Mount Meru in the City: How Siam's Temples and Royal Pyres Reproduce the Hindu-Buddhist Universe

At the centre of the Buddhist universe rises a mountain, Meru, encircled by seven ranges, seven seas and four continents. In the 14th century the *Traiphum Phra Ruang* set this scheme down in the Thai language. From Sukhothai to Bangkok, it went on to give royal builders a grammar: a central tower, corner towers, a gallery serving as an enclosure. It can be read in the *prang* of Wat Arun, it is debated at Wat Pho, and it is rebuilt at every royal cremation on Sanam Luang. This article returns to the texts, the plans and the controversies in order to separate what the sources establish from what is projected onto the monuments.

A mountain at the centre of the world: the Traiphum Phra Ruang

Before it was a silhouette of brick and stucco, Mount Meru was an object of text. In the Siamese world, the text that fixed it is the Traiphum Phra Ruang (‘The Three Worlds according to Phra Ruang’). This treatise on Buddhist cosmology is attributed to Lithai, ruler of Sukhothai, also known as Maha Thammaracha I. Most reference works date it ‘around 1345’. According to biographical accounts, Lithai is said to have composed it while still uparat (viceroy and designated heir), some six years after his appointment. ‘Phra Ruang’ refers to his lineage, not to a separate author. One online encyclopaedia entry gives 1286 in its infobox, while its own text contradicts it. This inconsistency suggests that 1345 should be treated as a conventional date rather than a documented certainty.

The work is often presented as the oldest known Thai literary text, setting aside Sukhothai Inscription No. 1. A study from Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University summarises the three aims that tradition ascribes to it: to give the kingdom a written Dhamma (the teaching of the Buddha), to make that Dhamma flourish, and to teach it to the author's mother. The project was thus at once devotional, pedagogical and political.

A moral geography

The Traiphum distributes beings across thirty-one planes of existence, grouped into three worlds: the world of desire (Kāmabhūmi, eleven planes), the world of form (Rūpabhūmi, sixteen) and the formless world (Arūpabhūmi, four). To this vertical hierarchy is added a horizontal geography, whose pivot is Meru, or Sumeru. It is this second dimension that directly concerns the architect.

A text of government

The treatise also sets out the ten virtues of the ruler, the thotsaphit ratchatham, which serve as principles for Thai monarchs. It was not handed down as an unchanging block. The sources stress that it was reinterpreted as the political situation changed, both at home and internationally, and that it is still used in teaching. Later recensions exist, among them a Traiphum Lok Winitchai. The sources gathered here establish neither its date nor its exact relationship to the Sukhothai version.

Where the arts are concerned, the Suan Sunandha study makes the Traiphum the common foundation for craftsmen: painters, sculptors, builders and folk artisans. Sometimes they illustrate its narrative, sometimes only the symbolism of the planes of existence. The distinction is essential: a building may evoke the hierarchy of the worlds without reproducing its map. The same study examined Lanna temples from this angle, including Wat Phra Singh and Wat Phra That Lampang Luang.

Who lives on the mountain: gods, guardians and bestiary

The summit of Meru bears the Tāvatiṃsa heaven (Thai Dawadueng), the ‘heaven of the Thirty-Three’, where Indra reigns. The four heavenly kings occupy its slopes, and ‘fragrant oceans and continents’ surround the mountain. The setting also includes the Himavanta forest (Himmaphan) and Lake Anotatta (Anodat). This is the realm of a composite bestiary: kinnari (half-woman, half-bird beings), garuda (the bird that is Vishnu's mount), naga (serpents). It reappears on plinths, in murals and in funerary decoration.

