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Early European visitors placed Ayutthaya alongside China and India as the three great powers of Asia. 250 years ago, the city was destroyed, and its history has been neglected. This new book is the first English-language study of the full 400-plus years from Ayutthaya’s emergence in the 13th century until its fall in 1767. With a focus on themes of commerce, kingship, Buddhism, and war, the book draws on chronicles, memoirs, visitors’ accounts, laws, literary works, wat murals, landscape, language and recent scholarship. “With thorough research and examination, and exquisite articulation, the book will not be surpassed for years, perhaps decades to come” (Thongchai Winichakul).