The Thao Suranari Monument, Korat
The bronze statue of Ya Mo at the old city gate - the most venerated figure in Nakhon Ratchasima.
The Thao Suranari Monument, Korat
The Thao Suranari monument stands in front of Chumphon Gate, the surviving gate of Korat's old city wall, and is the centre of civic life in Nakhon Ratchasima. The bronze figure represents Khunying Mo - Ya Mo, grandmother Mo - the wife of the deputy governor who, by long-standing account, organised the city's women to overcome a Lao occupying force in 1826.
It functions as a shrine rather than a memorial. Offerings of flowers, incense and cooked food are made continuously, and it is common to see people who have had a wish granted paying for a performance of phleng korat, the local sung folk form, in front of the statue.
A large festival in her honour occupies the city for several days at the end of March. The monument sits at the western end of the old town, with the moat and the remains of the wall around it.
- Wat Ban Rai, Nakhon Ratchasima — A temple built as a giant naga standing in a lake, its surface covered in millions of ceramic tiles.
- Dan Kwian Pottery Village, Korat — A village that has worked the same iron-rich clay for centuries, producing rust-brown unglazed pottery.
- Phimai Historical Park, Nakhon Ratchasima — One of the largest Khmer temples in Thailand, and a probable model for Angkor Wat.
