A portrait of S K Monoha in 2000.Written By S K MONOHA of Cambodia, France
Read part I here.
The artistic situation in early Siam was fairly complicated. The earliest art of all in stone, stucco and terracotta -of which very little survives -is the art of a Kingdom called Dvâravati,on the lower reaches of the Menam. This Kingdom survived for about six hundred years, from the sixth to the twelfth centuries A.D. It was the chief of the Môn Khmer confederation, and its religion was Hinâyâna, like that of the western Môn of Lower Burma.
The style of the Buddhist imagery seems to have been close to that of post -Gupta, pre-Pâla eastern India , slightly cruder, but vigorous. The facial features of the figures are of Môn Khmer type, with the everted lips emphasized by an incised line.
A number of Buddhas, more or less fragmentary, are known from various places, including Lopburi. But the art of that period was entirely superseded. During the eleventh century, the Kingdom of Dvâravati lost the leadership and support of the Môn confederation, and was open to capture by the Khmer.
The art of Dvâravati and its Buddha types were then adopted as canons for the growing Buddhist tradition of Cambodia, which culminated in the art of the Bayon and Angkor Thom.
At the same time a number of Khmer shrines associated with the Hunduized cult of royalty were built in Southern Siam ( old land of Khmer Empire ).
Examples are at Phimai temple, where one of the personal cult statues of Jayavarman II has been found, and Phra Prang Sam Yot, at Lopburi , which is perhaps the best surviving example in brick and stucco of the Khmer provincial art of Siam.
During the period when Khmer had taken over the southern Môn region of Siam, the northern region was falling under the domination of the immigrating Thai people, who seem, at that time, to have professed a kind of animist nature-religion, somewhat resembling the early form of the Burmese cult of the Nats. To the far north of Siam however, in what is now Chinese province of Yunnan, there was a remote Sinicized (Chinese) Kingdom called Nan Chao, in which the Thai were somehow important. The rulers of this Kingdom seem to have followed a Mahâyâna form of Buddhism which may have reached them via the Ari priesthood of Upper Burma. The worship of a Bodhisattva as a personal patron of royalty played an important part in this cult. A number of rather small bronze Bodhisattva icons are known from Nan Chao, in a style somewhat reminiscent of the late Pallava art of the east coast of peninsular India.
From the general direction of Nan Chao, the Thai seem to have moved very gradually south, establishing small Kingdoms in the tropical forest lands as they went. Their social structure was based on tribal pyramids, with chieftains at the top, some of whom came gradually to acquire the idea of themselves as Kings; for the concept of Kingship is a cultural phenomenon, which the Thai had to assimilate, just as they have assimilated Hînayâna Buddhism. Some of the Thai gained the experience of living within the boundaries of the Khmer Empire, with their own chieftains under a Khmer Official. When the Khmer power was removed from central and southern Siam, the Thai moved into that region as well, intermarrying with Môn Khmer. But even when the Thai occupation of Siam was complete, the country remained a series of small principalities, whose rulers owed, from time to time, a more or less nominal allegiance to a greater King.
All these Thai peoples had buildings of wood, chiefty bamboo ; they were rice farmers, and knew how to navigate the large rivers. Their religion of the spirits gave ground only partially to Buddhism, and even today is very much alive; the guardian spirits of trees still need to be pacified, and the ancestors can be powerful helpers. Shamans can, in a state of trance, make contact with the spirit-world to work good and sometimes ill.
The prevalence in Siam of this feeling for the spirits and their world is one of the reasons for the genuine affinity between certain aspects of Siamese and Burmese art. It seems probable that the Thai who settled in the northern region of Siam did not at first know anything of Buddhism, despite the contact of other branches of the Thai with forms of Buddhism in Nan Chao, Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) and the Khmer Empire. What is probable is that from one of these sources the Thai of Sukhodaya (Sukhothai) acquired the difficult art of large-scale bronze-casting. The earliest known reference to art of casting bronze Buddhas in the north is during the reign of King Guna. By the fifteenth century the art was widely established everywhere in Siam. By this time too all the Thai as Buddhists, maintained direct links with Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ), the homeland of Hinayâna Buddhism, through Lower Burma.
The early history of the northern region of Siam is mainly one of the fluctuations of power and influence between Sukhodaya (Sukhothai) and the Kingdom call Lan Na, to the north, whose capital was the city which is still Siam's s second largest, Chiang-Mai. Sukhodaya itself was in the cultural vanguard, in direct touch with Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ); and the first successful to create a Thai Hinayâna Buddha image seem to have been made there.
In 1349 Sukhodaya was taken over and made into a dependency of Ayuthia (Indian's name, city of Ramayana story ) in the south, though it retained its cultural integrity.
Then, in the later part of the fourteenth century, when Buddhism and Buddhist art were at their zenith in Sukhodaya, King Guna of Lan Na decided to improve his strain of Buddhism by importing a body of Sinhalese-led monks north from Sukhodaya into Chieng Mai.
To be continued...
Read part I here.
The artistic situation in early Siam was fairly complicated. The earliest art of all in stone, stucco and terracotta -of which very little survives -is the art of a Kingdom called Dvâravati,on the lower reaches of the Menam. This Kingdom survived for about six hundred years, from the sixth to the twelfth centuries A.D. It was the chief of the Môn Khmer confederation, and its religion was Hinâyâna, like that of the western Môn of Lower Burma.
