Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

WALKING BUDDHA Theravada Buddhism came to Sukhothai

from Sri Lanka (see Chapter 6). At the center of the city stood Wat

Mahathat, Sukhothai’s most important Buddhist monastery. Its

stupa(mound-shaped Buddhist shrine; see “The Stupa,” Chapter 6,

page 163) housed a relicof the Buddha (Wat Mahathat means “Mon-

astery of the Great Relic”) and attracted crowds of pilgrims. Sukh-

othai’s crowning artistic achievement was the development of a type

of walking-Buddha statue (FIG. 26-11) displaying a distinctively

Thai approach to body form. The bronze Buddha has broad shoul-

ders and a narrow waist and wears a clinging monk’s robe. He strides

forward, his right heel off the ground and his left arm raised with the

hand held in the gesture that in Buddhist art signifies “do not fear”

to encourage worshipers to come forward in reverence. A flame leaps

from the top of the Buddha’s head, and a sharp nose projects from

his rounded face. The right arm hangs loosely, seemingly without

muscles or joints, like an elephant’s trunk. The Sukhothai artists

intended the body type to suggest a supernatural being and to ex-

press the Buddha’s beauty and perfection. Although images in stone

exist, the Sukhothai artists handled bronze best, a material well

suited to their conception of the Buddha’s body as elastic. The

Sukhothai walking-Buddha statuary type does not occur elsewhere

in Buddhist art.

EMERALD BUDDHA A second distinctive Buddha image from

northern Thailand is the Emerald Buddha (FIG. 26-12), housed in

Bangkok in the Emerald Temple on the Royal Palace grounds. The

sculpture is small, only 30 inches tall, and conforms to the ancient

type of the Buddha seated in meditation in a yogic posture with his

legs crossed and his hands in his lap, palms upward (FIG. 6-10). It first

appears in historical records in 1434 in northern Thailand, where

Buddhist chronicles record its story. The chronicles describe the Bud-

dha image as plaster-encased, and thus no one knew the statue was

green stone. A lightning bolt caused some of the plaster to flake off,

disclosing its gemlike nature. Taken by various rulers to a series of

cities in northern Thailand and in Laos over the course of more than

300 years, the small image finally reached Bangkok in 1778 in the

possession of the founder of the present Thai royal dynasty.

The Emerald Buddha is not, in fact, emerald but probably green

jade. Nonetheless, its nature as a gemstone gives it a special aura. The

714 Chapter 26 SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIA AFTER 1200

26-11Walking Buddha, from Sukhothai, Thailand, 14th century.

Bronze, 7 2 –^12 high. Wat Bechamabopit, Bangkok.

The walking-Buddha statuary type is unique to Thailand and displays

a distinctive approach to body form. The Buddha’s body is soft and

elastic, and the right arm hangs loosely, like an elephant trunk.

26-12Emerald Buddha,Emerald Temple, Bangkok, Thailand,

15th century. Jade or jasper, 2 6 high.

The Thai king dresses the Emerald Buddha,carved from green jade or

jasper, in a monk’s robe and a king’s robe at different times of the year,

underscoring the image’s symbolic role as both Buddha and king.

1 ft.

1 ft.