Here at the IRC we are blessed with a smattering of observances of both Thai and American holidays. Sunday being the 4th of July we had a nice little 3-day weekend which I took advantage of (dangling prepositions be damned). I have been enjoying living and having fun here in Mae Sot but it’s a small pony and it only knows a few tricks, so it was time to put on my travelin’ hat and hit that ol’ trail again.
I decided to head out to Sukothai, an ancient Thai capital. Indeed, it is considered to be the first true Thai kingdom. Founded in the 13th century as the mighty Khmer (Cambodian) Empire was losing power and shrinking back to their great capital of Angkor (of Angkor Wat fame). As the first Thai kingdom and one of considerable strength and cultural growth, the Sukothai period is often looked back upon as a golden age for the Thai people. Many of the temples whose ruins I visited were constructed under the auspices of this dude, King Ramkhamhaeng (modern statue).
The King schools the People.
He is credited with devising the first Thai alphabet, which is an agonizing 44 letters long (“I think. Not sure.” confirmed a Thai colleague of mine).
The modern city of Sukothai is unremarkable but just a few kilometers out of town are the ruins of the ancient city, primarily the temples and one or two rather sorry remnants of the old city walls.
The site of the old city is fairly large, about 5-6 square kilometers with most of the ruins concentrated near the center. I rented a bike at the gate and got an immediate rush of excitement as I rode up to my first wat. Turning a corner at the entrance gate I came down a shady avenue and saw the structures of the wat through the old and twisted trunks of a line of trees.
Being a history nerd I was geeking out pretty hard and I had only been at the site for 5 minutes. It was shaping up to be a fine day indeed.
Before I continue: a very brief glossary. A wat is a temple and can refer to all of the buildings associated with the main shrine. A chedi is a shrine within or near a wat – I think the word is more or less equivalent to stupa which is Indian(?). It is the holiest part of the wat. Often a symbolic “bone” of the Buddha will be placed on the top of the main chedi. Finally a wihaan is a long assembly hall where most of the rituals and prayers take place, there is usually a large Buddha statue at the end of the wihaan. Now in this post and the next I visited a lot of wats and to be honest I can’t keep track of all the names in Thai, nor do I imagine you would if I listed them all, so I will be using my own personal mnemonic terms in these posts.
I began walking through that first wat – the Main Wat – and it was quite impressive.
The Main Wat is very large with a three or four story central chedi and many minor ones around it. Apparently the main chedi is in the “lotus-bud style” which Sukothai is credited with starting. I’m not really sure what a lotus bud looks like so I’ll take their word for it.
The main chedi had some high-relief sculptures in friezes around it’s base. Some of them were quite beautiful even though the restoration seemed a bit hap-hazard.
I’m certainly no expert in Buddhist temple art but I had never seen anything with nearly the amount of movement and grace as in this frieze of walking monks. My guidebook said that like the lotus-bud towers this flowing style is a Sukothai speciality and is quite famous in Thailand.
Guatama strikes a pose.
There were many minor chedis and wihaans throughout the Main Wat complex with lots of standing and seated buddhas of various sizes, allowing for plenty of interesting contrasts and compositions.
The bell-shaped chedi behind the statue here is apparently in the Sinhalese or Sri Lankan style.
The temples in Sukothai were made with brick, stucco and laterite, a kind of clay that hardens into these awesome swiss-cheese patterns.
I noticed a few columns throughout the site with different tags nailed to them with letters on them. This one got an “F”. Seems a bit haughty to be giving out letter grades to the ancients.
One of the nice things about the temples is that even though they are clearly tourist sites and no religious services happen in them, they are still a place of active, if infrequent, worship.
This buddha got slightly fresher flowers. He seems pleased.
Beyond the Main Wat were about a half dozen other wats and chedis. My favorite was this awesome little shrine sitting by itself that was covered with tiny figurines which reminded me of the prizes you get in an New Orleans-style Mardi Gras king cake. So this was the King Cake Chedi.
Another cool spot was this wat which looks totally different from any of the others for two main reasons: 1) it’s not Thai and 2) it’s not Buddhist. Well, at least not originally. I was lead to believe that this was probably the oldest wat in the old city and was originally constructed by the Khmers when they controlled the area and was built as a Hindu temple. Thus the three tower style representing Mt. Meru, home of the God Brahma.
As well as depictions of creatures from Hindu mythology like the many headed snake god, the Naga. Eventually, the Khmer Wat was just transferred over to being a Buddhist site as the owners changed, no smashing needed. I like that.
There were also lots of unmarked and unremarkable ruins scattered throughout the large area inside the walls. Often times just a base and a few stumps of columns such as Some Wat here.
In fact, most of the area in Old Sukothai is empty space just taken up with grassy fields, large ponds and reservoirs and stands of trees. This along with the dozens of small wells all over the site reminded you of the fact that this was not just a religious place, it was a city, it’s just that only the temples (and the wells) were important enough to be built with a durable material like stone.
However, a few things nagged at me. For one thing, several of the sites, particularly some of the larger Buddha statues seemed to have been in remarkably good shape for being made of stucco and left exposed to the elements for 700 years. In fact, that doesn’t look like stucco at all, I’m pretty sure that’s cement.
There was quite a lot of restoration at Old Sukothai. The grass was as immaculately mowed as a golf course and lines of carefully planted trees and flowering hedges ringed many of the wats. I had hoped for a wander through the jungle to find stunningly untouched ancient temples. What I got instead was a very well-scrubbed version of ruins, hence the “Disney Version” sub-title of this post.
And that annoyed me. I suppose the debate about whether or not to restore old pieces of art or architecture is one with proponents on both sides. I myself am not always for non-restoration. For instance, I thought it was a great idea to restore Michaelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes. The difference for me is that the reason I went to see the Sukothai ruins was because they are old and decrepit. That is, in fact, their appeal for me. I want to walk around a place that has obviously been there for a very, very long time and had unknowable thousands walk on it’s stones as it slowly disintegrates. When you make it look new, that magic is totally lost. The point of the Sistine Chapel frescoes is to see the paintings. If they’re all covered with soot, you can’t see them and thus their magic is lost. Or at least so says I.
The other thing that bugged me was that Old Sukothai was kind of expensive, certainly for Thailand. Just beyond the city walls were two others areas with some nice ruins but you had to pay a separate entrance fee for them. There was also a separate entrance fee for the museum on site. Now each ticket cost 100 Baht (plus 10 more to bring a bike in) meaning to visit all 3 areas you pay 330. Now that’s only about $10 (less than the MoMA) but that’s a lot for Thailand, or anywhere in Asia for that matter. And I think it’s the way you have to keep on paying each time you want to see something new. It felt like hidden fees or an extra charge for wanting to appreciate more of a country’s heritage. I don’t know, it just sort of rubbed me the wrong way.
Still, there’s no denying that Old Sukothai is quite beautiful and it was extremely pleasant to spend a few hours biking down wide roads lined with trees and grass and temple ruins. So if you’re in Thailand, and you like old stuff, I’d say it’s worth a visit.
Main Wat as the sun begins to set.
In the end, the most enduring mystery of ancient Sukothai was this old man resting by the statue of King Ramkhamhaeng. He has a slingshot. But why?!
Tune in next time for a rougher, tougher and better version of ruins!
