Chaiya

Chaiya (in Thai ไชยา) is a district ( amphoe ) and a city of the Province of Surat Thani in the south of the Thailand. The city has a population of 13.000 inhabitants and the district, of 47.000.

History

Chaiya is one of the oldest towns of Thailand. It had bonds with the kingdom of Sriwijaya in the south of the island Indonesia of Sumatra. The temple Wat Phra Borom That is built to autoir of a Pagode reconstituted in " Sriwijaya" style;. The old close pagodas are nothing any more but brick clusters.

Not far from there, the local building of the National museum exposes vestiges of this time. One of the exposed steles, No 23, is considered to come from Wat Hua Wiang de Chaiya. Gone back to 697 of the era Saka (775 close J. - C.), she proclaims on a face that king de Sriwijaya set up a Stupa at this place, perhaps one of those of Wat Phra Borom That. The other face mentions the name of Sailendra, a dynasty of the center of Java.

The sovereigns of Sriwijaya indeed made donations at religious communities, in particular while melting of the monasteries and the temples.