Ancient ruins, Khmer (Cambodian) temple towers, Sukhotai, Thailand
This is one of the few buildings that still exists from the Khmer era. At that time, the city was a minor outpost of the Khmer (Cambodian) Empire.
Sukhotai was Thailand's first capitol city, founded around AD 1220. Before that, Thailand was ruled by the Khmer Empire (Cambodian Empire, also known as Angkor.) The Khmer (ethnic Cambodians) had absorbed a great amount of Indian culture early in the 1st melinieum AD. After they established their empire in 802 AD they extended it's boundries from the far north of today's Thailand to today's Malaysia. During that time they spread their Indianized culture, which was blended with existing Thai culture to bring about the Thai culture we know today.
Around 1200 AD the Khmer Empire had suffered several defeats and lost contact with it's terratories in Thailand. Several small Thai kingdoms arose out of the ashes. To the west, the Empire of Myanmar (Burma, and it would have been called "Myanmar" at the time) had fallen to the Mongol leader Kubli Khan. The leader of one small Thai kingdom, Ramkhamheng, was able to unite all the Thai kingdoms under his rule by sounding the alarm about Kubli Khan, who appeared to have Thailand in his sights. Khan changed his mind once he realized that his horse-mounted army couldn't fight during the muddy rainy season, thus sparing Thailand. (Cambodia, by the way, managed to reestablish it's empire albiet in smaller borders, whearas Burma wouldn't be reunited for another 200 years.)
The united kingdom Ramkhamheng had established remained intact, and he chose a small city that had been a minor Khmer outpost during the Khmer Empire as his new capitol. He called it "Sukhotai", Thai for "Dawn of happiness." He converted from Hinduism to Buddhism, and sent countless monks to Sri Lanka to learn Buddhism. As they returned they brought back a dose of Sri Lankan culture which they added to the culture of Thailand. The bell-shapped shrines, for example, were a Sri Lankan innovation, and a departure from the towers used in Cambodian temples and shrines.
Ramkamheng replaced the Khmer / Hindu God-king model of rule to a Buddhist "Dhammaraja" style of rule, in which the king is expected to perfect Buddhist morality and justify his rule by doing good works for the people. Many Thais regard the Sukhotai period as a golden age. It was fairly short, however. In 1351 the vassel kingdom of Ayutthaya declared independence and after a series of wars became the rulers of Thailand. Sukhotai was abandoned in 1432 and the royal court, now a vassel of Ayutthaya, moved to Phitsanulok.
But the royal family of Sukhotai, which became the royal family of Phitsanulok, wasn't quite finished. In the mid-1500s, they made a pact with the Burmese (the second Burmese empire) to help them take Ayutthaya. The Burmese then established them as the royal family of Thailand under Burmese vasselage. This was the only period that Thailand has come under foreign occupation in it's 800 year history, but it didn't last long. The king had played a trick on the Burmese: after using them to take the throne in Ayutthaya, he warned the Burmese that an army from Cambodia was about to invade and asked permission to raise an army. The Burmese agreed, but the Cambodian threat was fake; the king used his army to shake off the Burmese and reestablish independence. Thus, the old royal family of Sukhotai royal family was back on the throne. The kings of Ayutthaya had largly regressed back to the God-King style of rule, but once the Sukhotai family was back in power they carried out reforms that largely integrated the two systems, the God-King and the Dhammaraja.
Sukhotai was discovered by European archelogists in the 1700's and restored as a national historical park in 1977. It is a popular tourist destination today. Only temples were made of stone or brick, thus they are all that remains.
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rumtum11 (44 months ago | reply)
Thais were Tai people started to immigrate from Nanchao into Khmer Empire land in between 1100-1280 because of the richest Khmer Empire.
But the flood of Tai refugees into Khmer Empire land was around 1290 when the Mongol invaded their Nanchao, China.
Sukhotei was a gift from the Khmer King to his brother to help Tai refugees to become a nation. In 1300, Khmer Sukhotei became Tai Sukhotai. Thai tonal speaking is Tai tonal speaking group in south of China. But Tai writing is Khmer writing from Khmer Empire. Khmer alphabets, Khmer vowels and Khmer numerals have been using by Thais as Thai official language in Thailand today.
Sukhotai and Angkor lived in peace together until 1350 a Chinese-Tai Chin Kufar known as Uthong plundered Ayutthaya from Khmers and he asked China the Ming Emperor to help him.
China the Ming Emperor was behind Ayutthaya providing weapons to attack Sukhotei and Angkor. Chin Kufa or Uthong named himself as Ramatiboldi I. But he preferred the Khmer tradition writing Khmer alphabets, Khmer vowels and Khmer numerals from right to the left than the Chinese tradition writing. If he would have used the Chinese, Thais would have written from the left to the right like the Chinese today.
Khmers came back and kicked Ayutthay King out of Angkor. Ayutthaya King promised peace with the Khmer King never invaded Angkor again. But Ayutthaya Kings never respected promises; they invaded Angkor again and again. The Khmer Kings kept moving capital from Angkor to Long Vek, Udong, Basan, Chaktokmok to avoid making war with Ayutthaya Kings.
In 1548-1592, the Burmese armies invaded Ayutthaya and Aytthaya King took refugees to Udong City asking for the Khmer help. The Khmer Kings helped kicking the Burmese out of Ayutthaya.
Ayutthaya King promised not to invade the Khmer King again, but not for long. Ayutthaya King invaded the Khmer King at Udong City again. Khmers came back and kicked Ayutthaya King out of Khmer City.
In 1760-1767, the Burmese came back and destroyed Ayutthaya. The Ayutthaya Kings took refugees again to Udong City asking for the Khmer king help again. With the Khmer military that helped kicking the Burmese out of Ayutthaya again once more.
The Burmese recognized and acknowledged of Khmer warrior powerful as people can read at the Burmese Mahamuni temple describing about Khmer warrior statues.
foxylady's stardust (OFFLINE) (44 months ago | reply)
This lovely shot was seen in Historical and architectural gems, thank you for sharing. Foxy.
www.flickr.com/groups/701703@N21/
jovidoes (44 months ago | reply)
Awesome .
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