The
Ancient Settlement Of Sukhothai
Srisakra Vallibhotama
In general the study of the ancient
history of Thailand (that is, events from the thirteenth century A.D. onward)
relies mainly on epigraphical, iconographical, and architectural sources, with
a limited reference to local chronicles and myths. These resources, although
admittedly inadequate in many respects, correspond very well with the myth of
the Thai race migrating to Thailand from southern China. As a result, Thai
history is commonly viewed as starting with the establishment of the first
capital of Sukhothai by the Phra Ruang family sometime during the thirteenth
century A.D. Sukhothai became an independent Thai state, shrugging off the
Khmer yoke; shortly, in the reign of King Ram Kamhaeng, it extended its
hegemony as far south as the Malay Peninsula. However, such a reconstruction of
Thai history contradicts the fact that at the time there already existed
several independent states, namely, Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Ayutthaya,
Suparnabhum, and Lan Na, some of which outlived Sukhothai.
Resolution of this contradiction
requires not only an investigation of the nature of the Thai state and its
interstate relationships, but also a through study of its geopolitical position
and physical structure, which may enable one to understand its political
structure. This article, focusing on the study of ancient settlements, is an
attempt to bring to light the composition of the state of Sukhothai (that is,
its cities and towns) and to see how these settlements interacted to keep the
state alive or to cause its decline. Various ancient sites were mapped,
surveyed, and studied to aid in understanding their dates and physical
structures. In addition, documentary sources such as inscriptions; chronicles,
and local myths were consulted to help place these ancient settlements into a
historical perspective.
Fieldwork
Study
By consulting Sukhothai inscriptions
I was able to designate the location of the state of Sukhothai in the lower
basins of the rivers Ping, Yom, and Nan, that is, on the north of the Chao
Phraya delta in the modern provinces of Nakhon Sawan, Pitchit, Kampaeng Phet,
Pitsanulok, Sukhothai, Tak, Uttaradit, and Phetchabun. Although it is drained
by three big rivers and their tributaries, this region is not fertile owing to
the poor quality of its soils and the fluctuation of the rainy season.
Sometimes rain comes so heavily that it causes inundation, which damages paddy
crops and other agricultural products. By ground survey, with the help of
aerial photographs, I have been able to identify the sites of thirty-eight
moated settlements in the Sukhothai region. These sites have either irregular
or regular shapes. They vary in size and structure from 350 meters in diameter
(sites with a few religious monuments and traces of ponds and irrigation dykes)
to over 1,500 meters in diameter (settlements with triple walls, large numbers
of religious monuments, and networks of roads, irrigation channels, and ponds
both large and small).
Archaeological monuments, art
objects, and inscription stones found at these sites indicate that urban
settlements in this region developed sometime in the thirteenth century A.D.
Unlike the settlements of the Chao Phraya delta and the northeast, which date
back to the seventh century A.D., differences in the forms of the Sukhothai
ruins cannot be used as a criterion to indicate which sites antedate the
others. However, it appears that the oldest settlements are often surrounded
with triple earthen walls, in contrast to these with a single brick or laterite
wall that are likely to have appeared sometime during the late fifteenth century.
With the exception of the city of Sukhothai, which is regularly oriented, the
irregular, triple-walled sites resemble many ancient settlements in the
Chiengmai and Chiengrai valleys in the north. As for the peculiarity of the
city of Sukhothai, its geometrical plan was no doubt heavily influenced by the
Khmer-type settlements of the northeast.
Religious monuments and irrigation
structures found in the settlements seem to indicate to a extent the hierarchy
of their sociopolitical status and this can be used to establish three grades
of settlements. The first type includes small-sized settlements, with or without
traces of religious monuments; the second type is larger and is dotted with
ruins of big religious monuments, ponds, irrigation bunds, and causeways; the
third type is larger still, and is well defined by moats and walls ponds, and
roads to connect the site with other communities. Above all, this the third
kind of settlement is associated with prominent religious monuments, within and
without the enclosed area. Based on evidence in the stone inscriptions and
local chronicles, I identify the first kind of Sukhothai settlement with the muang, or town, and the third kind with
the nakhon, or city. Due to the
limits of space and time here, I will confine myself to delineating the
structure of the nakhon, or city.
Structurally, the sociopolitical
status of the Sukhothai cities is marked first of all by two prominent types of
religious monuments. The first type was built inside the city and will be called
here the nagara-wasi wat, or city
monastery. Such monasteries are characterized by a complex of religious
monuments and buildings such as the stupas and vihara surrounded by walls and moats. Like the Khmer cities in the
northeast, which are marked by the existence of either Hindu or Mahayana
Buddhist prasat (towers) in the
middle of the city, the most prominent and sacred stupa (phra mahadhatu, or the Relics of the Buddha) is found in the middle
of the complex. Here was the center of the universe and the foci of sacredness,
where the royal rituals were performed, and for long-lasting cities this stupa
became an important, regional, pilgrimage site. The importance of the stupa of phra mahadhatu, which served to mark the
social status of the city, is often emphasized not only in the Sukhothai
inscriptions but in the poems and chronicles of Lan Na and Ayutthaya in the
fifteenth century. However, the importance of the nagara-wasi wat was not centered on the wat alone but also extended
to other wat built by the kings or rulers of the later periods. Probably the
long existence of the city is attested to by the series of these nagara-wasi wat.
