Phra Pathom

a complex of archaeological remains in Thailand, in the modern city of Nakhon Pathom, 48 km west of Bangkok. The complex was investigated in 1939–40 by the French scholar P. Dupont. Phra Pathom represents the remains of one of the oldest of the Mon cities of the Dvaravati state (first millennium B.C.). Archaeologists have found bronze figures of the standing and sitting Buddha, stone reliefs, stucco ornaments, decorative stone wheels, and other objects among the ruins, especially in the temples of Wat Phra Meru and Wat Phra Pathom. The remains of Phra Pathom shed light on the early history of Indochina and prove that Buddhism had spread there by the first centuries A.D. The finds also attest to close economic and cultural ties with southern India and the island of Sri Lanka.