VOWME UU PART l JANUARY

THE ;JOURNAl..

OF THE

' ' '

' .

TB)D SIAM SOOlETY His Majestytb'el{ing Ber Maj(!sty the Que~n Her Majesty Que~n Ramb~li B11rni ;Her Ro~al:Highile~s the ,Princess o Songkhla

f{is-MiJ~sty I,\:ip:g.FrederikJX of Denmark ''I ' ( !.'.:' '. ., . ,, , /"' ,< " ', :' ': '

VOWME LIII PART 1 JANUARY 1965

THE

J URNAL OF THE

BANGKOK

2508

TABLE OF CONTENTS VOLU.!VIE LIII PART 1 ,JANUARY :l..IHH'i

Articles H.G. Quaritch Wales Professor Gordon H. Luce

John H. Brandt

Thamsook Nurnnonda

H.H. Prince Dhaninivat, Kromarnun Bidyalabh

Phya Anuman Rajadhon Larry Sternstein

Book Review

Larry Sternstein

Rece11t Siamese Publications :

Muang Bon, A Tawn of Northern Dvaravati Dvaravatz and Old Burma

The Southeast Asian Negrito

The Anglo-Siamese Secret Convention of I 8D7

Hide Figures of the Ramakien Notes : W at Sijum, Sriraja, Lavo Data on Conditioned Poison

'K.rung K.ao' : The Old CajJital of Ayutthaya

Text-Book Thailand

D. 318. Attributes of His Holiness Kromsanulecfna Param'iinujit 319. Letters to a friend during the state visit of

their Majesties to America 320. Their Majesties' Official Visits to Pakistan and Malaya 321. The Story of the Sihala Image

Page

10

27

45

61

67

69

83

123

127

128

129

130

MUANG BON, A TOWN OF NORTHERN DV ARA v ATi by

'J(.r:J. Qrwritdz, C(Q)alcs

In a previous article in this journal 1 I called attention to the correct location of Williams-Hunt's supposed most easterly "metro-polis", which is really situated ncar Ban Bon, on the left bank of the Menam Chao Phya, some twenty miles south of Nnkhon Sawan ( Paknampo ). Further work with modern maps enabled me to plot its position more exactly, as shown on the accompanying sketch-map (Fig. 1 ). It lies about three miles south of r'yuhagiri, the main north-south highway running alongside the other rampart. Con-sequently it proved to be easily accessible. It is rather surprising that it should have remained so long unknown, except or course to the Ban Bon villagers, some of whom realized that the cat'lh works were the ramparts of an ancient town.

MLiang Bon (Fig. 2 ), as the site may be called, has town status by reason of its extensive outer enclosure, though it is smaller than I had originally judged from the air photograph. The internal diameter of the circular inner enclosure i:s only about 300 yards, that of an average circular site on the Korat plateau, the total length of the outer enclosure being about 1000 yards. Each enclosure has a ~ingle moat, now dry, averaging some 35 yards wide, and in the case of the outer one often obliterated by agriculture. A small tributary of the Menum running west of the outer rampart would have provided a good water supply, and may have communicated with the moat. It would seem that multiple moats and ramparts were not needed even i 11 the smaller settlements of central Siam, as they were on the Korat plateau where the people must have been much more exposed to the danger of attack.

It was during the first week of February 1964 that my wife and I were enabled by the kind co-operation of Khun Dlmnit Yupho, Director~General of the Fine Arts Department, to visit this site and --------""-~~-- ....... ~-.~ ---- --- - ---"----------

1 H.G. Quaritch "Wales, "An Early Duddhist Civilization in Eastern Siam ", J.S.S., Vol. XLV. 1957, p. 5G.

2 H.G. QUAHITCH WALES

carry out some trial excavations. In this undertaking we were aided by two members of the Department, Khun Mali Koksanfia and Khun Raphisak Jaiwal, who proved most helpful.

The inner enclosure has a rampart outside the moat (Fig. 3 ); but not one inside it, as appeared from the air photograph, this ap-pearance having been given by a ring of vegetation. The rampart, some 20 yards broad at the base, stands at present about six feet higher than the level of the ground in the enclosure. Traces of bricks were seen at several places on the earth rampart when we walked round, and at one point on the south they seemed to be of some depth, a trench revealing laid bricks in two or three courses. I am unable to say what was the purpose of this brickwork. Gaps indicated the positions of former gateways at the cardinal points. The one on the south showed earth abutments, jutting out from each bank of the moat, which would have supported a bridge.

