Table of Contents
- Re: QUERY> Student Query
- WORKSHOP> Goryeo Art and Culture Study Day at the Freer and Sackler Galleries
- SYMPOSIUM> Korean Buddhist Images and Dedication Practice
Re: QUERY> Student Query
by Trent Walker
Dear Wendi,
Here’s some thoughts with regards to your student’s questions.
1) What is a good translation and/or sources relating to the Phongsawadan Nuea (Northern Chronicles)?
The Baṅśāvatār hnị̄ö/Phongsawadan nuea was compiled from various documents and oral legends in Bangkok in the early nineteenth century. I don’t believe there is a translation or in-depth study available at present. This source is not about “Northern Thailand” in the sense of Lanna/Chiang Mai; it primarily deals with the city states in the north part of the central plain (Sukhothai, Phitsanulok, etc.). The content of the text is briefly discussed in Chatri Prakitnonthakan, “The origins of Sukhothai art as the Thai golden age: the relocation of Buddha images, early Ratanakosin literature and nationalism,” South East Asia Research 27:3 (2019), 254–270.
For the connection between the local chronicles of Lanna/Northern Thailand and Buddhist millenarian ideologies, see the excellent PhD dissertation by Betty Nguyen, “Calamity Cosmologies: Buddhist Ethics and the Creation of a Moral Community” (University of Wisconsin, 2014).
2) Any recommendations for sources relating Thai kingship ideology and the Vessantara Jataka? I am particularly interested in the nuances of the use of “phuu mii bun.”
There are several recent pieces in English that address politics/ideology with regards to the Vessantara Jataka. Patrick Jory’s Thailand's Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man (SUNY Press, 2016) is a good place to start. Katherine Bowie’s Of Beggars and Buddhas (University of Wisconsin Press, 2017) offers a great counterpoint, particularly chapters 4–6.
3) When was the first appearance of the concept of phuu mii bun in pre-modern Thailand, the Menam basin and its kingdoms? How were people determined to be phuu mii bun?
I am not sure of the precise antiquity of the Thai phrase phū₂ mī puñ/phuu mii bun, or its regional equivalents, such as Khmer anak mān puṇy/neak mean bon. In Thai, it appears six times in the early sixteenth-century poem Lilit́ braḥ laa/Lilit phra lo, where it always refers to a member of the royal family, and never a millenarian leader. In other classical Thai literary works, it is used to emphasize the bodhisatta status of a protagonist, royal or otherwise. In seventeenth-century Khmer literature, such as Cpāp’ braḥ rājasambhār, it appears in the sense of one who is simply fortunate (anak mān puṇy bhabv/neak man bon phoap).
I am not aware of evidence for how and why the general concept of phū₂ mī puñ/phuu mii bun as a fortunate being with enormous merit from past lives, perhaps even a bodhisatta and/or king, became narrowed into a millenarian figure by the early nineteenth century. Leaders of millenarian movements and their followers were clearly drawing on an existing idea that certain beings are born into the word with exalted karma, and may be recognized as such through their appearance, actions, status, and/or powers.
La Loubère’s A New Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Siam (1693) describes a late seventeenth-century child who is supposed to become a buddha, and is adored by a mass a followers (137). La Loubère does not use the term phū₂ mī puñ/phuu mii bun in his account, but the concept is similar.
The concept of phū₂ mī puñ/phuu mii bun as a millenarian leader, however, seems to be a product of the eighteenth and nineteenth century in Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand. Baker and Phongpaichit’s A History of Ayutthaya (Cambridge UP, 2017) cites some late eighteenth-century uses of the term in a millenarian context during the waning days of Ayutthaya (see pp. 250, 262). In nineteenth-century Thai and Khmer court records, royal chronicles, and other documents, the term often is clearly associated with non-royal millenarian leaders and is frequently associated with a genre of prophetic texts (Thai dāṃnāy/thamnay; Khmer daṃnāy/tumneay) that circulated at the time.
For a general overview with regards to Thailand and Laos, see Constance Wilson, “The Holy Man in the History of Thailand and Laos,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 28:2 (Sep 1997), 345–364, which cites other key studies by Yoneo Ishii, Charles Keyes, Chatthip Nartsupha, etc.
