Life in the time of Naresuan

East meets West

Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, one of the most successful explorers of the Age of Discovery, became the first European to sail a sea route to India in 1498, landing in Calicut. Successions of Portuguese armadas established a spice route and a colony in India. Naresuan wisely nurtured healthy trade relations with Portugal as well as the Spanish Philippines to the benefit of his own nation and its peoples.

Crown of Thai civilisation

The city of Ayutthaya flourished from the 14th to the 18th century and at its height was one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced cities with a population far greater then any other metropolis in South East Asia. The island city was protected by three rivers and saved from floods thanks to a remarkably innovative hydraulic system.

Ayutthaya architecture

When the Burmese sacked and burned Ayutthaya in 1767 during the Burmese–siamese War that had started in 1765, they left only the ruins of a few Buddhist monasteries. These otherworldly stone towers and intricately carved basrelief sculptures have been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Ayutthaya Historical Park is made up of the ruins of the former capital of the kingdom of Siam.

Gun power

The Chinese invented gunpowder in the 9th century and crafted the first crude firearms or ‘hand cannons’ shortly after, but it was the Portuguese musket that was widely adopted by Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian armies in the 16th century. They became a cornerstone of the Ming army only after its conquest of China, giving Ming armies a distinct advantage over their neighbours.

Ming superpower

The Ming dynasty, also called the Empire of the Great Ming, ruled China from 1368 to 1644 and extended its borders from Outer Mongolia in the north down to Vietnam in the south. China exuded tremendous political and military influence in the region during Naresuan’s rule. At its zenith the empire’s standing army exceeded 1 million troops.