The interior of the inner enclosure was bare, except for occas-ional trees and patches of scrub, most of it having been under bean cultivation. Potsherds were frequently to be seen on the surface, and were particularly abundant in the south-eastern part. So it was here that I made arrangements with the owner of the land to make trial excavations quite near to the moat, while about ten Ban Bon villagers were engaged to work for us. Meanwhile we were shown a more or less surface find, which had come to light when the ground was being tilled in this area, and it certainly excited my interest. This was a rather unusual terracotta votive tablet, a little over two inches high, embossed on one side with a representation of the abiekha of Sri (Fig. 4 A), a well-known Buddhist motif, which is found for example on a Wheel of the Law from Nakhon Pathom. On the reverse of the tablet (Fig. 4 B) there is a figure seated in the attitude of royal ease which, despite its weathering, seems to show a laudable freedom and mastery of design.

The owner of the land where we were to dig mentioned that "enough beads to make a necklace" had been found after rain, but he had given them to children who had lost them. From his descrip-

' Fig. 1. Sketchmap showing position of Miiang Bon.

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Fig. 2. Outline of Miiang Bon (based on an air photograph at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford.) 1-4 positions of gateways ; A, inner enclosure excavation; B, outer enclosure excavations; C, inscribed stone found here; lJ, approxnnate vusiuon of stiipas.

Fig. :l. Miiang Bon: rnmpart and moat of inner enclosure. ( 1\uthor'N phol.o1~raphl

Fig. 4. Votive tablet from inner encLosure of Mi.iang Bon. CFrom sketches made by f\:hun Raphisak).

Fig. 5. Mi.iang Bon: inner enclosure trial excavation. (Author's photograph)

Fig. 6. Examples of sherds. (Author's photograph)

\tijA\l; llll:\, .I TOll N OF \O!l!IIF!l\ 1>\ :i"ILIUJ'J :; tion I should think they were common Kuala Sclinsing types, such as have also been found at U T'ong. :~

A trial trench 23 feet long was dug at right nngles to the moat, and ending 15 feet from it. Later this trench was extended right to the moat and the pottery deposits were found to continue to within six feet of the sloping edge of the moat. The upper six inches in the trench consisted of soil disturbed by agriculture, with few sherds. Below this was a layer of about 18 inches or undisturbed soil, with potsherds, animal bones etc; that is to say the bottom of the habitation level was about two feet beneath present ground level. A second trench was then dug parallel to the first, about nine feet from it. Then the intervening block (Fig. 5) was carefully cleared down to natural soiL first the six inches of disturbed soil, then the 18 inches with undisturbed deposits, which showed no stratification.

The slierds were of coarse reddish and greyi~h wares, some with simple impressed ornament (rigs. 6, 7, 8 ), while only a very small proportion was cord-marked. The sherds were on the whole very different from those previously found at the circular sites on the Korat plateau.:; The site \vas probably not inhabited much af'ter the Xth century A.D., since no gla;.cd pottery or porcelain was found. ft is important to place the~c sherds on record against the time when documented material may be obtained !'rom many other Dvuravati sites. Only then will it be possible to sec what conclusions may emerge from their comparative st.udy. Besides the shcrds there were also occasional pot-lid knobs, spouts and pottery counters. An iron knife blade was found at a depth or 14 in., and another at 15 in. At ll in. was found a small tin ring, probably f'rom a fishing net, and at 18 in. were found two broken portions of stone saddlc-qucrns and a rubber, similar to others that have been found at Dvrira vali' sites.

Potsherds were also seen on the surface in many parts of the outer enclosure. I decided to dig a trial trench (about 10 ft. long) at a convenient spot some thirty yards south-east of the inner cnclo-

2 It may here be mentioned that at nnother D1:iravmi site, Ku B11a, I\atburi, a collection of such glass bends, plus a few carnelian and other stone barrel bends, all found locally, are now preserver! nt 'Vat Khan ( Sitr~ 18 ), Kij Bun,

3 J.S.S. Joe. cit., Figs.

4 H.G. QUARITCH WALJ\S

sure rampart. The object was to see how the deposits compared with those in the inner enclosure. We found a layer of similar sherds extending from a depth of 6 in. beneath the surface down to 2H in., but within this layer the concentration of sherds was less than in the inner town. From this one might be safe in drawing the conclusion that, while the outer enclosure was added not long after the founding of the original settlement, it was less densely populated.

