CategoriesCultural and Religious Styles
Thai Art
Art of Thailand, from Dvaravati and Sukhothai Buddhas to Ayutthaya lacquer, Bangkok temple murals and contemporary installation.
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About
Thai art has been shaped for more than a millennium by Theravada Buddhism and by successive kingdoms that absorbed Mon, Khmer, Sri Lankan and Chinese influences. The Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati, from about the 7th century, carved stone Buddhas and great Wheels of the Law. Sukhothai, in the 13th and 14th centuries, created the most distinctive Thai image: the walking Buddha, a bronze figure with a smooth, supple body, one heel lifted and a flame rising from the crown of the head.
Ayutthaya, capital from 1351 until its destruction in 1767, built temple complexes with corn-cob towers and crowned, jewelled Buddhas, and its craftsmen perfected gold-on-black lacquer. After 1782, Bangkok temples such as Wat Phra Kaew were painted with long murals of the Ramakien, the Thai Ramayana. In the 20th century the Italian-born sculptor Silpa Bhirasri founded what became Silpakorn University, and later Montien Boonma and Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook took Thai art into installation and video.