During a site survey for a new highway, archaeologists in Nakhon Sawan discovered the foundations of a massive 9th-century Dvaravati brick temple. The site is notable for a cache of over twenty intact terracotta statues of Bodhisattvas and celestial dancers, which display a unique blend of Mon-Dvaravati and early Khmer aesthetic influences.
The temple layout includes a central stupa base surrounded by secondary shrines, suggesting it was a major monastic and pilgrimage center for the central plains. This discovery is expected to rewrite the history of Dvaravati expansion northward, indicating a much stronger political and religious presence in the Upper Chao Phraya river basin than previously documented. The Thai Fine Arts Department has declared the site a protected heritage zone.