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In 1957 the archaeologists of the Fine Arts Department conducted an excavation at the crypt of the main prang of Wat Ratchaburana in Ayutthaya. The rich find, one of the most significant in the history of Thai archaeology, led to the discovery of some two thousand objects reflecting religious and aristocratic life in the early Ayutthaya period. Among the thousands of objects the most important pieces are the articles of royal regalia such as crowns and swords, and the princely ornaments of various types of neck and chest decorations, necklaces, armlets, bracelets and rings. Also important are the religious objects including gold plaques depicting the Buddha, a large number of fine Buddha images in the round and the votive tablets.
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It is believed that many of these artifacts belonged to the two elder of King Intharacha's three sons, who both returned to Ayutthaya to seize the throne when they heard of their father's death. Meeting near the palace, they fought a dual on elephant back and both were killed. The youngest son, who was not involved in the fight, then automatically ascended the throne as Phra Borom Rachathirat.
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To make merit for his dead brothers, the new king built two chedis on the spot where they died, and the main prang in Wat Ratchaburana to enshrine their belongings and votive objects.
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The treasure of Wat Ratchaburana survived the destruction of Ayutthaya by the Burmese in 1767 and remained hidden in the crypt until their discovery. Today most of them are displayed in a special room at the Chao Sam Phraya National Museum in the ancient capital.
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Ayutthaya, a river island city-state founded in 1350 by King U Thong, later crowned King Ramathibodi I, remained the Thai capital for 417 year until its fall. During the long period Thai kings were influenced by the practice of divine kingship. Thus, Ayutthaya kings, upon coronation were invested with the trappings and ceremony of Brahmanic rituals and retitled with the names of Hindu gods. Complex Brahmin ceremonies endowed Ayutthaya kings with a divine aura. The royal palace was magnificent to represent the celestial abode of Hindu deities.
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Ayutthaya rapidly grew in strength, and at its zenith maintained control over the central and lower Chao Phraya river basin, parts of Burma and much of the Malay peninsula. For both economic and military reasons a kingdom's strength was then judged by its manpower.
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The economy of the Ayutthaya period was based primarily on rice monoculture ; the commerce on teak, salt, spices, hides and other basic commodities. As Ayutthaya grew, it become increasingly dependent on village produce, and the merchant class began to flourish. Aditionally, external trade was conducted under royal authority or under license, the Crown again levying taxes. In this fashion, the kings established widespread levy system to finance the royal court, wars and public works such as building monasteries, fortresses and canals. Subjects paid taxes in food, cash, precious metals or corvee labour.
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Through such central controls, trade flourished both in the kingdom and abroad. As the economy prospered, new classes of craftsmen such as swordmakers, goldsmiths and jewellers emerged. Trade and commercial specification developed simultaneously to serve the new economy.
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According to the foreign records of the 17th century, the island capital was an awesome walled city some 10 Kms in circumference, containing hundreds of glittering, gilded temples, towering spires and golden Buddha images. On the more than 50 Kms of waterways glided ornately carved royal barges, Arab dhows, Chinese junks, ocean-going schooners, European barques and lesser rivercrafts transporting goods to and from all corners of the kingdom. The city's 40 Kms of roads were alive with merchants, artisans, sedate ecclesiastics, noblemen, soldiers, cavalry and caparisoned war elephants adorned with bejevelled harnesses. Because of a flourishing maritime trade, many foreign items of great value made their way into Ayutthaya from Persian rugs and lamps to exquisite Chinese and Japanese works of art.
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In the 18th century the kingdom was at its lowest ebb, and the Burmese invaders arrived at the capital in 1767. After a fifteen-month siege Ayutthaya was irreparably destroyed by the enemy. Monateries and palaces were emptied of priceless treasures. Most written histories of the Thai people were reduced to ashes in an orgy of vandalism, and a once resplendent city of one million was left with come ten thousand inhabitants.
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Since the fall of Ayutthaya in the late 18th century many people went to the ancient capital to dig the legendary treasures out of the deteriorated monuments. This illegal practice continued on until the time of King Mongut, who issued a decree in 1854 that the people living nere the ancient monuments should take care of them in whatever size and state they were and how important they been in the past.
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Later in 1930's when collecting Buddhist amulets was very fashionable, illegal diggings at the monuments in ruins become prevalent again, especially in Ayutthaya. To stop this revitalized vandalism, the then Prime Minister Phibulsonggram established the Committee of Restoration of Ayutthaya in July, 1956.
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Consequently, the Fine Arts Department launched the restoration of Wat Mahathat in Ayutthaya as its first monument to conserve, which had originally been constructed in 1374 during the reign of King Phangua. In the following month of August the archaeologists from the Department discovered some 20 gold objects under the base of the chedi, a super-structure built on the large main prang. Besides the gold objects, votive tablets made of clay, gold plaques depicting Buddha images were also unearthed. Among all the discoveries, the most important was the gold plaque depicting the U Thong style Buddha, 48 cms tall.
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From the miniature prangs at the cardinal points built on the base of the main prang, they found a reliquary of the Buddha's relics, along with gold votive tablets, gold rings and bronze buddha images.
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The news of the discovery at Wat Mahathat soon come to be know to the public, and treasure hunters ventured to conduct illegal diggings at almost every ancient structures in Ayutthaya. The Fine Arts Department alone was not able to look after the large scale looting.
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The second monument to be renovated by the Department was the prang at Wat Phra Ram, which had originally been erected in 1369 by King Ramesuan at the cremation site of his father King U Thong, the founder of Ayutthaya. During the primary excavation conducted in 1958, the archaeologists found two plaques depicting the Buddha, six silver Buddha images and many votive tablets of the U Thong period, along with gold and silver beads.
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The next ancient structure excavated officially was the prangs at Wat Chai Wattanaram, originally constructed by King Prasat Thong in 1630. Though the ancient structures had already been disturbed by treasure hunters, many precious objects were unearthed in the crypt of the main prang.
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As mentioned earlier, the rich find from Wat Ratchaburana is one of the most significant in the history of Thai archaeolory. It is said that in 1957 when looters staged illegal diggings for the first time at the main prang of the wat, they did not get down to the main crypt. When it become known to the concerned officials, the Fine Arts Department planned to excavate it immediately, but was delayed for some unavoidable causes. In the meantime, the looters went back to the main prang, this time digging down to the upper chamber of the crypt. In there they found a large number of treasures, most of which were immediately handed over to the dealers and collectors. It is impossible to tell exactly how many treasures were found at the time. Only a few pieces including the crown and sword were caught by the police and sent to the Department. However, according to the report made by the police, it can be summarized roughly that the precious objects stolen at that time included small gold objects weighting 75 Kgs, which were divided into 30 portions among the looters ; and a large gold piece more than 10 Kgs in weight that was difficult to divide among them. According to some antique dealers and the cultural officer of the province, the items reported to the police were even less than one third of the whole amount taken away illegally. Only after then the archaeologists from the Department excavated the crypt down to the bottom, and they found 2,121 artifacts, many of which were in gold and eleborately studded with gems.
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To house the treasures from the crypt, the Government officers agreed to construct a National Museum, which is now known as the Chao Sam Phraya. They decided to raise donations by selling the less important ojects such as copies of votive tablets. The fund raised amounted almost 3.5 million bate. Now, thus constructed Chao Sam Phraya National Museum contains the cultural relics of Ayutthaya Kingdom, found mainly from Wat Ratchaburana and also from other buddhist monuments in the old capital. The Museum was opened graciously by their Majesties the King and the Queen on December 26 in 1961.
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