Khu Bua Ancient City

Khu Bua flourished in the Dvaravati period, roughly the 6th–11th centuries, as a trading city of the Mae Klong basin linked to the Burmese coast. Finds include stucco and terracotta Buddhas and bodhisattvas, dwarf figures, Dharmachakra fragments, gold and silver reliquaries, beads and a figure of a "foreigner in a conical hat", possibly a Sogdian or Persian merchant. The stucco female musicians from Monument 10 are now in the Bangkok National Museum.

In 1951 local monks noticed the ruins; around 1957 looting began, and a monk of Wat Sattanat Pariwat asked the Fine Arts Department to inspect. From 1961 to 1963 Somsak Rattanakun surveyed the site, numbering 44 mounds and excavating 23, and the monuments were registered in the Royal Gazette on 30 October 1962. Silpakorn University excavated further in 1981–1983. The much-publicised "Khu Bua inscribed tiles", however, were declared forgeries by the Office of the Prime Minister on 9 October 1966.

In 1995–1998 the department restored Monuments 8, 18 and 44 and surveyed more sites, bringing the total to 59. Monument 18 at Wat Khlong Suwan Khiri, a large laterite-and-brick platform with lotus mouldings, is the biggest and has been compared with Khao Khlang Nai at Si Thep. A 2023 report, however, found 34 of the 59 monuments destroyed by encroachment, leaving 25.

In 1804 King Rama I sent Krom Luang Thep Hariruk to take Chiang Saen; about 23,000 people were brought south in five groups, one of which was settled in Saraburi and Ratchaburi. These Thai Yuan made their home at Khu Bua, and the community became known for black-and-red pha sin tin chok textiles. Teacher Udom Somphon, the temple and villagers set up the Chipatha Museum Ban Khu Bua at Wat Khlong Suwan Khiri, showing antiquities, Thai Yuan life and chok cloth over 100 years old. A 2023 dig at Khok Phithak recovered glass beads that a 2026 study found were mostly South Asian in type, underlining Khu Bua's place in ancient trade networks.