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Visitors to the Museum of
Buddhist Art are usually advised to start their tour in an annex to the main
building that houses the Kuan Yin Palace and Museum which
displays statues of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy. The
courtyard outside this museum has six miniature wooden palaces
housing Chinese deities.
Buddhist Art northern Thailand Style Thai Bronze
Sculpture |
Buddhist Art northern Thailand Style Thai Buddha Head
Sculpture
with colored stones |
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Buddhist Art northern Thailand Style
Thai Bronze Sculpture
The main theme of the Museum of
Buddhist Art, however, is housed in eight rooms upstairs in the
main building displaying Buddha statues, sculptures and
figurines from the different kingdoms that had
an impact on Thai
art and culture.
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Buddhist Art northern Thailand Style Thai Images
Sculptures Bronze Brass and Woodcarving |
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The various schools of Buddhist
art of each era blended with the previous and added its distinct
touch.
Detailed explanations are provided for the Buddha
statues, their characteristics, different postures and
subtle
variations in the folds of the robes. |
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Buddhist Art northern Thailand Style Thai Buddha Head
Sculptures |
Buddhist Art northern Thailand Style Thai Images
Sculptures Bronze Brass Woodcarving and Mythical Figures |
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Buddhist
art, Buddha marble sculpturing,
brass Buddha, Buddhist art, bronze
Buddha, Buddha image, Buddha statue
made from wood, |
The museum is a useful source of
knowledge for the scholar of Buddhist art and Buddha sculptures.
The casual visitor, seeking an overview of an important aspect
of Thai culture, would find this museum interesting as well. |
Buddhist art from the various
kingdoms displayed in the Museum of Buddhist Art
Dvaravati art (6th – 11th
centuries AD)
Dvaravati art is based on the
culture of the United Kingdom of Dvaravati in Nakhon Phahom,
Central Thailand established by the Mon from Burma. The Buddhist
art work of this period is based on the Southern India and Sri
Lanka models.
Srivijaya art (7th – 14th
centuries)
The Srivijaya kingdom covered
Sumatra, Java, the Malay Peninsula and Southern Thailand, right
up to Surat Thani and Nakhon Sri Thammarat. The art form from
this era had a rich mix of Indian, Khmer, Sri Lanka, Java and
Sumatra cultures.
Khmer art (11th - 19th
centuries)
From 6th – 14th centuries, the
Khmer Empire in Cambodia ruled over Laos and northeastern
Thailand (Isarn). Khmer art was to have an enduring legacy on
Buddhist art work for centuries to come.
Burmese art (11th - 19th
centuries)
Burmese art evolved from the
various ethnic groups in the ancient Burmese kingdom of Pagan.
The Burmese, Mon, Arakan, Tai-yai kingdoms developed Buddhist
art during their respective reigns. All these groups had an
influence on Thai art.
Sukhothai art (13th – 15th
centuries)
Art flourished in the Sukhothai
Kingdom under the reign of King Ramkhamhaeng. Classic Sukhothai
art soon emerged from the Khmer influence and established its
unique style.
Ayuthaya art (1350 – 1767)
The exhibits on Ayuthaya art in
the Museum of Buddhist Art represents the longest period in Thai
art. Pre-Ayuthaya art was a combination of Khmer art of the
Bayon period (the Bayon temples in Cambodia) and Dvaravati art,
a mixture which was known as U Thong Art.
The establishment of Ayuthaya
produced a blend of Khmer and Sukhothai styles which gradually
evolved into its own distinctive character in the 16th century.
Lanna art (13th - 20th
centuries)
The Lanna kingdom (Land of a
Million Fields) was established by King Mengrai in northern
Thailand in 1296. Pure Lanna art developed when the kingdom was
independent. Lanna came under Burmese rule and later under Thai
rule. The Buddha statues during these periods had their subtle
differences.
Lan Xang art (14th – 18th
centuries)
The Lan Xang kingdom (Land of a
Million Elephants) was founded by King Fah Ngum in the 14th
century after the fall of Sukhothai. The kingdom covered present
day Laos and parts of northeastern Thailand. King Fah Ngum made
Buddhism the state religion and so began an art form that also
left its mark on Buddhist art.
Thonburi art (1767 – 1782)
Thonburi art had a brief period
as the kingdom lasted for only 15 years.
Rattanakosin art (1782 –
present)
What followed was Rattanakosin
art of the modern Bangkok era. The Buddha statues and sculptures
during the reign of the Chakri Kings developed a distinct
identity of their own.
