Big old trees usually have a trove of stories behind them and the many 130-year-old Jujube trees in Ayutthaya Historical Park are no different.
According to historical records, Jujube trees -- known as pud sa in Thai -- were a favourite of King Naresuan, a great monarch during the Ayutthaya period.
Over three centuries ago, King Naresuan ordered they be planted in the palace area to express his gratitude after an incident where the elephant he was riding stumbled in battle but was prevented from falling by a Jujube tree.
Without it, the king believed he would surely have fallen and been at the mercy of the advancing Burmese hordes.
Much later, King Rama V also ordered hundreds of these trees to be planted in Ayutthaya, and invited local people to freely pick their fruit to engender a sense of civic pride.
Several years ago, Her Royal Highness Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn ordered authorities to conserve 785 Jujube trees found in Ayutthaya Historical Park.
The park has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1991.
Though all of the Jujube trees have survived, many had fallen into a state of ill health.
They had received only basic care from gardeners as the Fine Arts Department, the state agency which oversees historical sites, has a shortage of arborists who can properly take care of the trees.
To address this lack of expert care, the Ayutthaya Historical Park recently began working with BIG Trees, a Bangkok-based conservation group famous for its urban tree conservation.
The project also includes a training course on tree care for local staff.
Chanatda Dam-ngern, an arborist from BIG Trees, said the Jujube trees had suffered due to inexpert care.
Branches had been roughly chopped off to prevent them damaging property, and some had holes that were plugged with concrete
“We found that the care of these trees had been handled the wrong way by garderners who have not been properly trained to deal with big trees,” said Ms Chanatda.
The Ayutthaya Historical Park project is the first such scheme where the state agency has worked with BIG Trees.
The cooperation began last year as part of the “Neramitre Ayutthaya” project, according to Sukanya Baonoed, director of the Ayutthaya Historical Park.
“We hope to find a way to preserve big trees inside the park. Taking care of them has become a challenge. We are an agency of archaeologists, not expert gardeners,” she said.
“We hope that this collaboration with BIG Trees will provide our people with the skills to take care of the Jujubes, which is important because they are part of the history of the area,” said Ms Chanatda.
Santi Opaspakornkij, BIG Trees’ coordinator, said that the group has written a manual on how to take care of large trees for the department to use.
He added that the group is now working with other two historical parks in Lop Buri and Sukhothai.