At the bottom of the habitation level in this trench we were fortunate in making a find such as is usually not to be expected in a trial trench. This was the front half of an earthenware Roman style lamp, the extant portion measuring 6~ in. long, 2~ in. high, the mouth still showing traces of blackening from a wick (Fig. 9 ). Apart from the well-known bronze Roman lamp found at P'ong T'iik, there is a complete earthenware one resembling the present one which came from Nakhon Pathom, and is exhibited in the National Museum. Un-fortunately such lamps cannot provide us with a date. Although Roman prototypes in Italy may date from the first or second century A.D., this type of lamp evidently became popular when introduced to Dvaravati and may have been copied for centuries.

We were informed that lying by the border of a padi field in the south-eastern part of the outer enclosure there was an inscribed stone. We went to see this, and the owner of the field said that formerly there had been two such stones, but the other one had been destroyed. This one was about two feet high, roughly pointed at one end (Fig. 10 ). It had evidently been a stele from which most of the surface had flaked off, and only three or four isolated letters could be distinguished. After it had been transported to the Bangkok Museum, a rubbing was made which I subsequently sent to Monsieur Coedes. He informs me that the style of the letters seems to indicate that they date from about the VIIIth century A.D.

One day Khun Mali told me that he had heard of the existence of six old stilpa-mounds, outside the town enclosure to the south-east, and near to a modern wat. We went to inspect these and saw that they were fairly large, the largest perhaps some forty feet in diameter, and partly overgrown with vegetation (Fig. 11 ). The thorough in-

. . . . . ' .

I 3 INS----t

Fig. 7. Pot-rims I, :2 (above), :l, 1 ( belflw) C Autlu11'~ photograph)

Fig, 8. Sections of potrirns shown 111 Fig 7.

Fig. 10. The inscribed stone. (Author's photograph)

Fig. 11. Mi.iang Bon : one of the stiipa mounds. (Author's photograph)

Fig. 12. Stucco gures from a Miiang Bon stupa. (Author's photograph)

Fig. 13. Stucco dwarf caryatid from Mi.iang Bon stupa. (From a sketch by Khun Raphisak )

Fig. 14. Dwarf earyatid from a Miiang Bon stiipa. (Photo: Khun Raphisak)

Fig. 15. Stucco bead from a Miiang Bon stfipa. (Photo: Khun Raphisak)

MliANG BON~ A TOWN OF NOBTUERN DV'ARAVAJ-1 5 vestigation of these would have entailed a larger task than I had envisaged; hut I was later assured by the Director-General that their excavation would be undertaken by the Fine Arts Department. For the moment I was satisfied by the information I derived from the fact that one of the stiipas had obviously been broken into, and some of the objects that had been extracted were found to be in the possession of another modern wat, situated not far away. These consisted of two headless stucco figures of dancers or musicians, height 6! in. and 51, in., (Fig. 12) two stucco dwarf caryatids, height 2ft., (Figs. !3, 14 ), and a stucco head with foliage head-dress, height 14 in. (Fig. 15). All these are unmistakably characteristic of Dvliravati art; but, on this restricted amount of material, I should hesitate to ascribe objects which may be rather provincial to a particular phase of it. However the last mentioned object appears less stylized than rather similar stucco pieces from P'ong T'!ik.4 What appears to be certain is that the st'llpas (five of them intact) are contemporary to MUang Bon, and their full investigation may provide a wider range of material of great interest.

Near the modern wat by the stlipa-mounds there was a rough rectangular stone base measuring 41 in. by 21 in. Of a piece with it were two stone feet, each 21 in. long, with sockets at the heels, on which must have formerly stood a large image (Fig. 16 ). There were several ancient bricks about, one measuring lOin. x 2~ in. x 7in.