For an analysis of anak mān puṇy/neak mean bon and daṃnāy/tumneay texts in nineteenth-century Cambodia, see Anne Hansen, How to Behave (U of Hawai‘i Press, 2007), pp. 55–64.
4) If anyone claimed to be phuu mii bun, how did they legitimize that claim?
How people are identified/legitimized as phū₂ mī puñ/phuu mii bun varies considerably by historical and cultural context. Several of the essays in Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism (ed. Paul T. Cohen, NIAS Press, 2017) address how various Thai/Tai monks were recognized as tȃnº puñ/ton bun, a Lanna concept similar to phū₂ mī puñ/phuu mii bun.
5) Which of the modern reform movements in Thailand used the notion of phuu mii bun to challenge the legitimacy of the monarchy?
See, for instance, Katherine Bowie’s essay in Cohen’s Charismatic Monks of Lanna Buddhism. See also the theoretical issues broached in the fifth chapter of Betty Nguyen’s dissertation.
Best,
Trent Walker
Khyentse Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Thai, Faculty of Arts
Chulalongkorn University
WORKSHOP> Goryeo Art and Culture Study Day at the Freer and Sackler Galleries
by Wen Li
Goryeo Art and
Culture Study Day
The Smithsonian’s
Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery invites graduate students in
East Asian studies and Buddhist studies to participate in a Goryeo Art and
Culture Study Day scheduled for February 20, 2020. Under the guidance of two
renowned experts in Korean Buddhist art, the study day will focus on a Goryeo
Buddhist sculpture and its dedication materials (on display in a special loan
exhibition) and Goryeo Buddhist paintings in the collection of the Galleries.
This event is organized in conjunction with the exhibition entitled Sacred
Dedication: A Korean Buddhist Masterpiece. The Study Day is followed by a
symposium on February 20-21.
To apply, please
send application form and curriculum vitae by December 13, 2019 to HwangS@si.edu. For full details
of the event and application instructions, please visit the Freer and
Sackler Galleries website:https://asia.si.edu/research/scholarly-programs/goryeo-art-and-culture-study-day/.
SYMPOSIUM> Korean Buddhist Images and Dedication Practice
by Wen Li
Dear Colleagues,
I am delighted to announce an upcoming
symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. The event
is scheduled for February 20-21, 2020. Please refer to the Freer and Sackler
webiste for event details and registration links: https://asia.si.edu/research/scholarly-programs/symposium-korean-buddhist-images-dedication-practice/ We hope you will
consider attending; it is an excellent program on subjects that are rarely
addressed in museum symposia.
Korean Buddhist Images and Dedication Practice
Thursday, February 20, 6 pm
Korean Cultural Center, Washington, DC
Friday, February 21, 9:30 am–5 pm
Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
A single object—a beautiful gilt wood sculpture of Gwaneum,
the bodhisattva of compassion and the most popular deity in Korean Buddhism—is
the focus of this symposium. Carved in the late Goryeo period (918–1392), this
crowned image is now known to be the oldest surviving Korean gilded wood figure
in an informal pose. Sacred texts and potent symbolic objects were sealed
inside this hollow religious sculpture when it was first placed into worship in
the thirteenth century. Bokjang, the practice of adding dedication
material to a Buddhist sculpture during consecration ceremonies, was believed
to transform it into a living body.
This symposium,
organized in conjunction with the exhibition Sacred Dedication: A Korean
Buddhist Masterpiece, examines recent research
findings surrounding the sculpture and its dedication materials. It also places
Korean image consecration practice in a broader East Asian context.
Speakers discuss living traditions of making religious images and consecration
ceremonies in contemporary Korean Buddhism.
The event is sponsored by the
Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea. The
keynote address and reception on Thursday, February 20, are hosted by the
Korean Cultural Center.
An English-language version of all papers is available at the
keynote and symposium.
Registration is required to these free events.
Registration is required to these free events.
Participants are also encouraged to attend the related Korean
Buddhist Dedication Demonstration on Saturday afternoon, February 22, organized
in conjunction with the exhibition Sacred Dedication: A Korean Buddhist
Masterpiece.
Prior to the symposium, the Freer|Sackler will host a Goryeo
Art and Culture Study Day for graduate students in Buddhist studies and East
Asian studies. Details will be sent separately.
