เทศบาลนครพระนครศรีอยุธยา
( Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (city) )Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (Thai: พระนครศรีอยุธยา, pronounced [pʰráʔ ná(ʔ).kʰɔ̄ːn sǐː ʔā.jút.tʰā.jāː]; also spelled "Ayudhya"), or locally and simply Ayutthaya is the capital of Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province of Thailand. Ayutthaya was the capital of the Ayutthaya kingdom. Located on an island at the confluence of the Chao Phraya and Pa Sak rivers, Ayutthaya is the birthplace of the founder of Bangkok, King Rama I. The ruins of the old city are preserved in the Ayutthaya Historical Park.
Prior to Ayutthaya's traditional founding date, archaeological and written evidence has revealed that Ayutthaya may have existed as early as the late 13th century as a water-borne port town. King Mongkut in an article written in the mid-19th century and published in Canton, China, notes:
I am just availing myself of an opportunity for searching into some pages of Siamese ancient history, and beg to state that our ancient capital Ayuthia before the year AD 1350, was but the ruin of an ancient place belonging to Kambuja (now known as Cambodia), formerly called Lawek... There were other cities not far remote, also possessed by the Kambujans...[1]
Further evidence of this can be seen with Wat Phanan Choeng, which was founded in 1324, 27 years before Ayutthaya's official foundation.[2]
Ayutthaya was officially founded in 1351[a] by King U Thong, who went there to escape a smallpox outbreak in Lopburi and proclaimed it the capital of his kingdom, often referred to as the Ayutthaya Kingdom or Siam. Ayutthaya became the second Siamese capital after Sukhothai.[3] It is estimated that Ayutthaya by the year 1600 had a population of about 300,000, with the population perhaps reaching 1,000,000 around 1700, making it one of the world's largest cities at that time,[4] when it was sometimes known as the "Venice of the East".[5][6]
In 1767, the city was destroyed by the Burmese army, resulting in the collapse of the kingdom. The ruins of the old city are preserved in the Ayutthaya historical park,[7] which is recognised internationally as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The ruins, characterised by the prang (reliquary towers) and gigantic monasteries, give an idea of the city's past splendour.[8] Modern Ayutthaya was refounded a few kilometres to the east.
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