Sukhothai - Wat Si Chum

The mondhop of the Wat Si Chum, a huge, windowless cuboid construction (22 3 28 3 15 m (72 3 91 349 ft)), stands on a 4.3-m (14-ft) high pedestal, the walls are 3 m (9 ft) thick. There is access to the roof through an entrance in the southern wall. The ceiling of this walkway was once covered with artistically engraved stone plates (one is on display in the Ramkhamhaeng Museum in Sukhothai, the other in the National Museum in Bangkok) which illustrated in sweeping succession scenes from the life of Buddha. The illustrations are of outstanding beauty betraying the influence of Singhalese-Indian painters and having similarities with the temple walls of Polonaruwa on Sri Lanka. In the interior of the mondhop is the colossal statue (14.70 m (48 ft) high) of a seated Buddha, which was formerly gilded. It is probably the Phra Achana mentioned in an inscription by King Ramkhamhaeng in 1292. In front of the mondhop is a bot with an area of 21 3 12 m (69 3 40 ft), its 13 limonite columns covered in stucco work still standing. To the north of the mondhop are the ruins of a small wiharn and a brick building which contains a seated Buddha.