Thailand Guide
The central plains
Wat Mahathat
Opening time: Daily 6am–6pm
Price: B100 includes entry to the rest of the central zone
Address: Central zone, Sukhothai Historical Park; 12km west of New Sukhothai
The enormous Wat Mahathat compound is the most important site in Sukhothai Historcal Park, packed with the remains of scores of monuments and surrounded, like a city within a city, by a moat. This was the spiritual focus of the city, the king's temple and symbol of his power; successive regents, eager to add their own stamp, restored and expanded it so that by the time it was abandoned in the sixteenth century it numbered nineteen different halls and sanctuaries and nearly two hundred small stupas. Looking at the temple from ground level, it's hard to distinguish the main structures from the minor ruins. Remnants of the assembly halls dominate the present scene, their soldierly ranks of pillars, which formerly supported wooden roofs, directing the eye to the Buddha images seated at the far western ends.
The principal stupa complex, which houses the Buddha relic, stands grandly – if a little cramped – at the heart of the compound, built on an east-west axis in an almost continuous line with two assembly halls. Its elegant centrepiece follows a design termed lotus-bud stupa (after the bulbous finial ornamenting the top of a tower), and is classic late Sukhothai in style. This lotus-bud reference is an established religious symbol: though Sukhothai architects were the first to incorporate it into building design – since when it's come to be regarded as a hallmark of the era – the lotus bud had for centuries represented the purity of the Buddha's thoughts battling through the clammy swamp and finally bursting out into flower. The stupa stands surrounded by eight smaller towers – some with their stucco decoration partially reapplied, and some with a Buddha image in one of their four alcoves – on a square platform decorated with a procession of walking Buddha-like monks, another artistic innovation of the Sukhothai school, here depicted in stucco relief. Flanking the stupa platform are two square structures, built for the colossal standing Buddhas still inside them today.