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ArchitecturePrasat Ta Muen
The diagram of Prasat Ta Muen is a characteristic of an archaeological site called "Dharamshala or a traveler's lodge" which King Jayavarman VII, around the 18th century, had ordered to build along the important routes throughout the kingdom. The place is a single prasat constructed with laterite and sandstone. The diagram is a square with recessed corners. The front of the prasat is a long room built of laterite. There is a door connected to the prasat on the west. This long room has one wall cut into a row of windows. Other walls were made of false windows. There is one entrance and exit on the east with a sandstone lintel carved into a Buddha image sitting cross-legged in a meditating position.
ArchitecturePrasat Nong Bua Rai
It consists of the principle prasat with an entrance facing east. The entrance is with a porch with one window porthole on each side of the porch. The top of the prasat has 4 layers with a decorative square. On the northeastern side, there is a Banalai or a repositorie for scriptures facing the principle prasat. In front of the principle prasat is a cross-shaped walkway extended until the gopura. In front of the president's castle there is a cross path that leads all the way to Gopura. All of these are surrounded by an inner wall.Around the nearby area, a piece of a gable was found with an image of the 4-arms Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva in a standing position. On the northeastern side, outside the inner wall is a pond in a rectangular diagram. This layout and construction patterns, such as the castle with porches and window porthole on both sides, can be found at other archaeological sites such as at Ku Santarat. Mahasarakham province or at Prasat Ta Muan Tot, Surin province, etc.
ArchitecturePrang Ku
Prang Ku is another archaeological site that has the same layout and characteristics as the Arogayasala archaeological site. The evidence that proves that it was built in the 18th century B.E. is the layout with one Principle prang in the middle, one Banalais or repositories for scriptures in the front surrounded by a wall with gopura only in the front. All were built with laterite except the door frame, lintels, and decorative pillars that are sandstone. They are facing east. There is one pond in the north- east of the prang that is still in a perfect condition. The principle prang is a 5 meter square with 12 wooden recess corners. There is a front door at the front with a porch while the other 3 sides are false doors. There is a Buddha image at the center of the prang sitting cross- legged in a meditating position. Both hands of the image are holding a garland. On both left and right sides of the images are the 4-arms Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and Prachya Paramita. The front has a lintel with possibly the same images but they are very faded. There is also a stone Buddha image sitting cross- legged in a meditating position at the false door on the north. The image is in Dvaravati Arts. It is 1.75 meters high and the lap is 7.5 meters wide. This image was transferred from another place.
ArchitecturePrasat Ban Bu
A rectangular building stretching east-west with a front entrance which is facing east. The back is the building of the prasat which is divided into a square-shaped room.As for the construction or the entrance door frame, sandstone with four flower petals were originally used by turning the engraved sandstone on the inward. The reuse of materials of older arts is similar to Prang Hin Daeng at Prasat Hin Phimai. In addition, a large lotus peak joining arts with Bayon was found. This is similar to the gopura’s peak of Prasat Preah Khan in Cambodia. The connected southern walkway has three window portholes and one hole at the porch on the north. The upper part is dense and almost completely ruined. There is a curved roof over the walkway built between the prasat’s building and the porch.
ArchitectureKuti Ruesi Ban Khok Mueang
It is a rectangular diagram with an outmost laterite wall with an arch entrance or gopura in the east. Inside at the center is located the principle prasat made of laterite. Some parts have sandstone at the door frames. There is a porch at the east entrance. The other 3 entrances are false doors. On the southeastern side of the inner wall is a laterite Banalai as well. Some parts of the gopura and the Principal prasat are decorated with a gable or a lintel in Naga or Magara with Naga. It is assumed that this is the art style of the 16th – 17th century B.E. However, the decorations are not perfectly connected with the wall and the principle prasat, therefore it may be as to bring the old items attaching to the new buildings. Nevertheless, if these pieces are original then it may be assumed that there had been a religious place built around the 16th century B.E. Later, in the 18th century B.E., it was adapted to be a chapel of Arogayasala in Mahayana Buddhism.
