Ajarn Chin You-di – a brief tribute

Abstract

My presentation is simply to acknowledge the help and encouragement of Ajarn Chin You-di to myself and teams of British and Thai archaeologists to resume the excavation of the important Iron Age, late-prehistoric site at Ban Don Ta Phet in Phanom Tuan District of Kanchanaburi Province which Ajarn Chin had undertaken in 1976. Ban Don Ta Phet is one of the earliest, if not the earliest site in Thailand to show clear connections with the early Buddhist civilizations of India in the last few centuries BCE. Research on the excavated finds has led to numerous dissertations and academic publications by Thai, British and international students and colleagues over the past forty years and have contributed to three Ph D theses, five Masters dissertations, two BA/BSc reports and thirty-two journal or conference publications.