Wat Phumin

Wat Phumin ( Thai: วัด ภูมินทร์ ) is a Buddhist temple ( wat) in the Nan, Nan Province in northern Thailand.

History

Wat Phumin was probably founded in the late 16th century. In the Chronicles of Nan is the first time mentioned in 1602 during a Burmese attack, other chronicles mention the year 1596 as the founding year. At that time there was king Chao Chettabut Phum Min Nan.

On 20 March 1704, the Burmese could take the city Nan without resistance, the 47th ruler of Nan Chao Mueang Panya Lacha was recently fled with his soldiers from the advancing Burmese Army to the south. The Burmese also destroyed " the Looking westward Buddha statue of Wat Phumin " many other temples the city: " all that remained of Nan left was the bare earth ".

In 1219, C. S. ( 1857/58 AD) ascended King Chao Ananta the throne of the kingdom of Nan. One of his first acts is to Viharns in numerous temples around " re- build ", follows the eleventh "the great Viharn of Wat Phumin " was. Many visitors have since been fascinated by Wat Phumin, such as the English traveler CEW Stringer, 1887 noted the visit in his diary.

The fascinating murals were probably not created until the late 19th century at the instigation of Ananta's successor, Chao Suliyapong, in response to the insulting treatment by the overpowering Siamese king.

Attractions

Architecture

A special feature of this temple is considered first, that the ubosot serves as Viharn. The ubosot has a Latin cross plan, at each of the four sides there is a down stairs accessible entrance.

The northern stairway is flanked by two Nagas. Her huge body writhe wavy initially an archway. You seem to continue underneath the building until their tails appear on the south side again wavy, where they bulge out again over an archway. The tail has rolled pyramidal. From a distance it seems as if the ubosot carried on the back of the Nagas.

All four symmetrically arranged inputs have large portals whose wing doors are decorated with ornate wood carvings. The interior of the ubosot is surprisingly spacious. The wooden coffered ceiling is supported by twelve pillars, which are painted with various golden ornaments on a red background.

A reduced copy of the ubosot is south of Bangkok to see the open-air museum Mueang Boran.

Fourfold Buddha statue

The main Buddha statue is not as usual erected at Wat Phumin the back of the ubosot, but at its heart. Four Buddhas sitting here back to back and look at the four cardinal directions. This iconography has long been known in the Mon - states of Myanmar, it is reminiscent of the four giant Buddhas of Kyaik Mon - Pun in Pegu, Myanmar. Also in early Siamese temples there were similar arrangements, such as Wat Phra Men ( Thai: วัด พระ เมรุ ) in Nakhon Pathom, or Wat Phra Yuen ( Thai: วัด พระยืน ) in Lamphun.

As a symbol of this quartet is probably for the four " Early Buddhas" of this age: Kassapa, Konagamana, Dipamkara and Gautama.

Murals

Although they were renovated in 1991, the unique wall paintings are in a poor state due to the climate. They highlight the history of Gaddhana, a boy in search of his father, as in the " Khatthana - Kuman - Jataka " ( Thai: คั ท ธน กุมาร ชาดก ) has been described. This birth story ( Jataka ) is not among the 550 canonical stories, but is a local legend that seems to be known only in Burma, northern Thailand and Laos.

Although the four inner walls of the bot have an overall fairly small area and are interrupted by window and door openings, yet remained enough room to display additional scenes from the life of Buddha and from everyday life in Nan at the end of the 19th century.

David K. Wyatt interprets in his book Reading Thai Murals choosing the scenes as a subtle criticism of the royal house in Bangkok as well as to the French, who were recently awarded the northern half of the Nan kingdom of Bangkok and incorporated into her French Indochina shown had a criticism that would never have allowed to be uttered aloud.

The painter, Thit Buaphan, also called Noi Buaphan, came from central Laos. Before able to secure him for the work at Wat Phumin the king, already the murals at Wat Nong Bua had run about 30 kilometers north of Nan, what he needed almost 21 years. So it was probably not until 1894 that he could begin work at Wat Phumin. It can be assumed that he needed a similar time for this work.

Gaddhana asks his mother after his father, she points to the track of an elephant

A delightful smoker

Nobleman traveling in Howda with military escort

Swell

  • David K. Wyatt: Reading Thai Murals. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, ISBN 974-9575-47-4
  • David K. Wyatt ( Transl., Ed. ): The Nan Chronicle. SEA Program Cornell University, Ithaca 1994, ISBN 0-87727-715- X
  • Carol Stratton: Buddhist Sculpture of Northern Thailand. Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, ISBN 1-932476-09-1
  • David K. Wyatt: Temple Murals as on Historical Source. The Case of Wat Phumin, Nan. Chulalongkorn University Press, Bangkok 1993, ISBN 974-581-856-9
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