Here I will make mention of another circular village site, Ban Thap Chumpbon, situated about three miles north of Nakbon Sa wan, measuring under 300 yards in diameter and with moat and rampart. l made only a superficial inspection of this place, and was shown the spot where in 1961, in what appeared to be the remains of a brick st'ii.pa, a number of Dvaravati style votive tablets bad been found, and also some small votive stiipas, at least three of which were inscribed with Buddhist credos. M. Coedes tells me that he has seen the rub-bings of the inscriptions and that they date from the Vllth or Vlllth century A.D. This evidence (bad it been published) might already have been taken as sufficient to establish the northward extension of Dvliravatr to this area; or again it might have been doubted, on the

4Cf. P. Dupont, L'Archolof{ie M(;ne de DrOravari. Paris. 1959, page 113.

6 IT.G. QUAH!TCII VI'.\U:s

grounds that the Dvaravati objects could have merely been a hoard placed there at some later time. Now, in view of the finds from Miiang Bon, the material from Thap Chumphon certainly acquires greater evidential value: indeed the two sites supplement each other. It is not likely that Bon, which developed into a town, would be situated right on the frontier. The stele we found there, probably of the VIIIth century, was lying in the outer enclosure. Consequently it seems likely that both Bon and Thap Chumphon were founded by the end of the VIIth century. How much further north the authority of Dvaravati extended it is not at present possible to say; but that that distance was considerable is suggested by the legend that queen Chammadevi from Lopburi evidently had to go as far afield as Lam-phun to establish a new kingdom in the VIIIth century.

The archaeological and epigraphic discoveries made in recent years both in central Siam and on the Korat plateau now give the impression that the kingdom of Dvaravati, or at least its culture, was virtually co-extensive with the subsequent kingdom of Siam, exclusive of the Lao and Malay states. It seems to have controlled the Korat plateau much longer than I thought when I wrote my previous article. 5

In this connection, I must, however, mention the apparently conflicting deduction which M. Coedes draws from his study of two inscription~ that were recently found at Si T'ep. He has very kindly sent me a proof of the section dealing with these two inscriptions, which will appear in the seventh volume of his Inscriptions du Cambodge.

One of the new inscriptions ( K. 978) is a Sanskrit text of lhe Vlth-VIIth century A.D., mentioning a King Bhavavarman, who appears to be the well-known Bhavavarman I of Chen-la. From this inscription we learn that he had enough authority in the Nam Sale valley to set up Siva images on the occasion of his accession to sovereignty. Incidentally this represents an abrupt change from the religion of the former rulers of Si T'ep, who were Vai$l)avas. That Bhavavarman I might well have made a raid, or temporarily extended his power, into the Nam Sak valley in the disturbed times following the break-up of Fu-nan is understandable enough. Briggs 6 has simi-

5 J.S.S., Joe. cit., p. 59. 6 r;.p. Briggs, Tire Ancifllf Kluner Empire, Philadelphia, 1951, p. 4::;,

1

larly taken the same king's comparable Tham Pet Thong inscription in the upper Mun valley as indicating nothing more than the com-memoration of a successful raid. Indeed Bhavavarman could well have been the destroyer of old Si T'ep. For the next three centuries r know of no evidence concerning SI T'ep, unless we can take the recent finding of some large stone Dvaravati statues in a cave in a mountain near Si T'ep as possibly significant. But Coedes concludes with regard to this new Bhavavarman inscription ns follows: " L'im-plantation de la puissance du Tchen-la, premier royaume khmer, au moins a partir de cette epoque [early Vllth century A.D.], y est d'ailleurs confirmee, d'une part par le fragment d'inscription K. 979 qui est en Khmer, et de l'autre par le l'existence des nombreux vestiges khmeres signales par H.G. Quaritch Wales."

Now I did not record the finding of any Khmer remains at Si T'ep which in my opinion were older than the XIth or XIIth century A.D. The Khmer inscription K. 979, the second newly found one, in script of the Xth century, can do no more than indicate the presence of Khmer influence some time in the Xth century. Coedes has himself recognized7 the existence in the Karat region of a kingdom still independent of the Khmer empire in the middle of the Xth century, even if it employed the Khmer language in inscriptions as early as the IXth. And he says of these Korat plateau inscriptions: ''Ces divers documents epigraphiques assez disparates ont pour caraetere commun d'etre etrangers au Cambodge, meme s'ils emploient la langue khmere. Certains d'entre eux emanent peut-etre de pays ayant fait partie, ou ayant reconnu la suzerainete, du royaume de Dvaravati. " 8 For the Khmers to have occupied the Nam Sak valley, while Dvaravati dominated the Korat plateau and the Menam valley, would seem to me to be a geographical and strategic impossibility.

