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Naga Art in Buddhist Temples of Mueang Chiang Mai District

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Naga Art in Buddhist Temples of Mueang Chiang Mai District 13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THAI STUDIES GLOBALIZED THAILAND? CONNECTIVITY, CONFLICT AND CONUNDRUMS OF THAI STUDIES 15-18 JULY 2017, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND Naga Art in Buddhist Temples of Mueang Chiang Mai District Chang, Ya-Liang Department of Southeast Asian Studies National Chi Nan University Taiwan -------------------------------------------- Abstract Chiang Mai was the capital of the Lanna Kingdom from the 13th century, the city has many important Buddhist temples. This study involved field research, recording Naga arts in 34 Buddhist temples of the Mueang Chiang Mai District. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the characteristics of Naga art in northern Thailand. The results of this research are as follows: (a) in terms of motifs, the mom om nak motif is the most important characteristic of Naga art in northern Thailand; (b) in terms of shape elements, the Naga stair works of various historical periods represent different technical methods involving materials, shapes, lines, and colors, with the most obvious difference being the crest design; and (c) in terms of features, Naga works with horns and the use of the Lanna painting pattern in the chest pattern are unique in Northern Thailand. To sum up, the main characteristic of Naga art of northern Thailand was influenced by Lanna culture, as revealed by their motifs, shapes, patterns, etc. Keywords: Buddhist art, Chiang Mai, Naga Introduction “Naga art” refers to the Naga-themed art forms that make use of materials such as clay, plaster, wood, gold, silver, or copper, which can often be molded in three dimensions. Although Naga art is popular in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia, etc., little research has been conducted on it. However, over the last decade, the Naga has gradually become a subject of research. The Naga is also important for Lanna culture. Lanna in northern Thailand, also known as the ancient Lanna Kingdom (13–20 A.D.), was not a country with sharply defined borders but rather a group of city-states that were ruled directly by Chiang Mai and its administration (Penth, 2004, p.81). The Lanna Kingdom was founded in the 13th century. Its first king, King Mangrai, chose Chiang Mai to be the capital of the Lanna Kingdom in 1296 A.D. There are many versions of Lanna's historical periods, such as those described by Wyatt (2003), Penth (2004) and the Chiang Mai National Museum. Generally speaking, the history of Lanna can be divided into four periods: the Lanna Kingdom (about 1259–1564 A.D.), Lanna under the ruling of Burma (about 1564–1774 A.D.), Chiang Mai Dynasty (about 1775–1939 A.D.), and Thailand Administration (1939–present A.D.) (Wyatt, 2003, pp.310–311). The main religion of the Lanna Kingdom is Buddhism. Buddhist temples are important places for 118 13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THAI STUDIES GLOBALIZED THAILAND? CONNECTIVITY, CONFLICT AND CONUNDRUMS OF THAI STUDIES 15-18 JULY 2017, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND observing Buddhist art. Chiang Mai has been the capital of Lanna for centuries, so the city has many important Buddhist temples. According to the data of the National Office of Buddhism, Chiang Mai has the highest number of Buddhist temples in northern Thailand, including those from the four historical Lanna periods. Additionally, more than 60% of the ancient temples built before the 17th century are preserved in Chiang Mai City (National Office of Buddhism, 2016). Therefore, research on Chiang Mai City can provide a representative understanding of Lanna art. The Mueang Chiang Mai District has 16 administrative regions and 122 Buddhist temples (Chiang Mai Municipality, 2016; National Office of Buddhism, 2016). The author travelled through the Mueang Chiang Mai District from October to November, 2015, and conducted field research, which included recording the instances of Naga arts in 34 Buddhist temples in Chiang Mai’s old city ( ). The Buddhist temples of Thailand contain many buildings. This study focuses on the Buddha image halls ( , viharn). For basic information about temples, refer to Appendix 1. The biggest limitation of this study is that the time of production of the Naga works is not certain, because they were not part of the main body of the temples. Moreover, since they were outside the main temple, they were not protected. Since many existing Naga works in ancient temples have been repaired, reconstructed, or remade, this study only lists the years when temples were built as a reference in Appendix 1. However, the methods of creating Naga art had fixed production modes. Though we cannot identify the date of manufacture of the Naga works, we can still explore Naga art works of different historical periods. Literature Review 1.1 Where Did the Naga of Thailand Come From? Where did the Naga of Thailand come from? Generally speaking, there are two schools of thought about the origin of the Naga: the Indianized school and the local school. The Indianized school suggests that the Naga came