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Art of the Non-Western World

Chapter 7: Southeast Asia

Chapter Learning Objectives

Recognize key artworks and regional styles in the art and architecture of Southeast Asia

Understand how the introduction of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam influenced the development of art and architecture in the various Southeast Asian nations.

Explain the impact of Colonial rule on the art and culture of pre-and-post independence Southeast Asian nations in terms of specific works, artists, and contemporary directions.

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Neolithic Southeast Asia (4,000 BCE -300 CE)

The earliest evidence of human presence in Southeast Asia dates to 60,000 BCE. It is a partial, human skull, discovered in 2009, by archaeologists working at the Tam Pa Ling or “Cave of the Monkeys” site in northern Laos.

Elsewhere across the region stone tools, dating back even farther in history, have been found. While human occupation in Southeast Asia is quite ancient, the first settled villages, ceramics and metal objects do not appear before the introduction of rice agriculture in the third millennium BCE.

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Thailand, Ban Chiang, Footed Vessel, c. 1000-300 BCE, 9.5 x 6.87 in.

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7.1 Thailand, Ban Chiang, Earthenware with buff slip and incised and painted decoration, c. 1000-300 BCE, 9.5 x 6.87 in (24.1 x 11.4 cm). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Over a period of more than 3000 year the Ban Chiang artists made beautifully decorated vessels in a range of forms. This work was created separately as a bowl and pedestal and then joined. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Cynthia Hazen Polsky, 1987

The Neolithic ceramics of Ban Chiang were accidentally discovered in 1966, when Stephen Young, an American university student, when he tripped over a tree root and landed on a vessel partially buried in the roadbed.

Excavations revealed that Ancient Ban Chiang was first settled during the fourth millennium BCE by rice farmers and was continuously occupied for almost four thousand years.

In addition to ceramics dating back to 3600 BCE, Ban Chiang artisans were also casting bronze and working iron by 1500 BCE, making Ban Chiang one of the earliest Bronze Age societies outside of the Middle East.

The earliest Ban Chiang pottery consisted of globular, pedestal-footed earthenware vessels crafted from local clays, using the coiling technique.Vessel walls were thinned and smoothed using a paddle and anvil technique. Decoration included cord-marking, rocker-stamping, applique, combing and incised designs with some vessels showing evidence of reduction firing.

During the last millennium BCE, red ochre-slip painting on buff clay vessels was introduced. Motifs tend to be geometric or organic shapes, consisting of single and double spirals, circles, triangles, and concentric ovoid designs. Ban Chiang artists created more complex vessel forms as separate units, in this case the bowl and pedestal stem, which were joined together before firing. In some cases, the decoration of each separate part, although compatible, is distinct.

Vietnam, Sa Huynh, Bicephalic ear ornament, c. 500 BCE-300 CE, stone, 1.75 x 0.75 x 2 in.

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7.2 Vietnam, Sa Huynh, Bicephalic ear ornament, c. 500 BCE-300 CE, stone, 1.75 x 0,75 x 2 in (4.4 x 1.9 x 5.1 cm). Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Two animal heads, possibly deer, decorate this carved stone ornament. Despite the small scale there is a remarkable degree of feature detail. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Sa,uel Eilenberg Collection, Bequest of Samuel Eilenberg, 1990

During the first millennium BCE, the Sa Huynh Culture appeared along the central Vietnamese coast. In 1909 French archeologists discovered some two hundred urn burials grouped into clusters and interred beneath the sand dunes near Sa Huynh in Quang Ngai province.

In addition to the bones, the painted jars contained stone beads, ear ornaments, and items of bronze, iron, and glass. Ritually broken ceramic offering jars were also discovered in the pits.

The Sa Huynh carved double-headed stone zoomorphic ear ornaments that were suspended from the ear by a C-shaped hook.

The animals appear to be deer-like with long ears and slightly bulging eyes.

The mouth of one head maybe shown open with the tongue extended while the other is closed.

By the first century CE, the Sa Huynh began making their bicephalous (double-headed) ornaments out of glass. These signature ear ornaments have been found as far away as Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Vietnam, Song Da, Dong Son Bronze Drum, c. 500 BCE

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7.3 Vietnam, Song Da, Dong Son Bronze Drum, c. 500 BCE. Collection of the Musée Guimet. The earliest bronze drums were lost wax cast and had mushroom-shaped resonances which show three distinct parts. The center of the tympanum is typically decorated with a slightly raised eight-pointed star motif. By Own work, Public Domain

Contemporaneous with the Sa Huynh was the Dong Son culture which arose in the first millennium BCE in the Song Ma and Lam Giang River basins of northern Vietnam.

The first excavation of a Dong Son burial site occurred in the 1920s near the village which lent its name to the culture. Only one Dong Son habitation site has been excavated and that was at Co Loa about 10 miles north of Hanoi.

Co Loa appears to have been a fortified city that was protected by three rammed-earth walls and two outer moats. Like the Sa Huynh, the Dong Son were talented metalworkers who engaged in long-distance sea trading.

The Dong Son made a variety of bronze objects, including daggers, bells, tools, and ornaments but they are best known for their bronze drums, identifiable by their characteristic “star” in the center of the tympanum.

Hundreds of such drums have been found, primarily in burials, across Vietnam, southern China, in Cambodia, the Indonesian archipelago, the Philippines and on the Malaysian peninsula.

The drums were lost-wax cast in a single piece and come in a variety of sizes with the largest weighing as much as 220 pounds and standing more than three feet high. The drums were played while suspended over a pit in the ground, which served as a resonating chamber.

The earliest drums have a mushroom-shaped profile divided into three well-defined sections, later drums become progressively more cylindrical. Typically, the drums feature a central eight-pointed star design on the tympanum, which is surrounded by concentric bands in which humans, animals, or birds move in procession.

Decoration often continues down the shoulders and bell of the drum. Four cord-marked loop handles extend from the bell of the drum on each side.

Indianization and Sinification in Medieval Southeast Asia (c. 500-1500)

Indian influence in Southeast Asia began during the reign of the Emperor Ashoka in the last centuries BCE, with the arrival of the first Buddhist missionaries.

In the first century CE, Hinduism was brought to Southeast Asia by seafaring Hindu traders, who established temples in their trading posts on the mainland and in the Indonesian archipelago.

The period of Indian interaction continued through the end of the Gupta dynasty in the 5th century CE.

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Myanmar, Sri Ksetra (pyay), Bawbawgyi Pagoda, 5th century CE, 253 ft. high.

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7.4 Myanmar, Sri Ksetra (pyay), Bawbawgyi Pagoda. Burma was one of the first areas in Southeast Asia to receive Buddhism. This early stupa is an example of the "heap-of-paddy" type of stupa set on a high drum. It is twice as high as the Great Stupa at Sanchi. Photo By Jakub Hałun distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

The Buddhist missionaries sent east by the Mauryan Emperor Ashoka traveled along the overland route from India to China, known as the Silk Route.

