Prang Sam Yot

Prang Sam Yot is one of the main historic sites in Lopburi. It features three prangs (one of which was under restoration), but its biggest claim to fame is that it is macaque central. When I visited this site in 1994, the whole area was full of monkeys. There is also a viral Covid-era video of two monkey tribes fighting over scarce food when tourists stopped coming with food.

Since then, the local authorities have taken steps to manage the situation by sterilizing monkeys and relocating many of them to a nearby forest. There are also signs forbidding feeding of monkeys outside designated areas and times. As such, our visit here was relatively sedate, which, although disappointing, was a positive development for the health of both monkey and human populations.

We approached the temple complex as it opened at 8.30am. We as arrived, we saw the monkeys coming down from a couple of abandoned buildings adjacent to the temple. When I saw this, I thought to myself that perhaps the monkeys have some sort of muscle memory about opening times and when tourists used to arrive with food. I also felt sad for the property owners who I assumed abandoned their properties when the monkey problem got out of hand.

As I mentioned, the monkey situation was very sedate. Most of them hung out at the scaffolding in the restoration area, and we could only observe from afar. We returned at 10am for the feeding time to see some of them eating, but, again, from afar. Czytaj więcej