Relics of Nakhon Si Thammarat

Keywords :

Site common name	Phra Mahathat Woramahawihan Temple
Type of artwork	Architecture
Sub district	Nai Mueang
District	Mueang Nakhon Si Thammarat
Province	Nakhon Si Thammarat
Region	South
Country	Thailand
Geographic Coordinates Decimal degree	Lat : 8.410996 Long : 99.966145
Geographic Coordinates UTM	Zone : 47 P Hemisphere : N E : 606363.88 N : 929865.73
Place of artwork	Central Buddhist District

History of production	The history dated back to the beginning of Historical period or around 10th century BE. Prince Tantagumar and Princess Hemmala invited Buddha Tooth Relics from India to Sri Lanka but the ship broke and they both landed on Sai Kaew Beach. They then buried the Relics at the beach to protect it from danger. They finally found the way to bring the Buddha Tooth Relics back to Sri Lanka and they put some of the relics back to the original location. Later, Lord Sri Thammasokkarathi built a stupa covering the Buddha Relics. That place is Relics of Nakhon Si Thammarat. The story of broken ship might be just an inspiring story about the Relics but the story of Lord Sri Thammasokkarathi built a stupa covering the Buddha Relics may be true based on the art style of 18^th century BE. In Ayutthaya period, the top part was repaired and plated with gold and it has been restored continuously until the present.
Production process	Masonry
Art	The current form from the base until the top of the Relics Nakhon Si Thammarat is as follows. The bottom part is high surrounded by a balcony called Tubkaset Vihara. The stairway leads to the courtyard is in the north, which is the side that is connected to Pra Song Maa Vihara. That makes the stairway automatically located inside the Vihara. The walls of the base are decorated with pillars. On the pillar, there are some standing Buddha images with the disciples inside the camber. On each side of the camber, there are six elephants that only half of their bodies are shown; except on the north that appears only 4 elephants because some of the space is used for the stairs. The top part is gold plated and decorated with Precious gems.
Key academic information	Relics of Nakhon Si Thammarat is a spherical stupa that resembles Sri Lanka Art. It might be the first group of stupas built under the influence of Lanka Buddhism that has come to Thailand since the 18^th century. It may also be both direct and indirect influence of a lot of spherical stupas in Thailand.
Period	Historical Period
Art period	Ayutthaya, Before Ayutthaya
Age	18th century B.E.
Religion	Buddhism
Religion and belief	Buddhism
Related artwork	1. It is believed that the Relics of Nakhon Si Thammarat is related to spherical stupa in Sri Lanka arts; the close example is Girivihar in Polonnaruwa town. 2. The Relics of Nakhon Si Thammarat is a sacred place, so it is transmitted or replicated to other stupas with a few changes to make it different than the original one. The example of those stupas are Wat Khian Bang Kaew in Phatthalung Province, Chawee Relics in Chumphon, the stupa of Ratchapraditsathan temple (Wat Phako), Chedi Wat Phra Chedi Ngam Wat Sathing Phra, the stupa of Phra Chedi-Ngam temple, the stupa of Sathing Phra temple, Songkhla.

Type of License	Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC BY-NC-ND)
Rights	Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre
Date of record creation	2016-09-30
Record creator	Rungroj Thamrungraeng
Bibliography	Praphat Chuvichean, "Art historical analysis on Phra Boromathat Chedi Naknon Si Thammarat" (Master of Art Thesis in Art History, Silpakorn University), 2004. Praphat Chuvichean, “the great Buddhist stupa, the stupa of Southern Peninsula, Bangkok: Ancient City”, 2010.