from Indian mythology, as argued by the following scholars: Sasanka Sekhar Panda (2004), Sumet Jumsai (1997), Siripot Laomanajarern (2003), and Ngaosrivathana and Ngaosrivathana (2009). Several studies in various disciplines have noted Thai-Indian cultural linkages through the Naga. Panda (2004) discusses Naga images in Indian literature and Naga sculptures in Indian temples as examples, and describes how Nagas have been presented in Indian culture through various forms, including the snake, half-human half-snake, and human images. From Panda’s study, we know that the images of India’s Nagas have the following characteristics: Nagas are the leaders of the oceans, live under the earth, bear a jewel on their heads, and some have an odd number (such as 3,5,7,9) of serpent hoods above their head (Panda, 2004, pp.17-18). The Indian Nagas are similar to those in Thailand. Because the Indian Naga appeared earlier, the Indianized school suggests that the prototype of Thailand’s Naga came from India. However, the local school stresses indigenous serpent worship of Southeast Asia, and notes that serpent worship probably existed before Brahmanism and Theravada Buddhism came into Southeast Asia. Wongthes (2003, p.1) takes as evidence snake-wrapped graphics of archaeological artifacts, such as those at Ban Chiang, Udon Thani Province and Ban Kao, Kanchana Buri Province as evidence that serpent worship probably existed in prehistoric times in Southeast Asia. Wongthes explains, “Indigenous serpent 119 13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THAI STUDIES GLOBALIZED THAILAND? CONNECTIVITY, CONFLICT AND CONUNDRUMS OF THAI STUDIES 15-18 JULY 2017, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND worship existed when Brahmanism and Theravada Buddhism came into Southeast Asia. Later, serpent worship combined with Indian religions and was transformed into new beliefs” (Wongthes, 2003, pp.5-6). Another proponent of the local school is Phan Anh Tu, who observes that serpent stories were very popular among the various ethnic groups in Thailand, Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. That is, indigenous serpent worship has long existed in Southeast Asia. Buddhism peacefully fused with indigenous animism, integrated serpent worship and transformed it into Naga beliefs (Phan, 2007, p.2, 17). Yen (2005, pp.17-18) mentions Dvaravati ( ) as possibly the first area where Buddha appears in Southeast Asia in the mudra of Pang Nak Prok ( ), that is, seated in meditation upon a coiled Naga whose hood protects him from the rain. This posture could relate to serpent worship at that time. As mentioned above, Thailand’s Naga developed out of multiple sources, and is not fully Indianized. It must be noted that although the prototype of the Thai Naga comes from India, indigenous serpent worship has also long been present in Southeast Asia. Simply stated, Buddhism integrated serpent worship and transformed it into Naga belief. For example, Virapaksa ( ), one of the four great kings in Buddhism, was the leader of Nagas (Ngaosrivathana & Ngaosrivathana, 2009, p.1; Brahmagunabhorn, 2014, p.199; Laomanajarern, 2003, p.152). 1.2 Diversity of Naga Images The word “Naga” came from Sanskrit and various dialects led to changes of the pronunciation of “Naga”. For example, the pronunciations Ngan, Ngua, Nam Ngu Ak-ngu, and Namngum can be found in Thailand and Laos (Ngaosrivathana & Ngaosrivathana, 2009, p.6). Nagas have a variety of images, such as the water Naga in Ahom, crocodile in Shan, water snake in White T’ai, dragon in Pa-yi, and serpent in Siamese (Davis, 1984, p.212). Therefore, the names, pronunciations and images of Nagas vary in different areas. 1.3 Naga Art Researches The last decade has seen more research of Naga in Thailand. In Thai temple architectural ornaments, Naga art usually appears on gable boards, hanghong, temple roofs, brackets, stairs, etc. (fig. 1), but the data on Naga stairs is the largest, compared to data on other kinds of art works. Naga research has mainly focused on comparison of buildings, art history and case studies. However, few studies have discussed the characteristics of Naga art in particular regions. 120 13TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON THAI STUDIES GLOBALIZED THAILAND? CONNECTIVITY, CONFLICT AND CONUNDRUMS OF THAI STUDIES 15-18 JULY 2017, CHIANG MAI, THAILAND Figure 1: Naga in Thai temple architectural ornaments Reference source: The Royal Institute, 2007, p.523; Boonyasurat, 2000, p.192. owl tail Naga art research in northern Thailand includes investigations of Pritasuwan (2014) in Nan Province and หางหงส์ Phutamart (2013) in Lampang Province. These studies drew the following conclusions: (a) the Nagas usually appeared on gable boards, hanghong, along the tiers of temple roofs, on arches and stairs leading to the main shrine, and in temple architectural ornaments of northern Thailand (Phutamart, 2013: 5-6, 13), and (b) the basic features of the Naga comprised a snake’s body, big eyes, and fish-like fins (Pritasuwan, 2014, p.3). Although Pritasuwan and Phutamart studied the Naga art of northern Thailand, relevant discussions on, for example, the relationship between the Naga and other mythological animals, have not been explored.
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