Interpreting Southeast Asia's Past

The visit which Śakyamūni paid to His mother in the world of the Gods has been represented in the murals of Pagan in a way not encountered in India: the Buddha is not only depicted as coming back from Mount Meru at Saṃkassa, but he is also depicted ascending towards Meru and actually sitting on the mountain. This topic occupies a complete wall in the Loka-hteik-pan or in the monument 1150, datable to the twelfth or thirteenth century. This scene was preserved in later temples, though in a simplified manner. This representation of the Buddha sitting upon Mount Meru shows him crowning the universe, above the cosmic waters. This vision of the Buddha as ‘master’ of the universe, ruling over the six directions complements the dimension of time which the jātakas introduced. Both subjects, the sermon on the mountain and the jātakas, symbolize the eternal and infinite presence of the Buddha in the universe. This paper claims that a particular mural in Pagan — in the Loka-hteik-pan shrine — should be viewed as making the classical statement about the cosmic status of the Burmese Buddha and the related status of the king. This striking achievement has been overlooked in spite of the fact that, as is shown, the mural profoundly influenced Burmese sacred art from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries. It is also claimed that the painters of the (probably) early twelfth-century Loka-hteik-pan, the temple ‘adorning the top of the world’, closely followed Indian literary sources or an Indian model to capture this cosmology as it was revealed through certain events in the life of the Buddha. In later temples, however, a loss in narrative substance and a tendency towards simplified icons depicting the same events indicate that later painters were probably referring back to Loka-hteik-pan as a model, rather than returning to the Indian sources. Loka-hteik-pan therefore has a special exemplary status in Burmese sacred art. The murals of Pagan include a precise set of iconographic topics, the distribution of which follows a very particular pattern. One of these topics, the most important in fact, is the life of the Buddha, illustrated with the help of seven panels and the central cult image, which together constitute the traditional set of the ‘eight great events’, which was favored in Northeast India from the eighth to the twelfth centuries. Two consecutive ‘great events’ in the set are closely linked, for it was after performing the ‘Great Miracle’ of Sāvatthi (event 4) that Śakyamūni decided to go to Mount Meru in order to preach the Abhidhamma to his mother; three months later, the ‘Descent from Heaven of the 33 Gods’ followed at Saṃkassa (event 5). The representation of these two events conforms to a sequence inherited from India, which is repeated through all the murals of Pagan, and is supremely illustrated in the mural on the eastern wall of the Loka-hteik-pan shrine (Figures 11.1–11.2).1 The two events are separated by the Buddha’s sojourn on Mount Meru, an episode in the biography usually ignored in art historical research. However, these three moments form a unique composition on the eastern wall of Loka-hteik-pan (Figures 11.3–11.8) (Bautze-Picron and Bautze 2003: figs. 50–51). The wall is separated into three superimposed zones. The lower zone shows the encounter of Sumedha and Buddha Dīpaṃkara, and the predication of the Ratana-sutta at Vesāli, two episodes which will be 11 ISEA.indd 142 6/6/08 10:07:02 AM 143 THE SERMON ON MOUNT MERU IN THE MURALS OF PAGAN Fig 11.1 The Great Miracle at Sāvatthi, Loka-hteikpan, south wall. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) Fig 11.2 The Descent from Mount Meru, Loka-hteikpan, south wall. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) Fig 11.3 The Sermon on Mount Meru, Loka-hteik-pan, east wall. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) considered below (not seen on Figure 11.3). The intermediate zone presents the Buddha leaving King Pasenadi and his court at Sāvatthi, and then making his descent at Saṃkassa. The upper zone includes the Sermon of the Buddha to his mother and the assembly of the gods. A deep window recess in the lower part of the wall separates the two ‘great events’ below. The recess also partly intrudes into the intermediate zone, which then becomes unified across the wall above the peaks of the upper range of the seven mountains, i.e. at the level of Meru, which is the seat of the Buddha. Mon and Burmese inscriptions on the walls identify the scenes (see Ba Shin 1962: 119 for their translation). 11 ISEA.indd 143 6/6/08 10:07:11 AM 144 CLAUDINE BAUTZE-PICRON Fig 11.5 Dussa-thūpa, detail of Fig. 11.3. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) Fig 11.4 Cūl.āman. i-thūpa, detail of Fig. 11.3. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) 11 ISEA.indd 144 6/6/08 10:07:14 AM 145 THE SERMON ON MOUNT MERU IN THE MURALS OF PAGAN Fig 11.6 The Buddha teaching, detail of Fig. 11.3. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) Fig 11.7 The Buddha descending from Mount Meru, detail of Fig. 11.3. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) Fig 11.8 Buddha leaving King Pasenadi and climbing on Mount Meru, detail of Fig. 11.3. (Reprinted with permission of Joachim K. Bautze) 11 ISEA.indd 145 6/6/08 10:07:22 AM 146 CLAUDINE BAUTZE-PICRON