A white stone Buddha standing with one hand raised.
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.
Buddha
Credits
The founder of Buddhism is named Siddhārtha Gautama; Siddhārtha is given as his personal name, but this is probably a late nickname. Gautama, undisputedly attested, is probably his gotta, but some see it as "Lady Gautami's son", from the gotta of the woman who raised him after his mother's death. He is still called Gautama Buddha, or Shākyamuni (Shakya sage) because of his membership of this clan. He also bears many epithets, such as Tathāgata, "the one who came thus" [preaching the Good Law]. Given the origin of the word as well as its verbal root budh- ("to awaken"), the title Buddha was probably bestowed upon him by his disciples.
The accounts of his life, first handed down orally, were not written down for the first time until several hundred years after his death, and are a mixture of metaphysics and legend. Some episodes, such as the one in which he appeases a furious elephant that his jealous cousin Devadatta is said to have unleashed against him, may be authentic historical recollections, unlike his conversations with the gods or his instant teleportation to Sri Lanka. Over time, a rich legend has developed in the jatakas. In any case, the existence of a Gautama-Shakyamuni founder of Buddhism is not in doubt. He is said to have lived around the turn of the century and to have died around the age of eighty.
According to Sri Lankan historical chronicles, he was born in 563 BC. Most sources also agree that he died around 480 BC. Other, less consensual sources, such as Ui Hakuju's calculations, give the year 383 BC as the date of his death, which would give 460 as the date of his birth, based on the consensus of biographies indicating that the Buddha lived for 80 years. The earliest Pali tradition considers his birth and death dates to be 624 BC and 544 BC respectively. All traditions agree that Siddhārtha Gautama was a contemporary of the two kings of Magadha, Bimbisâra and his son Ajatasattu, who often supported him.