7 G. Coedes, "Nouvelles donm!es epigraphiques Sllr l'hi~toire de l'Indochine centrale", Journal Asiatique, 1958, p. 127.

g ibid., p. 128.

DVARAV A Ti AND OLD BURMA by

r]Jrofesso r o rdon r:H . ..uce The so-called Burmese Era, dating from 638 A.D., should rather

be called the Pyu Era, for it is pretty certain that it was used, and first used, by the Pyu of Sr"i K~etra (modern Hmawza, 4 miles S.E. of Prome ).1 Indeed, I suspect that it is the date of the founding of that city, the first capital of Burma in any large sense. Megaliths found in the neighbourhood may well be older than that date; but I doubt if anything Buddhist antedates it.

Old Mon inscriptions and late Burmese Chronicles lay great stress on the founding; but the dates they give are far too early. In the great Shwezigon inscription (c. 1100 A.D. )2 the Buddha foretells that the Rishi Vishnu (the future king of Pagan, Kyanzittha), "together with my son Gavarhpati, and King Indra, and the (celestial architect) Visvakarman, and Katakarma king of the Nagas, shall build the city called Siszt" i.e. Sri Ksetra. The Chronicles3 add that the Buddha himself flew over and stood on Mt Po-u, north of the site, in order to make his prophecy. Earth-convulsions, he said, would mark the founding. The sea would retreat from its foundations (it is now 200 miles from the sea); and Mt. Popa, the 5000 ft. volcano in the heart of Burma, would "arise like a cone out of the earth". Gavainpati, the Rishi (Vishnu), Indra, the Naga king, Garur;la, Caqqi ( Di1rga) and Paramesvara ( Shiva ), all were present at the founding. Indra stood in the centre. The Naga king swished his head round, describing the perimeter. The area enclosed by the walls, said to be 18 square miles, is far larger than that of Pagan, whose walls, even allowing ~ for river-erosion, are barely 1 mile square. The difference lies in the

1. See C.O. Blagden. "The 'Pyu' Inscriptions", Epig. Indica Vol. XII, No. 16, reprinted at J.S.R.S. Vol. VII Part l, PP 37-44 ( esp. pp. 42-43 ). The era was used in the Pyu kings' urn-inscriptions, brilliantly read by Blagden. The period covered .is from 3580, sc. 673-718 A.D. 718 is the last certain date in the history of Pyu Sri K9etra.

2. Epig. Birm. I, II, Inscr. I, l'ace, A, ll. 30-33. The elate of the founding is given in Inscr. III, l'ace C, 1.3: "in the year of my reaching Nirv'a1~a ", i.e. 544 B.C. according to Burma tradition.

3. See, e.g., Glass Palace Chronicle (trans!. from the ' Hmannan Yazawin' by Pe Maung Tin and G.H. Luce, 1923, Oxford University Press) pp. 7, 14-15. The date of the founding is given as 101 A.B., i.e. 443 B.C,

10 Gordon H. Lucc

presence or absence of ricefields. At Pagan there are none. At Sri Ksetra, the northern half of the city, and much of the southern, is ricefield.

All this fuss about the founding points, I suspect, to the fact that it was the first strongly Buddhist capital in Burma. I used to think that there was an earlier Buddhist capital. Chineses authors'1

tell of plans made (but cancelled on his death) by Fan Shih Wan (Sri Mara.), the great king of Fu-nan, to conquer the thriving port of CHIN-LIN (or CiflN-CH'EN). This was near the beginning of the 3rd century A.D. Chin-lin was situated on a big bay over 2,000 li west of Fu-nan. It was a populous kingdom, rich in silver and ivory. Chill, the first syllable, means Gold, Suvanna. Two thousand li inland beyond it, in a wide plain, was the kingdom of LIN-YANG (Liem-yang), with an ardent Buddhist population of over 100,000 families, including several thousand monks: "one goes there (from Chin-lin) by car-riage or on horseback. There is no route by water. All the people worship the Buddha". Two thousand li beyond Lin-yang, was NU-HOU kingdom of "the descendants of slaves", over 20,000 families, conterminous with Yung-ch'ang ( Pao-shan ).-There are some discre-pancies in the texts, throwing doubt on whether .the ''great bay" was the Gulf of Siam or the Gulf of Marta ban. I used to think the latter: but now, in view of what we know about the antiquity of Dvaravatl, and perhaps Haripunjaya, I incline to place Lin-yang in North Siam, rather than in Central Burma. Lying equidistant between the sea and Nu-hou Yung-ch'ang, it might be in either country.

