Archaeology

This article employs the research paradigm of historical ecology to investigate the spread and development of early Buddhism in the Khorat Plateau during the Dvaravati period. The movement of this religion into the region was largely determined by preexisting settlement patterns, with moated sites being particularly important. The arrival of Buddhism also introduced monumental architecture and a definable art style. These moated settlements were dependent on large-scale river systems such as the Mun and Chi, particularly in regard to water management, agriculture, transport, and communication. A study of the distribution of sema stones also provides evidence for the spread of Buddhism, while Buddha images carved into rock faces on mountaintops and evidence for rock shelters illustrate that the tradition of forest monks was functioning alongside the more established urban monasticism. The relationship between Buddhism and society is explored, illustrating how the arrival of this religion resulted in new cognitive and physical conceptions of the landscape best demonstrated by changes in settlement planning. Finally, it is shown that Buddhism did not function outside of society but existed in an interdependent relationship with both the lay community and local rulers, with patronage being granted in return for not only spiritual guidance but political legitimization.

This article explores a number of ways in which to reconstruct the possible extent of monastic Buddhism in the Khorat Plateau during the Dvaravati period. In an attempt to so, it is consequently multidisciplinary in its conception, being primarily archaeological while also drawing on areas of anthropology, art history, demographics and Buddhist studies. In doing so, it attempts to move beyond the sole analysis of archaeological
and art historic objects in order to investigate the social, demographic and geographical factors that lie behind the production of these artefacts. It proposes to do so by a number of quantitative means: first, by giving hypothetical population estimates of urban centres/moated sites during the Dvaravati period and consequently the number of monks these settlements could have supported. These estimates are then used to consider how many monks may have been sustained according to these figures. Second, by carrying out a quantitative analysis of sema stone numbers and their distribution throughout the Khorat Plateau this also provides a method to calculate the number of possible consecrated spaces (viz., sīma) in the region and their geographic extent. The analysis shows that institutional, monastic Buddhism primarily spread and settled along the major river systems throughout the region. Third, by plotting the distribution, quantity
and quality of Buddhist narrative artwork on sema to pinpoint the locations of possible workshops and centres. This also allows for a number of conclusions to be drawn in terms of the socio-economic support needed to develop and maintain workshops and craftsmen and relates directly to population densities. It should, however, be stated at the outset that this paper proposes nothing more than a possible scenario to aid in explaining and understanding the extent and spread of Buddhism during this period.  Therefore, I adopt the term “scenario” over “model” to emphasize the fact that what is being proposed here is an interpretive framework as opposed to a testable hypothesis in the strictly scientific sense.

This piece reviews the six volumes of "The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor" The volumes are the result of more than
twenty years of archaeological research in north-east Thailand, focusing specifically on the Mun Valley region and incorporating both survey and excavation techniques.I will limit my review to a summary of the volumes and a discussion of their overall  conclusions. After this I will give my opinion on the impact that the volumes and the The Origins of the Civilization of Angkor project have had on both Thai prehistory and the practice of south-east Asian archaeology in general.

The mid-first millennium CE represents a crucial period in the emergence of early polities in Southeast Asia. However, disagreement remains between archaeologists and art historians as to the precise dating of this shift from prehistory to history. This article focuses on the Dvaravati period and re-evaluates evidence in Thai and Western language publications. A growing number of sites excavated over the past two decades in particular show occupation from c. the fourth to fifth century onwards while others provide a continual sequence stretching back well into the Iron Age. I argue that evidence from these sites makes a strong case for postulating a proto-Dvaravati period spanning c. the fourth to fifth centuries. In doing so this article proposes this period as the timeframe within which the nascent traits and characteristics of what becomes Dvaravati in the seventh to ninth centuries are present and gradually developing.

In the early 1830s and 1840s, a British colonial official by the name of Colonel James Low uncovered evidence for an early culture with Indic traits in a river system known as the Bujang Valley. On the west coast of the Thai-Malay peninsula, the Bujang Valley is today located in the Malaysian state of Kedah. However, it wasn't until just before World War II that excavations took place, conducted by H. G. Quaritch Wales and his wife Dorothy. Their discoveries and subsequent publications led to the first real attempts to explain the origins and extent of this civilisation and its place within the larger South and Southeast Asian world. In the intervening years between Quaritch Wales's excavations and the present day, considerably more research has taken place within the Bujang Valley, though this has not been without controversy. Recently claims and counter-claims regarding the antiquity of Hinduism and Buddhism at the site have arisen in some quarters within Malaysia. It therefore seems pertinent that this material be re-evaluated in light of new scholarship and discoveries as well as the prevailing paradigms of interactions between South and Southeast Asia. This paper presents an updated reading of this material and argues that the Bujang Valley should be seen as a cosmopolitan trading port with substantive evidence for the presence of Hinduism and Buddhism.

