Ten Jātakas at Wat Ban Khong, Ratchaburi

Authors

  • Peter Skilling Chulalongkorn University
  • Santi Pakdeekham

Abstract

In this article, we describe two sets of wood panel paintings kept at Wat Ban Khong in Ratchaburi province. Dating from the Sixth Reign, the paintings are latter-day representatives of an older genre that formerly was popular in central Siam. They stand at the cusp of tradition and modernity, of the provincial and the urban. A polychrome set depicts the first nine of the Ten Jātakas, while a gilt lacquer set is devoted to the tenth and last, Vessantara or the Great Birth. Our aim is to bring these paintings to the attention and appreciation of the interested public. Space does not permit us to go into social and art-historical details or to compare conception and technique to the Jātaka paintings of the region or the capital. We hope that this presentation of visual culture will lead specialists to give more attention to the local paintings of the period.

Author Biographies

Peter Skilling, Chulalongkorn University

Peter Skilling is a Special Lecturer at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok. Until his retirement in 2017, he was a Professor of the French School of Asian Studies (EFEO). He specializes in the literary and material history of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia. He publishes widely and has been visiting professor at leading universities worldwide. His recent book, Questioning the Buddha (Wisdom Books, 2021), introduces and translates twenty-five Buddhist sutras.

Santi Pakdeekham

Santi Pakdeekham is Associate Professor at Srinakharinwirot University, Bangkok, and an Associate Fellow of the Royal Society of Thailand. He is a specialist in Pali, Thai and Khmer literature. He recently published Painted Catalogue of Pali Literature: Uposatha Hall of Wat Thong Noppakhun, Bangkok (2021).

References

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Collins, Steven, ed. Readings of the Vessantara Jataka. Columbia, NY: Columbia University Press, 2016.
Cone, Margaret and Richard F. Gombrich. The Perfect Generosity of Prince Vessantara: A Buddhist Epic. Bristol: Pali Text Society, 2011 (repr. of Oxford, 1977).
Cowell, E.B., ed. The Jātaka or Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. 6 vols. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907.
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Skilling, Peter. “Tapussa and Bhallika in Thai Painting.” Festschrift for Monika Zin, forthcoming.
Skilling, Peter and Claudio Cicuzza. “The Number of Stanzas in the Vessantara-jātaka: Preliminary Observations.” In Buddhist Asia 2. Papers from the Second Conference of Buddhist Studies Held in Naples in June 2004. Edited by Giacomella Orofino and Silvio Vito. Kyoto: Italian School of East Asian Studies, 2010 (Università degli Studi di Napoli ‘L’Orientale’, Centro di Studi sul Buddhismo), pp. 35–45.
Young, Patricia M. “The Lacquer Pavilion in its First Reign Context.” JSS 107.1 (2019), pp. 1–24.
Scene from Vessantara Jataka

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Published

2021-11-01

Issue

Vol. 109 No. 2 (2021)

Section

Articles