Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
emy with a sword made from Namphi steel in his left hand and an ordinary sword in his
right. The right-hand sword snapped during the fighting, but Pichai fought on two-handed
with the Namphi sword and the broken blade. He won his battle, and entered into Thai
history as Dap Hak, or “Broken Sword”, a heroic figure who is also revered as one of the
great masters of Thai boxing. Pichai renovated and enlarged Wat Mon as a way of making
merit for the men who had died during the battle.
Although Rama
I
made subsequent additions, Dap Hak's chapel still remains, and car-
ries his name. The artificial mountain near the temple wall dates from his time and is clad
in seashells and rocks taken from the beach; there is a Buddha footprint on the top. Next
to the temple gate is a small chapel containing an image of the Buddha lying flat on its
back, symbolising the time immediately before cremation, the pose being known as Tawai
Phra Ploeng. The image is about two-and-a-half metres long, almost filling the room, and
is wrapped in a gold sheet, with an angel at the foot of the bier. Installed by Dap Hak, the
image is the only one of its kind in Thailand. Pichai, 41 at his death, was cremated and his
ashes interred here at Wat Mon, in the stupa. Devotees leave offerings at a small altar in
front of a portrait, and next to the stupa is a topiary of Pichai in a fighting stance.
Longtail boats ply between communities alongside the Thonburi canals.
There were three temples at Bang Yi Rua that were so close they all bore the same
name, being differentiated by the suffix
Nai
(inner),
Klang
(centre), and
Nok
(outer). While
Phraya Pichai was renovating Wat Bang Yi Rua Nai, King Taksin found peace at Wat Bang
Yi Rua Nok, where he would rest and meditate. He became fond of the temple and de-
cided to adopt it as his own, carrying out extensive renovations and naming it as a royal
temple. The temple became the most splendid of those along the canal bank, and an im-
portant place of worship for the noblemen and courtiers who were building homes along-
side Klong Bangkok Yai. As befits Taksin's Chinese ancestry, the architecture is a mix of
Chinese and Thai. Inside the chapel, or
wiharn
, carved from a single piece of wood and
flanked by four pillars and flower curtains, is the seat upon which the king would sit cross-
legged in meditation. In front of the
wiharn
are two stupas, shaped like lotuses, and here
