3. Avalokitesvara images in Funan

Isolated images of Avalokitesvara began to be produced in Funan during the seventh century but there exists no evidence of his being independently worshipped at this time. Sculptural finds from the eight to ninth centuries A.D indicate that the cult of Avalokitesvara and that of Maitreya co-existed in some regions of Funan during this period. Anyhow, it seems that the worship of Avalokitesvara was gradually rising in significance and tending to become independent from that of the Buddha and Maitreya. Large stone statues of Avalokitesvara, which apparently have never been part of a trial group, were produced during these centuries such as the images in Tra-Vinh province and Rach-Gia province. The end of the eighth century A.D., Avalokitesvara was already regarded as an important deity to whom a special worship was assigned.

The Variety of Forms

Two armed form; the earliest images of Avalokitesvara in Funan possess two arms such forms occur side by side with his four-armed depictions throughout about the seventh to the eight centuries. The extant examples of the two-armed configuration of Avalokitesvara can be seen the images in Tra Vinh and Rach Gia province.^[1]

That Ananda K. Coomaraswamy has been observed:

“A beautiful and well preserved standing figure of Lokesvara (Avalokitesvara) from Rach Gia, now in private possession in Sai Gon, is probably of the sixth or early seventh century date.”^[2]

But according to Nandana Chutiwongs that image is in about middle or second half of the eigth century.

And she describes:

“The right hand opens in a gesture similar to the varamudra, though some fingers are doubled up as if to press upon a circular object which lies upon this palm. The left hand grasps a lotus bud around its exceptionally thick stem which also serves as a support to the arm of the image… this circular blob in the palm of the Rach Gia image, on the other hand, may have been meant as an auspicious mark which constantly adorns the palms of divinities and great men in India art. Similar marks are regularly seen in medieval sculptures from North East India, and occasionally, in Cambodian reliefs of the Bayon period.”^[3]

And she also agree that:

“The right hand of the Rach Gia image may thus display the varamudra, and the iconography of this figure may conform to the most regular pattern of the ‘human’ representation of the Bodhisattva which we find in medieval North East India, in the Malay archipelago, and in Burma during the Pagan period.”^[4]

Ananda K. Coomaraswamy admits that this statues exhitbits the Indianesque school of Funan at its highest level of achievement.^[5] Beside that the image from Tra Vinh, which have lost his arms, the statues stands on a tall lotus pedestal. An ornamental belt and simple earrings may occasionally adorn his image, diadems appear on the head, and the presence of a necklace is quite exceptional. Nandana Chutiwongs admits that this image is represented by the bejeweled bronze from Battambang Cambodia.^[6]

Four armed Form: Four armed images of Avalokitesvara are fairly common in the art of Funan. The attributes of the four armed images are usually missing but in some cases with the exception of the image in Tra Vinh, an aksamala in the upper right hand and a pustaka in the upper left hand. This tyle is common in the art of Champa during the eighth to ninth centuries A.D.

Inface that: ascetic elements in the personality of Avalokitesvara in Funan are very strong in his images. The majority of them wear an unornamented jatamakuta and very simple garments.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

See the Picture.

[2]:

Ananda K. C, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, New Delhi: 1972, p. 183.

[3]:

N. Chutiwongs, The Iconography of Avalokitesvara in Mainland S.E.A, Delhi: 2002, p. 233.

[4]:

Ibid, p. 234.

[5]:

Ananda K. C, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, New Delhi: 1972, p. 183.

[6]:

N. Chutiwongs, The Iconography of Avalokitesvara in Mainland S.E.A, Delhi: 2002, p. 234.