Phra Chedi Sisuriyothai is the
memorial to Somdet Phra Sisuriyothai,
the Thai heroine in the Ayutthaya period. She
was the queen of
Somdet Phra Mahajakrapat, the king of
Ayutthaya
which reigned
when he was 36.
After King Somdet Phra
Mahajakrapat reigned in 1548 A.D. for 7
months, Phra Chao Tabengchaveti, the King of
Burma, moved his
troops to beat Ayutthaya to revenge for the
former unsuccessful
beat of Chiengkran town in the reign of King
Chairajathirat.
In the first battle, King
Somdet Phra Mahajakrapat would lead his
troops with his two sons, Prince Phra Ramesuan
and Prince Phra
Mahintrathirat on elephants, but queen Somdet
Phra Sisuriyothai
was concerned for her husband then she
disguised herself as a
man in a fighting form and accompanied with
them.
When the Ayutthaya's troops
met the front Burmese troops, which
was led by Phra Chao Phrae, King Somdet Phra
Mahajakrapat rode
his elephant to fight against Phra Chao Phrae,
but his elephant was
in collapse so Phra Chao Phrae raised his
scythe to cut King
Somdet Phra Mahajakrapat, queen Somdet Phra
Sisuriyothai nearby
had seen the event, she decided to save her
husband by riding her
elephant to intervene the fighting. She was
killed by the scythe of
Phra Chao Phrae on her elephant back. Then
their two sons helped
them and moved the corpse back.
With her devotion, King Somdet
Phra Mahajakrapat constructed a
chedi, called Phra Chedi Sisuriyothai at Wat
Suanluang Sobswan,
Hualaem District.
On the
inside banks of the river, sweetly plonked in a bit of
park before you get into a town with wooden 1930s school
building and tuk tuk repair shop. Seen from the road she
rises high in white matt and gold leaf. Oversized bonsai
trees around the base plinth, rooted on guard. An inverted
vanilla Cornetto of a chedi is this. Reflecting the
gracious aesthetic of the middle Ayuthaya period (less
fighting and cross border arguments phase), this chedi
gets copied alot in the Bangkokian architecture of the far
more recent Rattanokosin period, around the last 70 years
or so, that splatters much of the Grand Palace. We
recently had a smash movie hit in Thailand about Queen
Suriyothai and her rampaging elephants. The legend has it
that hubbie King and Queen Su were off laying into Burmese
(you may notice when you get here that the Burmese get a
lot of flack in the Ayuthayan history books) …on their
elephants. And at the last minute Queen Su guides her
mount into the path of a Burmese lance. She intercepts the
prong meant for her loved one. The music builds, the
aduience weeps, And Su? She dies, loads more background
music, her husband goes bananas and kills loads of Burmese
...and we all go home full of popcorn. Anyhow, she gets
this wat in her honour in Ayuthaya, and we get the movie
on DVD. Win win. In the evening this one really does add a
floodlit upmarket touch to the river banks. Consider this,
when your guide is going on about Burma this in 17whatever
and Burma that, six years later, and Burma again in 1634.
In his / her mind the odds are high they are replaying the
vivid images of a Hollywood Blockbuster... just as some
find it hard not to think of Laurence Olivier when they
visit Stratford on Avon. (Doing that weird Shakespeare
voice we all associate with the baird.) Ayuthaya...
"Thailand's Stratford",
