Wat Avasa Yai, Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park
Wat Avasa Yai

Wat Avasa Yai

Name
Wat Avasa Yai
Date
15th or 16th century
Nearby
Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park information center

The Wat Avasa Yai is a large temple founded in the 15th or 16th century. It is located outside the old walled town in a forested hilly area known as Aranyik, the North zone of the Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park.

Buddhavasa and Sanghavasa area

The temple comprises of a Buddhavasa area and a Sanghavasa area. The Buddhavasa area contains structures dedicated to the veneration of the Buddha, while the Sanghavasa is the area where the temple’s resident monks living quarters were.

The Wat Avasa Yai is oriented towards the East. The temple comprises of a very tall principal chedi, a main viharn, an ubosot, a smaller viharn and a large number of subsidiary chedis. The Buddhavasa area is enclosed by its own wall. In front of the temple is a large pond that was dug out from the laterite soil.

Several chedis
Remains of several chedis

L-shaped platforms surrounding the viharn

At the front (East) of the temple are two L-shaped platforms partly surrounding the principal viharn. Each platform supports eight subsidiary chedis in several shapes, some circular, some with indented corners. Adjoining the platform South of the principal viharn is a smaller viharn (an assembly hall) while adjoining the North platform is the ubosot, the hall where monks get ordained.

High laterite base supporting the large viharn

In the center of the Buddhavasa are the principal chedi and the main viharn. A high laterite base with balusters and stairways on three sides supports the large viharn or assembly hall. Today, merely the lower part of columns that supported the wooden roof and the pedestal that carried the temple’s principal Buddha image remain. Buddhist devotees would walk the base circling the viharn in a clockwise direction to make merit.

Principal chedi

Behind the viharn is the temple’s most important structure, the principal chedi. Only the lower section remains of what must have been an imposing structure in its time. Standing on an octagonal foundation measuring 16 meters long on each side is a very high base with 20 indented corners that once supported the chedi. The upper section, believed to have been a bell standing on several receding circular tiers, has collapsed.

The base of the principal chedi
Base of the principal chedi

Sanghavasa area

Outside of the walled Buddhavasa area is the Sanghavasa area where the resident monks of the temple lived. This area contains the remains of the monks living quarters, a pond dug out from the laterite, wells and several open pavilions to provide shelter and for resting, called Sala.


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