The framework of this cosmos is Buddhist, but many of its inhabitants come from the Hindu pantheon. Indra is enthroned at the summit. Garuda is held to carry the dead king up to heaven, which explains his presence on the royal pyre. The court, for its part, retains a Brahmanical ritualism. A study published in 2011 in the Indian journal Dialogue notes that royal rites give prominence to two mountains: Meru, the cosmic axis and abode of Indra, and Kailash, the abode of Shiva. The court Brahmins worship Shiva, Uma, Vishnu and Ganesha. The author also links the Giant Swing ceremony (Lo Chingcha) to Indra's heaven.

This study must be handled with caution. Its author has not been identified with certainty, and it appears to confuse the Traiphum Phra Ruang with a later recension. Yet it confirms a fact that the monuments make visible: in Siam, Meru is the place where the Theravada monastic order and a kingship of Brahmanical tradition meet.

The quincunx: translating the cosmos into a plan

The most legible arrangement is the quincunx. A central tower stands for Meru, four corner towers for the continents, and a gallery or enclosure for the edge of the world. In Bangkok, its most accomplished form is the prang of Wat Arun, on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River. The prang is a reliquary tower with a shell-shaped profile, of Khmer ancestry.

Wat Arun: the official reading

The best guide is the submission lodged by Thailand to place the Phra Prang of Wat Arun Ratchawararam on its World Heritage Tentative List. The document expresses the reading of the Thai authorities; it does not amount to inscription. It sets out the following correspondences:

• the central prang represents Meru;
• the four secondary prang represent the four continents;
• the galleries represent the edge of the universe.

The central prang houses relics of the Buddha. It also expresses the belief in the ‘Maha That of the capital’, that is, the great reliquary (maha that) placed at the centre of the royal city. According to the submission, this plan derives from the art of early Ayutthaya, of which Wat Mahathat is an example.

The same submission traces the genealogy of the form. The prang derives from the Khmer prasat, the dwelling of Hindu deities. Its essential part is the ruean that, the chamber that houses the deity and the relics. The Hindu sanctuary thus became a Buddhist reliquary without losing its meaning as the axis of the world. The decoration follows this programme:

• three terraces for circumambulation (prathaksin, the ritual circling of a sanctuary) bear supporting asura;
• above them, devata, garuda, asura and monkeys represent the inhabitants of Meru;
• the ruean that is adorned with statues of Indra, signalling the Tāvatiṃsa.

The whole is covered in polychrome porcelain. According to a widespread explanation, these fragments served as ballast for ships arriving from China; our sources do not prove it.

CyArk's digital survey offers details that usefully qualify this scheme. In it, each corner prang is dedicated to Vayu, the Hindu god of the wind, shown on his horse near the top. Four cruciform mondop (pavilions with pyramidal roofs) mark the cardinal points and evoke episodes in the life of the Buddha. Panels devoted to the Himavanta decorate the base, and the prang is circled clockwise. The reading by continents and the reading by directions are not mutually exclusive, since the continents are also directions. None of the sources consulted, however, explicitly connects the two.

Two uncertainties remain. Depending on the source, the height of the central prang ranges from 66.8 to 86 metres. The chronology of its construction is generally assigned to the first reigns of the Chakri dynasty, but it could not be verified for this article. Prince Narisara Nuwattiwong attributed the work to the Chang Sip Mu, the Department of the Ten Crafts: the monument would thus be the product of royal workshop expertise.

Wat Chaiwatthanaram: a precedent at Ayutthaya

At Ayutthaya, King Prasat Thong founded Wat Chaiwatthanaram in 1630. It was the first temple of his reign, built in memory of his mother's residence. Its name means ‘temple of the long reign and glorious era’. As a royal temple, it was used for the cremation of princes, among them Chaofa Thammathibet, son of King Boromakot. It lies within the historical park, but not within the property inscribed by UNESCO as the ‘Historic City of Ayutthaya’.

