Thammachak Semaram Temple

This was a religious site in the Dvaravati period, and its most important survival is a very large reclining Buddha, assembled from blocks of red sandstone laid north to south: 13.30 metres long and 2.50 metres high, thought to have been made around the 7th century. The head lies to the south and faces east; the face is squarish, built from four sandstone slabs stacked on top of one another, and the body from sandstone set as vertical slabs. A sandstone dharmachakra is kept in the pavilion here too — 141 centimetres across, with a kala face on both sides and, along the lower edge, carving resembling the face of Panasabodi, lord of the forest. The other finds from the site — bronze Buddha images, votive clay tablets, glass beads, clay spindle whorls and stone inscriptions — are on display at the Phimai National Museum.

In pictures