The U Thong style is one of the styles used to classify Buddha images made in Thailand. Encyclopædia Britannica associates it with Ayutthaya and distinguishes three periods within it, of the 12th to 13th, 13th to 14th and 13th to 15th centuries, which overlap.
Features common to all three types include: A small band between the hairline and the forehead A robe draped with a long flap from the left shoulder, ending in a straight line Fingers of unequal length Small, somewhat spiky hair curls A seated posture with the legs folded A simple concave base
History of the style According to Britannica, Buddha images in Thai temples had to resemble as closely as possible a prototype that tradition held to have been made during the Buddha's lifetime. The same source describes the U Thong style as the second of three attempts by Thai kings to establish an authentic canon, after the Sukhothai style and before the lion type.
Britannica attributes the style to a fusion following the capture of Sukhothai by the people of southern Thailand in about 1350, whom it describes as still largely Mon in the 14th century, and describes the resulting image as more solid and squared off. The head becomes square rather than oval, the features broader and more sober, and the body heavier and firmly seated rather than weightless.
The same source contrasts the linear emphasis of the Sukhothai style with the U Thong concern for solidity and modelling, and judges U Thong images stolid by comparison. It notes that both styles are still copied in Thailand.
Classification The boundary between the U Thong style and early Ayutthaya work is not fixed. Charlotte Galloway records a bronze Buddha calling the Earth to witness in the National Gallery of Australia, 92 by 56 by 39.5 cm, acquired in 1977, which the gallery's caption assigns to the early Ayutthaya period of 1350 to 1400 while her text places it in the late 14th century and in what she calls the so-called U Thong style.
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