Common descriptions see its Khmer-style central prang as a figure of Meru, and its plan as an evocation of the temple-mountains of Angkor. Other claims circulate: the height of the prang, the ashes of the king's mother deposited in the chedi (reliquaries) flanking the ubosot, the celebration of a victory over Cambodia. These readings are plausible in view of the plan, but they rest on popular sources that need to be checked against the work of the Fine Arts Department. The princely cremations, on the other hand, are documented: they already link this temple to the funerary rites of the monarchy.

Reading or projecting? The debate over Wat Pho

The case of Wat Pho (Wat Phra Chetuphon) shows that the equation ‘temple = Meru’ is a matter of interpretation. In the Journal of the Siam Society (vol. 102, 2014), Chatri Prakitnonthakan sets out three positions.

• Samoechai Phunsuwan sees Wat Pho as a cosmos. The ubosot (ordination hall) and its galleries represent the Tāvatiṃsa at the summit of Meru. The four wihan (assembly halls) represent the Sattaparibhanda ranges, and the enclosure wall represents hell (Narok). In his view, this symbolism existed until the major renovation of the reign of Rama III, which added new elements.
• Watchari Watchasin argues, on the contrary, that the temple is not a model of Meru.
• Chatri Prakitnonthakan corrects both. In his view, the cosmological symbolism was present from the time of construction under Rama I, and its elements correspond to several cosmological texts rather than to a single one. He points out that the Three Worlds murals depicted Meru, the seven ranges, the four continents, the five rivers, the Himavanta and Lake Anotatta.

His primary sources are the Traiphum Phra Ruang (Khlangwithaya edition, 1972) and the Jakkawan thipani, published by the Fine Arts Department in 1990.

The debate yields three lessons. First, Meru has no single canon: several texts coexist, and the same plan may answer to one or another. Second, a cosmological reading has to be demonstrated building by building, on the basis of the texts and the original state. Finally, successive renovations, here that of Rama III, superimpose layers of meaning. The temple one visits is a palimpsest, and disagreement often turns on the dating of each layer.

The ephemeral Meru: the Phra Merumat

It is in funerary architecture that the equivalence is most explicit. The pyres of the kings of Siam represent Meru (Khao Phra Sumeru), and their very name, Phra Merumat, refers to Sumeru. Their decoration follows the Traiphum: angels, garuda, naga and mythical creatures. They are dismantled after the ceremony, which expresses impermanence. According to Buddhistdoor, their design draws on plans used since the beginning of the Rattanakosin era in 1782.

The pyre of Rama IX

The pyre of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX), who died on 13 October 2016 and was cremated in 2017, offers a well-documented example. The Fine Arts Department built it on Sanam Luang. It stood on a square base measuring 60 metres on each side and rose to 50.49 metres, with nine spires. The Nation described it as the tallest pyre since the reign of Rama V.

It took the form of a busabok, a throne pavilion. The design team was led by Korkiat Thongphut and Theerachat Weerayuttanon of the Office of Architecture. According to the Bangkok Post, it represented Sumeru, ‘where the king's divine spirit returns’ according to traditional belief. The director-general of the Fine Arts Department, Anan Chuchote, stated that the design was based ‘on Buddhist cosmology and the belief that the king is semi-divine’. A drawing workshop was set up for the occasion; Princess Sirindhorn named it ‘Witanasatapakasala’.

A tradition that changes its technique

The project also shows how tradition is transformed. A pyre of this kind had until then required about three years; this one was erected in seven months, thanks to demountable steel modules that replaced timber. The form and the meaning endure; the technique changes.

On 26 January 2026, the government announced that the Fine Arts Department would build the pyre of Queen Mother Sirikit from February to October 2026. The temporary Meru remains a living institution.

Pali and Sanskrit: two registers for one universe

The languages of the sources shed light on the dual nature of the arrangement. The cosmological vocabulary is Pali, the canonical language of Theravada Buddhism: Sumeru, Tāvatiṃsa, Sattaparibhanda, Sīdantara, Jambudvīpa, Himavanta. Pali also supplies the terms of monastic architecture: ubosot comes from uposatha, wihan from vihāra.

