Somdej Phra Buddhacharn Tho Phromrangsi

Somdej Phra Buddhacharn Tho Phromrangsi was born on 17Th April 2331 BE at Angthong Chaiyo.
 His father is Chaofah Krommakhun Issarasoonthorn. His mother is Ngut Baan Kamphaengphet lived 
at Kaichon Ayutthaya. When he was 12 years old, the royal palace adopted and made him a novice at
 wat Intarawiharn, Bang Khun Phrom, Bangkok. He entered monkhood at Wat Phra Sri Rattana
 Satsadaram when he was going to be 21 yrs old. King Rama I announced him to be royal naga and
 sent him to keep within a monastery at Wat Rakang kosittaram in 2350 BE. Here, he started to make
 the first batch of Phra Somdej Wat Rakang in 2352 BE which is classified to be Phra Somdej of early 
age using the skill of village craftsmen lived in Bannchanglor area close to Wat Rakang.

Somdej Tho started making Phra Somdej of early age using the skilled village craftsmen during the
 period of King Rama 2 and King Rama 3 in 2353-2393 BE. By the end of King Rama 3 period, the age
 of village craftsmen also ended.

Phra Somdej made with the skill of the village craftsmen is not so beautiful. It is noticeable that the arch
 is not well aligned and irregular like vine, the body of the buddha image is short, incline and not so nice
 looking. The base are the only lines in stair step pattern. The stuff is rough, fragile and cracks are 
always found all over. This is due to the stuff was made from main stuff mixed with many kind of
 auspicious materials. There are 12 main stuffs. Sians oftenly call the pim of this age the “Pim Talok”. 
Some sians even condemn them as fake no matter how genuine they are.

Somdej Tho made Phra somdej of middle age, second age, during the period of king Rama 4 with
 the skill of Sib moo craftsmen from Wang Na, Wang Lang and Wang luang. Because of the better
 skill of these craftsmen, the form of Phra Somdej had been changed and became more beautiful
 than those early stage.

By adding cement powder called “porcelain” cement, the strength of the stuff had been improved.
These craftsmen also used thuak, chak, rak and namthong as paint which could protect the stuff
 from cracking for over the years. After rak, thong, thuak and chakon the surface went off, the surface
 start to crack into many patterns such as Nga, Sangkhalok, Khai Prot and nang charakae. These
 patterns looks nice unlike the early batch.

 

 

 

Phra Somdej of last age were made during the late period of King Rama 4 till early period of
King Rama 5 ard 2407-2415 BE using the skill of royal craftsmen.

Royal craftsmen are those with supreme skill from wang Na and Wang Lang. They were recruited 
as personal craftsmen serving only King Rama 4 and 5. 2 highly skilled craftsmens, Luang
Wicharnchiaranai and luang Wichinarumon  had crafted many molds of Phra somdej. Especially
Luang Wicharnchiaranai.