Thai Buddhist sculpture

A Buddha image in Thailand is a three-dimensional representation of the Buddha in stone, wood, clay or cast metal. Such figures are made wherever Buddhism is practised, but their appearance, composition and posture vary widely between countries within Buddhist art.

Dvaravati period Two forms of Buddhism, Mahayana and Theravada, were practised during the Dvaravati period in the region now covered by Thailand, and the images made in this period reflect that division. The period is usually given as the seventh to the eleventh centuries, although Stephen A. Murphy holds that after the ninth century the term "Dvāravatī art style" becomes increasingly problematic. Much of the basis for Dvaravati Buddhist art was influence from Buddhist art in India, including the Amaravati school and Gupta styles, alongside local and Khmer influence. Three classical archetypes are usually distinguished:

Buddha in the tribhanga (leaning) posture, with somewhat Indian facial features and no aureole. The right hand is free and the left grasps the Buddha's robe. Buddha in the Amaravati style, with loosely folded legs and a lotus-shaped aureole. These images have a continuous eyebrow, a flat nose and thick lips. Square-faced Buddha with a cleft chin and some Khmer features. The legs are fully folded and the Buddha sits on a lotus base.

Robert L. Brown has argued that the Amaravati style as applied to metal icons is a scholarly construction. On his account no Amaravati-style metal Buddha images exist in India, and the category was built from Southeast Asian examples by scholars who took stone sculpture from Amaravati as their model without allowing that stone and metal had not developed together.

Srivijaya images

Srivijaya images are found in Southern Thailand and on the Malay Peninsula, and were made between the eighth and thirteenth centuries. They generally reflect the Mahayana school, which emphasised veneration of the bodhisattvas. Srivijayan work is characterised by a naturalistic manner, ideal bodily proportions, relaxed poses and rich jewellery, comparable to Javanese Buddhist art.

A well-known example is a bronze torso of the bodhisattva Padmapani (Avalokiteshvara) from Chaiya, Surat Thani, dated to the eighth century CE, which shows the influence of Central Javanese (Shailendra) art. Prince Damrong Rajanubhab moved the statue from Wat Wiang, Chaiya, to the Bangkok National Museum in 1905.

Some Srivijayan images were made of bronze and stone, but most were of clay, with less emphasis on durability, their purpose being to benefit the deceased rather than to perpetuate the Buddha's teaching.

Lopburi images Lopburi images date from the eleventh century and are typically found in northeast Thailand. Their style is close to that of Cambodian Buddha images. The cranial protuberance is cone-shaped and formed of tiers of lotus petals, and the hair, either straight or curly, is treated more realistically than in Dvaravati images. The face carries a slight smile and the earlobes are unusually long, often reaching nearly to the shoulders. A second Lopburi type is the Naga-protected Buddha, in which the heads of a naga form a canopy above the Buddha's head.

Chiang Saen and Lan Na images

Chiang Saen and Lan Na images were made in northern Thailand between the tenth and thirteenth centuries. Pierre Baptiste notes that for northern Thailand the earliest objects carrying a date belong to the fifteenth century. Early examples resemble Pala images of India, with lotus-bud or orb-shaped hair curls, round faces, narrow lips and prominent chests. They are usually shown subduing Mara, cross-legged, with the soles of the feet visible. Later Chiang Saen and Lan Na images were increasingly made from crystal and gemstone.

The Emerald Buddha and the Phra Phuttha Sihing are conventionally assigned to the Lan Na style, but the attribution of both is disputed. Michel Lorrillard places the earliest account of the Emerald Buddha, the Amarakaṭabuddharūpanidāna, in the third quarter of the sixteenth century, and treats it as an example of a literary form used to confer sanctity on images of Tai manufacture. Craig J. Reynolds notes that there was apparently more than one Phra Sihing.

Sukhothai period

The style of Thai Buddha images changed markedly during the Sukhothai period (fourteenth century) under the influence of Sri Lankan Buddhism. Images were cast to convey the Buddha's superhuman qualities, and posture and expression were designed to express compassion and serenity. The four modern postures of the Thai Buddha, walking, standing, sitting and reclining, were established in this period. Images often have a flame-shaped aureole, finely curled hair, a slight smile, broad shoulders and an oval face. A common pose is the subduing of Mara, with the Buddha seated on a plain base. Variations within the period include the Kamphaeng Phet, Phra Buddha Chinnarat, of which the best known is at Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahatat Woramahawihan, and Wat Ta Kuan groups.

The Golden Buddha of Wat Traimit in Bangkok is made in the Sukhothai style.

U Thong images Three categories of U Thong image are distinguished, made in central Thailand from the twelfth through fifteenth centuries. The first combines Dvaravati and Khmer forms, with a lotus-bud aureole and Khmer facial features. The second resembles the Lopburi images. The third and latest draws heavily on Sukhothai models but often carries hair bands peculiar to U Thong work. The boundary with early Ayutthaya work is not fixed, and one bronze in the National Gallery of Australia is assigned by the gallery to the early Ayutthaya period of 1350 to 1400 and by Charlotte Galloway to the late fourteenth century and the U Thong style.

Ayutthaya period

Ayutthaya images were made between the tenth and eighteenth centuries. They have a distinctive hair frame and narrow carved lines above the lips and eyes. Early Ayutthaya images were carved in stone and drew heavily on Lopburi work. Images of the middle period resemble Sukhothai images and use similar poses; they were often cast in bronze and were frequently large. In the late Ayutthaya period the Buddha is commonly shown in royal attire, with ornate decoration on the base.

Modern Thai Buddha images Modern Buddha images are often replicas of Sukhothai and other early types, more ornately adorned. Faces in newer designs tend to be more realistic, an elongated flame aureole is common, and robes frequently carry floral decoration. The Indian Gandhara style and Western art have both influenced modern work.

Reynolds observes that Buddha images are never original, being copies of an earlier image that differ from it through the constraints of the material, the skill of the sculptor and the preferences of the patron, so that the original recedes into the past in an infinite regression.

The concrete sculpture gardens of Bunleua Sulilat, Buddha Park and Sala Keoku, treat Buddhist subjects unconventionally. See also Wat Rong Khun and Sanctuary of Truth.

Thai Buddhist sculpture

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