Lopburi

Lopburi is one of the oldest continuously inhabited towns in Thailand. As Lavo it was a centre of the Mon-speaking Dvaravati culture from about the 6th century, with its own rulers and a Buddhist tradition recorded in inscriptions and in stone dharma wheels found on the site. From the 10th and 11th centuries the Khmer empire drew Lavo into its sphere, and the laterite towers that still stand in the town centre — Phra Prang Sam Yot, Prang Khaek and the prang of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat — date from that period of Angkorian influence, giving the local style the name Lopburi art.

After Ayutthaya was founded in 1351 Lopburi became a northern stronghold of the Siamese kingdom. Its great moment came under King Narai, who ruled from 1656 to 1688 and made the town a second capital, spending much of the year here. He built the walled palace of Phra Narai Ratchaniwet, waterworks fed by clay pipes from the hills, and residences for foreign envoys, and received embassies from Louis XIV of France as well as Persian and Dutch missions. The Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon rose to chief minister in this court and was executed in June 1688, in the revolution that broke out as Narai lay dying; the town was largely abandoned by the court afterwards.

King Mongkut restored the palace in the 1850s and used it again as a retreat. From 1937 the government of Field Marshal Plaek Phibunsongkhram built a planned new town a few kilometres east and made Lopburi a major military centre, which it remains: army training schools, artillery and special forces units occupy much of the district. The old quarter kept its ruins, its shophouses and, increasingly, its monkeys.

No other Thai town is so defined by animals. Several thousand long-tailed macaques live around Phra Prang Sam Yot and the shrine of Phra Kan, and local belief associates them with the monkey armies of the Ramakien and with the guardian spirit of the shrine, so they are tolerated and fed rather than removed. The annual Monkey Buffet Festival, held around the last Sunday of November, lays out pyramids of fruit for them and draws photographers from around the world, while residents and shopkeepers live with daily raids, barred windows and damaged wiring; in 2024 the government began a mass round-up and sterilisation campaign, and within five months about 1,600 of an estimated 3,000 monkeys had been taken into captivity for neutering.

The other strand of local identity is historical: Lopburi presents itself as the town of King Narai and of the Khmer past. The palace grounds are the setting for historical pageantry in 17th-century costume, and the Somdet Phra Narai National Museum inside them holds Lopburi-style bronzes and Dvaravati sculpture. Local pride in the French embassies and in Phaulkon's story is real, and the episode is taught as an early Thai encounter with European ambition.

The army shapes everyday manners too, with uniformed personnel in the streets, parade grounds, military hospitals and families posted here from across the country. Otherwise the customs are those of the central plains: merit-making at the temples on holy days, alms rounds at dawn, Songkran and Loy Krathong as the main public festivals, and a quiet, early evening.

The town has a population of about 58,000, with more in the surrounding district, and only a part of that in the old town itself, which is a few streets of shophouses, small hotels and offices around the monuments. Most modern life happens in the new town to the east and in the garrison areas, where the shopping centres, hospitals and schools are.

The economy has three legs. The military is the largest employer, with training commands, artillery and special warfare units and their supporting businesses. Agriculture fills the province — sugar cane, cassava, maize, rice and sunflowers on the drier uplands — feeding sugar mills and processing plants. Tourism is small and concentrated on day visitors who arrive by train, see the ruins and the monkeys, and leave again, which is a long-standing local complaint.

Daily routines in the old quarter are arranged around the macaques: shopkeepers fit metal grilles, residents carry sticks or water pistols, and the troops that control different streets are known individually. Elsewhere life is ordinary provincial Thailand, starting early at the market and quiet by nine in the evening. Current concerns include the monkey population itself, which has grown and spread, drought in the farming districts, and the pull of Bangkok on younger residents.

Lopburi eats like the central plains with an upland accent. The market and the shophouses around the station serve kuay tiao noodle soups with pork or beef, khao mu daeng and khao mu krop — red-roasted and crisp pork over rice — boiled rice soup in the morning and rice-and-curry shops at lunch. Freshwater fish from the Lopburi and Pa Sak rivers appear grilled in salt crust or in sour curries, and Isan food from the north-east, with grilled chicken, som tam and sticky rice, is common because so many soldiers and workers come from that region.

The province's own products are agricultural. Sunflowers grown on the dry hills give roasted seeds, seed brittle and sunflower honey, all sold at the roadside in the cool season and taken home as gifts. Sugar cane and cassava fields surround the town, and local sweets rely heavily on palm sugar and coconut; khanom krok and grilled bananas are sold from carts in the evening.

Eating outdoors near the monuments is complicated by the macaques, which take food directly from hands and tables, so the stalls and restaurants of the old town shelter behind screens and grilles, and the night market is set a little away from the ruins. The usual drinks are cha yen, orange tea with condensed milk, oliang, strong iced black coffee, and fresh sugar-cane juice pressed at the market.