Abstract

[Vietnamese Buddhist Art in South and South East Asia Context]

Research Scholar: Nguyen Ngoc Vinh
Supervisor: Dr. H. P. Gang Negi

Buddhism and its art have existed for more than 2500 years, weaving their way with monks and pilgrims through broad areas of the Asian continent and across seas, mingling with the art and styles of indigenous cultures.

Most people believed that Vietnamese cultural history was influenced from Chinese ideas that mean even the Buddhist art. But the really, Vietnam today including Champa, and Funan (south Vietnam), so we have to examine the mixture cultural of this area to more understand about Vietnamese Buddhist art today.

The research will be focus on the similarity and dissimilarity in Buddhist art of South Vietnam and South East Asia, such as Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia, and based on the methods such as library research, historical evidences, comparative, and analysis, attempt will be made to show the similarity and dissimilarity between them as well as give an introduction about Buddhist art of this area.

The research work is undertaken in four main chapters beside with introduction and conclusion.

The first chapter introduced about the evolution of Buddhist art in South Vietnam and South East Asia.

From earliest of Buddhist art the Buddha was never represented in human form but only through some of his symbols among them such as the wheel of law, the Bodhi tree, the Buddha footprint, the empty throne, the lion, the columns surmounted by a wheel, and the lotus.

Until Ashoka Empire of Maury dynasty was followed Buddhism, Ashoka is a first person who played a unique role in the development of Buddhist art in India and neighbor countries. Based on this foundation, Buddhist art gradually developed to its age of gold, with famously schools such as: Gandhara, Mathura, and Ammaravati.

In the early spread of Buddhism to Vietnam and South East Asia, the evidence for Buddhism come from three sources: Chinese histories, Pali, and Sanskrit texts, local inscriptions and art.

The earliest Buddhist images were the sculptures carried from India by monks and traders. The religious became so widely accepted among the diverse cultures that probably more Buddhist images have been produced in this area than in any other region of Asia.

Until the coming of Indian ideas, life in the South East Asia had been determined by harvests and people had lived along side each other on an equal footing, with the arrival of Indian culture this form of social life was gradually replaced by one dominated by the god like kings and peoples. Palaces and temples were built to demonstrate and strengthen the power of the kings. Nevertheless during this process the South East Asia never lost their independence for though they adopted a new religion or art but they adopted only individual elements with their local characteristic to become localization. So South East Asia Buddhist art can be seen as independence school of art for themselves.

The second chapter analyses about the similarity of Buddhist monuments in South Vietnam and South East Asia. In this the work mentioning two parts: the short foundation historical and the similarity of Buddhist monuments in South Vietnam and South East Asia

South Vietnam there are two parts Champa and Funan, and South East Asia, as Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia. This region obviously stimulated a great expansion of international trade in the early centuries A.D. They received a strong impact of Indian culture which became clearly manifest in the fields of state organization. Sanskrit and its literature, the faith in divinities of Hinduism, and the cultural treasures of Buddhism were transplanted. Generally speaking Hinduism and Buddhism were prevalent side by side peacefully in these regions.

Most Buddhist structure in South Vietnam and South East Asia were based on the Buddhist philosophy of universe, the centre of the universe is a mountain Meru.

The most ambitions attempts at recreating such as cosmology may have been Champa, Funan, Cambodia, Java, and Thailand. The king of these countries were representing as god-kings of mountain Meru and the monuments built in these countries as be seen as their seat of power and a replica of the centre of the universe. Those monuments were also expressed as Mandala. Mandala is a type of cosmological diagram used by Hindus, and Buddhists as a visualization device to help practitioners in their search for spiritual enlightenment.

The third chapter mentions the physical appearance of the Avalokitesvara and the unifying factors of the Avalokitesvara images.

This chapter just mentions the Avalokitesvara’s images in the male form and common in South Vietnam and South East Asia.

The images of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara found from all parts of South Vietnam and South East Asia were worshipped as an independent deity as well as a member of the group.

Various form of image was found such as the Avalokitesvara with two armed, four armed, six armed, and eight armed. The images of Avalokitesvara in the pre-Angkor period were influenced from the Gupta style. The images in Champa, Peninsular Thailand, and Indonesia were influenced of the Pala style of north east India.

The fourth chapter mention to the sculpture and its reciprocal influence with style and the dating.

Base on the arts of Cham and Funan some scholars had divided Cham art into two periods:

The first called “primary” stretches from the seventh to the tenth centuries as My Son A1, Hoa Lai, and Dong Duong. The second period, called ‘secondary’ from eleventh to seventeenth centuries as at Po Klaung Garai and at Po Nagar in Nha Trang.

Funan was flourished from the 1^st to the 6^th century in the lower Mekong river and be seen as Pre-Angkor style.

Cambodia, the chronological subdivision has long been debated; the most widely accepted version now divides them into two periods, the oldest period during the sixth and seventh centuries called Pre-Angkor period, and the Angkor period began in the ninth to thirteenth centuries.

Thailand; based on the elements of the people in historic of Siam that the art of Thailand has been an infusion of some different styles by different period. There are some main periods: Pure Indian (up to 5^th), Dvaravati (6^th–11^th), Srivijaya (8^th–14^th), Khmer (10^th–14^th), and Tai (14^th–17^th).

Indonesia; the period when the Indian cultural elements came into contact with the Javanese culture is named Hindu Buddhist period, in the ancient history of Java is classified into two main periods; the central Javanese period from the seventh to the tenth century as early classic and the east Javanese period from the tenth to the sixteenth century as late classic.

With the spread of the Buddhist art influences, the historic Buddhist art of South East Asia became firmly established. Their general trend seems to be the same in every country. But South East Asian art not only gained its common impetus from Indian Buddhist art but also had certain interchanges among themselves.

To examine The Buddhism and its art in South Vietnam and South East Asia not only to make clear up the historic Buddhist art of South Vietnam and South East Asia, but also clear up our understanding of the role assumed by South Vietnam in the context with South and South East Asia.

Although Vietnam and South East Asia was influenced by Indian and Chinese cultural but in reality the art and architecture of this region developed to a radiant grade. They receiving influence from outside but they did not get dissolved by outside.