Wat Traphang Ngoen
Credits
Wat Traphang Ngoen means silver lake monastery. The temple was probably built in the 14th century, around the same time with Wat Mahathat. Wat Traphang Ngoen is oriented so that it is illuminated by both rising and setting sun. The main structures of the temple are a central stupa, the ruins of a vihara, a large Buddha image on a pedestal in the west and an ordination hall on an island in the middle of an artificial lake, "Traphang Ngoen" (Silver Lake). The stupa is typical 10 meters Sukhothai style in the form of a closed lotus flower stands on a square laterite base, followed by five smaller and smaller levels of brick with a plain stucco, standing Buddha image in niches in the four cardinal directions. An ordination hall lies to the east of the main stupa on a small island in the middle of the lake. In the Sukhothai time, the ordination hall was separated by a water area from the rest of the temple complex to symbolize purity. Today only foundation bricks, some fragments of columns and a pedestal on which probably used to be a Buddha image are visible.