Sukhothai: Thailand’s First Capital, Among Ponds and Lotus
The ruins of the thirteenth-century capital where the Thai script was devised lie in a quiet park of ponds and trees in the north of the central plain. They are best seen by bicycle, over a day and a half.
Sukhothai lies in the north of Thailand’s central plain, roughly halfway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries it was the capital of the first major Thai kingdom, and Thais regard it as the place where their art, their script and their form of Buddhism took shape. The ruins of the city are a historical park, listed by UNESCO in 1991 as the Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns, together with Si Satchanalai and Kamphaeng Phet.
The kingdom
In 1239 two Thai chiefs took the town from its Khmer governors, and one became its first king. Under his son Ramkhamhaeng the kingdom reached its greatest extent. Ramkhamhaeng is credited with devising the Thai alphabet in 1283, and a stone inscription attributed to him describes a prosperous land with fish in the water and rice in the fields. The original is kept in the National Museum in Bangkok, and the inscription is on UNESCO’s Memory of the World register.
After his death in 1298 the vassal states broke away. In 1378 Sukhothai submitted to the younger kingdom of Ayutthaya to the south, and the city slowly emptied. The modern town of Sukhothai was founded in 1793, twelve kilometres to the east, and the old city was left to the forest.
The old city
The walled city is a rectangle of about two kilometres by 1.6, with a gate in the middle of each side, surrounded by earth ramparts and moats. Inside are the remains of the royal palace and 26 temples. In all, the park counts 193 ruins over 70 square kilometres.
Wat Mahathat. The largest and most important temple, at the centre of the city. Its main tower, built around 1345, ends in a bud shaped like a lotus, the mark of Sukhothai architecture. A procession of 168 disciples is carved round its base, two standing Buddhas nine metres tall flank it, and some 200 smaller stupas fill the enclosure. Seated Buddhas among rows of columns face the rising sun across a pond.
Wat Si Sawai. Three well-preserved towers of Khmer form, founded as a Hindu shrine before the Thai kingdom and later converted.
Wat Sa Si. A bell-shaped stupa in the Sri Lankan manner and a small ordination hall, on islands in a pond covered in lotus.
Wat Si Chum. Outside the walls to the north-west. A square, windowless building 32 metres on each side contains a seated Buddha 15 metres high, seen first through a narrow slit in the facade. Its right hand, with long tapering fingers, rests on its knee.
Wat Saphan Hin. On a hill to the west, reached by an old path of slate slabs, with a standing Buddha 12.5 metres tall looking back over the plain.
The Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, opened in 1964 near the eastern gate, holds more than 2,000 objects and is the place to begin. The kingdom was also known for its ceramics, exported across Asia, and kiln sites can be seen in the area.
The Sukhothai style
The Buddha images of Sukhothai are among the most admired in Thai art. They are slender and smooth, with an oval face, arched eyebrows, a faint smile and a flame rising from the crown of the head. The walking Buddha, one foot forward and one arm swinging, is closely associated with the kingdom’s sculptors.
For travellers
The park is flat and its roads are shaded, and the usual way to see it is by bicycle, which can be hired nearby. The central zone takes half a day. The temples outside the walls take another morning. Start at sunrise or go late in the afternoon. The middle of the day is very hot from March to May.
The cool season, from November to February, is the best time. On the full moon of the twelfth lunar month, usually in November, the park holds a Loy Krathong festival, when small floats with candles are set on the ponds among the lit ruins. Tradition places the origin of the festival here, though historians consider the story a later invention.
Sukhothai is a long drive from Bangkok, and Phitsanulok, about an hour away by road, is the usual rail gateway to the region. Check current flight and train options before planning. A day can be added for Si Satchanalai, to the north, a quieter site of the same period.