In order to achieve this we had to get
over some minor passes (625 and 465 alt.) to leave the highland and
reach the lower part of the country. Despite it's the cool season now
we're pretty hot here and already quite tanned.
Old Sukhothai once was the centre of
the kingdom (13th century) and at the height of its power
it was wealthy enough to realize a beautiful walled city with lots of
temples. An area of several square kilometers is now what might be
the most important historical park of this country, including an
historical museum showing and explaining hundreds of artefacts that
have been excavated here. The whole park is all well kept and lovely
and we spent a very agreeable and instructive day. It is very
interesting to notice that the buddhist culture was originally
influenced by hinduïsm, coming from India. This influence reached as
far as the Vietnamese coasts and we remember having seen the same
symbols used in the old Cham culture in Vietnam and in the Khmer
culture in Cambodia. In our garden in Breda we have a linga and joni
from Vietnam and we were not surprised to see some quite big specimen
of them here.
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