Wat Mahathat
The Buddha head held in a fig tree's roots, and the beheaded chedis around it.
Duration
45 min – 1 hr 15 min
Best time
At opening
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Wat Mahathat was Ayutthaya's royal monastery and the seat of the kingdom's Buddhist patriarch, founded in the fourteenth century. The Burmese razed it in 1767 along with the rest of the capital, and what is left is a field of brick bases and collapsed prangs.
A sandstone Buddha head, fallen from a beheaded statue, was slowly gripped by the roots of a banyan that grew over it. Nobody placed it there: the tree swallowed it across two centuries, and it has become the image of the city.
Getting there
In the heart of the historical park, at the corner of Chikun Road and Naresuan Road. The park is best covered by bicycle, hired everywhere in town.
What the price covers
paid entry to the historical park, rate to be checked on site
Rules on site
In front of the head in the roots you photograph yourself crouching: standing above an image of the Buddha is an offence, and a warden enforces it.
Other places in Ayutthaya
Wat ChaiwatthanaramA Khmer temple on the riverbank, eight chapels around a thirty-five-metre prang.
- Wat Phra Si SanphetThe three white chedis of the royal palace, in a row on the same terrace since 1492.
- Bang Ian Night MarketThe locals' evening market, two streets from the ruins and without a single souvenir stall.