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Ban Khu Bua Ancient Town

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Operating time: 08.00 - 16.30

Ban Khu Bua Ancient Town Khu Bua, Muang Ratchaburi, Ratchaburi. Ban Khu Bua Ancient Town is located in Tambon Khu Bua.

Its Ancient Monument No. 18 archaeologically points out that Ratchaburi was once the prosperous city in Dvaravati period. The city plan is a rounded rectangle, aligned along the north-south axis, with the width of eight hundred metres and the length of two kilometres.

The city was built on a coastal terrace one to two metres higher than the surrounding area and five metres above the sea level. There were two streams running through the city, which were Huai Khu Bua and Huai Chinnasi.

The architecture of Ban Khu Bua was influenced by Gupta arts of India. The evidences found also prove that Buddhism has long settled and flourished in Thailand for more than a thousand years; the excavated antiques, the heads of Buddha images in particular, are well preserved at Ratchaburi National Museum and partly at Wat Khlong Suwannakhiri (Khlong Suwannakhiri Temple)

Ancient monuments in Khu Bua Town area

- Moat. The moat comprises of two earthen dykes and a ditch in between. The ditch is fifty-metre-wide, filled with water. The dykes are also fifty-metre-wide and three-metre-high, except for the the northern moat which is adapted from the natural stream Huai Khu Bua.

- Religious sites. More than 60 Buddhist ancient monuments of both Theravada and Mahayana schools have been found up to the present day.

Bases of the sites are usually decorated with earthen sculptures and plaster works about jataka and other religious tales. Construction materials are mostly bricks; the length is 34-35 centimetres, the width is 17-19 centimetres, and the thickness is 8-10 centimetres.

The clay used for making bricks is mixed with big-grain rice husks. While most ancient monuments here had their foundation made of bricks, only two of these traces, which are the Ancient Monument No. 18 and No. 31, show that laterite was used.

Antiques in Khu Bua Town area

- Plaster sculptures and baked clay decoration of the ancient monuments such as Buddha images, Bodhisattvas, angels, upper-classes, general citizens, mythical creatures like giants, garuda, and animals.

- Imprinted baked clay vessels, censers, bullets, clay cowries, stone weapons, glass, metals, earrings, rings, bracelets, beads, etc.

These antiques share the continuous developing patterns ongoing since the pre-historical age, but also display the higher technology used, leading to the conclusion that Khu Bua should once be a promising city during 11th -16th Buddhist century.

Category: Art, Culture and Heritage