An Ethnic Puzzle in a Recently Restored 18th Century Manuscript in the Chester Beatty Collection
Abstract
A richly illustrated Phra Malai text, held in the Chester Beatty collection of Thai manuscripts, was recently restored, so that it could be studied for the first time. It dates from the late 18th century when it was created for a Mon monastery located in present-day Thonburi District. The preliminary section that traditionally precedes the actual Phra Malai journey is identified as a condensed version of the Tipitaka. In many respects the illustrations conform with Thai works of the same era, but a number of anomalies were identified, all of which could be related to aspects of Mon culture. Either a skilled Thai artist introduced Mon elements in order to please his clients, or a Mon artist familiar with Thai art occasionally revealed aspects of his native culture.
References
In the unpublished catalogue prepared by Henry Ginsburg, the item is called “Phra Malai text, Buddha's Life + Ten Tales illustrations”. The current catalogue number is CBL Thi 1314. An account of the restoration is located at https://chesterbeatty.ie/conservation/figuring-out-folds/.
On the lower part of the title page is an incomplete sentence written in a different, rather clumsy, handwriting and spelling: “Phū khien nangsue Mālai ni”. This simply means: “The person who wrote this Malai book.” I tend to dismiss these inelegant scribbles as having been added at a later date. The word khien is written with the now obsolete letter khokhuat, but this letter has been used irregularly over time (see Anthony V.N. Diller, “Consonant Mergers and Inscription One”, JSS, Vol 76 (1988), pp. 46-63).
Possibly the scribe confused ผู้สร้าง (the creators) with ผู้สั่ง (those who ordered).
For a short history of this monastery and some photographs, see https://sites.google.com/site/allthaitemple/wad-rachkhvh-wrwihar-wad-mxy.
G.E. Harvey recorded frequent exoduses, see History of Burma; From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824, the Beginning of the English Conquest, London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1925, p. 180, 193 and 197-199. See also R. Halliday, “Immigration of the Mons into Siam”, JSS, Vol. 10, Pt. 3, pp. 9-11 and especially Edward van Roy, “Safe Haven: Mon Refugees at the Capitals of Siam from the 1500s to the 1800s”, JSS, Vol. 98, 2010, pp. 151-184.
Van Roy, “Safe Haven”, p. 162.
Peter Skilling, “Chanting and Inscribing: The ‘Condensed Tripitaka’ in Thai Ritual”, ‘Guiding Lights’ for the Perfect Nature: Studies on the Nature and the Development of Abhidharma Buddhism. A Commemorative Volume in Honor of Prof. Dr. Kenyo Mitomo for his 70th Birthday, Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, pp. 928-962
Skilling identified this excerpt as coming from the Vinaya Cullavagga, in which Mahākassapa questions Upāli about the Vinaya.
In the Visuddhimagga known as Buddhānussaṭi Gatha.
Peter Skilling, “Calligraphic Magic: Abhidhamma Inscriptions from Sukhodaya”, in Naomi Appleton and Peter Harvey (eds.), Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins, Sheffield: Equinox, 2019, pp. 183-210.
Standard are scenes of Buddhist monks chanting during a funeral wake, celestial beings, the monk Malai showing some tortures of those suffering in hell, a poor man offers lotuses to the monk, Phra Malai’s visit to the sacred stupa Cūḷāmaṇi, Phra Malai meeting Indra, and finally his meeting with the future Buddha Metteyya.
Also in the Wellcome Library there are two Phra Malai texts (Thai 3 and Thai 4) with only the ten last births as illustrations.
In the variant Thai order whereby the scene of Mahosadha comes before Bhūridatta. See Naomi Appleton, Jataka Stories in Theravada Buddhism: Narrating the Path, Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 71-74 and p. 140.
Henry Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture. Historic Manuscripts from Western Collections, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000, p. 55, a manuscript that Ginsburg dated 1700-1725. See also Henry Ginsburg, “Ayutthaya Painting”, in Forest McGill and M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, The Kingdom of Siam, The Art of Central Thailand, 1350-1800, Snoeck Publishers, Ghent, 2005, pp. 97, 101, 102, 103, 169.
