page_title: Wat Phra Phutthabat
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Wat Phra Phutthabat / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: travelsincentral01mouh (find matches) Title: Travels in the central parts of Indo-China (Siam), Cambodia, and Laos&#160;: during the years 1858, 1859, and 1860 Year: 1864 (1860s) Authors: Mouhot, Henri, 1826-1861 Mouhot, Charles Subjects: Mouhot, Henri, 1826-1861 Publisher: London&#160;: John Murray Contributing Library: University of Connecticut Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: althoughmy friend the mandarin, with his attendants and ele-phants, had kindly remained to escort me back to hisvillage. There I again partook of his hospitality, and,taking leave of him the day following, I resumed myvoyage up the river. Before night I arrived at Saraburi,the chief town of the province of Pakpriau, and the resi-dence of the governor. Saraburi is a place of some extent, the populationconsisting chiefly of Siamese, Chinese, and Laotian agri-culturists; and consists, like all towns and villages inSiam, of houses constructed of bamboo. They peep out,half hidden among the foliage along the banks of theriver; beyond are rice-plantations, and, farther in thebackground, extensive forests, inhabited solely by wildanimalp.^ On the morning of the 26th we passed Pakpriau,near which the cataracts begin. The waters were stillhigh, and we had much trouble to fight against thecurrent. A little to the north of this town I met witha poor family of Laotian Christians, of whom the good Text Appearing After Image: PAGODA AT MOUNT PHRABAT WHERE IS PRESERVED THE FOOTPRINT OF BUDDHA Chap. III. WILD ANIMALS. 121 Father Larinandy had spoken to me.* We moored ourboat near their house, hoping that it would remain insafety while I explored the mountains in the neighbour-hood, and visited Patawi, which is the resort of the Lao-tian pilgrims, as Phrabat is of the Siamese. All the country from the banks of the river to thehills, a distance of about eight or nine miles, and thewhole surface of this mountain range, is covered withbrown iron-ore and aerolites; where they occur in thegreatest abundance, vegetation is scanty and consistsprincipally of bamboo, but it is rich and varied in thoseplaces where the detritus has formed a thicker surface ofsoil. The dense forests furnish gum and oil, which wouldbe valuable for commerce if the indolent natives couldbe prevailed on to collect them. They are, however,infested with leopards, tigers, and tiger-cats. Two dogsand a pig were carried off from the immediate vic Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Wat Phra Phutthabat is a Buddhist temple in Saraburi, Thailand. It is among the oldest Buddhist temples in Thailand. Its name means "temple of Buddha's footprint", because it contains a natural depression believed to be a footprint of the Buddha.
context_section_description: Phra Phutthabat temple was built in 1624 (B.E. 2168) by King Songtham of Ayutthaya, after a hunter named Pram Bun found a large depression in the stone, resembling a huge footprint, near Suwan Banpot Hill or Satchaphanthakhiri Hill. The hunter reported his find to the king, who ordered workers to build a temporary mondop to cover the footprint; this later became the  temple.
caption: The temple in the mid-19th century; illustration by Henri Mouhot
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