This trade route ran through the Pyu city states in northcentral Myanmar, where some of the earliest surviving examples of Indianized architecture can be found.

In the ancient Sri Ksetra (modern Pyay) stands the Bawbawgyi Pagoda. Bawbawgyi is the best-preserved example of the ancient Pyu style stupa and served as the prototype for later Burman pagodas.

In contrast to the Indian hemispherical-dome-on-a-drum stupas, Bawbawgyi sits on a five-tiered circular terrace from which it rises as a plain, plastered, solid brick cylinder with a conical top and a hollow mast in the center.

It rises to an impressive height of 153 feet, more than twice the height of the Great Stupa at Sanchi at 70 feet.

Myanmar, Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda, c. 500-900 CE, brick, gold plate, gold leaf, and jewels.

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7.5 Myanmar, Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda, c. 500-900 CE, brick, gold plate, gold leaf, and jewels. At the heart of this structure is the original 6th century solid brick stupa that stood 27 feet (8 m) high; it has been enlarged several times over the centuries to reach its current height of 326 ft (99 m). Photo By Bjørn Christian Tørrissen distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

In the old Mon city of Yangon (ancient Dagon) is one of Myanmar’s most revered Buddhist shrines, the Shwedagon Pagoda.

The original stupa is thought to have been built sometime between the 6th and 10th centuries, although it is claimed in The Great Glass Palace Chronicle, complied in the 1830s, that the stupa is 2500 years old.

Its name Shwedagon or “Reliquary of the Four” is derived from the belief that its vault contains relics from three Buddhas of the past: Kahusandha, Kassapa, and Konagamana along with three hairs from the head of the Historic Buddha, Gautama.

In its earliest form, Shwedagon was a simple, solid brick stupa, most likely bell or cylindrical in shape, standing about 27 feet tall. Beginning in the 14th century various Mon kings showed their Buddhist devotion through the restoration and enlargement of Shwedagon.

The first of these was King Banya U (r. 1353- 1385) who raised the pagoda to a height of 60 feet. In the mid-15th century, Queen Shinsawbu (r. 1453-1472) again enlarged Shwedagon, more than doubling its height and creating the large, paved terrace on top of the hill; she also donated her weight in gold to the gilding of the stupa.

King Hsinbyushin (r. 1763-1776) brought the brick structure to its current configuration and height of 326 feet. Shwedagon sits atop a more than 20 foot high, square platform, which is ringed by sixty-four small, gilded pagodas, each housing a Buddha image; larger ones mark the cardinal points with medium-sized pagodas at the corners of the plinth.

Rising from the platform are a series of octagonal terraces leading to a bell capped by an inverted alms bowl; these two elements form the dome of the stupa. Continuing upward from the bowl is a ringed steeple of the Singhalese type, which is topped by lotus petals, banana bud, crown, weathervane, and orb elements.

The weathervane and orb are encrusted with more than two thousand carats of diamonds along with more than a thousand rubies and sapphires. At the pinnacle of the spire is a single 76 carat diamond. The placement of a crystal or jewel at the top of the spire is intended to symbolize the “light of truth.”

Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, c. 931 CE.

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7.6 Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, c. 931 CE. This is one of the few Hindu temples that has survived in Burma. It is a Gu or “cave temple” type. Earthquakes destroyed its mandapa and have damaged its shikhara. Photo By Lionslayer distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Very few early Hindu temples have survived in Myanmar; one exception is the Nathlaung Kyaung Temple. The Nathlaung Kyaung it is attributed to King Taunghthugyi (r. 931-964), an early Hindu king of Bagan (also Pagan).

The temple has suffered considerable damage over the centuries from earthquakes and neglect, resulting in the loss of its mandapa and the crumbling of its shikhara.

Nathlaung Kyaung is an early, single-face Gu or “cave temple.” Gu temples were intended as artificial caves for meditation, and rituals of devotion. The temple is entered through a small vestibule leading to a remarkably small rectangular sanctuary.

Although from the exterior the temple looks quite large, much of the interior space is taken up by heavy masonry walls and a central masonry core, surrounding the sanctuary, which was necessary to support the dome and shikhara.

Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, Harihara, c. 931 CE

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7.7 Myanmar, Bagan, Nathlaung Kyaung Temple, Harihara, c. 931 CE, brick, stucco and pigment. Harihara is a composite or dual deity, who is half Vishnu and half Shiva and carries the attributes of each. Photo By Hybernator distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

A large devotional image of Vishnu once graced the shrine and other freestanding images were set into niches in both the ambulatory and on the exterior.

These sculptures were removed by a German engineer in the 1890s and taken to Berlin. The only original decorations remaining in the temple are the stucco relief images of Vishnu in his various manifestations.

One of these depicts Harihara, a Hindu dual god who is, at the same time, both Vishnu (Hari) and Shiva (Hara). The relief image is a composite of the two deities, with the left half being Vishnu and the right, Shiva.

The Vishnu half holds in his three hands a conch shell (front), mace (center), and discus. The Shiva holds sword, bow, and trident in the same order. Remaining traces of blue paint indicate that the temple images were once brightly colored.

The Khmer Empire (802 - 1431 CE)

The Khmer Empire was established in 802 CE when Jayavarman II having conquered all of Cambodia, Laotian and Thai states as well as parts of Vietnam and the Malay Peninsula, claimed for himself the title of chakravartain.

He went on to proclaim himself a devaraja or “god king.” The ruler’s divine status endured for his lifetime and when he died his essence returned to the god. After the death, the ruler’s state temple served as his mortuary temple, receiving the ashes of the king.

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Cambodia, Angkor Wat, c. 1113-1145 CE

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7.10 Cambodia, Angkor Wat, c. 1113-1145. Suryavarman II began building this great mountain temple shortly after he took the throne. The cosmic symbolism was carried out across the site from the surrounding moat “ocean” to the mathematical proportions of the structure and its parts. Photo By Jakub Hałun distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Suryavarman II began work on his state temple, Angkor Wat, shortly after he ascended the Khmer throne; it is thought to have taken 50,000 workmen some thirty years to construct.

The Indian archetypes for Suryavarman’s great temple can be found in the Nagara style monumental temples built by the Chandela dynasts at Khajuraho.

Angkor Wat was conceived as a temple-mountain, rising on three stepped platforms to replicate the cosmic mountain of Hindu mythology, Mount Meru, but the complex as a whole was intended as a model of the universe. The laterite wall enclosing the 500-acre compound represented the mountains at the edges of the earth beyond which the cosmic oceans were evoked by the 623-foot expanse of the moat.

Only the Khmer king and Hindu priests were allowed to ascent to the top level and enter the temple. Following its Khajuraho prototypes, the sandstone temple sits atop a raised platform or plinth, called a jagati.

It is constructed of massive stone laterite blocks, face with sandstone; the latter were laid-up without mortar and often were not keyed together, resulting in vertical joints being stacked on top of each other instead of staggered but some blocks were joined using metal cramps.

