Buddha statue,Ayutthaya Era,Sukhothai style,C.E.1700

Home > Worthopedia – Price Guide > Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art >

Terms and Conditions for using our site

Buddha statue,Ayutthaya Era,Sukhothai style,C.E.1700

Sold For:

or Sign In to see what it's worth.

Sold Date: 06/08/2008
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Ethnic, Folk & Native American Art

The kingdom of Ayutthaya ( Thai : à¸à¸¢à¸¸à¸~à¸¢à¸² ) was a Thai kingdom that existed from 1351 to 1767. King Ramathibodi I (Uthong) founded Ayutthaya as the capital of his kingdom in 1351 and absorbed poor Sukhothai , 640 km to the north, in 1376. Over the next four centuries the kingdom expanded to become the nation of Siam ,whose borders were roughly those of modern Thailand , except for the north, the Kingdom of Lannathai . Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese , Vietnamese (Annam), Indians , Japanese and Persians , and later the Portuguese , Spanish , Dutch and French , permitting them to set up villages outside the city walls. The court of King Narai (1656-1688) had strong links with that of King Louis XIV of France , whose ambassadors compared the city in size and wealth to Paris . When Ayutthaya fell to Burmese attack in 1767, its territory included the Northern Shan states of Burma, Lanna (Chiang Mai), Yunnan & Shan Sri (China), Lan Xiang (Laos), Cambodia, South Vietnam and some of Malaya. Buddha head overgrown by fig tree in Wat Mahatat, Ayutthaya historical park Origins

The Siamese state based at Ayutthaya in the valley of the Chao Phraya River grew from the earlier kingdom of Lavo , which it absorbed, and its rise continued the steady shift southwards of the centre of gravity of the Tai-speaking peoples as other kingdoms in this area such as the kingdom of Supannaphum (Dvaravati) or, the kingdom of Sukhothai. In 1350, to escape the threat of an epidemic, King U Thong moved his court south into the rich floodplain of the Chao Phraya . On an island in the river which is the seaport city of Ayothaya was settled before, and he founded a new capital, which he called Ayutthaya, after the Hindu holy city Ayodhya in northern India , the birth city of the Hindu god Rama who is the hero in the Hindu epic Ramayana . U Thong assumed the royal name of Ramathibodi in 1350.

Ramathibodi tried to unify his kingdom. In 1360 he declared Theravada Buddhism the official religion of Ayutthaya and brought members of a sangha , a Buddhist monastic community, from Ceylon to establish new religious orders and spread the faith among his subjects. He also compiled a legal code , based on the Indian Dharmashastra (a Hindu legal text) and Thai custom, which became the basis of royal legislation. Composed in Pali -- an Indo-Aryan language closely related to Sanskrit and the language of the Theravada Buddhist scriptures -- it had the force of divine injunction. Supplemented by royal decrees, Ramathibodi's legal code remained generally in force until the late nineteenth century.

Conquests

By the end of the fourteenth century, Ayutthaya was regarded as the strongest power in Indochina , but it lacked the manpower to dominate the region. In the last year of his reign, Ramathibodi had seized Angkor during what was to be the first of many successful Thai assaults on the Khmer capital. The policy was aimed at securing Ayutthaya's eastern frontier by preempting Vietnamese designs on Khmer territory. The weakened Khmer periodically submitted to Ayutthaya's suzerainty, but efforts to maintain control over Angkor were repeatedly frustrated. Thai troops were frequently diverted to suppress rebellions in Sukhothai or to campaign against Chiang Mai , w Ayutthaya's expansion was tenaciously resisted. Eventually Ayutthaya subdued the territory that had belonged to Sukhothai, and the year after Ramathibodi died, his kingdom was recognized by the emperor of China's newly established Ming Dynasty as Sukhothai's rightful successor.

The Thai kingdom was not a single, unified state but rather a patchwork of self-governing principalities and tributary provinces owing allegiance to the king of Ayutthaya under the mandala system . These countries were ruled by members of the royal family of Ayutthaya who had their own armies and warred among themselves, as well as self governing but subservient Malay states in the south. The king had to be vigilant to prevent royal princes from combining against h...