In Ayutthaya, my friends and I didn't come face to face with Thai Chinese but that there are Chinese there is evident in Wat Phanan Choeng. Even as we entered the temple to view Luang Pho Tho, the highly revered Buddha statue, we could see a Chinese temple in the premises. Even before the founding of Ayutthaya, a Chinese community from the Song Dynasty in China had long settled here but the temple had been built by a Thai king; King Phra Chao Sai Nam Phung in memory of a Chinese princess, Princess Soi Dok Mak whom the king was supposed to marry. Interestingly, the temple had also been visited by Zheng He, a Chinese Muslim eunuch admiral from Yunnan in 1407 during his second Ming imperial voyage. When he came, he bestowed gifts upon the temple in a great ceremony and today, Thai Chinese still visit the temple in his honour.
Comments