Historical overview[edit]
Origins[edit]
The immense 19 meter high seated gold covered Buddha in Wat Phanan Choeng, the latter from 1324, pre-dates the founding of the city
According to the most widely accepted version of its origin, the Siamese state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River rose from the earlier, nearby kingdoms of Lavo (at that time still under the Khmer control) and Suphannaphoom (Suvarnabhumi). One source says that, in the mid-fourteenth century, due to the threat of an epidemic, King U Thong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya on an island surrounded by rivers,[note 2] which was the former seaport city of Ayothaya, or Ayothaya Si Raam Thep Nakhon, the Angelic City of Sri Rama. The new city was known as Ayothaya, or Krung Thep Dvaravadi Si Ayothaya. Later it became widely known as Ayutthaya, the Invincible City.[2]
Other sources say that King Uthong was a rich merchant of Chinese origin from Phetchaburi, a coastal city in the south, who moved to seek fortune in Ayothaya city. The name of the city indicates the influence of Hinduism in the region. It is believed that this city is associated with the Thai national epic Ramakien, which is a southeastern version of Hindu epic Ramayana.
Conquests and expansion[edit]
Ayutthaya is shown in the Fra Mauro map of the world (ca. 1450 CE) under the name "Scierno", derived from the Persian "Shahr-I-Naw", meaning "New City"[3]
Ayutthaya began its hegemony by conquering northern kingdoms and city-states like Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet and Phitsanuloke. Before the end of the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya launched attacks on Angkor, the classical great power of the region. Angkor's influence eventually faded from the Chao Phraya River Plain while Ayutthaya became a new great power.
However, the kingdom of Ayutthaya was not a unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under The Circle of Power, or the mandala system, as some scholars suggested .[4] These principalities might be ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya, or by local rulers who had their own independent armies, having a duty to assist the capital when war or invasion occurred. However, it was evident that from time to time local revolts, led by local princes or kings, took place. Ayutthaya had to suppress them.
Due to the lack of succession law and a strong concept of meritocracy, whenever the succession was in dispute, princely governors or powerful dignitaries claiming their merit gathered their forces and moved on the capital to press their claims, culminating in several bloody coups.[5]
1686 French Map of Siam
From the fifteenth century, Ayutthaya showed an interest in the Malay Peninsula, where the great trading port of Malacca contested its claims to sovereignty. Ayutthaya launched several abortive conquests on Malacca. Due to the military support of Ming China, Malacca was diplomatically and economically fortified. In the early fifteenth century the Ming Admiral Zheng He had established one of his bases of operation in the port city, so the Chinese could not afford to lose such a strategic position to the Siamese. Under this protection, Malacca flourished into one of Ayutthaya's great foes, until its conquest in 1511 by the Portuguese.[6]
Starting in the middle of 16th century, the kingdom came under repeated attacks by the Toungoo Dynasty of Burma. The Burmese began the hostilities with an invasion in 1548 but failed. The second Burmese invasion led by King Bayinnaung forced King Maha Chakkraphat to surrender in 1564. The royal family was taken to Pegu, with the king's eldest son Mahinthrathirat installed as the vassal king.[7][8] In 1568, Mahinthrathirat revolted when his father managed to return back from Pegu as a monk. The ensuing third invasion captured Ayutthaya in 1569, and Bayinnaung made Maha Thammarachathirat vassal king.[8]
King Naresuan enters an abandoned Pegu in 1600, mural painting by Phraya Anusatchitrakon, Wat Suwandararam, Ayutthaya.
After Bayinnaung's death in 1581, Maha Thammarachathirat proclaimed Ayutthaya's independence in 1584. The Siamese fought off repeated Burmese invasions (1584–1593), capped by an elephant duel between King Naresuan and Burmese heir-apparent Mingyi Swa in 1593 in which Naresuan famously slew Mingyi Swa (observed 18 January as Royal Thai Armed Forces day). The Siamese went on an offensive, capturing the entire Tenasserim coast up to Martaban in 1595 and Lan Na in 1602. Naresuan even invaded mainland Burma up to Toungoo in 1600 but was driven back. After Naresuan's death in 1605, northern Tenasserim and Lan Na fell back to Burmese control in 1614.[9] The kingdom's attempt to take over Lan Na and northern Tenasserim in 1662–1664 failed.[10]
Foreign trade brought Ayutthaya not only luxury items but also new arms and weapons. In the mid-seventeenth century, during King Narai's reign, Ayutthaya became very prosperous.[11] In the eighteenth century, Ayutthaya gradually lost control over its provinces. Provincial governors exerted their power independently, and rebellions against the capital began.