The second type of prominent
religious monument that served to mark the socio-cultural significance of the
city are large wat located outside the city wall. These are usually of two
types: (1)aranya-wasi wat, or
monasteries of the forest-dwelling monks, the abode of the learned or
high-ranking monks; and (2)the wat of
the sacred object, notably the wat
that enshrined the Buddha's Footprint, which is as a rule located on top of a
small hill near the city. Like the nagara-wasi
wat, the numbers of these wat
vary according to the status and longevity of the city. In addition, large and
important sites are often studded with ruins of lesser wat three to five kilometers from the city. These are the kam-wasi wat, or village monasteries,
and each serves to mark the center of a village community.
Apart from the wat and sacred sites already mentioned, the Sukhothai cities seem
to possess unequal infrastructures in terms of irrigation works and
communication systems. The extent of these systems seems to depend on the
location of a particular city and its environment. Upland cities located far
from the main river and other water resources are likely to be equipped with a
sophisticated network of causeways, irrigation channels, and ponds, while those
situated near a waterway are not to equipped. The ancient city of Sukhothai can
be cited as a case in point. It is located on the border of an upland that
stretches from a mountain range in the southwest to the Yom River about twelve
kilometers to the east. Although there exist in this area some small rivers and
streams, they seem to have been used as runoff channels rather than serving to
detain or spread water to needed areas. Because of this, the city of Sukhothai
is characterized by a large-scale irrigation network that makes its city plan
unique and extraordinary compared with those of contemporary cities elsewhere.
Often this causes some misunderstanding among historians who, after a
superficial examination of the city plan, put forward the idea that Sukhothai
was a hydraulic city. From my close observation of the city of Sukhothai, I
would argue that its intricate irrigation network was not built for agriculture
but mainly for trapping and storing water for consumption throughout the year.
This, in my view, explains why Sukhothai is dotted with large numbers of big
and small ponds.
The irrigation works for paddy
cultivation are limited to a few areas along the Mae Lam Pan River to the north
and east of the city. One area, which I will call the na-luang, or the royal paddy field, is characterized by a large
rectangular enclosure fenced by earthen bunds and equipped with fai (weir) and muang (irrigation channels) from the Mae Lam Pan River. The
presence of such a structure is by no means an indication of large-scale paddy
cultivation, but was used merely to provide surplus food for the inhabitants
and ensure their survival in times of drought.
Other interesting earthworks found
among the settlements of Sukhothai are remains of ancient causeways. Formerly
only the Phra Ruang Road, which links the cities of Kampaeng Phet, Sukhothai,
and Sri Satchanalai, was widely known. During the course of my survey many more
causeways have been discovered. They did not function only as a communication
system, as do the roads and highways of the present day, but they also served
as irrigation channels, draining or spreading water from one place to another.
Such a function is illustrated clearly in an inscription found at Kampaeng
Phet, which mentions a restoration of the thor-pu
–phraya Ruang (the irrigation dyke and channel) that sent water from
Kampaeng Phet to the paddy fields in the town of Bang Phan. Again, such
irrigation works were meant to support the subsistence production of the towns
and villages located in dry areas.
Historical
Cities
After studying all the fieldwork
data and documentary evidence, I have developed a tentative proposition
concerning the emergence and decline of the state of Sukhothai, as follows.
Early in the late twelfth century
A.D. the lower basins of the rivers Ping, Yom, and Nan were underpopulated due
to poor soil and climate. But, as these areas were located on the trade route
between the Me Khong and the Salween river basins, and between the old states
of Haripunjaya in the north and Lavo in the central plain, two towns about
fifty kilometers apart developed sometime during the thirteenth century on the
west bank of the Yom River. These were Chalieng and Sukhothai. Evidence from
their archeological monuments and objects leads me to believe that these towns
were culturally and probably politically linked with the states of Lavo in the
Chao Phraya delta and Angkor in Cambodia. According to inscriptions and myths,
additional people, particularly from the Me Khong basin, migrated to this
region, where they seem to have erected their villages and towns along the
trade route. Finally, with some encouragement from the Khmer of Angkor, the
small state of Sukhothai was formed under the leadership of the Phra Ruang
family. According to the Sukhothai inscription No.2, four settlements (nakhon) were established along the
rivers Yom and Nan. The first two towns, Sukhothai and Chalieng (later known as
Sri Satchanalai), were rebuilt and elevated to the status of city. The other
two, Sra Luang and Song Kwae, were located on the bank of the Nan River. The
inscription mentions that the stupas of phra-maha
dhatu were built in the cities. The states was united and consolidated in
the reign of King Ram Kamhaeng, of the Phra Ruang family, during the late
thirteenth century. This king, through his personal prowess, not only brought
under his control the stubborn rulers of the cities and towns within his own
state, but also extended his political power to other states nearby. At the
same time he established friendships with such powerful states as Nakhon Sri
Thammarat, Ayutthaya, Lan Na, and Angkor. Shortly after the death of Ram
Kamhaeng, the state of Sukhothai began to decline. Thereafter, semi-independent
cities and towns were ruled by descendants of the Phra Ruang family who competed
for power.