Another reason that inclines me to place it in Siam is the re-cent work of U Aung Thaw,5 the energetic head of our present Burma Archaeological Department. He has been excavating, 'Peikthano-myo ', a large walled ruin at Kokkogwa, a hundred miles north of

4. For ~jlilf. Chin-lin ( ~~'*- Chinch'en), ;#.!%" Lin-yang, and -:kll..,f!. Nu-hou, see discussion at J.S.R.S. 1924, Vol. XIV, Part II, pp. 142-158; 1937, Vol. XXVII, Part III, p. 2110, n. I. The chief Chinese sources are Liang-shu, ch. 51 (Section on Pu-nan ); Shui-ching-chu ch. 1, , 6 r 0 ; T'ai-p'ing-yii-lan, ch. 787, f. 4 v0 ; 790, f, 9 V0 , 10 r 0

5. See Aung Thaw, Preliminary Report an the h";-;cavation at Peikthanomyo, 1959 (pub!. by the Asia foundation for the Archaeological Survey of Burma). A.S.S. 1959, PP 8-10 CBurmese), and Plates 1 to 28.

DVAHAVATI AND OLD Bllll~IA 11

Sri K~etra. It is certainly older than Sri K~etra. U Aung Thaw has revealed a number of large buildings and many interesting objects: but, in spite of the name ("Vishnu City" ), hardly any Indian writing, and little evidence of Indian workmanship, and none whatever of Buddhism. Nor, I think, has he found megaliths. At Sri K~ctra, on the other hand, almost everything dug up ( apart from megaliths ) shows the influence of India-whether Buddhist ( Hinayana or Maha-yana) or Brahmanic ( Vaishnavaite ). The southern half of the city is dotted with large cylindrical stupas, bell-like encased stupas, and small vaulted temples with great variety of plan and sl1apc. There are also cemeteries with pots of ashes ranged in terraces. The Pyu kings still clung to megalithic customs: their ashes arc found in huge stone urns, engraved with Pyu inscriptions, but otherwise 1 ike those of the Plaine des Jarres in Laos.(i

Mr. Chairman, this is my first visit to Thailand. Let me admit that I am appalled at my temerity in addressing Thailand's eminent scholars about their antiquities. But with your permission, Sir, I propose to try and compare the arts of Mon Dvuravati, as shown especially in Dupont's book, with those of Burma: namely the Pyu of Sri K~etra (7th-8th cent. ), the coastal Burma Mon (l(iima1l'iiadesa ), and the inland Man/Burmese of Pagan ( 1 Hh--13th cent. ).

My first feeling, I confess, is how different they all arc-even Dvaravati Mon and Burma Mon. There was little or no difference between these Mons, either in language or race. The difference lay, I suppose, in the different influences from India which informed them. Dupont sees in Dvaravati Mon especially the influence of Amaravati: and Ceylon. In Burma Mon, both architecture and sculpture, I sec little Andhra influence except in the south. I only wish there were more, for the Andhras were great sculptors.

I see hardly any Singhalese influence before the 11th century. I see, on the other hand, the clear dominance of North Indian models, at any rate at Pagan. Your ancient Buddhism was simpler and purer than ours. It seems to date from before the wide diffusion of Shaivism

6. See M. Colani, Megalithe.\' du Haul-Laos, 2 vols., 1925 CParis, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient). '

12 Gordon H. Luce

in Upper India. Our Buddhism, especially in the north (North Arakari, Pagan and evenProme) had close contact with the Mahayanist, Tantric, and Brahmanic schools of Pala and post-Pala Bengal. It was only, I think, after 1070 A.D., with the obtaining of the full Pali Tipitaka from Ceylon, that the great change to Theravada was finally possible at Pagan. The chief agent in that change was King Kyanzittha, who reigned from 1084 to 1113 A.D. Round about 1090, near the beginning of his reign, he was building a Theravada temple, the Nagayon, on one side of the road at Pagan, while his chief queen, (perhaps a lady from East Bengal) was building a Tantric Mahayanist temple, the Abeyadana, on the opposite side of the road. Kyanzittha's final temple, the Ananda, which dates (I think) about 1105 or later,7 marks the final triumph of Singhalese Theravada in Burma.

