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Wat Phananchoeng is in the southern part of the city near
the river. It was built in 1324 A.D., 26 year before king
U-thong founded Ayutthaya, although it is not known by whom this
temple was built. Phra Chao Phananchoeng, a large sitting Buddha
constructed of brick and mortar, has been well known of a long
time. King Naresuen the Great repaired it once, and the other
Kings of Ayudhya must keep it in good repair too, though no
mention is made of that in the chronicle, from which it is
learnt only that when Ayudhya was taken by the Burmese tears
flowed from the eyes of this image.
Later on the first king of the Chakri Dynasty and some of his
successors repaired the image and towards the end of 1854 A.D.,
King Mongkut completely renovated the image and renamed it Phra
Bhudh-trai-ratana nayok. On the 21st December 1901, during the
reignof King Chulalongkorn, the outer garment of Phra Chao
Phanan-cheng caught fire and the image was damaged in many
places. King Chulalongkorn commanded the image to be repaired,
and the work was finished in 1902 A.D.
On the 15th March 1928 the cheeks and the lower jaws of the
image broke into pieces. The Royal Institute had it repaired in
1929. At that time Phra Dhamatri-lok the abbot of this
monastery, on collecting the bits of gold leaves left by the
devotees inside the Vihara gathered 165 grammes of that metal,
690 grammes of gold were contributed by others. With these 855
grammes of gold the head of the monastery made an "Una-lom"
(ornament for the forehead substituted it for the older one
which was of copper plated with gold).
Phra Chao Phananchoeng is held in respect by the Thai people
who, when they visit ayutthaya, offer worship to this image and
obtain prediction of their luck from its Vihara. Tourists who do
not visit this temple miss the opportunity of seeing one of the
very large, old and beautiful images. No Photographs of this
image too are to be found in any book or even in the National
Museum, where there is a collection of photographs of all other
important images of the Buddha, because there is not enough room
within the Vihara to set the camera at the proper distance to
get a complete picture of this large image.
Phra Chao Phananchoeng is an image in the posture of subduing
Mara. It measures 14 meters and 25 centimeters from knee to knee
and 19 meters high (including the ornament above the head).
Ref.:
AYUTTHAYA |