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Bangkok

 

The Thai kingdom moved south, first to Thonburi and from there to Bangkok, a name which, freely translated, means "marshy village of the wild olive." The spirit of the Thai people had not been extinguished with Ayuthaya.

The Chakri dynasty, which still reigns today, was founded in 1782 by General Chakri, who ruled as Rama I (1782-1809), and who immediately decided upon a large-scale building program. As a matter of priority Rama I created temple complexes, and furnished them with statues of the Buddha he had tracked down in his devastated kingdom and brought to Bangkok. As it was felt to be essential to preserve the glorious tradition of Ayuthaya, the restoration of old buildings and the recreation of the Ayuthaya style were made priorities. The prang and the chedi remained the favorite forms of architecture, as well as the vihans and the ubsoth. In the third kingdom of the Chakri dynasty, in the 19th century, the Chinese influence became more significant and there developed the distinctive style we now associate with Thailand.

 

Wat Pra Keo:

The first magnificent buildings of the Bangkok (or Rattanakosin) period were the Great Palace and the Wat Pra Keo, the latter built exclusively to create a worthy home for the Emerald Buddha, the most highly revered of Thailand's works of art. According to legend, this Buddha was first recorded in Chiang Rai in 1434, after which its home was in Vientiane (Laos) for 214 year; in 1778 it was plundered by the Thai army.

Begun in 1782, the temple buildings, known as the "pearls" of Bangkok, lie on the shores of the Chao Phraya river and cover an area of one and a half square kilometers (half a square mile). As the first edifice of the gigantic complex of Wat Pra Keo, Rama built a replica of the royal prayer-house in Ayuthaya. His successors steadily increased the area of the 'city in the city," surrounded by walls, which was organized to be completely selfsufficient. The ubsoth - a rectangular Buddhist hall of consecration - of the Wat Pra Keo is constructed on a marble platform and is adorned with a frieze of gilded figures. The doors are inlaid with mother-of-pearl; the facade is covered with mosaics of colored glass. The lavish decoration of the whole complex is the very image of Thai art.

Wat Pra Keo - 1782, renovated 1982, royal palace, Bangkok, Thailand.

King's palace:

King's palace -Begun 1782, renovated 1982, view of palace complex from outside the perimeter wall, Bangkok, Thailand.

 While the stupas, chedis, and mondops of the wat give the impression of being copies of Ayuthaya or Angkor, the palace itself represents an interesting contrast, since here the dominant influences are Chinese and European. In the third kingdom of the Chakri dynasty (1824-1851) interest in China grew as a result of increased trade, and many elements of Chinese decoration began to be adopted in royal architecture. Thus the assembly halls show the influence of Chinese building types, especially in the structure of the roofs. Starting out with the stone "telescope roofs" of the Khmer (each roof being smaller than the one below), the Thai transformed the "ship" (with broad, sweeping curves) and gable roofs of Chinese origin into highly distinctive roofs of brick, always crowned by a row of spiky "battlements." Even though the resulting architecture remains close to Chinese models, the rool constructions that result are unmistakably Thai. Thus in the Bangkok period Thai art again showed that it was based on the creative absorption of external cultural influence.

 

A further hallmark of Thai wats are the elaborately formed guardian figures, whose iconography is described in the influential work of Thai literature, the Traiphum Phra Ruang. In the deep underground areas of the Mount Meru reside the yaksha, the colossal demon guardians of the kind positioned at the temple of the Emerald Buddha. In the depths of this mountain, the naga also live, the legendary serpents, guardians of the waters and the underworld. The function of these guardians, demons, and serpents, is to protect the universe. In the forests of the Mount Meru dwell the enemy of the naga, the fantastic creature called Garuda, half-human, half-bird.

 

 

Wat Pra Chetuphon:

In art, the final decades of the 19th century were determined more and more by the incorporation of European influences. The mixture of colonial and traditional styles was avoided, however, in the reception hall of the palace in Bangkok; contrary to original plans to crown it with a Western cupola, it was completed with Thai-style roofs; the skyline of the old city remained intact. Wat Pra Chetuphon, the Temple of the Recumbent Buddha, begun 200 years ago, is the biggest wat in Bangkok and is famous for its statue of Buddha 46 meters (150 feet) long and 15 meters (50 feet) high. The entire work is gilded, and has beautiful mother-of- pearl inlay, on the soles of the feet, representing the 108 Thai good-luck signs. Although the Buddhas created during the Bangkok period did not attain the subtle quality of the statues of earlier eras, they did gain an impressive majesty.

However, in the Wat Pra Chetuphon complex there are also 1,000 bronze Buddhas from the ruins of Ayuthaya and Sukhothay, which offer a first-rate summary of the artistic riches of the sculpture of Thailand. Equally remarkable are the 95 chedis of varying size scattered throughout the complex. During the regency of Rama III (1824-1851) the library of the wat was ornamented in the Chinese tradition, patterns being created from small pieces of colored ceramic. In 1832 he had the vihan built, the housing for the colossal recumbent Buddha.

Wat Pra Chetuphon - 1824 - 1851, so-called Temple of the recumbent Buddha, view of the clored roofs, Bangkok, Thailand.

Recumbent Buddha, Ayuthaya, Thailand.

 

Wat Arun:

Wat Arun - early 19th century, temple complex, Bangkok, Thailand.

Wat Arun -

 The present wat was built on the site of 17th century Wat Jang, which served as the palace and royal temple of King Taksin when Thonburi was the Thai capital; hence, it was the last home of the Emerald Buddha before Rama I brought it across the river to Wat Phra Kaew.

The 82m prang (Khmer-style tower) was constructed during the first half of the 19th century by Rama II and Rama III. The unique design elongates the typical Khmer prang into a distinctly Thai shape. Its brick core has a plaster covering embedded with a mosaic of broken, multihued Chinese porcelain, a common temple ornamentation in the early Ratanakosin period when Chinese ships calling at Bangkok used tonnes of old porcelain as ballast. Steep stairs reach a lookout point about halfway up the prang from where there are fine views of Thonburi and the river. During certain festivals, hundreds of lights illuminate the outline of the prang at night.

Also worth a look is the interior of the bot. The main Buddha image is said to have been designed by Rama II himself. The murgs date to the reign of Rama V; particularly impressive is one that depicts Prince Siddhartha encountering examples of birth, old age, sickness and death outside his palace walls, an experience that led him to abandon the worldly life. The ashes of Rama II are interred in the base of the bot's presiding Buddha image.