LATERITE. Dupont says little about laterite architecture or sculpture. At P'ong Tiik- one of your oldest site- Coedes noted plenty of it:8 buildings of brick and laterite, which foundations, round and square, of laterite blocks, neatly arranged; high basement platforms faced with laterite, with simple fine plinth-mouldings. My colleague, Col. Ba Shin, who had the great privilege last year of visiting your old sites under your guidance, thinks you may have here just as much laterite-work as we have in coastal Burma. At P'ong Tiik, he noted "huge laterite pillars and carved blocks for the waist and recesses of the stupa". At the base of the Phra Fathom, "a lifesize torso-image, a ten-spoke Wheel of the Law, 3 small stupas, a carved pedestal, a large vase on a pedestal, and (perhaps) a litJga-all in laterite. Near 7. Dupont ( pp. 6, 57, etc.) follows Duroiselle (A. S.l. 191311, pp. 64-65) in giving

1090 A. D. as the date of the completion of the Anand a. I think this is much too early. The Mon inscription cited by Duroise!le, which was later edited by Blagden in Vol. III, Part 1, of Epigraphia Sirmmzica, records the building of the palace ( 1102 A.D.), not of the Ananda. The "Burmese oral tradition" that the king "had the architect put to death, lest any similar edifice should be erected by any of his successors", to which Harvey (History of Burma, P 41) adds the further refinement that "at the foundation a child was buried alive to provide the building with a guardian spirit", is just folklore cliche, not to say rubbish. It should not be repeated in serious history, any more than Governess Anna's account of Gate-

sa~:ifice in 1865 Siam -a libel finally exposed by Mr. A.B. Griswold in his King Mongkut of Siam (Asia Society, New York, 1961).

8. See" The excavations at P'ong Ti.ik and their importance for the ancient history of Siam", Joumal of the Siam Society, V~). XXI, Part 3, pp. 195-209.

IlVAHAVATI AND OJ.IJ llllll\1\

Ratburi, "the Wut Mahathut built of laterite, together with its enclo-sure-walls; also a seated Buddha image". At Lopburi, the Phra Prang San Yot, "built entirely of laterite. with pediments and spires beauti-fully carved"; and within the round-about across the railway-line, 'a ruin which looks like a hillock of laterite blocks, with two stone, images of' Vishnu" (he thought). Finally, ncar Prachinburi to the cast, " a huge laterite block, shaped like the m_I(la or a stupa ".

Was not Laterite the first native material. in the coastal regions of both our countries, to be used for Buddhist and pre-Buddhist art'! As for Burnt Brick, though hallowed by A~oka's usc of it, it is a foreign Indian word ( i!(haka) in nearly all our languages -Thai, Shan, Mon, Khmer, Burmese, etc. Laterite was certainly the old building and art-stone in Ramannadesa. It was used for drains, gargoyles, square wells, ramps, pillars and pedestals, casings of relic-caskets; for animal sculptures, platforms, city-walls and all the oldest Buddhas and pagodas; for colossal monolith such as the Htamal6n seated Bud-dha, 17 ft. 9 in. high. Such images soon lose their surface features, but the beauty ol' their colouring (if not buried in paint unci plaster) remains for centuries.

At Zolcthok9 ncar our Keli:'isa, where some or the Rulqas turned Buddhist and offered their "ropes of hair'' ( Mrm juk sok), they us-sembled huge beams ol' laterite, artfully piled, to construct the pagoda. All around there is a glorious congregation---all native monoliths or reel iron claystone, skilfully carved: umbrellas with bead and tassel fringes resting on octagonal posts, altars hour-glass shaped with double lotus mouldings, knobbed pillars with table-tops, ends or ramps with volutes, 'buds' for corner-posts with little niches for candles, four-sided stupas, pinnaclcd, with four shrines for seated Buddhas, and all man-ncr of carved stands with leaf-patterns. All arc in laterite. They outblaze the noonday sun in April, yet keep their porous calm and coolness. For sheer workaday beauty, what stone in the world can beat it!

