Chao Sam Phraya National Museum

Ayutthaya’s Chao Sam Phraya National Museum is the best place to see what Ayutthaya’s temples held before they were stripped. Run by the Fine Arts Department, it opened in 1961 to house treasures recovered from the crypts of Wat Ratchaburana and Wat Mahathat. It takes its name from King Borommarachathirat II, known as Chao Sam Phraya before he came to the throne, who founded Wat Ratchaburana in 1424.

The highlight is the gold. Looters broke into the Ratchaburana crypt in 1957 and much of what they took was never recovered, but the excavations that followed brought out royal regalia, jewellery, small gold objects and votive tablets. The relic deposit found deep beneath Wat Mahathat’s prang in 1956, a set of reliquaries nested one inside another, is here too. A separate Ayutthaya Gold building, begun in 2017, was built to show more than 2,000 pieces.

The rest of the collection covers Buddha images in bronze and stone from the Dvaravati period to late Ayutthaya, including a large bronze Buddha head from Wat Thammikarat, along with carved woodwork and other temple fittings. The museum is just south of the Bueng Phra Ram lake, so it fits easily into a morning among the island ruins. Allow at least an hour.