Chedi Phukhao Thong is a 50-metre

chedi, or Buddhist tower, in the village of Phukhao Thong

Phukhao Thong

Phukhao Thong is a subdistrict in the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province, administrated by Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya district in central Thailand.-Geography:...

 near Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya kingdom

Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese , Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the...

 in central Thailand

Thailand

Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...

. Visitors can climb as far a landing halfway up the chedi, from which the surrounding rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

 fields and the town of Ayutthaya can be seen.

History

In 1569, having taken Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya kingdom

Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese , Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the...

, King Bayinnaung

Bayinnaung

Bayinnaung Kyawhtin Nawrahta was the third king of the Toungoo dynasty of Burma . During his 30-year reign, which has been called the "greatest explosion of human energy ever seen in Burma", Bayinnaung assembled the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, which included much of modern day...

 of Hongsawadi (now part of Myanmar

Myanmar

Burma , officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar , is a country in Southeast Asia. Burma is bordered by China on the northeast, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west, India on the northwest, the Bay of Bengal to the southwest, and the Andaman Sea on the south....

) built a large chedi in the Mon

Mon people

The Mon are an ethnic group from Burma , living mostly in Mon State, Bago Division, the Irrawaddy Delta, and along the southern Thai–Burmese border. One of the earliest peoples to reside in Southeast Asia, the Mon were responsible for the spread of Theravada Buddhism in Burma and Thailand...

 style, next to the Buddhist temple of Wat Phukhao Thong, to commemorate his victory. Over the next two centuries the chedi fell into disrepair. In a restoration during the reign of King Boromakot

Boromakot

Somdet Phra Chaoyuhua Boromakot or Somdet Phra Boromaracha Dhiraj III was the king of Ayutthaya from 1732 to 1758. His reign was the last blooming period of Ayutthaya as the kingdom would fall nine years after his death....

 (ruled 1733–1758) a new chedi in Thai style, having a square plan with indented corners, was built on the base of the ruin.

The adjacent temple, founded by King Ramesuan

Ramesuan

King Ramesuan , son of king Ramathibodi I, reigned as the second and fifth king of the kingdom of Ayutthaya. When King Ramathibodi ascended to the throne of Ayuthaya, he sent King Ramesuan to reign in Lopburi...

in 1387, is still in use.