In the middle of the fourteenth
century Sukhothai was united again under King Maha dharmaraja Lithai, who built
more cities and towns along the Ping River in the provinces of Kampaeng Phet
and Nakhon Sawan. The inscriptions mention that the king had the stupa of phra-mahadhatu built in the city of
Nakhon Chum and the Buddha's Footprint erected on the mountain close to the
towns of Muang Bang Phan and Muang Phra Bang. It was Lithai who initiated the
custom of establishing the Buddha's Footprint as a sacred place outside the
walls in addition to the stupa of phra-mahadhatu
in the city. As a result the Buddha's Footprint became another status symbol of
important towns and cities. At Sukhothai, the king had the Buddha's Footprint
built on Khao Phra Bat Yai, a small hill to the southwest of the city, and he
brought people from various conquered areas to worship there. In time more
cities were established and reestablished all over the state and these were
studded with the stupa of phra- mahadhatu
in the form of a lotus pagoda.
Later in the reign of King Lithai,
an attempt to extend his political power over some countries in the east
failed. He was blocked by King Ramathibodi I (King U Thong) of Ayutthaya who
sent his army to capture the city of Song Kwae. Thus humiliated, Lithai had to
beg for the return of the city. It is likely that by this time King Lithai was
forced to remain in Song Kwae. Sukhothai was ruled by his sister, who later
became a consort of Pha Ngua, U Thong's brother-in-law and general. This man,
who was later crowned King Baromrajathiraj I of Ayutthaya, initiated a policy
to divide Sukhothai into two halves. He abandoned King Lithai's city of Nakhon
Chum and to replace it established Cha Kangrao, which was later called Kampaeng
Phet, on the opposite bank of the Ping River. He had his stepson, Yanadit,
probably the son of King Lithai's sister by her former husband, appointed as
the ruler of Cha Kangrao. Cha Kangrao became a rival of Sukhothai and the two
cities were often in conflict or at war. Sukhothai often invaded and captured
Cha Kangrao, which provoked Baromraja (Baromrajathiraj I) to lead his army to
Sukhothai to free his vassal city. The war between Baromraja and Sukhothai was
well recorded in the Chronicle of Ayutthaya.
According to its inscriptions,
Sukhothai rose to power again under King Mahadharma raja III who had great
monasteries like Wat Asokaram and Wat Sri Pichittraram built as landmarks in
the city. But the resurgence seems to have been a short one, for after 1412 the
state of Sukhothai came again under the sway of the ruler of Kampaeng Phet, the
nephew of King Baromrajathiraj I of Ayutthaya. The state was broken into
principalities and the king of Sukhothai moved to Song Kwae, while Kampaeng
Phet became the dominant city of the region. With the ascension of
Baromrajathiraj's nephew, Nakrindhraraja, to the throne of Ayutthaya, the whole
Sukhothai country was brought under the rule of Ayutthaya. At the death of King
Mahadharmaraja IV, who was regarded as the last king of Sukhothai at Song Kwae,
Nakrindhraraja appointed his third son, Chao Sam Phraya, as ruler of Song Kwae.
It is likely that during this period Nakrindhraraja had pottery kilns set up at
Sukhothai and Sri Satchanalai (by this time known as Sawankalok) for
large-scale export production. This king was, according to many myths and
folktales, the Phra Ruang who went to China and brought the Chinese potters to
Thailand.
I would say that by the end of the
fifteenth century A.D. the city of Sukhothai was no longer the principal city,
having been replaced by Kampaeng Phet on the Ping and Song Kwae on the Nan
River. It remained for a little while a religious town and industrial site
serving Ayutthaya, then faded away sometime in the sixteenth century. The
settlement destined to survive as the principal city of the region was Song
Kwae, which was later rebuilt and enlarged by King Trailok, Nakrindhraraja's
grandson, and came to occupy both banks of the Nan River. But by this time it
was known by a new name, Pitsanulok.
