Indian Architecture (Buddhist and Hindu Periods) c44.11

Language: English

c44.11.1

But the real development of the building art in Siam began when the second, or Khmer period was initiated in the tenth century, and the central portion of the country came under the domination of the adjacent Khmer empire of Cambodia. This supremacy lasted for three hundred years, until the thirteenth century, when the Cambodian empire itself began to crumble. In some respects implying a provincial phase of the Khmer style as this flourished at Angkor, none the less the buildings, of this period in Siam display in their character a certain independence of treatment significant of their historical background and earlier traditions. On the other hand some of this variation from the classical type of the Khmers has been traced to the notable infusion into the country of the Mons or Talaings from southern Burma, who brought into Siam the ideals of the Burmese as expressed in the great architectural movement at Pagan which flourished there with such vigour from the ninth to the thirteenth centuries So much so that in the field of the plastic arts this has been referred to as the Mon-Khmer School. Most of the buildings of the Khmer ascription are much ruined, and although examples survive in such old regions as Sawank'alok, Suk'-ot'-ai, and Pitsanulok, two typical temples are to be found in the historical town of Lopburi, the ancient Lavo, eighty miles due north of Bangkok.

c44.11.2

That Lopburi was of importance even in the pre-Khmer times is evident from its records, but as the centre of Khmer sovereignty in Siam from A.D. 1000 it reached its highest state Of the two principal buildings here having Cambodian affinities that of the temple of Wat Mahadhatu, and attributed to the twelfth century, is the most distinctive. Within a walled enclosure, and consisting of a sanctuary tower with its attached portico or mandapa, its general appearance conforms to that of certain mediaeval temples in India. And although the architectural treatment combines elements recalling both the Indo-Aryan and Khmer styles, it is no slavish copy of either of these modes, but a definitely original effort It is true the tower or sikhara, in the main, follows the outlines and also the substance of the Angkor type, and to a lesser degree those of the temples of India, but there any similarity to either of these styles ends. Certainly the massive arch-shaped tympanums rising above the openings have their counterpart in the Cambodian buildings, and the excessively high moulded plinth may have been derived from the same source, but a similarly tall stepped basement was characteristic of the contemporary temples at Khajuraho in Central India. It is, however, when the plastic surface forms, especially those on the tower, are studied, that the self-originated nature of the conception becomes apparent.

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For instance in the design of the sikhara there is no attempt at the ringed zoning which gives its principal effect to the Angkor examples, nor is there the grouping of turrets (*urusringas*), that produces the vertical quality in the Indo-Aryan type. On the contrary the upper part of the tower, although in horizontal stages, these are obtained mainly by the imposition on the central core of a series of alcoves or niches diminishing as they rise, and as the tower tappers to its apex This apex, although ruined, appears to have ended in some form of *amalasila*, thus pre-figuring the domical terminal of the Tai p'ra-prang of the succeeding period. There are other variations in this tower, some of them refinements, such as the concave sections of the moulded corbel tables, which, in the Angkor type, are plainly angular, and, again, the diminishing effect of the Mahadhatu sikhara is obtained by sloping stages, whereas the Cambodian are vertical. One important improvement in constructional technique the Khmers introduced which has a marked effect on the building art of Siam at this period ; this was the use of laterite stone to replace the brick or rubble previously employed. Such a change in the nature of the building material may be an aid in solving the problem of the classification of Khmer architecture within Siamese territory. (Plate CLX).