What Did This Place Look Like Back in the Day? Imagining Sukothai, Thailand

As people flock to temples in Asia, some new, some old where the beautiful sculptures are still relatively intact, I like to hang around the ruins that look like…well they look like ruins.  Temple columns with exposed bricks.  Heads of Buddhist statues lopped off.  Faint resemblance of a sculpted story of a battle chiseled on a temple wall.  I enjoy marveling these ruins so that I can wonder “What was once here?  How majestic had this looked back in the day?”

In the Sukothai Historical Park in Thailand, I discovered temple ruins with gigantic statues of Buddhas, Boddhisatvas and also elephants, all of which had seen their heyday back in 12th – 13th Century.

The beauty of traveling to Sukothai is being able to view a snapshot in time of this once great palace area resplendent with colorful statues and walkways.  Now it’s a UNESCO heritage site for thousands of tourists every year, and it’s a quiet tourist destination that is often overlooked on the map for those in favor of Chiang Mai, Bangkok or the number of gorgeous islands in Thailand.  I loved my brief time in Sukothai as I wandered around and imagined the hustle and bustle of this once great kingdom that ruled for 200 years.