Ayutthaya Destroyed

April 7, 1767

The Burmese sack was thorough - temples dynamited, Buddha statues melted down for gold. Of 150,000 Siamese, tens of thousands were marched north as captives. Foreign traders watched from ships as smoke covered the river. Siam's classical age ended in a single week of fires. Within months, however, the half-Chinese general Taksin rallied survivors, recaptured the lower Chao Phraya, and began the long work of rebuilding.