Late 1833, when Mongkut was 29 years of age he went on a pilgrimage
to the far north of Siam. Itwas – and still is – customary that
enterprising Buddhist monks used the annual period outside the
rainy season, when the rules of the Sangha are somewhat more relaxed,
to make voyages that last more than a day. They cannot do so
during the rainy season when monks are allowed to travel only on
condition they return to their own monastery before the sun rises.
This particular journey that began late 1833 was a pilgrimage that
took Mongkut, among other places, all the way north to the ancient
towns of Sisatchanalaiand Sukhothai. Itwas in the latter town
that he found in the centre of the ruins of the past two remarkable
heavy stone objects:a gray slab of stone with designs in bas-reliefat
the edges which reputably had been the throne of the ruler of Sukhothai
and a large black stone inscribed with a curious ancient
type of script.