Thailand

ISBN: 9788186921128
Year Of Publication: 2000
Edition: 1st
Pages : xiv, xii, 596
Bibliographic Details : Bibliography; Index
Language : English
Binding : Hardcover
Publisher: Decent Books
Size: 23 cm.
Weight: 1200

The book is a comprehensive study of different aspects of Thai political life, religion, art and literature with the emphasis on the role of Buddhism in influencing the Thai culture and way of life. Showing how Thailand has a unique blend of a glorious past traceable to very early times and remarkable modernisation attempts, it traces, under political history, the earliest dynasties of kings and their battles and wars to found empires and cities down to more recent political developments in particular, its loss of territories to the British and the French in the nineteenth-twentieth centuries, its relation with other nations and its economic scenario. Reflecting deep scholarship and quoting extensively from ancient and modern scholarly works it looks into the rise and development of Buddhism referring constantly to inscriptional evidences and archaeological studies. Focussing on a detailed analysis of the growth of Buddhist art styles pertaining to sculpture, stucco decoration and paintings in different periods of history, it takes up a survey of the schools of art and stupa-building while revealing how the Thai art form is based on ideas borrowed from India, Sri Lanka and Cambodia. In an interesting attempt, the author undertakes a discussion of the Thai tamnan (stories/legends) of the distant past: historical works by Buddhist monks and accounts relating to Buddhist images, relics and institutions.

Volume I
Preface
Abbreviations

Political History
1. Thailand’s Political History
The Sukhot’ai or Sukhothai or Sukhodaya Dynasty
The Ayudhya or the Ayuthia Dynasty
The Bangkok Dynasty
Kingship and Government in the Nineteenth Century ad in Thailand
Social Characteristics in Thailand in the Nineteenth Century ad
Volume II
Buddhism and its Influence on Thai Culture
Abbreviations
2. An Account of Thailand’s Buddhism: Its Rise and Development
Text
Translation
3. Thailand’s Buddhist Art
The Rise and the Development of Art During the Dvaravati Period (Sixth or Seventh-Eleventh Centuries ad)
The Buddhist Art of the Shri-Vijaya Period (From the Eighth to the Thirteenth Centuries ad)
The Buddhist Art of the Lopburi Period (From the Eleventh to the Thirteenth Centuries ad)
The Rise and Growth of the Buddhist Art in Thailand from the Late Thirteenth Century to the Present Day
The Development of Buddhist Sculpture in Thailand
A Note on the Style, Technique, Characteristics and Subject-Matter of the Thai Paintings
Thailand’s Buddhist Art of the Chiengsaen Period
Thailand’s Buddhist Art of the Sukhodaya Period (From the Thirteenth to the Fifteenth Centuries ad)
Thailand’s Buddhist Art of the Haripunjaya Period
Thailand’s Buddhist Art of the U-Tong or U-Thong Period (From the Twelfth to the Fifteenth Centuries ad)
Thailand’s Buddhist Art of the Ayuthia Period (From the Fourteenth to the Eighteenth Centuries ad)
The First Period (ad 1350-1488) — The Second Period (ad 1491-1628) — The Third Period (ad 1630-1732) — The Fourth Period (ad 1732-67)
Thailand’s Buddhist Art of the Bangkok Period or the Ratanakesin Period (From Late Eighteenth Century to the Present Day)
Thailand’s Modern Art
4. A Survey of Thailand’s Buddhist Literature
Tamnan of the Distant Past
Universal Histories
The Camadevivamsa or the Chamadevivongs
The Jinakalamali
The Sangitivamsa
The Mulasasana
‘Monumental’ Tamnan
Tamnan P’ra P’ut’t’arup Se Tang Kamani
P’ra Sila
Tamnan of P’ra Sila
The Chronicle of the Stone Buddha
The P’ra Sihing or the Sihinganidana
The Ratana Bimbawongs or the Ratana Bimbavamsa
The Ponsavadan Yonok
The Phonsavadan Nu’a
The Phonsavadan Krun Kao Chabab Prasot Aksaraniti or the Phra Rajaphongsavadan Krung Kao Chabab Hluang Prasot
The Phonsavadan Krun Kao
The Pathamasambodhi
The Uppatasanti
The Saddhamma-Samgaha
5. Conclusion
Bibliography
Index