Ayutthaya Kingdom

The period was described as a "golden age" of Siamese culture and saw the rise in Chinese trade and the introduction of capitalism into Siam,[24] a development that would continue to expand in the centuries following the fall of Ayutthaya.

[64] However, since he had no male heir, he had his only daughter marry Sai Nam Peung (สายน้ำผึ้ง),[65] son of Kraisornrat (ไกรศรราช) who was of Mon's Chaliang and Tai's Chiang Saen lineages and served as the Lavapura king at that time.

During the pre-Aytthaya period, Ayodhya was mentioned as Xiān (暹; or Siam) in several Chinese and Đại Việt texts from 1149[40]:line 61 to the official establishment of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1351.

[70]: 70  According to The Customs of Cambodia written by Zhou Daguan as an official delegation sent by the Yuan Dynasty to Angkor from 1296–1297, the Siamese people exerted significant influence over Lavo's Lavapura and appeared in huge numbers in the Angkorian capital of Yasodharapura.

[23] In 1605, Naresuan died of illness while on campaign against a Burmese spillover conflict in the Shan region, leaving a greatly expanded Siamese kingdom to be ruled by his younger brother, Ekathotsarot (Sanphet III).

[90]: 173–180  Ekathotsarot's reign was marked with stability for Siam and its sphere of influence, as well as increased foreign interactions, especially with the Dutch Republic, Portuguese Empire, and Tokugawa Shogunate (by way of the Red Seal Ships), among others.

Indeed, representatives from many foreign lands began to fill Siam's civil and military administration – Japanese traders and mercenaries led by Yamada Nagamasa, for example, had considerable influence with the king.

Nonetheless, Si Saowaphak succeeded to the throne against his late father's wishes, and led a short and ineffective reign in which he was kidnapped and held hostage by Japanese merchants, and later murdered.

[91] While a community of Japanese exiles were eventually welcomed back into the country, this event marks the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate's long-standing formal relationship with the Ayutthaya Kingdom.

[90]: 216–217  Narai finally assumed a stable position as King of Ayutthaya with the support of a mainly foreign court faction consisting of groups that had been marginalized during the reign of his father, Prasat Thong.

[91]: 63  This hostile attitude was especially directed at Constantine Phaulkon, a Catholic Greek adventurer and proponent of French influence who had climbed to the rank of Narai's Prime Minister and chief advisor of foreign affairs.

[98] While members of the anti-foreign court faction were primarily concerned with Catholic influence, there is evidence to suggest that Narai was equally interested in Islam, and had no desire to fully convert to either religion.

However, Ayutthaya kings only occasionally viewed themselves as the defender of "the kingdom, people [sic], and Buddhism", which wouldn't be fully realized until the Thonburi and Bangkok regimes in response to the traumatic destruction of the Siamese state in 1767.

It however lacked the men to arm these weapons, with the failure of the Ayutthaya corvee system and increased economic incentives for phrai to escape due to greater integration with the world's economy over the past 150 years of peace.

[108][109]: 116  Aung Zeiya, a local Burmese leader, arose against the Mons and reconquered Upper Burma, proclaiming himself King Alaungpaya and establishing militaristic regime of the new Konbaung dynasty.

Phraya Tak, a Siamese military man of Chinese heritage, upon realizing hopelessness in defenses of Ayutthaya, gathered men and broke through Burmese siege in January 1767 to seek for new position in Eastern Siam.

[125][126] He gathered his forces and retook the ruined capital of Ayutthaya from the Burmese garrison at Pho Sam Thon in June 1767, using his connections to the Chinese community to lend him significant resources and political support.

[129] The city, described by a Danish visitor in 1779 to be a "terrible spectacle", totally buried in undergrowth and inhabited by elephants and tigers,"[129] was resettled quite soon after, with former Ayutthaya temples being used for festivals and celebrations following the sack.

[136] While there is no concrete evidence that this land management system constituted a formal palace economy, the French François-Timoléon de Choisy, who came to Ayutthaya in 1685, wrote, "the king has absolute power.

[137] In addition to the sakdina system, another of the numerous institutional innovations of Borommatrailokkanat was to adopt the position of uparaja, translated as 'viceroy' or 'prince', usually held by the king's senior son or full brother, in an attempt to regularise the succession to the throne – a particularly difficult feat for a polygamous dynasty.

'[139] Although European visitors to Thailand at the time tried to discern any rules in the Siamese order of succession, noting that in practice the dead king's younger brother often succeeded him, this custom appears not to have been enshrined anywhere.

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the 18th century included these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Junk Ceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla.

Terwiel, this process occurred with an accelerated pace during the reign of King Borommatrailokkanat (1448–1488) who reformed Siam's model of governance by turning the Siamese polity into an empire under the mandala feudal system.

It allowed Siamese poets to compose in different poetical styles and mood, from playful and humorous rimed verses, to romantic and elegant klong and to polished and imperious chan prosodies modified from classical Sanskrit meters.

Thailand's national epic is a version of the story of Rama-Pandita, as recounted by Gotama Buddha in the Dasharatha Jataka called the Ramakien,[158] translated from Pali and rearranged into Siamese verses.