ArchitectureWat Si Sawai
It is facing south surrounded with a rectangle laterite wall. There is an arch entrance on the south wall and next is the outer hall connected to a solid inner viharn in the north-south line. Next to that are 3prasats located in a west-east line. The central prasat is higher than the other two. The current condition shows that many constructions and modifications have been done to this site. The base is submerged into the ground and it is made of laterite. The roof was built with bricks decorated with jackfruit petals in the image of Krut Yut Naga, deities, angels, and Nagas at the frame of the gate. This is a mix of arts of Khmer and Sukhothai. In addition, there are traces of other structures such as the terraces that surround the prasat and the 3 bases that are around the principle prasat. The area between the temple wall and the inner wall has a pond behind the castle which would have been an upside-down U shape. Later the west area had been filled and a small laterite viharn appeared. In front of the small viharn appears a pagoda base and there is also another laterite base behind the temple wall in the north. Significant antiquities that were found in the temple is the Narai Bantomsin lintel, a stone slab of the standing Narai, and decorated bronze Buddha images. The age of the antiquities is around the 18th centure B.E. It is therefore assumed that this Wat Sri Sawai was first built as a religious place for Brahminism or Mahayana Buddhism. Later, when Sukhothai had power over the Khmer in the 19th century B.E., it was converted to a religious place for Theravada Buddhism.
ArchitecturePrasat Wat Chao Chan
It consists of the principle prasat in a square shape located in a center of a laterite wall in a rectangular diagram with a surface decorated with plaster. The bottom base is a set of inverted lotuses - supine lotus. There are four arches at the main building with only one entrance and one exit on the east side. The doors on the other sides are false doors. There is a room for enshrining idols at the front. Later in the Sukhothai period, this religious site had been transformed to a Buddhist temple instead by covering the surrounding area of the base that made the inverted lotuses- the supine lotus base submerged underground. A laterite viharn along with a laterite Mondop were then built in front of the prang prasat for enshrining Phra Athatharot in the north of the prang. Inside the Mondop, there are rough laterite shapes and a standing Buddha image with both hands attached to the body. The wooden roof has already collapsed, only pieces of clay tiles scattering around. Later, Fine Arts Department discovered an amulet decorated as a king made of lead and tin. When digging deeper, artifacts from the Dvaravati period such as Hariphunchai wares, glass beads, and human skeleton were found.
ArchitectureThe wall of Wat Mahathat Worawihan
Since the Royal Viharn of Wat Mahathat was built in the overlapped area that used to be the site of a Khmer castle in the 18th century B.E., the archaeological excavations shows the diagram of the overlaid Khmer castle is as follows: The diagram is square and at the center of the diagram appears a base of a principle prasat made of laterite surrounded by a curved outer wall. There are traces of the gopura only in the north and the south. It might be possible that the curved outer wall might have a gopura on each of the four directions and their positions corresponded with the positions of the gopuras of the inner wall made of laterite that is next to it. The east side shows a trace of a long path from the gopura of the curved outer wall connects to the gopura of the inner wall. On the inner wall adorns the Tap Lang (lintel) Kamphaeng which was made of red sandstone engraved a Buddha image sitting cross- legged in a meditating position; some lintels engraved a Buddha image while some engraved 2-4 Buddha images.The styles of the lintels are mixed between Khmer culture of the 18th century B.E, Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin periods. The art style of the lintel in Bayon is mostly similar. They are Buddha images sitting cross-legged in a meditating position. The hair is flat with no decorations. The radius is in a cone shape. The eyebrows are connected and the eyes are looking low. The outer rope is plain with no decorations nor stripes. The Buddha images are situated on the arched wall, decorated its upper edges with Ruay Rakha and the lower edges are decorated with Kanok or Tua Ngao patterns facing inward.Decorations in the inner wall with Buddha images appears in only a few places in Khmer Architecture in Thailand such as the Noen Khok Phra Archaeological Site, Pak Thong Chai District Nakhon Ratchasima province.