The lute (kracappi, กระจับปี่) is drawn with an unusual pattern on the sound box. Possibly it is made of a special type of wood, or from the skin of an animal, such as the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). There is a similar lute on a 17th century banner in the Jim Thompson collection. See William Warren and Jean-Michel Beurdeley, The House on the Klong, Bangkok: Archipelago Press, 2014, p. 101.
คณะกรรมการฝ่ายประมวลเอกสารและจดหมายเหตุ ในคณะอำนวยการจัดงานเฉลิมพระเกียรติพระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว จัดพิมพ์เนื่องในโอกาส พระราชพิธีมหามงคลเฉลิมพระชนมพรรษา ๖ รอบ ๕ ธันวาคม ๒๕๔๒, สมุดภาพไตรภูมิ ฉบับกรุงศรีอยุธยา – ฉบับกรุงธนบุรี เล่ม ๑- ๒ [The committee gathering documents and records for the committee preparing the celebration honoring His Majesty the King, printed on the occasion of the festival celebrating the sixth cycle of his birth, on 5 December 1999, Illustrated Manuscripts of the Three Worlds, from the Ayutthaya and Thonburi Periods, Vol. 1-2, Bangkok: Krom Sinlapakon, 1999 (hereafter: Illustrated Manuscripts], Vol. 1, pp. 16, 58, 112, and Vol. 2, pp. 16, 74, 77, 92, 159, 162.
Jean Boisselier, La Peinture en Thailande, Fribourg, Office du Livre, 1976, p. 83.
Henry Ginsburg, Thai Manuscript Painting, London: The British Library, 1989, p. 67.
All Indians depicted in the Thai version of the Vessantara Jātaka are drawn with ugly faces. Numerous examples are found in Thomas Kaiser. Leedom Lefferts and Martina Wernsdörfer, Devotion; Image, Recitation, and Celebration of the Vessantara Epic in Northeast Thailand, Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2017, passim. See also Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 61, Thai Manuscript Painting, p. 68 and “Ayutthaya Painting”, p. 97.
Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 102, “Ayutthaya Painting”, pp. 97, 100, 102, and 103.
Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 70.
For example, Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol 1, p. 124. See also Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, the upper right illustration on p. 64. See also his Thai Manuscript Painting, pp. 61, 63 and 97.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, pp. 182-185, 188-190, 197, and 200.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, pp. 190, 192 and 209; see also Thai Art and Culture, p. 93.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, pp. 122-125, 137, 193, 205, 210-211.
See https://www.swapgap.com/post/วัดใหญ่นครชุมน์-อบ้านโป่ง-จราชบุรี-nwshdi.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, p. 119, 122, 124, 125, 188.
This must be the year 1544.
Robert Halliday, The Talaings. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 1999 [reprint of the 1917 edition], pp. 19-20.
Rita Ringis, Thai Temples and Thai Murals, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 92. See also No Na Paknam, Wat Khongkharam, Bangkok: Muang Boran Publishing House, 1994.
Halliday, The Talaings, p. 20.
No Na Pak Nam, Wat Pradu Song Tham, Bangkok: Muang Boran Publishing House, 1985, pp. 42, and 50-51.
https://www.voicetv.co.th/read/266724
Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 93.
William Warren, The Prasart Museum, Singapore: Ibis Books, 1990, p. 114.
William Warren and Jean-Michel Beurdeley, The House on the Khlong, Bangkok: Archipelago Press, 1999, p. 102.
Vithi Phanichphant, Wiang Ta Murals, Bangkok: Amarin, n.d., passim. See also Rita Ringis, Thai Temples and Thai Murals, the mural from Wat Phra Sing on p. 96 and the scenes on pp. 132 and 148.
Helmut H.E. Loofs, “Biographies in Stone: The Significance of Changing Perceptions of the Buddha Image in Mainland Southeast Asia for the Understanding of the Individual’s Place in Some Buddhist Societies”, in: Wang Gungwu (ed.) Self and Biography, Essays on the Individual and Society in Asia, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1975, pp. 9-28.
