Wat Mahathat and the Buddha head in the tree roots

Wat Mahathat holds the image most people come to Ayutthaya for: a sandstone Buddha head held in the roots of a fig tree. It is calm for the first hour after opening, before the tour groups arrive from Bangkok, and the light under the tree is soft at that time of day.

This is the one place in Ayutthaya where the temple rules are enforced in front of you. The head is a sacred image, photographed on its own and never posed with — no couple beside it, no hands framing it, nobody leaning in for a selfie. Visitors kneel or crouch to take the picture so that no head in the frame is higher than the Buddha's, and the guards are firm about it, with photographers too.

The session's own frames belong to the rest of the ruin: rows of brick chedis and prang, weathered seated Buddhas along the old walls, long brick paths where the morning sun comes in low and turns the brick from brown to orange. Nobody climbs the brickwork for a picture. Shoulders and knees are covered here and wherever monks are present, foreign visitors pay an entrance fee at the gate, and hours are set site by site, so check them before you go.