Mueang Bon

The ancient city of Mueang Bon or Mueang Khok Mai Den is situated in Tha Nam Oi sub-district of Phayuha Khiri in Nakhon Sawan Province. The city was founded in the Dvaravati period somewhere between 500 and 1000 AD along the banks of the Chao Phraya River. The site can be separated into two parts being the ancient settlement, located on the left side of the modern-day Phaloyothin road, and an area in the nearby hills on the right side of the road.

Mueang Bon (west of the Asian Highway 1) was built in an oval shape, approximately 250 m long and 600 m wide with a moat and rampart like many other Dvaravati sites. The city wall was similar to the ones of Mueang Nakhon Pathom, Nakhon Ratchasima’s Mueang Sema, and Chon Buri’s Mueang Phaya Rae. The traces of earth mound foundations of the city wall discovered are dating from the Sukhothai period. A sculpture representing the elephant Phaya Chatthan over 1,000 years old, was discovered here by the Fine Arts Department.

Several monuments are located on top of a hill in a mountainous area east of the AH1 with one of them surrounded by sema stones. Evidence for Dvaravati material culture found here includes votive tablets, terracotta oil lamps (referred to in the Thai language as “Roman-style”), a Buddhist “Ye Dharma…” inscription and stucco.

People before called Ban Khok Mai Den "Mueang Bon." The word "Khok" refers to a mound while "Mai Den" refers to a species of tree. Kok Mai Den shows no evidence of pre-Dvaravati occupation but habitation continued to the early Sukhothai and Ayutthaya periods.

[Source: Murphy Pimchanok - Fifty Years of Archaeological Research Dong Mae Nang Muang (JSS_098_0d)]

Ayutthaya Historical Research