The other eight rooms in the
Museum of Buddhist Art are not directly related to the central
theme but are equally interesting. These cover artifacts from
the pre-historic Ban Chiang culture, Yao paintings, stone
sculptures.
An unusual set of exhibits in
this museum is the room displaying statues of Jesus Christ and
Mother Mary, a reflection of the religious tolerance in Buddhist
society.
The Museum of Buddhist Art
embodies not just the art and culture evolved for more than a
millennium through the rise and fall of several kingdoms. It
symbolizes the philosophy of moderation and tolerance, values
that serve as a beacon of light in these troubled times.
The Museum of Buddhist Art first
appeared in Tour Bangkok Legacies a historical travel site on
people, places and events that left their mark in the landscape
of Bangkok.
The author Eric Lim, a free-lance
writer, lives in Bangkok Thailand.
Buddhist Art Painting from Myanmar - Burma
The
paintings below are from a exhibition in the Pansea Hotel in
Yangon, and the 2 smaller Buddhist Art Painting are from a
gallery in the Bogyoke Aung San Market in Yangon - Rangoon,
Myanmar - Burma
 
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Traditional Myanmar art has
often religious components included. This brightly
colored Buddhist paintings, driven by a deep ethical
impulse, let the viewer have a glimpse into Buddhist
theology
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and
show that Myanmar artists are able to produce paintings and
other subjects with a high artistic value and reflecting the
culture.
The quality of paintings is excellent and a real showcase of
Buddhist art, distinctly Myanmar - Burma in their visual
elements.
 
 
Buddha figures and sculpture come in many styles,
sizes, simple crafted or with objects attached and maybe painted
with simple colors and or gold paint.
So called cottage industries are centered around the creation of
all kind of religious objects or decorative items. They make
beautiful marble Buddha image, Buddha statues from alabaster,
wood and sometimes granite. A continuous demand for Buddha
figures is almost sure most are donated to monasteries, temples
and pagodas.
Many shops of this cottage industries producing Buddhist Art
are located near pagodas and temples in Asian countries.
Since art reflects the environment we
have included a brief writing on Buddhism
to give you a idea what is happening at the source of Buddhist Art.
Blues for Buddha
Being critical of Buddhism isn't easy.
 Buddhism is the most likable of the major religions, and Buddhists are
the perennial good guys of modern spirituality. Beautiful traditions,
lovely architecture, inspiring statuary, ancient history, the Dalai Lama
— what's not to like?
Everything about Buddhism is just so... nice. No fatwahs or jihads, no
inquisitions or crusades, no terrorists or pederasts, just nice people
being nice. In fact, Buddhism means niceness. Nice-ism.
At least, it should.
Buddha means Awakened One, so Buddhism can be taken to mean Awake-ism. Awakism. It would therefore be natural to think that if you were looking
to wake up, then Buddhism, i.e., Awakism, would be the place to look.
::: The Light is Better Over Here
Such thinking, however, would reveal a dangerous lack of respect for the
opposition. Maya, goddess of delusion, has been doing her job with
supreme mastery since the first spark of self-awareness flickered in
some chimp's noggin, and the idea that the neophyte truth-seeker can
just sign up with the Buddhists, read some books, embrace some new
concepts and slam her to the mat might be a bit on the naive side.
On the other hand, why not? How’d this get so turned around? It’s just
truth. Shouldn’t truth be, like, the simplest thing? Shouldn’t someone
who wants to find something as ubiquitous as truth be able to do so? And
here’s this venerable organization supposedly dedicated to just that
very thing, even named for it, so what’s the problem?
::: Why doesn’t Buddhism produce Buddha's?
The problem arises from the fact that Buddhists, like everyone else,
insist on reconciling the irreconcilable. They don’t just want to awaken
to the true, they also want to make sense of the untrue. They want to
have their cake and eat it too, so they end up with nonsensical
theories, divergent schools, sagacious doubletalk, and zero Buddha's.
Typical of Buddhist insistence on reconciling the irreconcilable is the
concept of Two Truths, a poignant two-word joke they don’t seem to get,
and yet this sort of perversely irrational thinking is at the very heart
of the failed search for truth. We don’t want truth, we want a
particular truth; one that doesn't threaten ego, one that doesn’t exist.
We insist on a truth that makes sense given what we know, not knowing
that we don't know anything.
