A Study of the History and Cult of the Buddhist Earth Deity in Mainland Southeast Asia

A Study of the History and Cult of the Buddhist Earth Deity in Mainland Southeast Asia A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of PhD in Religious Studies at the University of Canterbury by Elizabeth Guthrie University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand 2004 A Study of the History and Cult of the Buddhist Earth Deity in Mainland Southeast Asia Volume 1 Text Acknowledgements Far-ranging research projects like this inevitably depend on the generosity and assistance of many people. Among those who helped me find the earth deity in image and texts, or helped with translations, were: Ang Choulean, K. Aphaivong. Bandol Samnang, Olivier de Bernon, Didier Bertrand, Fran(,{ois Bizot, Robert L. Brown, Kaye Carter, Chuch Phoeun, Shayne Clarke, John Crocker, Denison University Art Gallery, Robert Didham, Wichai Eungpinichpong, Wilai Eungpinichpong, John Marston, Long Tbol, Des Sothy, Anthony Diller, Jacqueline Filliozat, Rolf Giebel, Hang Chan Sophea, Louis Gabaude, Pam Gutman, Anne Hansen, Huberta Hellendoorn, Hor Lath, Khy Sophal, Khyaw Tha Nyunt, Kuy Lath, Fran(,{ois Lagirarde, Lan Sunnary, Leng Kok An, Lim Yii Hang, Long Tbol, Meng Prang, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Mey Poeun, Museum flir Indische Kunst, Neou Chamrong, Norton Simon Museum, Ouk Ry, Anatole Peltier, Phaitun Dokbukaeo, Phon Sin, Phoung Soueng, Sommai Premchit, Thonevath Pou, Saveros Pou, Craig Reynolds, Waldemar Sailer, Sao Hso Hom, Peter Skilling, Frank Smith, Ven. Suthep Surapong, Donald Swearer, Thein Tun U, Serge Thion, Ashley Thompson, Vijinthanasarn Panya, U Aung Kyaing, U Myint Aung, RE. Vann Molyvann, John Weeks, Hiram W.Woodward, Jr. I received funding from the NZFUW, NZASIA and the University of Canterbury. I am indebted to Elizabeth Bergman, Jennie Coleman, Wilai Eungpinichpong, Paul Harrison, Ed, Peter, Elliot, Kitty and Polly Higbee, Marivee McMath and Colin Meurk for their patience, support and good advice over many years. Abstract This study commenced during a visit to Cambodia in 1994 when I became intrigued by statues and paintings of a beautiful young woman wringing water from her long hair under the Buddha's throne. I learned that her name was "Lady Earth," that she was associated with both the earth and the water, and that she received a cult. I also discovered that her story was part of the Buddha's biography. Just prior to the Enlightenment, Mara the evil one tried to prevent the Bodhisattva from reaching his goal. During his struggles with Mara, the Bodhisattva touched the earth (the bhamispariamudra) and called on the earth to be his witness against Mara. Although no textual source for the hair-wringing earth deity has yet been identified outside of mainland Southeast Asia, her iconography and story are too ancient and widely distributed across the cultures of the mainland to be attributed to one particular location. Today the earth deity can be found guarding the vajrasana in Arakan, Burma, Cambodia, Kampuchea Krom, Central and Northern Thailand, Laos, and Sipsong Panna in Yunnan. It has been necessary to devise a methodology that can cope with the many different countries, cultures, languages where the earth deity is found. I have found that focusing on the motif of the earth deity, in Buddhist art, the Buddha's biographical tradition, and performative texts (donative inscriptions, sadhana, paritta, mantra, yantra) is an effective strategy. I also look at myths and stories about the earth deity and aspects of the contemporary cult of the earth deity gleaned from fieldwork in Cambodia and Thailand. ii Contents Volume 1 (Text) Acknowledgements ........................................................... .i Abstract. ....................................................................... .ii Contents ...................................................................... iii 1: Introduction, and Literature Review .................................... 1 2: The Image of the Earth Deity ......................................... .19 3: The Earth Deity Episode in the Buddha's Biography .............. 59 4: Performative Texts ..................................................... 100 5: Myths and Stories about the Earth Deity ............................ 136 6: The Earth Deity's Contemporary Cult .............................. 162 7: Conclusion ............................................................... 186 8: Select Bibliography ..................................................... 189 Volume 2 (Images) Contents ................................................................... .i -vi Images ..................................................................... 