The temple takes the form of a Greek cross with four columned halls contained within a square gallery. Symbolizing the five peaks of Mount Meru, are graduated-tier towers, known as “lotus bud towers,” arranged to form a quincunx; the tallest of these was positioned over the sanctuary which once held a bronze devotional image of the Hindu god, Vishnu to whom it was dedicated.

The temple itself rises to a height of 137 feet, but combined with the three terraces, the overall height is an impressive 213 feet.

Cambodia, Angkor Wat, Gallery Relief showing Suryavarman II Holding Court, c. 1113-1145 CE

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7.11 Cambodia, Angkor Wat, Gallery Relief showing Suryavarman II Holding Court, c. 1113-1145, stone relief, pigment and gold leaf. In this scene Suryavarman has stopped while traveling and sits in an elephant chair in a position of royal ease. Image by User:Markalexander100 distributed under a {{GFDL}} license.

The concentric terrace galleries contain thousands of square feet of bas-relief sculpture, including some images that were only rough-chiseled into the surface in the manner of a sketch before work ceased at the temple.

The large-scale reliefs, generally about seven feet tall, are cut directly into the stone blocks from which the wall was constructed. They depict stories from the Hindu creation myths, episodes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics, parades of voluptuous apsaras or “celestial nymphs,” and scenes of Suryavarman II at court and in battle.

The court scenes are the first such depictions in Khmer art. In one relief Suryavarman, sits on an ornately carved howdah or elephant carriage, suggesting that the ruler is traveling.

The artist has attempted to show the left and right sides of the chair-like box but utilizes a reverse perspective, expanding them outward until the side rails appear to be in line with the front of the chair.

Behind the hierarchically scaled king is a lotus pond suggested by the tall stalks of the lotus pads, and the open and closed blossoms. Gathered closely around the king are the servants who fan the king; at first glance the servants seem to be identical but upon closer examination there are subtle differences in the details of their ornaments.

One figure seated under a tree appears to be a court official, most likely a scribe, who reads to the king. The panel and others at Angkor Wat have traces of red and black pigment and occasional gold leaf, suggesting that the scenes were originally painted and elements heightened with gilding.

Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, c.1190 CE.

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7.12 Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, c.1190 CE. Built by Jayavarman VII the Bayon is a Mahayana Buddhist temple dedicated to the Bodhisattva Lokeshvara, whose face decorate the sides of the temple’s 50 towers. Photo By Krzysztof Golik distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

After the death of Suryavarman II, the Khmer dynasty was weakened to the point the throne was usurped by a court official who ruled for a decade. In 1177, the Cham attacked the capital and killed the usurper. During the four years they were in control of the capital, they sacked and destroyed much of it.

The Cham takeover prompted Jayavarman VII (r. 1181-1220 CE) to return from the Champa kingdom where he had been living in exile and take the throne.

Jayavarman VII is credited not only with restoring the empire but also with building the new capital of Angkor Thom about a kilometer north of the old city. The new “Great City” was designed to be unassailable. It was surrounded by a laterite wall 26 feet high and a moat 328 feet across.

Inside the city walls state temples, administrative buildings, the royal palace, and residences for monks, court officials, and the military lined streets laid out on a grid plan.

While the temples constructed by Jayavarman VII were stone, most of the other structures in the city, including the palace, were built of wood and have not survived.

Jayavarman VII differed from earlier Khmer kings in that he was a follower of Mahayana Buddhism, so his temple-mountain, the Bayon, is a Buddhist shrine. Despite being a Buddhist temple, the Bayon incorporates a number of Hindu design and cosmological elements.

Like Angkor Wat, its prototype, the Bayon rises on three stepped platforms; the first two having galleries with a program of bas relief decoration. The Bayon differs its earlier prototypes in that it has no outer wall or moat, those surrounding the city sufficing to complete the cosmological model.

The third level contains the ruins of a circular temple with a central chamber and porched entrances marking the cardinal direction. The Bayon’s fifty towers are a cross between Angkor Wat’s lotus towers and the Nagaran shikhara.

Each tower is carved with four bodhisattva faces, which look to the four directions and topped by an amalaka. Because Jayavarman VII considered himself to be the incarnation of the bodhisattva Lokeshvara, it is thought that the faces are portraits of the king.

Compared to Angkor Wat, the Bayon appears more spatially constricted and lower; its towers only rise to a height of 75 feet (23 m).

Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Tonle Sap Naval Battle Scene, c. 1190 CE

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7.13 Cambodia, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Tonle Sap Naval Battle Scene, c. 1190 CE. In this scene of a navel battle fighters fall into a lake filled with fish and hunting crocodiles. Photo By Shyamal distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

Only the galleries of the Bayon’s first two platform levels are decorated with bas-relief sculpture cut directly into the stone blocks of the wall.

In many cases the relief is more deeply cut than at Angkor Wat but the quality of the carving seems to vary according to the skill of the artist. Differences in style and degree of completion, suggests that the scenes were roughed in by one team of artisans and then finished by another.

The walls are divided into three registers, sometimes separated by a ground band. The friezes show scenes of military processions in which Jayavarman VII is shown riding on a war elephant, the 1177 naval battle on Tonle Sap, a large lake to the south of Angkor, and scenes from everyday life, showing people fishing, women fishmongers dealing with customers, midwives attending childbirth, people at festivals, cock fights, and hunting scenes among others. Regardless of the subject, these scenes show animated interactions between human and animal participants.

Like the reliefs of Angkor Thom, these were probably enlivened with pigment.

Kingdom of Sukhothai, Thailand (1238 - 1438 CE)

At the dawn of the Common Era Tai groups had begun moving south out of China into Vietnam and then westward into northern Laos and arriving in Thailand by the 10th century. The Tai were subdued by the Khmer Empire and became vassals.

In 1238, a Tai chieftain, Sri Intraditya, renounced his allegiance to the Khmer king and established the independent kingdom of Sukhothai in northcentral Thailand. Sri Indraditya’s followers took the name Thai meaning “free” at this time to distinguish themselves from those Tai still subjects of the Khmer.

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Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE

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7.14 Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE. Built on the grounds of the royal palace and surrounded by a moat, Wat Mahathat also drew on cosmic mountain imagery. The complex had several monumental Buddha images including a 26 ft. (8 m) bronze Buddha. Photo By Hartmann Linge distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

The ruins of the ancient city of Sukhothai show it to have been a fortified city enclosed on four sides by masonry walls and earthen ramparts.

In the center of the city, surrounded by additional brick walls and a moat, were the royal palace and a Buddhist sanctuary known as Wat Mahathat. The Wat Mahathat (“old relic” temple) compound started out as a main chedi or stupa, encircled by eight smaller chedi to invoke Mount Meru, a viharn or sermon hall, an ubsot or ordination hall, and three-square shrines called “mondops”, each of which houses a Buddha statue.

