Thailand Guide
The central plains
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol
Opening time: Daily 8am–5pm
Price: B20
Address: 2km southeast of Pridi Damrong Bridge
Surrounded by formal lawns, flowerbeds and much-photographed saffron-draped Buddhas, the ancient but still functioning Wat Yai Chai Mongkol was established by Ramathibodi I in 1357 as a meditation site for monks returning from study in Sri Lanka. King Naresuan put up the celebrated stupa to mark the decisive victory over the Burmese at Suphanburi in 1593, when he himself had sent the enemy packing by slaying the Burmese crown prince in an elephant-back duel. Built on a colossal scale to outshine the Burmese Golden Mount on the opposite side of Ayutthaya, the stupa has come to symbolize the prowess and devotion of Naresuan and, by implication, his descendants right down to the present king. By the entrance, a reclining Buddha, now gleamingly restored in white, was also constructed by Naresuan.