From 1351 to 1767, the Thai city of Ayutthaya served as the capital of an eponymous kingdom, which has also been known as Siam. During this time, the city became the commercial center of southeast Asia, while the kingdom flourished as an absolute monarchy from regional agriculture and taxes which were levied on the foreign trade. The official religion of Ayutthaya was Theravada Buddhism, from which the “Mount Sumeru World” was used as a model for arranging impressive, brick-based temples and was also reflected in the topographical layout of the kingdom and (although not discussed here) its sociopolitical structure.
Main Elements of the Mount Sumeru World
In Buddhist cosmology, the Mount Sumeru World falls within the metaphysical “Realm of Desire” (Kāmadhātu in Sanskrit, Kāmaloka in Pali), which includes four heavens above Mount Sumeru and is depicted as being below the “Realm of Form” (Rūpadhātu, Rūpaloka) and then the “Realm of Formlessness” (Ārūpyadhātu, Arūpaloka). Mount Sumeru...
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Potter, S. (2014). Landscape and Temples in Ayutthaya. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10264-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-3934-5_10264-1
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