King Taksin Shrine

The King Taksin Shrine in Rayong commemorates the bravery and leadership of a Thai general of mixed Thai and Chinese ancestry who had been the provincial governer of Tak in the last years of the Ayutthaya period. When the Burmese sacked and looted Ayutthaya in 1767 he gathered the bravest of the remaining Thai troops and broke through the enemy lines, escaping to Rayong in the southeast where he organized a counterattack which ultimately drove the Burmese from Thai soil. Phraya Taksin is reputed to have tethered his war elephant to a tree near the present location of the shrine, and it was in Rayong that he was originally proclaimed King. He went on to establish a new Thai capital in Thonburi, though King Rama I, who succeeded him and established the present Chakri dynasty, moved the capital across the Chao Phraya River to Bangkok a short time later. During Chinese New Years celebrations the shrine, on the grounds of Wat Lum Mahachai Chumphon, draws large crowds of primarily Thai-Chinese for whom Taksin the Great is still a 'favorite son'.

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