1 - 48 iii 1: Introduction and Literature Review During my first visit to Cambodia in 1994, I visited Wat Phnom, an old Buddhist temple overlooking Phnom Penh. After I admired the view of the city, I went into the temple and peered at the dark, smoke-stained murals on the walls and the golden Buddhas on the altar. I noticed a statue of a beautiful young woman, wringing out her long hair, standing by the altar in front of the main Buddha image, and I wondered whom she was and what she was doing there. (1.1) I learned at the Buddhist Institute that she was the earth deity, nali galihlli Bral;t Dhara~I, who witnessed to the Buddha at the time of the Enlightenment. This is her story: The Bodhisattva was sitting in meditation on his throne under the Bodhi Tree. Mara, the Evil One, was jealous and wanted to stop him from reaching enlightenment. Accompanied by his warriors, wild animals and his daughters, he tried to drive the Bodhisattva from his throne. All the gods were terrified and ran away, leaving the Bodhisattva alone to face Mara's challenge. The Bodhisattva stretched down his right hand and touched the earth, summoning her to be his witness. The earth deity in the form of a beautiful woman rose up from underneath the throne, and affirmed the Bodhisattva's right to occupy the vajriisana. She twisted her long hair, and torrents of water collected there from the innumerable donative libations of the Buddha over the ages created a flood. The flood washed away Mara and his army, and the Bodhisattva was freed to reach enlightenment. 1 I began to see the earth deity everywhere I looked: standing with her crocodile in a main traffic roundabout in Phnom Penh, tattooed onto the arms of an old 1 Meng Prang, Buddhist Institute, Phnom Penh, February 1996. 1 soldier, presiding over the Sanam Luang in Bangkok, stencilled onto the walls of a wat in Luang Prabang. The one place I did not find her was in the Pali Canon, the texts that Theravada Buddhism is founded on. Today, the places where the earth deity can be found wringing her hair - Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Sipsong Panna - are Theravada Buddhist. 2 Because she is absent from the extant Pali Canon, some Buddhists and scholars have concluded that Vasundhara is a product of "local genius," an amalgam of local beliefs and Brahmanic legends about the earth with the biography of the BUddha. 3 But Vasundhara is not included in Southeast Asia's indigenous pantheons (Cambodia's qnak ta, the phi of Thailand, or the nats of Burma). The Buddhist earth deity emerged as part of the Buddha's biography in the first centuries of the Common Era in India, and travelled into Buddhist Asia along with the bhumisparsamudra, stories about the Enlightenment and ritual texts during the first millennium of the Common Era. The hair-wringing gesture also originated -in India as part of the iconography of the yak~f. The conjunction of Buddhist earth deity and hair-wringing gesture seems to be unique to mainland Southeast Asia. Like the yak~f, Vasundhara is a minor if persistent motif in Buddhist literature and iconography. Despite her overall insignificance, her association with the bhumisparsamudra provides valuable insight into the arrival of Buddhism in mainland Southeast Asia, a largely undocumented period of Buddhist history. Despite ancient traditions that the Buddha visited Southeast Asia during his 2 The earth deity's name changes in different countries, but is generally a form of a word for "earth," i.e. PrthivI, K~iti, Dharal,lI, Vasundhara, and so on. In Cambodia the earth deity is known simply by her title: niin ganhfn (pronounced "neang kongheng") from niin, "lady," and ganhfli, a Khmer word for "princess." In the Tai regions she is known as Nang Thoranee or Mae Thoranee: "lady earth" or "mother earth." In Burma and Arakan she is Vasundhara (transliterated variously as Wathundari, Wathundaye, Vasundari, and so on). Sometimes she is given the epithet SundarI, "beautiful one," or Vanita, "dear one." I use the name Vasundhara in this dissertation for consistency, but the reader should keep in mind that this particular form of the earth deity's name is unknown in Thailand or Cambodia. 3 Zepp (1997: 18). 2 lifetime,4 Buddhism was transmitted to the Mainland in successive waves from India and Sri Lanka during the second half of the first millennium. The exact date and form of this early Buddhism is unclear, but recent scholarship has focused on the diversity of Buddhism during this early period. Skilling has located schools of Buddhism that used Pali and may have been Theravadin in the lower Irrrawaddy and Chao Phraya basins from the 5th century onwards. Brown argued that early Mon Buddhist art shows the influence of northern Indian Buddhism, and Dowling found evidence of the MUlasarvastivadin, Sammiti and Sthavira nikayas at the 7th century site of Angkor Borei. 5 This diversity continued on a smaller scale into the

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