Layered Lemon Pie: Sukhothai

The ancient Thai capital of Sukhothai, a name meaning dawn of happiness, was founded in the 13th century and became the kingdom's first capital -- existing between the years of 1238 and 1438. During that time, the Sukhothai Dynasty saw nine Kings reign, the best known of whom was the third, King Ramkhamhaeng, who has been credited with both the creation of the modern-day Thai alphabet and the introduction of Theravada Buddhism to Thailand.

If you click on this map it will open up in another window and be bigger and more focused...then you can see where Sukhothai is. It is just south-east of Chiang Mai about six hours. The next day we went to Ayutthaya. On our way home we went to Lopburi: Monkey City!

At its apex, the Sukhothai Kingdom stretched over much of modern-day Thailand (excepting the northeast, which remained under the control of the Khmers). The territory was gained both by military campaigns as well as diplomacy -- the latter of which King Ramkhamhaeng was seen to be a master of. This period is seen as a Thai golden age where the Thai arts and culture prospered under the reign of a series of benevolent rulers. Trade flourished, and, in a step that had important ramifications in Thailand's future development, trading relations with China opened.

Gradual decline began following King Ramkhamhaeng's death -- he was succeeded by his son, Lo Thai, a leader considered to have been ineffectual and who oversaw significant territorial losses. By the sixth reign, King Thammaracha I, Sukhothai was in a state of decline. In the year 1438, less than a century after King Ramkhamhaeng's death, the Sukhothai Empire was incorporated into the new rising star -- Ayutthaya.

Buddha...lots and lots of Buddha.

I liked taking these kind of pictures.

Stucco with fingerprints still visible. Perfect fit.

I love the timer on my camera.

Buddha got back.

I absolutely adore pigeons. At this exact moment I wished I had some of those yummy crackers from Russia and a better zoom on my camera!

This Buddha was pimpin'. Look at the bling!

This is the "famous" Buddha motif which is haled all over Southeast Asia. One of the queens modeled for this sculpture...supposedly. He does look a bit effeminate to me.

Ah ha! Now we are gettin' to the fun story part. You see that gianormous Buddha down there that Chelsea's takin' a picture of? Well, back in the '70's there were some missionaries who climbed up on that Buddha. Not only did they climb up in his hand and take a fun picture (which I must admit was terribly tempting...but I didn't do it. I refrained!) but they shimmied up between the back of the Buddha and the wall and they sat on his shoulder like little parrots! Well, you can guess it--that's basically the worst thing you could possibly do in Thailand not to mention a federal offense or something. Well, the missionaries were pretty dumb and went to develop their film...and the film developer person turned them into Thai police. Those suckers spent about six (or was it eighteen?) months in jail. There was nothing the Church could do about it either. I'm not sure the Church even wanted to do anything for them either. They almost got the missionaries and the Church kicked out of Thailand. Period. So we got all of these lectures about "don't climb on Buddhas, blah, blah, blah..." And everytime someone found out that I was LDS (Mormon) they would ask me if I knew about those missionaries that climbed on the Buddha in Sukhothai. We even had a lesson on it at Church one Sunday! And what's even more...the missionaries get it all the time! Poor babies!

This Buddha was honkin'. No lie. Look at the hand in his lap which tempted me so.

So fly.

This is multilingual for "DO NOT CLIMB ON THE HONKIN' BUDDHA!"
It's almost the only reason why I didn't get up in his enormous hand...

Yea for meditation! The moss was so awesome. I'm not sure if sittin' here was kosher or not. But that's why the world went digital, huh?

Lots of headless Buddha.
I can't find the story online right now. So I might end up tellin' ya'll lies. Forgive me. But what I was told by Alex, our facillator who served a two year mission in Thailand, was that there was a war with Laos(?)...either way, there was a war with somebody. And in Thailand, the head is the most sacred part of the body (the feet the most defiled). The Kings had power through the religion and obviously in Theravada Buddhism, the Buddha is most sacred...and his head would be the sacred of sacredest things. Therefore, when an army rolled through the capital of Sukhothai, they would shame and depower (wd?) the king by choppin' off the heads of the Buddhas.

Buddha Cemetary.

You know how in America they have those paintings of like farmers or families, etc. and you can stick your head through the hole and take a picture. I wanted to do this here. Again, I didn't out of respect for the people...then there was jail...and heaven forbid the bad karma!