Mueang Uthong

14°22′16″N 99°53′19″E / 14.37111°N 99.88861°E / 14.37111; 99.88861

Mueang Uthong (Thai: เมืองอู่ทอง) is an archaeological site located in the U Thong district, Suphan Buri province . It was inhabited from around the 10th century BC and became the state society in the third to sixth-century CE. Uthong was one of the largest known city-states that emerged around the plains of central Thailand in the first millennium but became abandoned around 1000 AD due to the endemic and lost in major trading cities status. It was resettled in the Ayutthaya period but was abandoned again after the fall of Ayutthaya in the 1760s.

Uthong is also considered the first city-state that practiced Brahmanism and Buddhism in present-day central Thailand. O. W. Wolters speculated that Mueang Uthong was the center of Chen Li Fu, an ancient kingdom mentioned in the Chinese text Sung Hui Yao Kao in 1200 and 1205; however, archaeological findings indicate the city was already deserted during the period mentioned. Meanwhile, Paul Wheatley posited that the site in question was the city-state of Chin Lin, the kingdom King Fan Man of Funan endeavored to annex during the 4th century. Boisselier further suggested that Mueang Uthong may have served as a political center within the Funan sphere during certain periods.

The city of "Balangka, an inland town" (บลังกา), mentioned in the Geographike Hyphegesis of Ptolemy in the 2nd century, has been assumed by Thai scholars to have been Mueang Uthong. As well as Chia-mo-lang-chia or Kamalanka mentioned by the Chinese monk Xuanzang in the 7th century and was said to be located southeast to Sri Ksetra kingdom and west of Dvaravati, was also centered at Mueang Uthong. However, some said it was instead at the ancient Nakhon Pathom.

Mueang Uthong is often regarded in local tradition as an early religious center in central Thailand; however, despite extensive archaeological investigation, no material remains securely attributable to the Mauryan period, or to the reign of Ashoka (3rd century BCE), have been identified. In light of this absence of evidence, the identification of the site with the mythical Suvarnabhumi remains speculative. While such an association has been advanced by some Thai scholars and is widely held in local tradition, it lacks firm archaeological corroboration. In contrast, its neighbor settlement, Pong Tuek, represents an important locus for examining the early presence of Buddhism in the region.