In Halliday’s short description of the Mon wedding ceremony he does not mention how the couple is seated. The fact that the wedding takes place at the bride’s house might be relevant here. Halliday, The Talaings, pp. 59-60.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol 1, pp. 99, 104 and 210 and in Vol 2 on pp. 32, and 81.
Ginsburg, “Ayutthaya Painting”, p. 98.
On the lower part of the title page is an incomplete sentence written in a different, rather clumsy, handwriting and spelling: “Phū khien nangsue Mālai ni”. This simply means: “The person who wrote this Malai book.” I tend to dismiss these inelegant scribbles as having been added at a later date. The word khien is written with the now obsolete letter khokhuat, but this letter has been used irregularly over time (see Anthony V.N. Diller, “Consonant Mergers and Inscription One”, JSS, Vol 76 (1988), pp. 46-63).
Possibly the scribe confused ผู้สร้าง (the creators) with ผู้สั่ง (those who ordered).
For a short history of this monastery and some photographs, see https://sites.google.com/site/allthaitemple/wad-rachkhvh-wrwihar-wad-mxy.
G.E. Harvey recorded frequent exoduses, see History of Burma; From the Earliest Times to 10 March 1824, the Beginning of the English Conquest, London: Longmans, Green & Co, 1925, p. 180, 193 and 197-199. See also R. Halliday, “Immigration of the Mons into Siam”, JSS, Vol. 10, Pt. 3, pp. 9-11 and especially Edward van Roy, “Safe Haven: Mon Refugees at the Capitals of Siam from the 1500s to the 1800s”, JSS, Vol. 98, 2010, pp. 151-184.
Van Roy, “Safe Haven”, p. 162.
Peter Skilling, “Chanting and Inscribing: The ‘Condensed Tripitaka’ in Thai Ritual”, ‘Guiding Lights’ for the Perfect Nature: Studies on the Nature and the Development of Abhidharma Buddhism. A Commemorative Volume in Honor of Prof. Dr. Kenyo Mitomo for his 70th Birthday, Tokyo: Sankibo Busshorin, pp. 928-962
Skilling identified this excerpt as coming from the Vinaya Cullavagga, in which Mahākassapa questions Upāli about the Vinaya.
In the Visuddhimagga known as Buddhānussaṭi Gatha.
Peter Skilling, “Calligraphic Magic: Abhidhamma Inscriptions from Sukhodaya”, in Naomi Appleton and Peter Harvey (eds.), Buddhist Path, Buddhist Teachings Studies in Memory of L.S. Cousins, Sheffield: Equinox, 2019, pp. 183-210.
Standard are scenes of Buddhist monks chanting during a funeral wake, celestial beings, the monk Malai showing some tortures of those suffering in hell, a poor man offers lotuses to the monk, Phra Malai’s visit to the sacred stupa Cūḷāmaṇi, Phra Malai meeting Indra, and finally his meeting with the future Buddha Metteyya.
Also in the Wellcome Library there are two Phra Malai texts (Thai 3 and Thai 4) with only the ten last births as illustrations.
In the variant Thai order whereby the scene of Mahosadha comes before Bhūridatta. See Naomi Appleton, Jataka Stories in Theravada Buddhism: Narrating the Path, Farnham: Ashgate, 2010, pp. 71-74 and p. 140.
Henry Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture. Historic Manuscripts from Western Collections, Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2000, p. 55, a manuscript that Ginsburg dated 1700-1725. See also Henry Ginsburg, “Ayutthaya Painting”, in Forest McGill and M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, The Kingdom of Siam, The Art of Central Thailand, 1350-1800, Snoeck Publishers, Ghent, 2005, pp. 97, 101, 102, 103, 169.
The lute (kracappi, กระจับปี่) is drawn with an unusual pattern on the sound box. Possibly it is made of a special type of wood, or from the skin of an animal, such as the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea). There is a similar lute on a 17th century banner in the Jim Thompson collection. See William Warren and Jean-Michel Beurdeley, The House on the Klong, Bangkok: Archipelago Press, 2014, p. 101.
