Editing Ayutthaya Kingdom (section)

===Arts and performances===
{{See also|Muay Boran|Sepak takraw}}
[[File:Khon Thammasat 20090306 01.jpg|thumb|250px|right|[[Khon]] performance, a famous dance in the Ayutthaya period.]]
[[File:วัดเกาะแก้วสุทธาราม จ.เพชรบุรี (15).jpg|thumb|Buddhist wat mural in [[Wat Ko Kaew Suttharam]], [[Phetchaburi]], wat murals in Siam proliferated during the late Ayutthaya period in the 18th century]]
The myth and epic stories of [[Ramakien]] provide the Siamese with a rich source of dramatic materials. The royal court of Ayutthaya developed classical dramatic forms of expression called ''[[khon]]'' ({{langx|th|โขน}}) and ''[[Lakhon nok|lakhon]]'' ({{langx|th|ละคร}}). ''Ramakien'' played a role in shaping these dramatic arts. During the Ayutthaya period, ''[[khon]]'', or a dramatized version of Ramakien, was classified as ''[[lakhon nai]]'' or a theatrical performance reserved only for aristocratic audience. The Siamese drama and classical dance later spread throughout mainland Southeast Asia and influenced the development of high-culture art in most countries, including Burma, Cambodia, and Laos.<ref name=Low-1839>{{cite book|last=Low|first=James|title=James Low, On Siamese Literature |year=1839|page=177|url=http://www.siamese-heritage.org/jsspdf/2001/JSS_095_0i_Smyth_JamesLowOnSiameseLiterature.pdf}}</ref>

Historical evidence shows that the Thai art of stage plays must have already been highly evolved by the 17th century. [[Louis XIV]], the Sun King of France, had a formal diplomatic relation with Ayutthaya's [[King Narai]]. In 1687, France sent the diplomat [[Simon de la Loubère]] to record all that he saw in the Siamese Kingdom. In his famous account ''Du Royaume de Siam'', La Loubère carefully observed the classic 17th century theatre of Siam, including an epic battle scene from a khon performance, and recorded what he saw in great detail:

{{blockquote|The Siamese have three sorts of Stage Plays: That which they call Cone [khôn] is a figure dance, to the sound of the violin and some other instruments. The dancers are masked and armed, and represent rather a combat than a dance. And though every one runs into high motions, and extravagant postures, they cease not continually to intermix some word. Most of their masks are hideous, and represent either monstrous Beasts, or kinds of Devils. The Show which they call Lacone is a poem intermix with Epic and Dramatic, which lasts three days, from eight in the morning till seven at night. They are histories in verse, serious, and sung by several actors always present, and which do only sing reciprocally .... The Rabam is a double dance of men and women, which is not martial, but gallant ... they can perform it without much tying themselves, because their way of dancing is a simple march round, very slow, and without any high motion; but with a great many slow contortions of the body and arms.<ref name="SLL-1693">{{cite book |last1=La Loubère |first1=Simon |title=The Kingdom of Siam |date=1693|page=49 |publisher=Oxford University Press |edition=1986}}</ref>}}

Of the attire of Siamese Khôn dancers, La Loubère recorded that, "[T]hose that dance in Rabam, and Cone, have gilded paper-bonnets, high and pointed, like the Mandarins caps of ceremony, but which hang down at the sides below their ears, which are adorned with counterfeit stones, and with two pendants of gilded wood."<ref name="SLL-1693"/>

[[File:Wat Thai Village DC 2013 (9343057612).jpg|thumb|160px|[[Muay Thai]] fighters wearing the traditional ''[[mongkhon]]'' and ''[[pra jiad]]'']]
La Loubère also observed the existence of [[muay Thai]] and muay Laos, noting that they looked similar (i.e., using both fists and elbows to fight) but the hand-wrapping techniques were different.<ref name="SLL-1693"/> Muay Thai from the Ayuthtaya period (better known as Muay Boran) would greatly influence the modern sport of Muay Thai.

The accomplishment and influence of Thai art and culture, developed during the Ayutthaya period, on the neighboring countries was evident in the observation of [[James Low (East India Company officer)|James Low]], a British scholar on Southeast Asia, during the early-Rattanakosin Era: "The Siamese have attained to a considerable degree of perfection in dramatic exhibitions – and are in this respect envied by their neighbours the Burmans, Laos, and Cambojans who all employ Siamese actors when they can be got."<ref name=Low-1839/>{{RP|177}}

[[Krabi-krabong]] is a form of sword fighting developed in Ayutthaya that is now recognized as an essential element of traditional Thai culture and arts.<ref>{{cite web |title=Thailand's Ancient Modern Kingdom {{!}} The Mark of Empire {{!}} Ayutthaya | website=[[YouTube]] | date=30 May 2020 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLEl875HH8w |language=en |quote=11:48–14:31}}</ref> [[Wat Phutthaisawan]], a major ancient temple in Ayutthaya, is considered to be the birthplace of krabi-krabong.