An extraordinary 26-foot bronze Buddha originally stood in the viharn but it was later removed to Bangkok by King Rama I in 1808 CE.

The main chedi sits on a square base, ornamented with 168 stuccoed figures of striding monks and pilgrims, all rendered in Gupta style. These striding figures are a characteristic of Sukhotai style in relief and fully in the round sculpture.

Although the impression of movement is given, the mechanics of movement are not present. Like early Egyptian striding statues, the illusion of movement is accomplished by simply lengthening the non-engaged leg.

The lower level of the stupa proper is ornamented with niches housing seated and standing images of the Buddha; the upper level has scenes from the life of Shakyamuni Buddha.

A tall lotus bud steeple, unique to Sukhotai style, surmounts the main chedi. Subsequent Sukhothai kings enlarged Wat Mahathat, adding some two hundred small chedis in a variety of regional styles, reflecting the cosmopolitan nature of the kingdom.

Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Base Frieze of the Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE

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7.15 Thailand, Sukhotai, Wat Mahathat, Base Frieze of the Main Chedi, c. 1292-1347 CE. Walking figures are a characteristic of the Sukhotai style in sculpture. However, the illusion is not based on body mechanics but achieved by simply lengthening the non-engaged leg. Photo By Media lib distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

In creating sculptures for the many temples built under royal patronage, Sukhothai artists based their interpretation of metaphors used to describe the Buddha’s physical appearance in the Pali Canon. The Pali text lists the thirty-two lakshana (primary characteristics) and eighty anubyanjana (secondary characteristics), which became the standards for representations of the Buddha.

Following the canon, Sukhothai artists created sitting, standing, and reclining Buddha images in bronze, stone and stucco, some of which were quite large.

The Phra Attharot standing Buddha at Wat Mahathat, for example, is more than 39 feet tall.

Stylistically Sukhothai Buddhas are indebted to the India Gupta style with its body-hugging garments and tight curls. Gupta conventions were brought to Thailand by Singhalese Theravada monks recruited to staff the monasteries and temples of the new Buddhist state.

However, in the hands of Thai artists the old style was revitalized, becoming supple, curvaceous, cylindrical, boneless, and serenely elegant as they interpreted the old Pali canons in new poetic ways.

Study of these canons resulted in an entirely new way of representing the Buddha—as a walking figure. The Pali Canon has several descriptions of the power and majesty with which the Buddha walked, even being specific in the statement that he led with the right foot.

Despite the obvious importance of the theme of walking—following the path-- in the life story of the Buddha, before the Sukhothai period, he was generally rendered in art as a static figure.

Among the earliest examples of this new type of image are the stucco niche figures on the main chedi at Wat Mahathat.

Thailand, Sukhotai Walking Buddha, c. 14th Century CE

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7.16 Thailand, Sukhotai Walking Buddha, c. 14th Century CE. Sukhotai walking Buddhas come in a range of sizes with the largest reaching over 39 ft. high but all have remarkable stylistic consistency, making literal the metaphoric descriptions of the Buddha in the Pali Canon. Sukhotai artists rendered the Buddha, seated, standing, reclining and walking. The last being unique to Sukhotai. Photo By Photo Dharma from Sadao, Thailand - 069 Walking Buddha, 14c, Sukhothai, distributed under a CC BY 2.0 license.

The bronze Walking Buddha illustrates, in an abstracted and fluid form, the many flora and fauna analogies of the Pali Canon: arms like elephant’s trunk, torso like a king lion, thighs like a banana palm, parrot’s beak nose, and level feet.

The Sukhothai artists have not attempted to deal with the physical mechanics of natural human movement.

There is no contrapposto; the Buddha’s hips are perfectly level. The semblance of movement is achieved in the same manner as in the Old Kingdom statue of Menkaure and Khamerernebty: the non-weight-bearing leg has been lengthened.

The Buddha raises his left hand in the fear-dispelling Abhaya mudra.

A flame rises from the top of the Buddha’s ushnisha, a common element in Thai art; it is a sign of the light of supreme knowledge resulting from the Buddha’s enlightenment.

Kingdom of Ayutthaya, Thailand, (1351-1767 CE)

In 1350 CE, Ramathibodi, prince of U Thong, a Mon state in central Thailand, established a new capital which he called Dvaravati Sri Ayudhya; the following year he was crowned king of Ayutthaya.

The kingdom’s name was inspired by the Hindu classic, the Ramayana. Ayutthaya grew rapidly into a rich and powerful state which made vassals of both Sukhothai and the Khmer Empire.

The Siamese kings of Ayutthaya saw themselves as heirs to the Sukhothai and Khmer traditions and incorporated both into their art and architecture.

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Thailand, Ayutthaya, Wat Phra Ram, c. 1369 CE

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7.17 Thailand, Ayutthaya, Wat Phra Ram, c. 1369 CE. Wat Phra Ram is one of the earliest of more than 200 wats constructed by the Ayutthayan kings. It was built on the royal palace grounds to mark the cremation spot of the dynastic founder, King Ramathibodhi I. Photo By Diego Delso distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

The early Ayutthayan rulers were prolific builders; they are credited with more than two hundred wats. Unfortunately, many of these temples were damaged or destroyed in repeated Burmese invasions.

The ruins of one of the earliest, Wat Phra Ram, stands on the grounds of the Siamese royal palace. According the early Siamese chronicle, the Luang Prasoet, written in 1681 CE, the Wat Phra Ram was constructed in 1369 to mark the cremation site of King Ramathibodhi I who died in that year.

The shrine was restored and enlarged by later kings who added pillared halls and twenty-eight Sukhothai-style chedis.

Wat Phra Ram shows the Khmer influence in Siamese architecture as it draws heavily on Cambodian prototypes. The main shrine is a tall, round-topped, vertically grooved tower-form shrine known as a “prang.” Some Siamese prangs are quite tall, reaching heights in excess of 130 feet.

The main tower is accompanied by four smaller prangs set up in a quincunx arrangement atop a high platform. The prang complex was originally enclosed within a walled court.

The central Phra Ram prang has a small reliquary chamber which is accessible by means of a very steep stair on the east side. Unlike Khmer prangs, which were usually built of laterite blocks, the Siamese shrines were brick structures sealed with a coat of white plaster.

Thailand, Ayutthaya, Seated Buddha, c. 14-15th century CE

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7.18 Thailand, Ayutthaya, Seated Buddha, c. 14-15th century CE. This early Buddha shows in its squarer body type the influence of Khmer art. The Buddha has a rounder face and his ushnisha ends in a lotus bud. The statue has been draped in the saffron silk worn by Thai Buddhist monks. Photo by Kjfmartin. Original uploader was Kjfmartin at [http://en.wikip…Photo https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31321180

The seated stone Buddha on the grounds of the Ayutthaya Historical Park shows the squarer, more substantial bodies that characterize Siamese sculpture.

Early Ayutthaya sculpture drew on the Khmer conventions of U Thong art, creating erect bodied Buddhas with blocky heads crowned by diadems and conical ushnishas.

