Buddhist Arts of Thailand - BuddhaNet

1 EBUDDHANET'SBOOKLIBRARYE-mail: site: Dharma Education Association Ms Charuwan ChareonlaBuddhist arts of ThailandBuddhist arts of Thailand4 PrefaceI am very pleased to present my thesis-work, for whichI have collected and selected items from various im-portant sources. Greatly contributing to my success inproducing this work has been the kind cooperation ofmany well-respected and highly-regarded would first like to mention Dr. Upendra Thakur,Professor & Head of the Department of AncientIndian & Asian Studies, Magadh University, whokindly allowed me to take up this thesis. His scholar-ship which has resulted in a great knowledgewhich he shares with all of his students was ofinvaluable assistance to me on many occasions duringmy studies here in India, and I am most grateful forhis would also like to express my gratitude to C.

2 Roy, the Reader of the Department of AncientIndian & Asian Studies, Magadh University, who ismy supervisor, and whose advice and assistanceproved to be of great benefit to my research and to thecorrection and completion of this work. With his help-fulness and professionalism, Dr. P. C. Roy informed allof his students with the force and depth of his and now, I would like to take this opportunity toexpress my gratitude and highest regards for him, andsincerely thank him for his .. 4 Contents .. 5 Chapter I .. 9 Introduction .. 9 Thailand Its Location and People .. 9 The People of Thailand .. 9 The Language of the People.

3 11 The Religion of Thailand .. 12 Culture and Art .. 13 Chapter II .. 15 The Development of Buddhism in Thailand .. 15 The Introduction and The Development of Buddhism in Thailand .. 15 The role and development of Buddhism in Thai Monarchies .. 17 Chapter III .. 25 The Introduction and Origin of Buddhist Art in Thailand .. 25 Chapter IV .. 33 The Pre-Thai Art .. 33 Art of Dvaravati Period (6th or 7th 11th Century ) .. 33 The Art of Sri-Vijaya Period (8th 13th Century ) .. 48 Lopburi .. 58 The Art of Lopburi Period (11th 13th Century ) .. 59 Chapter V .. 72 The Development of Buddhist Art in Thailand .. 72 Development of Architecture the Buddhist art of Thailand .

4 73 Architectural Features of Thai Religious Buildings The Wat or Monastery .. 746 The Uposatha or Temple .. 75 The Vihara .. 78 The Phra Chedi or Stupa.. 79 The Pra Prong .. 83 The Mondop .. 84 The Pra Sat .. 86 The Ho Trai .. 87 The Sala .. 88Ho Rakhang and Kuti (Sangarama) .. 89 The Development of Sculpture in Buddhist Art of Thailand .. 90 Some aspects of Thai Stucco Decoration .. 93 Introduction of Painting in Buddhist Art of Thailand .. 104 The Characteristics and Technique of Thai Paintings .. 106 Chiengsaen.. 114 Chapter VI .. 115 The Nature and Conception of Buddhist arts of Thailand (in its different periods) 115 The Art of Chiengsaen Period (Circa 11th 15th Century ).

5 115 Architecture .. 118 Sculpture .. 121 Painting .. 125 Sukhothai.. 126 The Classical Art of the Sukhothai Period (13th 14th Century ) .. 127 Architecture .. 128 Sculpture .. 135 Mural Painting .. 145U tong .. 149 Art of the U-Tong Period (Circa 12th 15th Century ) .. 150 Architecture .. 152 Sculpture .. 1557 Ayudhya .. 162 Art of the Ayudhya Period (14th 18th Century ) .. 1631. The Art in First Period (1350 1488 ) .. 165 Architecture .. 165 Sculpture .. 166 Painting .. 1682. Art in the Second Period (1491 1628 ) .. 170 Architecture .. 170 Sculpture .. 172 Painting .. 1733. Art in the Third Period (1630 1732 ).

6 176 Architecture .. 176 Sculpture .. 179 Painting .. 1804. Art of the Fourth or Late Ayudhya Period (1732 1767 ) .. 181 Architecture .. 181 Sculpture .. 183 Painting .. 187 Ratanakosin.. 191 Art of the Bangkok Period or Ratanakosin Period (Late18th Century to Present Day or Early 20th Century ) .. 192 Architecture .. 192 Sculpture .. 196 Painting .. 199 Conclusion .. 206 Bibliography .. 214 Thai source materials .. 214 English source materials .. 216 Journals .. 218 List of Illustrations (Figures) with page numbers .. 2198 Fig. 29 ChapterIIntroductionThailand Its Location and PeopleSiam or Thailand is one of the South-East Asian coun-tries, which is situated right in the middle of the Indo-Chinese Peninsula.

7 To the north of Thailand are Chinaand Laos, the latter being adjacent to the north-eastfrontier. It is separated from Thailand by two sectionsof the Mekong River. On the west and north-west, it isbounded by Burma and on the east by Cambodia andVietnam. On the south-east it is surrounded by Cam-bodia, while on the south its border goes deep into theMalay peninsula between the China Sea and the Bay ofBengal touching total area of Thailand is roughly 5,13,090 squarekilometres, and the land area approximately 2,00,000square kilometres. The country also has extensive coast-lines on the Gulf of Siam and Strait of Malacca. The gen-eral outline of Thailand resembles in shape an ancientaxe, but some people think that her shape is just like thehead of the symbolic white elephant (Fig.)

8 2).The People of ThailandThailand is divided into 72 provinces. The presentpopulation of Thailand is over 45 million. About one-10half of the population live in the Central Plain andBangkok, the Capital seat of the country, which is thepoint of convergence for all the country s , as the economic locus, cultural and social cen-tre, political seat and hub for administration, Bangkokcompletely dominates the life of the people in Thai-land. The other 71 cities are basically provincial people of Thailand are called Thai, the greatmajority (over 80 percent) of them belonging to theThai race, which forms the same ethnic group as theLaotians of Laos.

9 To the North-East of this country andthe Shan territory of Upper Burma, there are also cer-tain Thai minor tribes scattered here and there over alarge area of Southern China, Tangking of North Viet-nam and in Assam, the easternmost province of and anthropologically the Thais areprimarily of Mongoloid stock. Their ethnological andphysical features are of medium stature, slight build,having an olive (somewhat between yellow andbrown) skin complexion and black hair. When theThais came down from Southern China in order tosettle down in the area (modern Thailand ) they inter-mixed freely with their several forerunners, the Mon-Khmer linguistic groups Mon of Lower Burma, theKhmer of Cambodia, the Indonesian linguisticgroups, the Malay and the Chams, the latter survivingin certain parts of South Vietnam and Cambodia.

10 Butthe Thais mainly intermixed with the Chinese with11whom they had close contact since the earliest phaseof our time also we can see the minority ethnicgroups of people in Thailand comprising more than 15million Chinese, 7,00,000 Malays, and also the hilltribes, who live in the mountains of the North. TheMalays in the south inhabit particularly the provincesnear the Malaysian border. The Chinese are to befound in Bangkok and other provincial towns and areusually engaged in commerce or skilled Language of the PeopleThe Thai language as spoken in Thailand forms a sub-division of the linguistic group known as the Thai lan-guage.