คณะกรรมการฝ่ายประมวลเอกสารและจดหมายเหตุ ในคณะอำนวยการจัดงานเฉลิมพระเกียรติพระบาทสมเด็จพระเจ้าอยู่หัว จัดพิมพ์เนื่องในโอกาส พระราชพิธีมหามงคลเฉลิมพระชนมพรรษา ๖ รอบ ๕ ธันวาคม ๒๕๔๒, สมุดภาพไตรภูมิ ฉบับกรุงศรีอยุธยา – ฉบับกรุงธนบุรี เล่ม ๑- ๒ [The committee gathering documents and records for the committee preparing the celebration honoring His Majesty the King, printed on the occasion of the festival celebrating the sixth cycle of his birth, on 5 December 1999, Illustrated Manuscripts of the Three Worlds, from the Ayutthaya and Thonburi Periods, Vol. 1-2, Bangkok: Krom Sinlapakon, 1999 (hereafter: Illustrated Manuscripts], Vol. 1, pp. 16, 58, 112, and Vol. 2, pp. 16, 74, 77, 92, 159, 162.
Jean Boisselier, La Peinture en Thailande, Fribourg, Office du Livre, 1976, p. 83.
Henry Ginsburg, Thai Manuscript Painting, London: The British Library, 1989, p. 67.
All Indians depicted in the Thai version of the Vessantara Jātaka are drawn with ugly faces. Numerous examples are found in Thomas Kaiser. Leedom Lefferts and Martina Wernsdörfer, Devotion; Image, Recitation, and Celebration of the Vessantara Epic in Northeast Thailand, Stuttgart: Arnoldsche Art Publishers, 2017, passim. See also Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 61, Thai Manuscript Painting, p. 68 and “Ayutthaya Painting”, p. 97.
Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 102, “Ayutthaya Painting”, pp. 97, 100, 102, and 103.
Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 70.
For example, Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol 1, p. 124. See also Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, the upper right illustration on p. 64. See also his Thai Manuscript Painting, pp. 61, 63 and 97.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, pp. 182-185, 188-190, 197, and 200.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, pp. 190, 192 and 209; see also Thai Art and Culture, p. 93.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, pp. 122-125, 137, 193, 205, 210-211.
See https://www.swapgap.com/post/วัดใหญ่นครชุมน์-อบ้านโป่ง-จราชบุรี-nwshdi.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol. 1, p. 119, 122, 124, 125, 188.
This must be the year 1544.
Robert Halliday, The Talaings. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 1999 [reprint of the 1917 edition], pp. 19-20.
Rita Ringis, Thai Temples and Thai Murals, Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1990, p. 92. See also No Na Paknam, Wat Khongkharam, Bangkok: Muang Boran Publishing House, 1994.
Halliday, The Talaings, p. 20.
No Na Pak Nam, Wat Pradu Song Tham, Bangkok: Muang Boran Publishing House, 1985, pp. 42, and 50-51.
https://www.voicetv.co.th/read/266724
Ginsburg, Thai Art and Culture, p. 93.
William Warren, The Prasart Museum, Singapore: Ibis Books, 1990, p. 114.
William Warren and Jean-Michel Beurdeley, The House on the Khlong, Bangkok: Archipelago Press, 1999, p. 102.
Vithi Phanichphant, Wiang Ta Murals, Bangkok: Amarin, n.d., passim. See also Rita Ringis, Thai Temples and Thai Murals, the mural from Wat Phra Sing on p. 96 and the scenes on pp. 132 and 148.
Helmut H.E. Loofs, “Biographies in Stone: The Significance of Changing Perceptions of the Buddha Image in Mainland Southeast Asia for the Understanding of the Individual’s Place in Some Buddhist Societies”, in: Wang Gungwu (ed.) Self and Biography, Essays on the Individual and Society in Asia, Sydney: Sydney University Press, 1975, pp. 9-28.
In Halliday’s short description of the Mon wedding ceremony he does not mention how the couple is seated. The fact that the wedding takes place at the bride’s house might be relevant here. Halliday, The Talaings, pp. 59-60.
Illustrated Manuscripts, Vol 1, pp. 99, 104 and 210 and in Vol 2 on pp. 32, and 81.
Ginsburg, “Ayutthaya Painting”, p. 98.
