Art and Culture / Museums
Though the Thai independent history in Southeast Asia stretches back roughly only 1000 years, Thailand is exceptionally rich in many aspects of culture. Originally influenced by India, Sri Lanka and China, Siamese culture has evolved into something unique. A predominant position is occupied by architecture and sculptural art.
As was pointed out by the renowned Thai-Italian art professor Silpa Bhirasri in his essay on Thai Buddhist Art (published 1959 by the Thai Fine Arts Department), Indian colonies existed in Thailand from the beginning of the Buddhist era. For centuries these colonies influenced the less cultured peoples of Indochina, a process which went on for more than 1500 years. Afterwards, in the 13th century A.D. the Indian cultural expansion in Southeast Asia was checked by the Muslim invasion into India while Chinese power started to have an important ascendancy over the people of Indochina.
The Chinese influence found cultures already firmly established, some of them even having already ended their historical cycle. Thailand retained Indian culture, but because it emerged as an independent nation in the 13th century A.D. just when the Chinese political power started to play an important role, many features of Chinese art were adopted by Thai art, as for example in architecture, lacquer works, inlaid mother-of-pearl, porcelain, and to some extent mural paintings.
According to Professor Silpa Bhirasri (1892-1962), from the Indian culture sprang up those of Dvaravati (Mon people), Srivisaya (Indonesian), the Khmer empires and Burma. Historically, the cultures of these people, except the one of the Burmese, ran between the 5th and the 14th century A.D. Their religion was Hinayana or Mahayana Buddhism. Only the Khmer followed alternatively either Hinduism or Mahayana Buddhism.
Coming in contact with high civilizations, the animistic Thai adopted partially, if not totally, Buddhism. Thai art developed in fusion with that of the Mon, the Khmer and the Indonesians of the Srivisaya period. Burmese influence over the independent northern Thai states was extensive after the military conquests of King Anuruth and his pious and zealous spreading of Buddhism in the 11th century A.D. When the cultural and political cycles of the Dvaravati, Srivisaya and Khmer empires reached their stages of decline, the Thai became the direct inheritors.
From the 6th to the 10th century A.D. Mon Dvaravati art saw its apogee. Influenced by Gupta examples, it developed many local schools spreading over central and northeast Thailand. From the 10th to the 13th century it had its non-creative phase. Nakhon Pathom was the capital of the Mon empire, while Lavo (Lopburi), Suwannaphum (U Thong), and Lamphun were the principal towns.
From Chaiya, an important port of south Thailand at that time, Srivisaya culture spread to the north of Indochina. In Lamphun the overlapping of the Dvaravati, Srivisaya and Khmer arts is most noticeable. With reference to Srivisaya characteristics found in Lamphun and other northern towns, there are two theories: one is that the Srivisaya style was introduced in the north of Thailand by King Ramkhamhaeng of Sukhothai in the 13th century A.D. after his conquest of the Malayan peninsula; the second theory is that Srivisaya art reached north Thailand in a much earlier period.
Considering the monuments with Srivisaya characteristics in northern localities and considering the fact that King Ramkhamhaeng had no political influence over those northern towns, one could possibly accept the two theories corresponding to two distinct waves of Srivisaya influence: the first since about the 9th or 10th century and the second in the 13th century.
Khmer art, which alternatively represented either Mahayana Buddhism or Hinduism, is found all over central and northeast Thailand. It dates back to a period of about 200 years, the 12th and the 13th century A.D. Khmer art had a great influence over Thai art, so much that when the Thai nation rose over the declining Khmer power, it inherited directly much of the Khmer culture.
Professor Silpa Bhirasri pointed out that considering the geographical position of Burma in respect to northern Thailand, one may understand how much the northern Thai art was influenced by that of Burma. Northern Thai statuary followed Buddha images of the Indian Pala art of the 8th to 12th century A.D. which reached Indochina via Burma.
The Tourism Authority of Thailand, in its brochure on special interest tourism, cited an unchallenged opinion, saying that for much of the country’s history the artistic impulse was largely religious, and the greatest achievements can be seen in the kingdom’s countless Buddhist monasteries and their adornments. The ancient capital of Sukhothai saw the emergence of the earliest styles that can be called distinctively Thai - for example the graceful lotus bud finial, a relatively small ornamental terminal feature at the top of gables, pinnacles and the like, which can still be seen on the ruins of many temples in the city.
Ayutthaya, which ruled for 400 years, was characterized by more elaborately decorated temples, and these were built well into the Rattanakosin, or Bangkok period, as can be seen in the dazzling structures of the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha.
The classic decorations include magnificently carved wooden panels, used for gables, doors and windows; often they are inlaid with splendid mother-of-pearl decorations as well as glass mosaic; stucco is regularly embedded with multi-colored pieces of porcelain. On many temples, the interior walls are covered with intricate, densely populated mural paintings which depict the life of the Buddha or moralistic fables used in teaching Buddhist precepts.
In religious sculpture, too, Thai art has reached impressive peaks. The Sukhothai Buddha image with its combination of power and flowing grace is admired by scholars everywhere, while the bronze and stone creations of Ayutthaya, often of huge size, command artistic respect as well.
In addition to these monuments to faith, the Thai creative genius can be seen in other forms. Thai artisans in the Sukhothai period produced superbly glazed pottery, widely exported at the time and much prized by collectors today. Moreover countless items used in daily life - from water jars and baskets to spinning wheels and textiles - are distinguished by a beauty of design that lifts them into the category of true art, well worth contemporary appreciation.
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