Tracing Gavampati in Burma
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Abstract
The monk Gavampati, a disciple of the Buddha often known in Southeast Asia as the “Fat Monk”, is examined at two locations: Pagan (Bagan) between the 11th and 13th centuries, and in the southern region known as Rāmaññadesa in 15th-century Mon traditions. Epigraphy, Mon, Burmese, and Pali chronicles, and archeological evidence indicate his diverse roles, from associations with kingship at Pagan to later traditions concerning the introduction of Buddhism and tooth relics in the south. Earlier scholarship maintained that this legendary figure arose in Burma (Myanmar) during the first millennium, but a re-examination of a stone image discovered in Rangoon (Yangon) in 1948 challenges this conventional view of the monk’s historical trajectory.
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