Nothing about Buddhism is more revealing than the Four Noble Truths
which, not being true, are of pretty dubious nobility. They form the
basis of Buddhism, so it's clear from the outset that the Buddhists have
whipped up a proprietary version of truth shaped more by market forces
than any particular concern for the less consumer-friendly, albeit true,
truth.
Yes, Buddhism may be spiritually filling, even nourishing, but insofar
as truth is concerned, it's junkfood. You can eat it every day of your
life and die exactly as Awakened as the day you signed up.
::: Bait & Switch
Buddhism is a classic bait-and-switch operation. We’re attracted by the
enlightenment in the window, but as soon as we’re in the door they start
steering us over to the compassion aisle. Buddhists could be honest and
change their name to Compassionism, but who wants that?
There's the rub. They can’t sell compassion and they can’t deliver
enlightenment.
This untruth-in-advertising is the kind of game you have to play if you
want to stay successful in a business where the customer is always
wrong. You can either go out of business honestly, or thrive by giving
the people what they want. What they say they want and what they really
want, though, are two very different things.
::: Me Me Me
To the outside observer, much of Buddhist knowledge and practice seems
focused on spiritual self-improvement. This, too, is hard to speak
against... except within the context of awakening from delusion. Then
it's easy.
There is no such thing as true self, so any pursuit geared toward its
aggrandizement, betterment, upliftment, elevation, evolution,
glorification, salvation, etc, is utter folly. How much more so any
endeavor  undertaken merely to increase one's own happiness or
contentment or, I'm embarrassed to even say it, bliss?
Self is ego and ego is the realm of the dreamstate. If you want to break
free of the dreamstate, you must break free of self, not stroke it to
make it purr or groom it for some imagined brighter future.
::: Maya's House of Enlightenment
The trick with being critical of so esteemed and beloved an institution
is not to get dragged down into the morass of details and debate. It's
very simple: If Buddhism is about enlightenment, people should be
getting enlightened. If it's not about enlightenment, they should change
the sign.
 Of course, Buddhism isn't completely unique in its survival tactics.
This same gulf between promise and performance is found in all systems
of human spirituality. We're looking at it in Buddhism because that's
where it's most pronounced. No disrespect to the Buddha is intended. If
there was a Buddha and he was enlightened, then it's Buddhism that
insults his memory, not healthy skepticism. Blame the naked emperor's
retinue of tailors and lickspittles, not the boy who merely states the
obvious.
Buddhism is arguably the most elevated of man's great belief systems. If
you want to enjoy the many valuable benefits it has to offer, then I
wouldn't presume to utter a syllable against it. But if you want to
escape from the clutches of Maya, then I suggest you take a very close
look at the serene face on all those golden statues to see if it isn't
really hers.
Author Jed McKenna
Aesthetic karma
- Artifact - Buddhist sculpture destroyed by
Taliban
SHOULD THE BUDDHAS
destroyed by the Taliban be rebuilt?
A group called the New 7 Wonders Society wants
to recreate the bigger of the two blasted
statues, with the support of a U.N.-recognized
Swiss institute concerned with Afghan
antiquities. The society intends to show that
"an act of international destruction cannot
erase the memory of those things which are
valuable to humanity and its heritage."
Yet humanity's
memory of the statues is, to put it mildly,
mixed. They were largely unknown except to
specialists in Gandharan art, and were not
always admired even by them. Students of
Buddhist art generally preferred Sri Lankan
representations. Travelers despised the statues.
One 19th century description says that the sight
of them "sickens"; they were a "monstrous
flaccid bulk" and a "negation of sense." That
they'd once been used as target practice by
Muslim armies was regarded as no loss. As late
as 1973, they were pronounced "grotesque."
"Those things which
are valuable to humanity and its heritage,"
it
seems, constitute a checklist subject to
dramatic revision. How did the Buddhas get on
the list? Perhaps because their destruction was
a perfect spectacle of barbarism.
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The
stone age Taliban barbarians also destroyed thousands of
artifacts in Kabul's museum, hammering at statues for days. But
there was no alerted audience, no press attention, no video
record, no spectacle, and now, no program to recreate any of
them.
by
Charles Paul Freund
Buddhist art, Buddha marble sculpturing, brass Buddha casting,
Buddhist art, bronze buddha, Buddha image, Buddha painting,
Buddha marble plastics, Buddhist marble arts and crafts, Buddha
marble sculptor, marble garden objects, marble art, Buddha
marble artwork, Buddha Marmor Skulpturen, Buddha image. |
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