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The City of Dreaming Spires
THE CITY OF DREAMING SPIRES
PHOTOGRAPHER JOHN MCDERMOTT EXPLORES ANCIENT SUKHOTHAI WITH HIS INFRA-RED CAMERA
SOME PLACES MANHANDLE you with their monumental grandeur while others seduce you with their subtle pleasures. Both can form a bond with the human psyche, an invisible spell that pulls you back again and again to feel whatever presence speaks to the heart.
I have seen people break down and cry at the sight of Angkor Wat, as if some powerful memory has been released after being locked away for centuries. It is unexplainable, but real – and for me, I discovered Sukhothai to be such a place.
LOOKING UP
As I wandered through the sanguine brick walkways of Sukhothai, I was surprised and deeply moved by the peaceful familiarity of it; compelled to return again and again to one particular spot to sit on stones covered in lush moss under a huge benevolent tree.
While meandering around the central columns of Wat Mahathat, the cooing of the pigeons led my gaze upward. And from that moment on, I was always looking up – at the same birds flapping like sheets in the wind from pillar-top to pillar-top, with the rows of columns holding up nothing but the sky; at the sage Buddha seated contentedly while smiling the wisdom of the ages out over the pond; and always up at the spires of stupas stretching to the clouds and sun above.
Rains had left a cleansing wash over the grounds, intensifying the colours and textures. In the reflection of the pools and puddles, those same spires pointed downward and seemed to form an axis and a line of balance, like antennae reaching to the heavens and then grounded in the earth below.
PAST TO PRESENT
For two centuries, Sukhothai served as the capital of the kingdom of Siam. The area had been part of the great Khmer empire until the middle of the 13th century when two Thai leaders broke away and established an independent kingdom.
Over the next 200 years, it grew and prospered in a “golden age” of Thai history – an era that is considered the classical period in the development of Thai style, art and architecture, as well as one that witnessed the creation of a new language and alphabet. During that time, Sukhothai also became the centre of Theravada Buddhism in the region.
The ancient city is now a UNESCO-protected historical park, well tended and designed with the pleasure of its visitors in mind. Nestled in the hills of rural Thailand only a short flight from Bangkok, the site feels park-like and coiffed, as if it could easily be at home in one of the great cities of the western world.
Lotus-filled ponds and red brick walkways with lovely, flowering hedges surround the ruins of the old temples. Meandering forested roads lead from one site to another, offering unobscured views of Buddhas in repose and stupas pointing skyward.
THE SPIRITUAL CENTRE
In the middle of the park are the Wat Mahathat ruins, the most important of the crumbling remains. The spiritual centre of the city, this was the king’s temple and remains the symbol of his power and the kingdom of Sukhothai.
It was here, seeing the spires of the towering stupas that brought to mind the words from a poem by the 19th century poet Matthew Arnold, who described Oxford as a city of dreaming spires – “and that sweet city with her dreaming spires, she needs not June for beauty’s heightening.”
These lines could easily embrace Wat Mahathat. It did not matter whether the sky was dark and brooding with heaving rain, or had given way to moist shafts of golden sunlight at the end of the day. It was all beautiful – a sublime dream of a golden time of vision and prosperity. And in these dreaming spires lies the subtle majesty of an ancient city.
VISITING SUKHOTHAI
Sukhothai Historical Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and covers an area of 70sq km. The park is located about 400km north of Bangkok and 12km from the new city of Sukhothai, where there is a good range of accommodation and restaurants. For more details, visit www.tourismthailand.org
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