As an act of devotion, Buddha images and also Hindu divinities are often clothed. The Seated Buddha has been draped in the saffron yellow cloth worn by Thai Buddhist monks but underneath the silk, the Buddha’s carved sanghati is rendered in typical Gupta fashion.

Ayutthaya’s location and control of trade in the region made it very wealthy. As the kingdom prospered the size of its stone images increased with some later ones reaching heights over 65 feet.

Some of the smaller scale stone images were covered entirely in gold leaf and dressed in sheet-gold regal attire and crowns encrusted with jewels. Siamese artisans also produced bronze images, many of which were small scale votive images, rather than the large temple images of the Sukhothai era.

Maritime Southeast Asia: Indonesia (700-900 CE)

Hinduism and Buddhism were both introduced into the Indonesian archipelago in the early centuries of the current era.

Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms arose on several islands but the best preserved and largest temples, them Chandi Prambanan and Borobudur are found in Java.

The golden age of temple building began in the early 9th century CE under the patronage of the Sanjaya and the Sailendra dynasties.

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Java, Chandi Prambanan, c. 856 CE

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7.19 Java, Chandi Prambanan, c. 856 CE. Prambanan is dedicated to the Trimurti or Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva. Each of the three gods has a main Dravidian style temple and a smaller temple for his sacred animal. The three main temples were surrounded by 224 guardian temples. By Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas or alternatively © CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

Prambanan, dedicated to the Trimurti, is the largest Hindu temple complex in Indonesia. In the Trimurti or “Hindu Trinity” Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva represent the modalities of creation, preservation, and destruction respectively as aspects of the Hindu supreme god, Brahman. The trinity is represented within the inner compound at Prambanan by three temple and three associated shrines, once believed to house images of each god’s animal mount and gatekeeper but this is no longer accepted.

The largest temple is the central Shiva temple which rises to a height of 154 feet. It is the only temple to have four entrances oriented to the cardinal directions. The east entrance leads to the main Shiva sanctuary and cult statue; the others lead to secondary chapels dedicated to Durga, Ganesha, and Agastya. The temples appear to have been inspired by Dravidian style temples but with local elaborations such as the ornate Makara-form balustrade which continues around the terrace to form an outer gallery.

The sanctuary has been heightened and projecting additions added on all four sides give an accordion-fold effect to the corners. The exterior wall surfaces are divided by a stringcourse into two tall registers and enriched with sculpture or architectural elements such as pilasters and blind windows.

The pyramidal roof is taller than Indian prototypes, having the number of tiers increased to six, each lined with stupa-form shrines. To lessen the weight of the massive towers on the corbelled vaults of the sanctuary, the Prambanan architects developed an ingenious system of stacked “attic” voids or “room” within the masonry of the tower.

Set into the niches of the lower walls of the Shiva temple are 24 relief panels representing the four Lokapalas of the cardinal directions; images of Hindu gods and goddesses, and figures of Brahmin sages.

The outer balustrade wall features reliefs of celestial musicians and dancing apsaras. On the inner surface are scenes from the Ramayana depicting the story of Sita’s abduction by Ravana, King of Lanka. The Ramayana narrative is continued in the relief panels of the Vishnu (north) and the Brahma (south) temples. The Rama story is intended as a manifestation of the Trimurti in the physical world.

Javanese temples have a symbolic tripartite arrangement derived from the Indian shilpa shastras, which compared the elevation of a temple to a standing figure. Thus, the base became the foot, the main part of the structure was the body, and the tower was the head. These divisions corresponded to the levels of the universe with the foot being the realm of desire (Kama-dhatu); the body to the form world where enlightenment is attainable (Rupa-dhatu), and the head is equated with the formless realm of the gods and universal understanding (Arupa-dhatu).

Between the inner sanctuary wall and the outer wall were 224 guardian shrines standing 45.5 feet (14 m) high. These were arranged in four concentric rows and faced away from the inner court toward the cardinal directions. Beyond the second wall, and what may have been a third, was an area originally having wooden structures where the priests and attendants are thought to have resided.

Java, Borobudur, c. 778-850 CE, 113 ft. high

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7.20 Java, Borobudur, c. 778-850 CE, 113 ft (34.5 m) high. This massive temple mountain was built by terracing a natural hill and encasing it in a veneer of stone reliefs. The faithful venerated the Buddha at Borobudur by circumambulating through the galleries of each of the six levels of the lower terrace and the three levels of the upper terrace. Photo By Gunawan Kartapranata distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license

Around 778 CE, the Mahayana Buddhist Sailendra Princes of Central Java began construction of what would become the largest Buddhist monument in the world, Borobudur. The massive temple-mountain, measuring 113 feet high, was built in four stages over a period of sixty-six years.

Unlike earlier, solid brick or earthen-fill stupas, Borobudur was constructed around the terraced core of a natural hill. Viewed from the air Borobudur is a mandala or sacred diagram of the cosmos rendered in stone.

At the pinnacle of Borobudur is a bell-shaped stupa 26 foot high with a diameter of 49 feet; it is surrounded by three concentric terraces supporting a total of 72 openwork stupas, each containing a seated, Gupta-style Buddha.

The lower platform has six rectangular terraces which are lined with 2672 relief panels depicting Jataka tales and 386 seated Buddhas once inhabited niche-like stupas set into the terraces.

The Borobudur Buddhas are all identical except for variations in their mudras associated with the cardinal directions. Those on the east platform terraces perform the Bhumisparsha or “touch the earth” gesture; those on the south exhibit the Varada mudra in which a hand, palm out, is extended as a sign of bestowing charity; those on the west overlap their hands as a sign of meditation in the Dhyana mudra, and those on the north raise their right hand in a gesture of fearlessness known as the Abhaya mudra. The Buddhas in the openwork stupas of the three inner circles rotate their hands, giving motion to the Dharmachakra or “turning the wheel of law,” which is associated with “center.”

In addition to the didactic message of the reliefs, Borobudur is intended to give physical form to Buddhist teachings. As the devotee begins his journey at the eastern stair and circumambulates clockwise through these nine platform levels, following a path some three miles long, he is physically and symbolically moving up through the illusory world of desire and the senses toward that of enlightenment and nirvana.

The nine levels are broken into three groups to suggest the spheres of Buddhist teaching: the kama-dhatu (the realm of desire and feeling), the rupa-dhatu (the realm of form and materiality), and finally, the arupa-dhatu (the realm of formlessness or anti-materiality) in which detachment from the physical world comes with enlightenment. Thus, the tenth level with its single large stupa signifies attainment and the entry into nirvana.

Java, Demak, Masjid Agung Demak, c. 1466-1474 CE

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7.21 Java, Demak, Masjid Agung Demak, c. 1466-1474 CE. This mosque is the oldest surviving mosque in Indonesia as was a prototype for the Javanese style mosque. It was inspired by vernacular building practices rather than replicating West Asian or Indian mosque types. Photo By Astayoga at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by aboalbiss., Public Domain.

