Lopburi

Water buffalo, Lopburi, Thailand, 2300 BCE.

Lopburi (Thai: ลพบุรี(Pronunciation)) is the caipital ceety o Lopburi Province in Thailand. It is locatit aboot 150 km north-east o Bangkok. As o 2006 it haes a population o 26,500. The toun (thesaban mueang) covers the whole tambon Tha Hin an pairts o Thale Chup Son o Mueang Lopburi district, a total aurie o 6.85 km².

The ceety haes a lang history, datin back tae the Dvaravati period mair nor 1000 year ago. Accordin tae the Northern Chronicles, it wis foondit bi Keeng Kalavarnadish, who came frae Taxila (Takkasila) in Northwast Indie (nou Pakistan) in 648 AD.^[1] It wis oreeginally kent as Lavo or Lavapura, meanin "ceety o Lava" in reference tae the ancient Sooth Asian ceety o Lavapuri (present-day Lahore).^[2] Lopburi wis unner the risin Angkor regime an became ane o the maist important centers in the Chao Phraya Basin frae then on.

Lop Buri (Lavo) is described in Book III of Marco Polo’s Travels, whaur it is cawed Locach. This came from the Cheenese (Cantonese) pronunciation o Lavo, “Lo-huk” (羅斛).^[3] The city is referred to as “Lo-ho” (羅斛) in chapter 20 of the History of Yuan (元史 : Yuán Shǐ), the official history of the Mongol, or Yuan Dynasty of China. Due to a scribal error in Book III of Marco Polo’s travels treating of the route southward from Champa, where the name Java was substituted for Champa as the point of departure, Java Minor was located 1,300 mile to the south of Java Major, instead of from Champa, on or near an extension of the Terra Australis.^[4] As explained by Sir Henry Yule, the editor of an English edition of Marco Polo’s Travels: “Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which carried the travellers south-east of Java to the land of Boeach (or Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that situation”.^[5]

Efter the foondation o Ayutthaya Kinrick in the fifteent century, Lopburi wis a stranghauld o Ayutthaya's rulers. It later became a new ryal caipital durin the reign o Keeng Narai the Great o the Ayutthaya Kinrick in the middle o the 17t century, The keeng stayed here for aboot aicht months a year.

Today the ceety is maist famous for the hunders o Crab-Eatin Macaques (Macaca fascicularis) that live in the middle o the ceety, especially aroond the Khmer temple, Prang Sam Yot, an a Khmer shrine, Sarn Phra Karn. They are fed bi the local fowk, especially durin the Monkey Festival in November. Acause they are no afraid o humans, they steal whaiver fuid they can fynd frae unwary diners.

Prang Sam Yot, oreeginally a Hindu shrine, haes three prangs that represent Brahma, Vishnu, an Shiva (the Hindu trinity). It wis later convertit tae a Buddhist shrine.

References

↑ Adhir Chakravarti, “International Trade and Towns of Ancient Siam”, Our Heritage: Bulletin of the Department of Post-graduate Training and Research, Sanskrit College, Calcutta, vol.XXIX, part I, January-June 1981, pp1-23, nb p.15.
↑ Phanindra Nath Bose, The Indian colony of Siam, Lahore, The Punjab Sanskrit Book Depot, 1927, p.v.
↑ Paul Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1963, Vol.II, pp.768-9, note 2.
↑ (Paul Pelliot, Notes on Marco Polo, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale, 1963, Vol.II, p.769; James R. McClymont, “The Theory of an Antipodal Southern Continent during the Sixteenth Century”, Report of the Fourth Meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Hobart, January 1892, Hobart, the Association, 1893, pp.442-462.)
↑ (Sir Henry Yule (ed.), The Book of Ser Marco Polo, London, Murray, 1921, Vol.II, pp.276-280)