Chronology The city has a history dating back to the
Dvaravati period more than 1,000 years ago. According to the
Northern Chronicles, Lavo was founded by Phraya Kalavarnadishraj, who came from the
Takkasila in 648 CE. According to Thai records, Phraya Kakabatr from Takkasila (it is assumed that the city was
Taxila set the new era,
Chula Sakarat in 638 CE, which was the era used by the Siamese and the Burmese until the 19th century. His son, Phraya Kalavarnadishraj founded the city a decade later. Lopburi, or Lavapura (named after
Lahore then
Lavapur as it then was, was under the rule of the rising
Angkor regime and became one of the most important centers in the
Chao Phraya Basin from then on.
Epigraphic evidence indicates that the dominant population of the city was
Mon. The earliest confirmed occurrence of the name Lavapura is on silver coins inscribed "lava" on the obverse and "pura" on the reverse in a Pallava-derived script of the seventh or eighth century; several such coins were recovered in 1966 from a hoard found in an ancient jar in
U Thong. Inscriptions say that Lopburi was incorporated into the administration structure of the
Khmer Empire during the reign of
Suryavarman I. Control of Lopburi gave the
Khmer Empire access to trade going through the
Kra Isthmus. There is some evidence the Khmer Empire, under
Suryavarman II, fought against the Mons in the 12th century over
suzerainty. Lopburi sent embassies to China in 1115 and 1155. Lopburi (Lavo) is described in Book III of
Marco Polo's
Travels, where it is called
Locach. This came from the Chinese (Cantonese) pronunciation of Lavo, "Lo-huk". The city is referred to as "Lo-ho" in chapter 20 of the
History of Yuan (元史 :
Yuán Shǐ), the official history of the Mongol, or
Yuan Dynasty of China. Due to a scribal error in
Book III of Marco Polo's travels treating of the route southward from
Champa, where the name Java was substituted for Champa as the point of departure, Java Minor was 1,300 miles to the south of
Java Major, instead of from Champa, on or near an extension of the
Terra Australis. As explained by Sir
Henry Yule, the editor of an English edition of Marco Polo's
Travels: "Some geographers of the 16th century, following the old editions which carried the travellers south-east of Java to the land of
Boeach (or Locac), introduced in their maps a continent in that situation". After the foundation of the
Ayutthaya Kingdom in the 14th century, Lopburi was a stronghold of Ayutthaya's rulers. It became the capital of the kingdom during the reign of King
Narai the Great in the mid-17th century and the king resided there about eight months a year. WaterBuffaloLopburiThailand2300BCE.jpg|
Water buffalo, Lopburi, 2300 BCE CeramicLopburiThailand2300BCE.jpg|Ceramic, Lopburi, 2300 BCE
Archeological finds • several flaked stone tools were discovered in
Ban Mi district dated back to the Paleolithic Age in 1931. • a number of tools, human burial sites and bronze accessories belong to Iron Age were found in
Lop Buri river Basin in 1964. • Bracelets and beads dated back 2700–3500 years were revealed at Ban Khok Charoen in 1966–1970. • Prehistoric human skeletons and clay jugs were found in Ban Tha Kae in 1979. • A Copper source was discovered in Khao Wong Phrachan in 1986–1994. ==Geography==