In the mid-eighteenth century, Ayutthaya again became ensnared in wars with the Burmese. The first invasion by the Konbaung Dynasty of Burma failed. The second invasion succeeded in sacking the Ayutthaya city and ending the kingdom in April 1767.
Kingship of Ayutthaya Kingdom[edit]
See also: Monarchy of Thailand
Ruins of the old city, Ayutthaya, after the Burmese invasion.
The kings of Ayutthaya were absolute monarchs with semi-religious status. Their authority derived from the ideologies of Hinduism and Buddhism as well as from natural leadership. The king of Sukhothai was the moral inspiration of the Inscription Number 1 found in Sukhothai, which stated that King Ramkhamhaeng would hear the petition of any subject who rang the bell at the palace gate. The king was thus considered as a father by his people.
At Ayutthaya, however, the paternal aspects of kingship disappeared. The king was considered chakkraphat, the Sanskrit-Pali term for the Chakravartin who through his adherence to the law made all the world revolve around him.[12] According to Hindu tradition, the king is the Avatar of God Vishnu, the Destroyer of Demons, who was born to be the defender of the people. The Buddhist belief in the king is as the Righteous ruler or Dhammaraja, aiming at the well-being of the people, who strictly follows the teaching of the Buddha.
The kings' official names were reflections of those religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. They were considered as the incarnation of various Hindu gods: Indra, Shiva or Vishnu (Rama). The coronation ceremony was directed by Brahmins as the Hindu god Shiva was "lord of the universe". However, according to the codes, the king had the ultimate duty as protector of the people and the annihilator of evil.
On the other hand, according to Buddhism's influence in place of Hinduism, the king was also believed to be a Bodhisattva or Buddha-like. He followed and respected the Dhamma of the Buddha. One of the most important duties of the king was to build a temple or a Buddha statue as a symbol of prosperity and peace.[12]
For locals, another aspect of the kingship was also the analogy of "The Lord of the Land", (Phra Chao Phaendin), or He who Rules the Earth. According to the court etiquette, a special language, Rachasap (Sanskrit: Rājāśabda, Royal Language), was used to communicate with or about royalty.[13][14] In Ayutthaya, the king was said to grant control over land to his subjects, from nobles to commoners, according to the Sakna or Sakdina system[15] codified by King Trailokanat (1448–88). The Sakdina system was similar to, but not the same as feudalism, under which the monarch does not own the land.[16] While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal Palace economy, the French Abbé de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power. He is truly the god of the Siamese: no-one dares to utter his name." Another 17th-century writer, the Dutchman Jan van Vliet, remarked that the King of Siam was "honoured and worshipped by his subjects second to god." Laws and orders were issued by the king. For sometimes the king himself was also the highest judge who judged and punished important criminals such as traitors or rebels.[17]
In addition to the Sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of King Trailokanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as "viceroy" or "prince", usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularize the succession to the throne—a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty. In practice, there was inherent conflict between king and uparaja and frequent disputed successions.[18] However, it is evident that the power of the Throne of Ayutthaya had its limit. The hegemony of the Ayutthaya king was always based on his charisma in terms of his age and supporters. Without supporters, bloody coups took place from time to time. The most powerful figures of the capital were always generals, or the Minister of Military Department, Kalahom. During the last century of Ayutthaya, the bloody fighting among princes and generals, aiming at the throne, plagued the court.
Social and political development[edit]
Main article: Mandala (Southeast Asian history)
Painting of Ayutthaya, ordered by the Dutch East India Company, Amsterdam
The reforms of King Trailok (r.1448–1488) placed the king of Ayutthaya at the centre of a highly stratified social and political hierarchy that extended throughout the realm. Despite a lack of evidence, it is believed that in the Ayutthaya Kingdom, the basic unit of social organization was the village community composed of extended family households. Title to land resided with the headman, who held it