Page:History of Indian and Eastern Architecture Vol 2.djvu/489

 CHAP. III. SIAM. 409 erected by private persons as funeral monuments and memorials altogether nearly two hundred structures, all of which are shown on Fournereau's plan ; the photographs published in his work show the great extent of the remains still existing of the Vat Jai at Sukhodaya. The principal Phra differs slightly in design from those already described the upper part being partly Chedi and partly Prang, it is raised on a platform and surrounded by eight smaller towers, consisting of a lower storey, with niche on each side containing a statue of Buddha, with a superstructure recalling the entrance doorways of Cambodia and Java, though the sculpture is very inferior. Above the architrave, carried by rectangular piers with moulded capitals, is a pediment enclosed with richly carved moulding, with dragons' heads on each side, and in the tympanum, which forms a niche, is a figure of Buddha in the Nirvana posture, with other figures much mutilated below. Above there is a second storey with a repetition of the pediment and niche to a smaller scale, and there may have been a third storey, rising about 25 feet in height, the great Phra in the centre being 80 to 90 ft. high. Three towers of a similar kind, placed side by side, exist in the Vat Sisavai, also at Sukhodaya (Plate XLVIL), where they take the place of the Phra. Above a plain ground storey, with three angle projections, are other storeys, of which six still exist in the western tower on the right, and on each face is a niche with trefoil head and Naga terminations enclosing a statue and, on the angle projections, antefixae carved with heads of Garudas and other deities. The upper storeys are only slightly set back one behind the other, so that they may be the prototypes of the Phra- Prang already described. No description is given by Fournereau of the temples in Ayuthia and Lophaburi, nor are there any views of the ruins, but his plans suggest a close resemblance to those of Cambodia. Thus in the Vat Tha Sao, at Ayuthia, the central court, with the great Phra in the centre, is more or less identical with those of Beng Mealea and Angkor Vat. The galleries round it and the towers at the angles and in the centre of each front are evidently derived from Cambodia, and may have been carried out by Cambodian architects. The plan of the Phra-Prang in the centre is similar to that of the Cambodian and Javanese temples, with long flights of steps to the entrance porch, and the three small cells or recesses on the three other sides, instead of the one steep flight, as in Siam. The Bot in this temple measures 228 ft. long by 49 ft. wide, and is one of the largest examples in Siam. In the Vat Phu Tai, also at Ayuthia, the inner court has galleries round it, the entrance to the same being flanked by