Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon

Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon, or the Great Monastery of Auspicious Victory, is located off the city island in the southeast of Ayutthaya in the Phai Ling Sub-district. In the past, it bore other names such as Wat Pa Kaeo, Wat Chao Phraya Thai and Wat Yai Chaiya Mongkhon. Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon is situated in or just outside an ancient city known as Ayothya.

There are indications that the site was surrounded by a large moat earlier. The monastery was accessed before by Khlong (Pak) Khao San, which got its mouth at the Lam Khu Khue Na and Khlong Thanon Tan.

There are seemingly traces of an ancient baray or water reservoir close to the monastery's southwestern tip. Thus, it could be that Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon was built on a former important Khmer temple complex—also taking into account the large moat, which represented for the Khmer the oceans surrounding the world.

Ayutthaya Historical Research