[159] By the late period of the Ayutthaya Kingdom, it had attained the current shape as a long work of epic poem with the length of about 20,000 lines, spanning 43 samut thai books.

In the highlands, where rainfall had to be supplemented by a system of irrigation[172] to control water levels in flooded paddies, the Thais sowed the glutinous rice that is still the staple in the geographical regions of the north and northeast.

When word spread that Narai was dying, a general, Phetracha (reigned 1688–1693) staged a coup d'état, the 1688 Siamese revolution, seized the throne, killed the designated heir, a Christian, and had Phaulkon put to death along with a number of missionaries.

From Ayutthaya, Japan was interested in purchasing Chinese silks, as well as deerskins and ray or shark skins (used to make a sort of shagreen for Japanese sword handles and scabbards).

[3][182] The nationalist-themed histories of Ayutthaya, pioneered by Prince Damrong, primarily featured the stories of kings fighting wars and the idea of territorial subjugation of neighboring states.

The Ayutthaya Kingdom (red) and the Northern Cities (blue) in the 14th century
Intersecting mandalas circa 1360: from north to south: Lan Xang , Lanna , Northern Cities , Ayutthaya, Angkor and Champa
Ayutthaya is shown in the Fra Mauro map of the world (c. 1450) under the name "Scierno", derived from the Persian "Shahr-I-Naw", meaning 'New City' [ 78 ]
Map of South East Asia, published by Nicolaas Visscher II (1649–1702). The map shows the entire trading region of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).
Pictured in this Siamese painting, the mercenary army of Japanese adventurer Yamada Nagamasa played a pivotal role in court intrigue during the first half of the 17th century.
Wat Phra Phutthabat , Saraburi, constructed by King Songtham as a royal pilgrimage site
Wat Chaiwatthanaram , constructed by King Prasat Thong during the Age of Peace and Commerce (1600–1688)
Statue of King Narai , created in 1966, near Lopburi provincial hall.
The French ambassador Chevalier de Chaumont presents a letter from Louis XIV to King Narai. Constance Phaulkon is seen kowtowing in the lower left corner of the print
The Siamese embassy, with Father Guy Tachard meeting with Pope Innocent XI , 23 December 1688
The siege of the French fortress in Bangkok by the Siamese revolutionary forces of Phetracha in 1688.
Ayutthaya and Mainland Southeast Asia in 1707. Note: Southeast Asian political borders remained relatively undefined until the modern period.
18th-century Ayutthaya temple murals in Wat Ko Kaew Suttharam , Phetchaburi constructed by King Borommakot (r. 1733–1758)
Wihan Phra Mongkhon Bopit, one of King Borommakot 's major construction projects that drastically transformed the 18th century Ayutthaya skyline
1765–1767 Burmese invasion routes
Modern depiction of the 1767 Fall of Ayutthaya
The skyline of Ayutthaya, photographed by John Thomson , early 1866
A Burmese depiction of an Ayutthaya king, either depicting Uthumphon or Ekkathat
A painting, depicting the event in which two sons of King Intharacha fought each other to the death on elephants at Pa Than Bridge.
Portrait of Siamese State Officials, one of portrait paintings collection in The Portraits of Periodical Offering of Imperial Qing by Xie Sui , 18th century painting in the National Palace Museum , Taipei.
The Ayutthayan official Kosa Pan wearing Lomphok and Khrui signifying status
Portrait of Siamese aristocrats from The Portraits of Periodical Offering of Imperial Qing by Xie Sui , 18th century painting in the National Palace Museum , Taipei.
Siam delegates (暹罗国) in Peking in 1761. 万国来朝图
The 1686 Siamese embassy , accompanied by their translator, Abbot Artus de Lionne . Painted by Jacques Vigouroux Duplessis ( c. 1680 –1732).
Pom Phet Fortress , surviving remnant of the defensive fortifications that guarded the city of Ayutthaya; restored. Wat Phanan Choeng is visible in the background. [ 147 ]
King Naresuan enters an abandoned Bago, Burma in 1600, mural painting by Phraya Anusatchitrakon, Wat Suwandararam, Ayutthaya Historical Park .
The immense, 19 metres (62 ft) gold-covered seated Buddha in Wat Phanan Choeng . Built in 1324, the temple predates the traditional foundation date of the city in 1351
Khon performance, a famous dance in the Ayutthaya period.
Buddhist wat mural in Wat Ko Kaew Suttharam , Phetchaburi , wat murals in Siam proliferated during the late Ayutthaya period in the 18th century
Muay Thai fighters wearing the traditional mongkhon and pra jiad
Hanuman protects Ramas Pavilion (wall painting, "Room 53" of the gallery in the Wat Phra Kaeo)
Modern performance of sepha oral recitation of Thai poetry.
The main prang of Wat Phutthaisawan , Ayutthaya
Thai traditional costumes in Bangkok National Museum
Map of Ayutthaya Chao Phraya River course in the 17th century
Floating market , a marketplace in Ayutthaya period, where goods are sold from boats
Portuguese in Thailand Gulf 16th and 17th century:
  • Light Green – territories conquered or ceded
  • Dark Green (Allied) – Ayutthayan territories
  • Yellow – Main Portuguese factories