The royal and ritual register, by contrast, retains Sanskrit or Khmero-Sanskrit forms. Lithai's royal style offers an example: ‘Kamrateng An Sri Suryavamsa Rama Mahadharmarajadhiraja’. The author of a Thai treatise steeped in Pali thus attaches himself, in protocol, to the solar lineage (Suryavamsa) and presents himself as ‘great king of the Dharma’. The Brahmanical court cult belongs to the same heritage, as does the ruean that of the prang, a Khmer deity chamber turned relic chamber.

This duality can be read as a division of roles; that is an interpretation, which our sources do not establish as fact. Pali would express the order of the world according to the Dhamma, and Sanskrit the king's place within that order. Meru would then be the point where the two registers meet.

From temple to capital: what can be asserted

There remains the question raised by the title: were the capitals of Siam conceived as Merus? The sources gathered here allow a precise but limited answer. They establish four points:

• a belief in the ‘Maha That of the capital’ placed a great reliquary at the centre of the royal city;
• this plan dates back at least to early Ayutthaya;
• Wat Arun reformulates it in Bangkok as a cosmic quincunx;
• the royal cremation periodically rebuilds Meru at the heart of the city, on Sanam Luang.

The urban Meru thus appears first and foremost as a series of centres: reliquary, royal temple, pyre. In these places, the king and the relics are ritually placed on the axis of the world.

These sources do not, however, establish that the urban fabric as a whole was laid out on the model of the seven ranges and four continents: walls, gates, palaces, city pillar. The general thesis of the ‘cosmic capital’, a classic of Southeast Asian historiography, and the arguments drawn from the ceremonial names of the capitals call for an examination based on old plans and the archives of the Fine Arts Department. This article does not claim to undertake it. The monuments nonetheless reveal a long-term continuity, from Sukhothai to the cremation of 2017. A written cosmology, reinterpreted in every age, continues to give shape to the places where kingship stages itself.

Sources and further reading

1. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Trai Phum Phra Ruang, Wikipedia (EN), consulté 2026.
2. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Maha Thammaracha I, Wikiwand / Wikipedia, consulté 2026.
3. non identifié (Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University), Cosmology in Architecture Buddhist Lanna, Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, 2018.
4. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Himavanta, Wikipedia (EN), consulté 2026.
5. Délégation permanente de la Thaïlande auprès de l'UNESCO, Phra Prang of Wat Arun Ratchawararam: The Masterpiece of Krung Rattanakosin (liste indicative), UNESCO World Heritage Centre, consulté 2026.
6. CyArk, Wat Arun — About this experience, CyArk, consulté 2026.
7. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Wat Arun, Wikipedia (EN), consulté 2026.
8. Contributeurs Wikipédia, Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Wikipedia (EN), consulté 2026.
9. Chatri Prakitnonthakan, Symbolism in the Design of Wat Phra Chetuphon Wimonmangkhalaram (Wat Pho), Journal of the Siam Society, vol. 102, 2014.
10. Time Out Bangkok, Everything you need to know about the royal crematorium of King Bhumibol, Time Out, 2017.
11. The Nation, Reaching up to heaven, The Nation (Thaïlande), 2017.
12. non confirmé, Brahman Cosmology in the Thai Monarchy (titre tronqué), Dialogue (Astha Bharati), 2011.
13. Google Arts & Culture (exposition partenaire), Insight | Thai | Architecture — King Rama IX Royal Crematorium, Google Arts & Culture, consulté 2026.
14. Buddhistdoor Global, Thailand Unveils Design of Funeral Pyre for Late King Symbolizing Mount Meru, Buddhistdoor Global, 2016.
15. Bangkok Post, Royal pyre 'ready in September', Bangkok Post, 2017.
16. Nation Thailand, Govt updates royal crematorium plans for the Queen Mother, Nation Thailand, 2026.