Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/486

 408 FURTHER INDIA. BOOK VIII. Fathom Chedi is the second enclosure or envelope of the original Chedi, and rises to the height of 344 ft. It is sur- rounded by a triple gallery with numerous pavilions, the roofs of which were in the last rebuilding of 1862 copied from those of Angkor Vat in Cambodia. Among other buildings cited by Fournereau are the Vihans (Viharas) and Kamburiens, similar in design to the Bot, but of smaller dimensions, where the people assembled to offer up prayers and listen to sermons. Of the exceptional buildings found only in the Royal temples are the Chattamukk l and the Mondob (Mandapa) or Mora-dob. The former, cruciform in plan, was originally built to shelter a statue of the four-faced Brahma ; this has been destroyed, and its place taken by four niches, placed back to back, each with a statue of Buddha facing the cardinal points. The finest example is found in the Vat Mondob SI Na at Sajjanalaya, where the plan is that of a Greek cross, nearly 100 ft. in its extreme dimensions, with central and side aisles to each arm. The Mondob is usually a rectangular building, containing a statue of Buddha. In the Vat Si Jum at Sukhodaya, it measured 57 ft. wide by 70 ft. deep, and sheltered an immense statue of Buddha, nearly 50 ft. high, which was constructed in brick, coated with stucco and gilded. The walls of the Mondob were also built in brick, and they carried a lofty roof or tower of the same material ; at a height of 32 ft. from the ground the brick courses commenced to project one in front of the other, till they met at the top, thus forming in section an inverted pyramid. Both externally and internally, the brick walls and roof were coated with stucco. The roof has now fallen in, but the structure when built was probably over IQO ft. high. Smaller Mondobs or pavilions were built to hold the Buddhapada, the mythical representation of the sacred foot of Buddha. 2 Two other buildings are quoted by Fournereau, the Ho' Rakhang, or belfry, and the Ho' Trai, or sacred library, the latter found only in the Royal temples. The sacred tank in the enclosures was known as the Sa, equivalent to the Cambodian Sra. Of some of these structures many examples would be found in the same enclosure, thus in the Vat Ja'i at Sukhodaya, the most important temple illustrated by Fournereau, there was one great Phra-Chedi and its annexes, two Bots, six Vihans, three Kamburiens, one Mondob, ten small pavilions, five Phra- Prang, and over a hundred Phra-Chedi, most of these being 1 Sanskrit, Chaturmukha ; these are analogues of the Jaina Chaumukhs. Brahmzl is styled Chaturmukha and Chaturvaktra having four heads. 2 Called the Phrabat. Alabaster, 'Wheel of the Law,' pp. 283*%. and plate. The most famous Phrabat in Siam is about 12 miles from Lophaburi.