Wat Pho

Wat Pho, or the Monastery of the Bodhi Tree, is located off the city island in the northern area of Ayutthaya, in the Khlong Sra Bua Sub-district. This area, east of Khlong Sra Bua, was called Thung Kaeo. The ruins of Wat Pho are situated between Wat Kuti Thong and Wat Wong Khong. To find the relatively well-preserved ruins, you must go off-road on a small path leading to the site.

Access to the monastery was via a canal called Khlong Wat Pho, which can be noticed on Phraya Boran Rachathanin's map drafted in 1926 CE. The canal stood likely in connection with Khlong Pha Lai. In earlier times, this monastery seemed to have been surrounded by a moat, as traces of it can still be seen. Khlong Wat Po was filled in the last century, probably when the road linking Wat Mai Khlong Sra Bua to Wat Wong Khong was constructed. A ferry service - one of the former seven northern ferries across the old Lopburi River - was going up and down from the Ten Cowries Landing on the city's side across to Khlong Wat Pho.

In situ are the restored ruins of an ordination hall, a vihara and four foundations of minor chedis, all surrounded by an outer wall. These structures had their main entrance in the south, as the Buddha images must have faced the Lopburi River. All structures are built in an east-west alignment.

Ayutthaya Historical Research