Last week in Weekly Travel Feature we saw four of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites in Thailand—Ban Chiang, Sukhothai, Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet. Now we come to Ayutthaya and Thung Yai Naresuan & Huai Kha Khaeng Wildlife Sanctuaries.

Ayutthaya, the ancient capital of Siam: Before I begin telling readers about this lost city—it was lost for hundreds of years—let me tell of an old drawing of Ayutthaya made by a French artist in 1688. It shows Royal Barges of the court of King Narai in the wide expanse of the Chao Phraya River. There are a dozen of these beautifully crafted boats on display. In the background is a wall, and a gate of sorts, and beyond that a skyline of temples.

I first saw that print many years ago and, without exaggeration, I have been to Ayutthaya a hundred times. When friends come to town, it’s one place I want to take them, and preferably by boat. But in all those trips I had never been able to identify that print, try as I did. I often wondered if it was merely the imagination of the artist. Then just a short while ago, I was traveling the waterways around Ayutthaya by boat, with photographer Robert Stedman, gathering material for a book we are doing on the river. We had the boatman stop for a few minutes and, when I turned to look back from where we had come, there it was, that very same view. I was astounded beyond words.

Of course, most of the wall is gone, as are most of the temples, but the gate and part of the wall are still there. We had the boatman take us ashore and what came was a feeling that sent chills down my spine. I could not help thinking, and imagining, here on this very same spot, all the great powers of Europe had once focused their attention. Here on this very same spot marked the entrance to one of the greatest cities the world has ever known and, to put it into the words of those who were there, “ . . . greater than Venice and Genoa of its time.” What a splendid discovery. In an instant, for me, Ayutthaya became alive. Let me tell you about that kingdom.

When Paris and London were little more than backwater villages, and the New World was only a conjecture of cartographers, there was in the Far East a great, magnificent city, a kingdom, in fact, and it was called Sukhothai. It was mighty, powerful and rich but in time it was overrun by a warring kingdom called Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya became even mightier and greater than Sukhothai. The Kingdom lasted for many hundreds of years until the Burmese invaded, some two hundred years ago. The Burmese were eventually driven back by a stood, the general moved his capital down river to Thonburi, across from Siamese general, but rather than rebuild Ayutthaya where it had once a little but prosperous village known as Krungthep. After his death, the Chakri Dynasty came into power and the new king, Rama I, moved the capital from Thonburi across the river to Krungthep, which in English is Bangkok. Later, after World War II, the name Siam was changed to Thailand.

That’s a brief sketch of Ayutthaya. In reality the city reigned as the political, economic and cultural center of Thailand from 1350 until conquered by the Burmese in 1767. Set with hundreds of temples and palaces surrounded by rivers and canals, Ayutthaya was described by European traders as among the largest and most prosperous cities in the East. European travellers told that below the city, anchored in the center of the river, was an assortment of sea-going vessels: Chinese junks, Arabian dhows, Indian lighters, Macassar schooners and European squared-riggers. They formed a line that stretched for dozens of kilometres. Imagine my delight to have found this very same stretch of river, and to go ashore and stand where history once played such a vital role. And how it was forgotten, and only a lone fisherman cast a lazy line out into the empty waterway. I thought about Ayutthaya’s great past.
 
Those first settlements near Ayutthaya were Khmer military and trading camps established as far back as the 11th century, as outposts for their distant Khmer empire. The city was founded in 1350 when a Thai prince named Ramathibodi transferred his capital from U-Thong to Ayutthaya to escape a smallpox plague and to provide greater military security from Burmese invaders. The site was carefully chosen at the point where the Lopburi and the Prasak Rivers flowed into the Chao Phraya River. With the creation of additional canals, the city became an island fortress that could be better defended from outside attack. Ramathibodi named his new city after the mythical kingdom of Ayodhya (meaning undefeated in Sanskrit) in the Hindu Ramayana epic and constructed royal palaces and temples.

Until its fall, Ayutthaya was ruled by a succession of 33 kings of various dynasties. In time it became the most powerful military empire in Southeast Asia. By the end of the 15th century, Ayutthaya controlled Southeast Asia from Vientiane in the north to Malacca halfway down the Malay Peninsula in south, and from Angkor in the east to Burma in the west.

The mid-16th century marked the arrival of one of Ayutthaya's greatest rulers, King Naresuan the Great (1555-1605). Under his rule and subsequent kings, Ayutthaya became an important commercial center. First on the scene were the Portuguese, followed by the Dutch, the French and the British. Dazzled by the city's gilded opulence and grandeur, King Louis XIV of France dispatched emissaries in 1685, and other astonished European visitors compared the river kingdom to Venice. Others still, reported Ayutthaya to be larger and more magnificent than contemporary London or Paris. So startling is this period of history that I had to put it all down in my forthcoming book “For the Love of Siam.”

Perhaps the most famous Western trader and interloper, one whom I wrote about, was Constantine Phaulkon, a colorful Greek adventurer who became advisor to King Narai and eventually his Foreign Minister, the highest office ever held by a foreigner. When the King became ill and lay dying, word was spread that Phaulkon was attempting to convert the King to Christianity, which he wasn’t. He was taken prisoner, tried, convicted and executed. Westerners were expelled and Ayutthaya remained isolated for the next 150 years.
After four centuries of rule, Ayutthaya went into an economic and military decline. In early 1763, an enormous Burmese army overran Chiang Mai and massed for a final assault on Ayutthaya. After two years of siege, the city capitulated and most of the citizens were either murdered or marched oft to Myanmar as slave labor. Ayutthaya was burned to the ground. Tremendous art treasures, museums, countless temples, priceless libraries, and historical archives were all destroyed—an act that still upsets the Thais.

