glass castle

Terrain

General condition

Prasat Kaew or Prasat Phra Puet It is located inside Wat Prasat Kaew. in the ditch area on the east side of the ancient city of Ban Phra Puet which is the highest point of the village It is an ancient site that has been restored.

Height above mean sea level

Waterway

Huai Rawee, Chi River, Mun River

Geological conditions

The ancient city was characterized by mounds on the plains formed by the deposition of sediments in the Quaternary period. The area by the notch is a flat area with slightly undulating slopes.

Soil characteristics (Department of Fine Arts 1983 :3-4; Panuwat Ueasamarn 2002) is the Roi-Et Series soil, rather crumbly, the origin of the soil that has been accumulated by water for a long time. With a slope of more than 2%, this soil is very deep. have bad drainage water penetrates slowly There is a slow runoff of water on the surface of the soil. Groundwater is normally 3 meters deep in the dry season. The topsoil is not more than 25 cm deep. The soil texture is loam or silty clay. The color of the soil is brown, light brown or light grayish brown. with dark brown dots Yellowish brown or reddish brown with a pH of about 5.2-5.8, moderately acidic to strong acid.

The subsoil that is deeper than 25 centimeters has a loamy soil texture. till the clay The color of the soil is light grayish brown. or light gray There is a dark brown spot. Reddish-yellow or red with a pH of about 5-5.6, moderately acidic to strong acid. In addition, the soil is salinity caused by the accumulation of salt beneath the soil surface. The results of soil chemical analysis showed that the organic matter content was relatively low. It has very low levels of phosphorus and potassium that are beneficial to plants.

Surrounding the source, which is now the rice field, is the Roi-Et Series, which is the soil formed by the water-swept source material as well as within the source.

Archaeological Era

era/culture

Archaeological age

Types of archaeological sites

archaeological essence

Kaew Castle or Prasat Prapuet (Phanuwat Euasamarn 2002) located inside the Prasat Kaew Temple. in the ditch area on the east side of the ancient city of Ban Phra Pid which is the highest point of the village.

Architectural features Phra Puet archaeological site It looks like a simple building. The rectangular shape of the fabric is 6.5 meters wide and 14.5 meters long. There are 2 stairs leading up the east front (left-right), with a raised base about 1.6 meters high. The base is made of laterite. Above is made of clay bricks. But there are still some parts with laterite. The bricks used are 15 centimeters wide, 30 centimeters long and 6 centimeters thick. The construction style is an English bond type that uses the width and length of the bricks to alternate. And in the upper part of the base, some corners appear brick marks. Intentionally decorated with cornice wire of the base set

There is a wooden structure surrounding the building supporting the roof. The roof structure is a 2-storey cascade of galvanized shingle. Villagers say that (Department of Fine Arts 1983 :7) originally the roof used to be covered with pan-kled or wooden tiles. In addition, there was also a bouquet of rooster leaves made of ornamental plants on the roof. (But now it has all decayed.

At the very end of the brick building is the castle arch with twelve wooden recesses. Castle facade or Umung There is a square layout. It is 2.5 meters long and 2.5 meters wide and 4.5 meters high. The base is a square with twelve wooden recesses. The front (east side) is covered with plaster, while the back (west side) still appears in its original condition as a base set. Chicken Breast Bua Luk Kaew which is decorated with the inverted lotus The wooden belly is adorned with a ribbed band. and the lotus facing up respectively.

Next up is the elemental house. It is a square shape with twelve wooden corners, with a lotus footnote and a lotus tiara. Decorated in the lower and upper corners of the Ruen That, in front (East side) there is a booth for enshrining a Buddha image sitting cross-legged with diamonds (Phra Puet). The walls are smooth because they are plastered with modern cement. Other walls a smooth solid wall There are still traces of old plaster. And inside the castle, there are also traces of the wooden beam structure. The upper plane looks like a cascade of layers. Defective condition

Determination of age From the architectural style of Prasat Kaew at present The main structure can be divided into 2 parts, namely the castle. and the part of the building covered by the roof The castle itself should have been built before. Subsequently, a building with a wood-covered roof was later built (Phanuwat Euasamarn 2002)

Considering only the brick castle itself which is not very large Is only 2.5 meters wide and long from evidence of laterite lines arranged at the bottom of the base It could be that the brick castle was built on the foundation of an older building. This base is probably an ancient site of Khmer culture. Age around the 16th-18th Buddhist century (Phanuwat Ueasamarn 2002)

For this glass castle, when considering it, it is assumed that the upper part is probably imitating the elemental house. by minimizing They are stacked in descending order in a tall and slender manner (map 4), as well as the southwestern pagoda of Sikhoraphum Prasat, Sikhoraphum District, Surin Province, which is a Khmer-style castle that has been restored by Local people in the 23-24 Buddhist century made it look tall and slender, different from the general Khmer castle (Symmetry, birth result 1986:45). However, Prasat Kaeo is much smaller than Prasat Sikhoraphum. Probably because it was built by a smaller community. or less powerful (Phanuwat Euasamarn 2002)

In addition, building a building that is small, masonry, solid walls, no windows. There are only narrow booths. for enshrining such idols It is a characteristic of buildings that are very popular in the northeastern region, called "Oubmung" (Phanuwat Euasamarn 2002)

Relevant local legend :

Ban Phra Puet was originally named Ban Prapuet, which is assumed that the word “Prapuet” may be distorted from the word “Priya Puet”, which is a combination of Khmer and Kui indigenous languages ​​because of the word “Priya”. In Khmer native language, it means “Buddha” and “Puet” in Kui language means “big”

The word "Baan Prapuek" has been used for a long time. But later it was changed to "House of Phra Puet" to make it easy to call and directly translated from Thai language mixed with native language Kui which is understood to be consistent with the oral legend about village history That has been told for a long time.

From the myths and legends that are the source of House of Phra Puet

Legend 1 A long time ago, someone from Ban Chom Phra Kuay went to dig taro in the forest and licked something on their back. The villager was frightened, so he threw the spade away and the animal ran away. Quickly, he saw a golden-haired deer. (Some say that there was a golden bell tied around his neck) so he ran after him, seeing only the traces of blood. When the traces continue Passed by many villages (such as the Sraeor house) until it was almost noon and stopped to eat. (later named "My House") and follow until “Ban Muang Tee” then the blood stain disappeared in a forest area. He did not give up. Invade through the forest Finally found the castle when he saw the Buddha statue inside He suddenly cried out in surprise, “Pretty! Shut up." He saw the blood seeping from the right Phra Chong (shin) so he believed that the Kwang Thong was this Buddha image.

Prayapuet is a Kuay language meaning Big Buddha. It is believed that this exclamation of the Kuay people is the origin of the name of the village of Phra Puet.

Legend 2 Around 2300 B.E., "Chiang Pum" and "Chiang Pud", two Kuay brothers set up a village in Muang Thi. Later, Chiang Pum helped capture the white elephant and return it to the King of Ayutthaya. until receiving the reward of being the first governor of Surin When the villages became more crowded, Ta Phrom (presumed to be the son of Chiang Puet) brought some of the families to migrate to the area of ​​Prasat Phra Puet. which was the location of the community before Therefore, the present community is likely to be a continuation of the Ta Brahma generation. Its age is probably around 200-250 years old at least, so Ban Phra Puet may also come from the name "Chiang Puet" in another way.