Islam was established in Southeast Asia by seagoing Muslim traders as early as the 10th century CE. The maritime routes from the west to China brought merchants from as far away as the Arabian Peninsula and the east coast of Africa as well as Chinese Muslim traders to the region but the majority were Indian Sufis. As it spread, Islam often adapted to local practices, transforming local heroes into Islamic ones, and turning a blind eye to native gambling and gaming practices such as cockfighting. Although Islamic populations could be found in mainland port cities, the religion found its greatest acceptance in Malaysia and Indonesia, where it appears to have become established early.

Located in the center of the ancient city of Demak, capital of the Demak Sultanate, the Masjid Agung Demak or “Grand Mosque of Demak” is the oldest surviving mosque in Indonesia. Legend attributes its founding to the hero, mystic, diplomat, Sunan Kalijaga (Raden Mas Said), one of the nine Wali Songo or Muslim saints.

The Masjid Demak is one of the first built in the Javanese style. Javanese style mosques are very different from those of the Middle East or Moghul India; instead of stone they are timber-frame structures, inspired by the local joglo vernacular architecture.

Joglo houses were typically elevated, square-plan structures with a high peaked-gable roof. To this basic design was added a central tower with a tiered-roof derived from Buddhist and Hindu temples also built of wood. In this type of construction, the tower is supported by four massive teak posts, known as soko guru or main posts.

The soko guru are surrounded by a perimeter colonnade of smaller posts that support the main roof of the prayer hall; the design allows for a maximum of space and a minimum of visual obstruction.

The space of the main hall is often extended by veranda or serambi at the front or on either side. The front wall of the Masjid is decorated with porcelain tiles from Vietnam. Originally, the Masjid did not have a minaret, although today it has a rudimentary one on a scaffold. Instead, the call to prayer was announced by beating a wooden drum, called a kentong, from one of the mosque verandas.

Sinification in Vietnam (231 BCE-939 CE)

Chinese influence in northern Vietnam began during the Qin dynasty, with the establishment of a Chinese commandery, which lasted until the fall of the Qin..

Chinese control of northern Vietnam or “Annam” was reestablished during the Han Dynasty and endured for more than a thousand years.

During this period Chinese language, writing, art, architecture, irrigation technology, Buddhism and Confucian philosophy, as well as Chinese administrative and military systems, were introduced into Vietnam.

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Vietnam, Hanoi, Tan Quoc Pagoda, c. 541-545 CE, 49 ft. high

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7.22 Vietnam, Hanoi, Tan Quoc Pagoda, c. 541-545 CE, 49 ft. (15 m) high. Tan Quoc is an eleven-level hexagonal pagoda, seated Buddha figures fill the niches of every level. Photo By Caitriana Nicholson from 北京 ~ Beijing, 中国 ~ China - Tran Quoc Pagoda, Hanoi, distributed under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license.

Almost three decades of war, first with France and then with the United States, destroyed many ancient monuments; some like the seventy Hindu temple sites of My Son were carpet bombed into piles of rubble.

One of the few surviving early Chinese style pagodas is Tan Quoc Pagoda in Hanoi. It was built by Ly Nam De, founder of the Early Ly Dynasty (544-602 CE). Ly Nam De was the magistrate for the district of Giao Chau, in northern Vietnam. Although of Chinese descent, he was incensed by the corruption evident in the Chinese administration of the province. He led a rebellion, which successfully liberated the region from Chinese rule for more than sixty years.

When the pagoda was dedicated, it was called “Khai Quoc,” meaning “opening a country”, a reference to the establishment of the independent state, and its six-sides a symbol of good fortune for the country.

In the 17th century the pagoda was moved to an island in the West Lake as its original location on the bank of the Red River was eroding away. After it was moved, it was renamed Tan Quoc Pagoda, meaning “Protecting the country.”

Tan Quoc is a hexagonal brick pagoda which rises from a six-step base to a height of 49 feet The pagoda is divided into eleven levels by tiered-roofs with flying eaves.

Seated stone sculptures of Amitabha Buddha are set into niches in each of the pagoda’s six faces on every level. It is surmounted by a ringed steeple ending in a lotus finial. Its design is derived from Chinese stone pagodas of the era. Standing on the grounds of the pagoda is a Bodhi tree grown from a cutting from the tree at Bodh Gaya in India.

Vietnam, Plate with Leaping Deer, My Xa kilns, Le Dynasty, c. 1400-1500 CE

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7.23 Vietnam, Plate with Leaping Deer, My Xa kilns, Le Dynasty, c. 1400-1500 CE, Cobalt blue underglaze and polychrome enamel overglaze technique. Collection of the Museum of Art Boston. Vietnamese porcelains often have a sense of whimsey in their decoration as in this case with a running buck stopping to smell the flowers. Dish with deer, Vietnamese, Le dynasty, 15th–16th century, Object Place: Vietnam, Stoneware with underglaze cobalt blue and overglaze polychrome-enamel decoration, My Xa kilns 9 x 44 cm (3 9/16 x 17 5/16 in.) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Charles Bain Hoyt Fund, 1985.334.

The influence of Chinese styles and technologies on the development of Vietnamese ceramics was profound and continued long after the Dai Viet threw off Chinese domination.

Beginning as early as the 1st century BCE, Vietnamese potters adopted Chinese vessel forms, glaze technologies, and stoneware clays.

During the Chinese Yuan and Ming dynasties, the technique of underglaze painting was introduced into Annam perhaps through direct contact with Chinese potters. However, the first Vietnamese underglaze wares were produced using iron-black.

It was not until the 14th century that the first cobalt-blue underglaze ceramics appeared in Vietnam. Enamel over-glaze techniques were introduced from Ming Dynasty China soon afterward.

The Plate with Leaping Deer motif shows the influence of China in its form, composition, and use of cobalt underglaze and enamel overglaze techniques.

The deer bounds across a mountainous landscape toward a flowering branch at the upper left; the sky around the deer is filled with red and green cloud forms, while the other band is filled with fluidly painted floral motifs.

The artist began by outlining the forms in blue underglaze and then adding details to the figure and ground with red and green enamel overglazes. What is distinctive about the Vietnamese approach to the motif is the whimsicality of the buck seemingly smelling the flowers.

As the Ming rulers of China became more xenophobic and closed off foreign trade, the Vietnamese took advantage of the situation and began exporting their imitation porcelain wares to Indonesia and the Philippines.

Colonialism, Nationalism, and Modern Art in Southeast Asia (1511- 1947)

In the 16th century spices drew Europeans to India and Southeast Asia. The Portuguese arrived first and were followed by the traders of the Dutch East India Company.

The British expanded from India into Burma in the 19th century and incorporated it into their Indian viceroyalty.

The French took Saigon in 1859 and used it as a base to move north and west to conquer the rest of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, which they ruled as Indochina.

