location where the cremation took place became the site of a monastery; for example, Wat Phra Ram is located where King U-Thong was cremated. Only as of the reign of King Songtham is there evidence of a spicific area having been reserved for this purpose.


The chronicles mention that in 1610 A.D. King Songtham ordered the image known as Phra Mongkol Bophit to be moved from the east to the west and commanded the construction of a mandapa to house this image of the Buddha. In 1612 A.D. an order was carried out to level the earth in front of the vihara so that cremations could take place there Phra Mongkol Bophit has been identified as the image which King Chairachathirat had ordered sculpted in 1538 A.D. at Wat Chichiang.
From available evidence we know that King Chairachathirat ordered the building of Wat Chichiang and a chedi in the vicinity of a cremation spot, and the casting of an image. King Songtham close to limit the area for cremations to the central part of the town, near Wat Chichiang; this was the reason for moving the Buddha image (Phra Mongkol Bophit) to a new spot in the Western sector, after which its original site was used for a cremation area