The style of the Buddhist imagery seems to have been close to that of post -Gupta, pre-Pâla eastern India , slightly cruder, but vigorous. The facial features of the figures are of Môn Khmer type, with the everted lips emphasized by an incised line.
A number of Buddhas, more or less fragmentary, are known from various places, including Lopburi. But the art of that period was entirely superseded. During the eleventh century, the Kingdom of Dvâravati lost the leadership and support of the Môn confederation, and was open to capture by the Khmer.
The art of Dvâravati and its Buddha types were then adopted as canons for the growing Buddhist tradition of Cambodia, which culminated in the art of the Bayon and Angkor Thom.
At the same time a number of Khmer shrines associated with the Hunduized cult of royalty were built in Southern Siam ( old land of Khmer Empire ).
Examples are at Phimai temple, where one of the personal cult statues of Jayavarman II has been found, and Phra Prang Sam Yot, at Lopburi , which is perhaps the best surviving example in brick and stucco of the Khmer provincial art of Siam.
During the period when Khmer had taken over the southern Môn region of Siam, the northern region was falling under the domination of the immigrating Thai people, who seem, at that time, to have professed a kind of animist nature-religion, somewhat resembling the early form of the Burmese cult of the Nats. To the far north of Siam however, in what is now Chinese province of Yunnan, there was a remote Sinicized (Chinese) Kingdom called Nan Chao, in which the Thai were somehow important. The rulers of this Kingdom seem to have followed a Mahâyâna form of Buddhism which may have reached them via the Ari priesthood of Upper Burma. The worship of a Bodhisattva as a personal patron of royalty played an important part in this cult. A number of rather small bronze Bodhisattva icons are known from Nan Chao, in a style somewhat reminiscent of the late Pallava art of the east coast of peninsular India.
From the general direction of Nan Chao, the Thai seem to have moved very gradually south, establishing small Kingdoms in the tropical forest lands as they went. Their social structure was based on tribal pyramids, with chieftains at the top, some of whom came gradually to acquire the idea of themselves as Kings; for the concept of Kingship is a cultural phenomenon, which the Thai had to assimilate, just as they have assimilated Hînayâna Buddhism. Some of the Thai gained the experience of living within the boundaries of the Khmer Empire, with their own chieftains under a Khmer Official. When the Khmer power was removed from central and southern Siam, the Thai moved into that region as well, intermarrying with Môn Khmer. But even when the Thai occupation of Siam was complete, the country remained a series of small principalities, whose rulers owed, from time to time, a more or less nominal allegiance to a greater King.
All these Thai peoples had buildings of wood, chiefty bamboo ; they were rice farmers, and knew how to navigate the large rivers. Their religion of the spirits gave ground only partially to Buddhism, and even today is very much alive; the guardian spirits of trees still need to be pacified, and the ancestors can be powerful helpers. Shamans can, in a state of trance, make contact with the spirit-world to work good and sometimes ill.
The prevalence in Siam of this feeling for the spirits and their world is one of the reasons for the genuine affinity between certain aspects of Siamese and Burmese art. It seems probable that the Thai who settled in the northern region of Siam did not at first know anything of Buddhism, despite the contact of other branches of the Thai with forms of Buddhism in Nan Chao, Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) and the Khmer Empire. What is probable is that from one of these sources the Thai of Sukhodaya (Sukhothai) acquired the difficult art of large-scale bronze-casting. The earliest known reference to art of casting bronze Buddhas in the north is during the reign of King Guna. By the fifteenth century the art was widely established everywhere in Siam. By this time too all the Thai as Buddhists, maintained direct links with Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ), the homeland of Hinayâna Buddhism, through Lower Burma.
The early history of the northern region of Siam is mainly one of the fluctuations of power and influence between Sukhodaya (Sukhothai) and the Kingdom call Lan Na, to the north, whose capital was the city which is still Siam's s second largest, Chiang-Mai. Sukhodaya itself was in the cultural vanguard, in direct touch with Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ); and the first successful to create a Thai Hinayâna Buddha image seem to have been made there.
In 1349 Sukhodaya was taken over and made into a dependency of Ayuthia (Indian's name, city of Ramayana story ) in the south, though it retained its cultural integrity.
Then, in the later part of the fourteenth century, when Buddhism and Buddhist art were at their zenith in Sukhodaya, King Guna of Lan Na decided to improve his strain of Buddhism by importing a body of Sinhalese-led monks north from Sukhodaya into Chieng Mai.
To be continued...
4 comments:
Good job,well write,thank S K MONOHA,please inform us more about A Siam's history.
Thank,Battambang.Cambodia
Great piece of history. Khmer children should know this history and Thai children must be taught correct history like this one, not fake history.
Thank dear Anonymous beloved, for your kind comment over here. I try my best to serve our Khmer culture to young generation.Also,this my duty as a Khmer to preserve,to diffuse,to rescue of patrimony Khmer culture.
S K MONOHA of Cambodia.France
Thank you so much,for your article Lok S K MONOHA , this is a lesson to all koun Khmer to learn history about Khmer culture robb by Thailand.
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