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Thailand, Bangkok, Wat Phra Kaew, c. 1785 CE

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7.24 Thailand, Bangkok, Wat Phra Kaew, c. 1785. This temple, on the palace grounds, was built to house the Emerald Buddha which the founder of the Rattanakosin dynasty brought back from Laos. Unlike other Buddhist temples this one does not have a monastery. Photo by Ninara from Helsinki, Finland. Edit: TSP - Own work based on File:Wat_Phra_Kaew_by_Ninara_(33271955941).jpg, distributed under a CC BY 4.0 license.

Thailand was the only Southeast Asian nation to escape European colonialization. After the Burmese invasion of 1767 a resistance movement led by Phraya Taksin repelled the Burmese, Taksin established a new capital at Thonburi and declared himself king. Taksin sent his armies, led by his general Chaophraya Chakri, to restore and expand the empire. In the late 1770s Chakri led armies into Vientiane (Laos) and brought back the Emerald Buddha, considered Thailand’s most sacred Buddha image. By the end of the decade Taksin’s rule had become increasingly fanatical and he was overthrown and executed. The factions that had led the uprising against Taksin offered the throne to General Chakri.

Chakri took the throne as Rama I (r. 1782-1809 CE), establishing the Rattanakosin kingdom with Bangkok as the capital. Rama and his successors restored the national economy, ended slavery, expanded education, and successfully deflected repeated colonization attempts by European powers but not without the loss of some of its conquered territories to the French (Laos and Cambodia) and British (Malay Peninsula).

The centerpiece of Rama I’s new capital was the Wat Phra Kaew or Phra Sri Rattana Satsadaram meaning “residence of the holy jewel Buddha.” The temple was built on the palace grounds specifically to house the Emerald Buddha, which Rama I had recovered from Vientiane, Laos.

The main sanctuary is the carved and gilded wooden ubosot in which the Emerald Buddha sits atop a thirty-foot-high platform. As the residence of the Emerald Buddha, a symbol of the nation, Phra Kaew is considered to be the most sacred temple in Thailand and as a result has never been allowed to fall into disrepair.

Thailand, Wat Phra Kaew, The Emerald Buddha, c. 1434 CE, green stone, 26 in. high

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7.25 Thailand, Wat Phra Kaew, The Emerald Buddha, c. 1434, green stone, 26 in (66 cm) high. The Buddha, shown here in his hot season costume is Thailand’s most sacred icon. Three times a year the Thai king changes the Buddha’s robes as appropriate to the season. By Credit Jan S. Peterson. Cropped from original image and lighting balanced by DxO. - This file has been extracted from another file: Emerald Buddha, August 2012, Bangkok.jpg distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

The Emerald Buddha is a small statue, only 26 inches (66 cm) high, carved from a green stone, possibly jade or serpentine. The Buddha sits with right leg resting over the left rather than crossed, this pose is common to southern India, Sri Lanka, and Southeast Asian sculpture. The statue’s hands rest palm-up, right over left in its lap, forming the Dhyana mudra of concentration. The torso is tapering and shows the slight swelling of the belly with prana. The face of the Buddha is egg-shaped; nose and mouth are small and the eyes are downcast, giving it a placid appearance. The Buddha’s urna is marked in gold. Beneath his golden helmet with its five prayer wheels symbolizing the turning of the law of Dharma, the sculpted head of the Buddha has a smooth ushnisha that ends in a blunted point.

Buddha images carved from semiprecious stones or rock crystal, known as jewel Buddhas, are believed to have special powers. In addition to bringing prosperity to the nation and legitimizing kingship, the Emerald Buddha is ascribed the ability to end drought and to ward off epidemics.

During times of plague or drought these special Buddha images were brought out from their shrines and carried in procession through the city. The Emerald Buddha last left its shrine during the 1820 cholera epidemic.

King Rama IV (r. 1851-1868) ended the custom of removing the Emerald Buddha for fear of it being damaged. At that time a sacred cord was attached to the image so that it could participate in ceremonies outside of the temple without being removed from its shrine.

Three times a year, at the changing of the seasons, the King of Thailand ceremonially changes the Buddha’s robes; he is the only person allowed to touch the image.

Two of the Emerald Buddha’s robes, a golden, diamond-and-gemstone-studded tunic for the hot seasons, and one flecked with blue for the rainy season date from the time of Rama I. Later Rama III (r. 1824-1851) had a robe of solid gold made for the statue to wear during the cool season.

Myanmar, U Ba Nyan, Portrait of U Ba Oo, 1933 CE

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7.26 Myanmar, U Ba Nyan (1897-1945), Portrait of U Ba Oo, 1933. This portrait of the artist’s father is considered to be a masterpiece. It is unusual in its casual, genre quality in contrast to the often more formal portraits of the Colonial Era. Myanmar National Museum

The French established the first art school in Saigon in 1913 and then, a little more than a decade later, opened the Ecole de Beaux-Arts d’Indochine in Hanoi, both of which promoted European styles. However, British colonial officials did not establish art academies in Burma and Malaysia as they had in India, perhaps because those areas were administered by the Viceregal Government of India.

Across Southeast Asia native artists, for the most part, leaned from traditional masters and worked under royal patronage in indigenous styles. As a result, European modernism seemed to have less impact in Southeast Asia as compared to contemporaneous Meiji era Japan.

European artists did come to Burma, Malaysia and French Indochina, and a few of them did take native students for instruction. The most active group of European artists was in Burma, where they founded the Burma Art Club in 1913, and through their instruction of local artists gave rise to the so-called “Rangoon School.”

The most prominent member of the Rangoon School was the realist painter U Ba Nyan from the Irrawaddy region of Myanmar. U Ba Nyan was the first Burmese artist to be accepted for study at the Royal College of Art in London in 1921. There he received training in western style painting, specializing in portraiture and landscape painting. Upon his return he helped to advance Burmese painting as a teacher, training a new generation of artists in western techniques.

He is known to have been a successful portrait painter, receiving commissions to do portraits of colonial governors and even King George V. Unfortunately, U Ba Nyan died in 1945 as he was fleeing the Japanese during World War II, and only six of his works survived destruction in the war.

The Portrait of U Ba Oo, the artist’s father, is a sensitive study of a mature man, rendered primarily in tones of brown, the single pop of color being the cream color of a head cloth. U Ba Oo sits in a position reminiscent of the “royal ease” posture of Bodhisattvas and kings, a bowl of tea on the floor in front of him. His bare upper torso is taut and muscular, revealing a physical strength despite his advanced age.

The portrait is a casual one, having the quality of a genre scene, rather than the stiffness of a formal portrait of that era. The setting in which U Ba Oo has been placed is vague and shadowy; several blades of light, seeping from unseen shutters above and to the proper left of the figure, rake across the subject’s body, alternately revealing and obscuring the form. The paining is not only a highly realistic likeness, but also a tour de force of atmospheric rendering.

