Living in an Ancient City (U Thong)

My sole objective in writing this book is to expose the hidden archeological values of the ancient city of U Thong to the whole world. Unfortunately, this historic city was given a low profile in the past although a lot of archeological evidence relating to the Dvaravati kingdom has been found from time to time. Both Thai and foreign archaeological experts have spent their time and energy in excavating and tracing the origin of the artifacts and other related items behind the scene for a long time. With a limited budget to expand the areas of the excavation, the archeological experts could not move at a faster pace though many of them are enthusiastic to dig deep into the root of U Thong, the crown jewel of the Dvaravati kingdom. To make the book more informational, and not just entertaining, I did considerable research and visited several archeological sites, and the U Thong National Museum. Field trips in the hilly areas during the monsoon season made it more difficult to finish the mission. In addition, I sometimes got a headache as experts make a variety of assumptions and often do not agree on many dates. I have no choice but to stick to the original sources which were mostly in Thai. Even then, almost everything ran smoothly as planned. Last but not least, folktales of U Thong are included in Chapter Five. Since they involve a moral story or a lesson that reflects the values of our culture, and at the same time, entertains us constructively, excluding such valuable content would have diminished my dream of contributing to my birthplace.