We can only imagine how grand Ayutthaya was at its height. As you walk among the ruins, try to picture the city with more than one million people, and a city that boasted over 1,700 temples, 30,000 priests, and more than 4,000 images of Buddha, all of them gold or gilt.

When you enter one of Ayutthaya’s museums—there are three good museums—you will find some of these treasures that have been preserved. There are also about 30 temples in various stages of reconstruction and renovation. Monuments are widely scattered and only the central temples near the modern town are within walking distance. On my last visit, other than renting a boat, Robert and I hired a Budget car and drove around the city. I had never realized there were so many ruins, all still magnificent in their decay.

Monuments and sites near the city centre include the Chandra Kasem Museum, Wat Rajaburana, Wat Mahathat, Rama Lake, Wat Pra Ram, Sam Praya Museum, Viharn Pra Mongkol Bopit, Wat Pra Sri Samphet, and Wat Na Praman. These are the region's most important monuments.

Now a word about Thailand’s Wildlife Sanctuaries: UNESCO Natural World Heritage Site of Thung Yai Naresuan and Huai Kha Khaeng. Together they join up to make the kingdom's largest protected land parcel, as well as being one of the most important and most expansive conservation areas in Southeast Asia. Situated in Thailand's western Kanchanaburi and Tak provinces, along the border with Myanmar and located at the southern tip of the Dawna Range, this pristine Asian rainforest is a colossal 320,000 hectares in size.

The spectacular terrain is marked with many outstanding natural features, which are home to a stunning variety of flora and fauna. As with any self-contained ecosystem, water is a vital source for life within this hilly region spawning four major rivers, gushing waterfalls, pretty fresh streams like Huai Kha Khaeng, and rocky ravines. Steaming hot springs are a unique resource that visitors find fascinating to discover.

This continual flow of unpolluted water gives life to schools of fish as well as forming small lakes, ponds and swamp areas that have become important habitats for an abundance of colourful wildlife. Three different species of otter frolic openly in such waterways, as well as rare herds of larger cattle including gaur, banteng, and the only wild water buffalo in the whole of Thailand.

Thung Yai thrives with a diversity of trees and shrubs. From dense evergreen to bamboo forests, the sanctuary is endowed with a staggering 1,000 vertebrate species, including 153 mammal species, 490 bird species, 41 reptiles and over 100 species of fish.
Many of these timid, protected creatures are rarely spotted outside the sanctuary environment, but on a good day you might be lucky to see tapping woodpeckers, hornbills, and redheaded vultures flying in the skies above.

Meanwhile on the ground there is the hope of an encounter with a rare Sumatran or Javan rhinoceros, herds of lumbering wild elephants, as well as several endangered carnivores, such as tigers, bears, and clouded leopards.

Aside from close ups of the animal kingdom, Thung Yai contains several remote sites of great archaeological interest, which reputedly date back thousands of years to early humans. While stone artifacts have been unearthed, there has been little research conducted to date, making the area ripe for an Indiana Jones style archaeological adventure.

An adventurous journey to Thung Yai Naresuan offers visitors the privilege of being able to visit one of the few remaining virgin forest canopies remaining in the world. The sanctuary is only open to small groups* and it's advised to obtain a visitor's permit from the Wildlife Conservation Division of the Royal Forest Department in Bangkok, or from the chief of the sanctuary.

Next week I will tell readers about other adventures—family adventures.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. Dear Mr. Stephens. My name is Dennis Bidney and I'm writing you from Iowa, US.  My late father-in-law was an US pilot operating in Burma and Thailand in the late 40’s and flew for Indonesian Air Force in the early 50's and he made a number of trips to Bali.  There he purchased some work by Rudolf Bonnet and Theo Meier and a painting on wood by - I'm not sure who.  While looking for background information on Asian art I came upon your Thai Airways site and was very impressed. I'm wondering if you could identify the artist or direct me to someone who might know.  Images are attached. The subject looks like Le Mayeur's wife, Polok, to me.  I also have photos when he visited Le Mayeur around 1952. Thank you very much, Dennis Bidney

A. Dear Mr. Bidney, I am most pleased to post the imagines of your paintings and perhaps readers will be able identify them. I would like to hear more from you, about your father-in-law flying in Burma and Thailand. If you send me more information about him, and his name, perhaps someone here in Southeast Asia may remember him. —HS

Harold Stephens
Bangkok
E-mail:   ROH Weekly Travel

Note: The article is the personal view of the writer and does not necessarily reflect the view of Thai Airways International Public Company Limited.

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Old print Ayutthaya 1688

Same location today

Two girls at gate, unaware of the great past

Temple spires seen from the river

Stupas and temple ruins everywhere

The author book shows temple of Ayutthaya

The jungle claims its right

Can only imagine what these ruins once were

These still waters were once the envy of European
powers

Tourists on elephant back today, warriors yesterday

Print of Ayutthaya in ruin, Maps & Prints, River City

Reflections in the river

Elephant safaris in Wildlife Parks

Wild elephants free to roam the parks

Flowers also in the wild in the parks

Rafting in the parks upon still waters

Next week family getaways. Here Peter Rukavina
introduces his son to Thai dancers

Readers wants to know if this can be a Le Mayeur.
See text.

Can anyone identify this signature?

This is definitely Theo Meier, acquired on Bali in 1953