Myanmar, Sithu U Tin,Yangoon City Hal, 1925-1940 CE

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7.27 Myanmar, Sithu U Tin (1890-1972) Yangoon City Hal, 1925-1940 CE. Built by an native Burmese architect during the British Colonial Era, the building blends traditional Burmese pyatthat roof towers and Mughal inspired window framing with an Art Deco style structure. Photo by Marcin Konsek / Wikimedia Commons, distributed under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license.

Where colonial European influence appears to have had the greatest impact was in architecture. Whether built by the British, Dutch, or French, colonial architecture in Southeast Asia was an eclectic mix of Western architectural styles, reflecting not only Victorian enthusiasm for historical revivals but also the prevailing aesthetic imperialism of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Despite the preference for western architects and purely western historical styles, there were some successful native architects who built important buildings during the Colonial era. Often their buildings are a fusion of indigenous and European styles.

In Burma, after World War I, there was a growing nationalist sentiment with native legislators calling for an architecture that was responsive to the culture and religious traditions of the country. One of the first Burmese architects to receive a commission to design a civic building under the British Raj was Sithu U Tin, who had studied in Bombay.

In 1925 he was selected to design the Yangon City Hall. This was an especially significant commission because the location chosen for the City Hall building was across from the Sule Pagoda in the center of the city.

Sithu U Tin designed an Art Deco inspired edifice that while modern, responded to the Buddhist traditions and style of the stupa. Yangon City Hall is a four-story structure built around an interior courtyard with a fortress-like feeling because of the towers that mark the corners of the enormous structure. The central entrance block steps out in stages toward the street and features three tall windows set in Mughal style arches. It is also flanked by towers and crowned by an elaborate tri-level temple gateway.

All of the City Hall towers are topped by traditional Burmese tiered-pyramidal roofs, known as pyatthat. A pair of large bronze nagas or Buddhist-Hindu serpent beings, an element usually found on temples, flanks the entrance.

Contemporary Art in Southeast Asia

Indonesia, the Philippines, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos achieved independence within a decade of the end of the Second World War under the terms of the treaty ending the war.

Vietnam was a different story, however, as the French fought to retain control of their colony. The Vietnamese briefly achieved home rule on the battlefield after defeating French forces but in the ensuing peace negotiations (Geneva Conference 1954) the country was divided, leading to the Second Indochina War. It was not until 1972 that Vietnam became a unified state.

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Thailand, Jirapat Tatsanasomboon, Forbidden Fruit: Rama versus Obama, 2009

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7.28 Thailand, Jirapat Tatsanasomboon (b. 1971), Forbidden Fruit: Rama versus Obama, 2009, acrylic on canvas. A theme in many of Jirapat’s paintings is the struggle between East and West. In this painting he presents a symbolic clash of titans on many different levels from the crass to the profound. Courtesy of Jirapat Tatsanasomboon and Thavibu Art Advisory

A consistent theme in the work of Thai artist, Jirapat Tatsanasomboon is the contest between East and West, between traditional Thai values and rampant western consumerism.

For much of the 20th century western modernism was a dominant influence on Thai artists. Jirapat challenged the presumed superiority of western art in a series of Pop Art paintings that appropriate iconic works by artists such as Vincent van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Robert Indiana, Roy Lichtenstein, Fernando Botero, Frida Kahlo and Georgia O’Keeffe and reinterpreted them as narratives from the Ramakein, the Thai version of the Ramayana.

Jirapat deals with the impact of American popular culture in a series of paintings in which Comic heroes such as Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Superman, Captain America and even villains like the Green Goblin are pitted against characters such as Malyarap that are drawn from games.

The almost religious worship of fame and celebrity in American life is fodder for a series of paintings featuring Hollywood icons like John Wayne, Elvis Pressley and Marilyn Monroe are juxtaposed against Buddhist prayer tablets and amulets.

In Forbidden Fruit, Jirapat takes a subtler approach to exploring the dichotomies of east and west by staging an interaction between the, then, newly elected American President, and Rama, a manifestation of the god, Vishnu. As the hero of the Ramayana, Rama is considered to be the “Perfect Man” and “Lord of Virtue” because he followed his dharma.

Here, however, Rama seems to take on the attributes of another of Vishnu’s manifestations, the Buddha, specifically the Thai national protector, the Emerald Buddha in his rainy season tunic. The cartoonish Rama proffers an apple, suggesting the fruit of the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden, to a photo-realistic Obama.

Obama stares intently at the forbidden fruit as if trying to decide whether or not to take the offering. Behind the clouds part and the sun is rising. Jirapata sets up some amusing oppositions and a few implied parallels in this painting: the perfect ruler of mythology versus the leader of the modern world, Thai superhero versus US superpower, cartoon character versus real character, Eastern tradition versus Western capitalism, Hinduism/Buddhism versus Christianity, old beginnings (Genesis) versus a new day (Current era) and between all is the apple with its own symbolic opposition in this case of the known versus the forbidden unknown.

Cambodia, Sopheap Pich, Buddha 2, 2009

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7.29 Cambodia, Sopheap Pich (b. 1971), Buddha 2, 2009. Pich uses rattan and bamboo in his sculptures because they are readily available in a country with few art supply stores. Buddha 2, his first Buddha sculpture was inspired by the blood-spattered floor of a nearby temple during the Pol Pot era. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Purchase, Friends of Asian Art Gifts, 2012. © Sopheap Pich

Sopheap Pich was born in Battambang in northwest Cambodia where his father was a farmer. When he was for years old the Khmer Rouge came to power. Pich’s family left Cambodia, first living in a Thai refugee camp and them ultimately to the United States. Pich studied painting at the Art Institute of Chicago, graduating with a Master’s in painting in 1999. He returned to Cambodia in 2002.

In Cambodia Pich began working with rattan and bamboo because those were readily available materials in a country where there were no art supply stores. He liked the idea of these natural, traditional basketry materials because it seemed to him that he was making his art out of nothing.

In Buddha 2 Pich presents a large, 100 in long, rattan Buddha sculpture consisting of a skeletal-frame head and shoulders, and long streamers of unwoven rattan.

The piece was inspired by childhood memories of a temple called Wat Ta Mim that was across from his family home. The Khmer Rouge had slain the monks and Pich remembered the temple floor was blood stained, and so he dipped the ends of the rattan in ink to symbolize that blood.

The construction seems transient and fragile but also allows for the natural play of light and shadow through the work; the second Buddha being the shadow of the first. The subject makes the work open to interpretation as a comment on religion and culture; in this case, perhaps, it is as much a statement about the fragility of human life and the loss of peace.

Chapter Review Questions

What were the effects of “Indianization” and “Sinification” on Southeast Asian art?

Southeast Asian artisans created unique Buddha forms such as Walking Buddhas and jewel Buddhas. Describe the characteristics of each and discuss how they differ from earlier Indian Gupta prototypes.

Describe how the pagoda forms that developed across Southeast Asia and the defining characteristic of each type.

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