Phra Pathom Chedi

Phra Pathommachedi พระปฐมเจดีย์
Phra Pathommachedi
General information
Architectural style	stupa
Town or city	Nakhon Pathom
Country	Thailand
Construction started	193 BCE
Completed	1870

Phra Pathommachedi or Phra Pathom Chedi (Thai: พระปฐมเจดีย์) is a stupa in Thailand. At 120.5 metres (395 ft) it is the tallest stupa in the world. The stupa is located in the Wat Phra Pathommachedi Ratcha Wora Maha Wihan (Thai: วัดพระปฐมเจดีย์ราชวรมหาวิหาร), a temple in the town center of Nakhon Pathom, Thailand.

The name Phra Pathommachedi means the first holy stupa, given by Mongkut. Originally the stupa named Phra Thom Chedi means the big stupa in ancient Khmer language or the royal stupa in Northern Thai language. One of the common misunderstandings about the stupa is Phra Pathommachedi is the oldest and the first stupa in Suvarnabhumi, an ancient name of Southeast Asia. Modern Historians believe that the stupa was one of the principal stupas of ancient Nakhon Pathom, the largest settlement of Dvaravati culture in Nakhon Pathom area together with the nearby Phra Pathonnachedi (Thai: พระประโทณเจดีย์) during the 6th to the 8th centuries.

The original of Phra Pathommachedi has no historical record, but according to M. C. Subhadradis Diskul, a prominent Thai historian and archaeologist, Ashoka, an Indian Emperor who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from circa 269 BCE to 232 BCE, sent a prominent Buddhist monks to expand Buddhism in Suvarnabhumi including the area that is Nakhon Pathom in present day. A Buddhist temple, Wat Phra Pathom, had been established around the year 325 BCE, and the stupa had been built around the year 193 BCE. The original structure is believed to be similar with the Great Stupa in Sanchi, India, with a simple hemispherical brick structure built over the relics of the Buddha with chatra, a parasol-like structure symbolising high rank, on the top of stupa. The stupa is first mentioned in Buddhist scriptures of the year 675, however archaeological findings date back to the 4th century. Modern Historians believe that the stupa was one of the principal stupas of ancient Nakhon Pathom, the largest settlement of Dvaravati culture together with the nearby Phra Pathonnachedi (Thai: พระประโทณเจดีย์) during the 6th to the 8th centuries.