Sometime in the middle of the ninth century, a ship set sail
on a voyage that would take it from the Persian Gulf to the
Pacific Ocean. It was a journey that connected two empires, the
Abbasid Caliphate (in modern-day Iran and Iraq) and Tang
dynasty China, as well as many different cultures in India and
Southeast Asia along the way.

The Tang Shipwreck survives as a snapshot of the world of the ninth century. Locked in time for over a millennium at the bottom of the Java Sea, its discovery has opened up new vistas in our understanding of just how interconnected the cultures of Asia really were. Mass-produced Chinese ceramics moved westwards, exotic Southeast Asia forest products were sought in China, while spices from the Moluccas were shipped to ports far and wide. From the Middle East, cobalt, essential for blue-glazed ceramics, olive oil, and wine, as well as glass were most likely part of the cargoes that Arab and Persian traders brought with them on their outbound journeys. As these myriad goods and products flowed back and forth along the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, so too did Arabs, Persians, Chinese, Indians, and Southeast Asians mingle at the ports along the way. Here they bartered, traded, and, as the Tang Shipwreck appears to show, sailed together, all in the age-old pursuit of profit.

The Southeast Asia that the Tang Shipwreck encountered
along its voyage to and from China was a patchwork of vibrant,
diverse cultures. In Cambodia, the Angkorian Empire was
in its formative stages while in Sumatra the maritime power,
Srivijaya, commanded the seas. On the island of Java, Borobudur,
a monumental feat of Buddhist architecture, stood as testament
to the might of the Sailendra dynasty. In Thailand and Myanmar,
powerful cities were emerging. It is into this world that the Tang
Shipwreck sailed – and ultimately sank – on its journey from
China back to the Persian Gulf, in the middle of the ninth century.

We cannot say for certain at how many of ports the Tang
Shipwreck docked. However, it is not unrealistic to imagine
the ship sojourning in at least some of those discussed here, and
exchanging goods, money, and ideas with the peoples it met along
its journey. Ninth-century Southeast Asia was a place of vibrant
commerce and bustling ports, and to this day, remains an integral
part of international maritime trade.

Myanmar today is a vibrant patchwork of peoples, cultures, and beliefs. Its history stretches back through the millennia and in many ways is the story of its cities, and by extension, the kings who built them. Following their rise and fall, this essay moves through the centuries as it explores the art and archaeology of these many varied and at times competing centres. After a turbulent half-century, the country has reopened once again to the world, affording us a chance to experience its unique art and
culture first hand.

In the early first millennium, a civilisation based around large brick-walled cities began to emerge in Upper Myanmar. Known as the Pyu, this culture gained mastery over irrigation techniques at an early stage in its development. This allowed for increased agricultural production to support its burgeoning urban centres. Coupled with its adoption of the incoming religious currents of Buddhism, and to a lesser extent Hinduism, it rose to become the most prominent culture in the region
for almost a thousand years. This essay traces its rise by exploring its art, architecture, and urban landscapes, focusing on the three main Pyu cities, Sri Ksetra, Beikthano, and Halin.

In 2015, the NSC Archaeology Unit and APSARA National Authority conducted archaeological research at two sema stone sites in Cambodia. Further support was provided by the Asian Civilisations Museum. The sema stone sites, Peam Kre and Don Meas, are located adjacent to the Banteay site atop Phnom Kulen (Kulen Mountain; Mahendraparvata) in the Angkorian homeland at Siem Reap. Phnom Kulen is widely considered to be the holy mountain and birthplace of the Angkorian Empire under the reign of Jayavarman II—a Saivite king—where he first orchestrated the renowned devaraja ritual in 802 CE. The ritual has critical symbolic and political importance.

The diary of Henri Mouhot (1826–1861), a little known French naturalist, was published posthumously in 1863. Serialised in Le Tour du Monde, a popular French magazine devoted to expeditions abroad, it had been rewritten by a ghostwriter and illustrated with engravings based on Mouhot’s own drawings. It quickly caused a sensation, not for its descriptions of the flora and fauna of Southeast Asia, but for its tales of a lost civilisation hidden in the tropical jungles of Cambodia.

Mouhot’s publications set the tone for how France, and the Western world in general, would view and imagine Angkor. They initiated the ways in which Angkor has been presented to the world over the past century and a half, with the lure of the exotic orient and enduring fantasies of discovering “lost civilisations” taking centre stage. This essay looks at to what extent these perceptions remain today and how much they have changed. It does so by exploring the paintings, photographs, architectural drawings, museum displays, and colonial expositions dedicated to the topic, and by contextualising those against the colonial mindset of the time, which framed the West’s understanding and representation of Angkor. It concludes with a look at Angkor in post-independence Cambodia, and an examination of how much the images, tropes, and exoticising stereotypes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century are still being perpetuated.