REREDOS. There is one great difference in iconology bet-ween Mon and Pyu. The earliest Mon images, both in Burma and 9. Sec U Mya, Arch. Sun. Ind., Report 1934-35, pp. 51-52 and Plate XXI.

i4 Gordon H. Luce (I think) Siam, were always in the round. With the Pyu, and usually the Bunnans, they must be backed with a reredos (' tag,e '). It i~ a relic, I suspect, from megalithic religion. The oldest images at Sri

K~etra are massive stone reliefs, Buddhist or Brahmanic.L0 But what is massive is not the figure but the stone 'tage '. Right down to Pagan times, even when both are made of brick, the 'tagt: ', often plain, seems almost as prominent as the image. It has even recurred to me that one could measure the decay of one religion and the advance of the other by the relative thickness of 'tage' and image!

VAULTING. In the temples, the greatest difference between Siam and Burma lies in the vaulting. From Pyu times (7th-8th cen-tury), right through our Pag{m and Pinya periods, and (rarely) beyond, the Radiating Pointed Arch has been the main, preserving feature of Burma's architecture. No two Pyu temples are alike in plan; but all employ the radiating arch. The graining of the four pendentives at Sri Ksetra is sometimes crude and two-dimensional (e.g. the Bebe shrine), but it can be perfect (e.g. the East Z6gu temple). This neg-lected temple, as M. Henri Marchal realized,ll is a small masterpiece, the prototype of Pagan.

Radiating arches have also been found in Old Pegu, 1 ~ but not yet at Thaton. The Mons, even at Pagan, did not entirely trust the radiating arch. At the centre of the arch way they usually insert a lintel of carved or fossil wood. The original 'Mon' type of temple appears to have been a square shrine, with elaborate plinth-mouldings on the outer side, tall niches richly embossed above them, pre-forated stone windows with pediments, dado, and Kirtimuldta frieze and cornice. A lean-to corridor was later added, with perforated windows on three sides, and a broad entrance-hall on the fourth. This lean-to corridor had only a half -vault, which could not bear the shock 10. See, e.g., Arch. Surv. Ind., Report 1909-10, Plate L (r), "Stone Sculpture from the

Kyaukkathein Pagoda". 11. See his "Notes d' Architecture, Birmane, 1 o Z~gu Est", with its excellent drawings

at B.E.F.E.O. t. XI, 1940, pp. 425-431. 12. See ].A. Ste.wart, "Excavation and Exploration in Pegu", J. Burma Research

Society Vol. VIr, Part I (Aprill917), pp. 17-18, 20. There are also radiating arches in the modernized Theinbyu pagoda, N. NW. of Kamanat village, E. of Pegu Old City.

DVAilAVATI- AND OLD BURMA 15

of earthquake, as full keystone vaulting could. That is why the cor~ ridor roofs of so many of the' Mon' type of temples at Pagan, have fallen in. The Old Bmmans, taught by Mon experience, avoided this mistake: their fully vaulted temples have stood Lhe shocks of centuries.

Dupont is wrong in saying (on p. 125) that vaulting was not used in Burma monasteries, partly because the spans were too broad. There is great variety in plan of the brick monasteries of Pagan; but all are vaulted. One monastery,13 dated 1223 A.D. N.E. of Lemy~ ethna temple, Minnanthu, has two large vaulted halls ( 44 x 20ft., and 40x 15 ft.), set at right angles to each other, with a mezzanine corridor crossing between the spandrels. Sad to say, nearly all these daring monasteries are in ruin, because the walls were too thin, quite verti~ cal, and not buttressed; no allowance was made for the outward thrust of the vaulting.

Where did the Pyu learn the art of vaulting?-Not, I think, from the Chinese Later Han dynasty tombs in Tongking, as M. Henri Mar~ chal suggested;14 for there the style of bricklaying is quite different: the brick's broad face being at right angles to the plane of the arch.l5 In Burma, as at Ni.i'landa16 and in Central Asia,17 the brick's broad face is always parallel to the arch-face. No radiating arches survive in Eastern India, so far as I am aware, as old as those of Sri Ksetra. But I expect the Pyu learnt their fine technique from North Indian

13. See Plate 5 of Mr. Braxton Sinclair's article, "The Monasteries of Pagan" in J.B.R.S., Vol. X, Part T, reprinted at pp. 5858 of the Fiftieth Anniversary Pub-lication No. 2. The Lernyethna dedications are recorded under date 585 s., in Inscriptions of Burma, Portfolio I, Plate 73. The pillar is still in situ.

14. lac. cit .. PP 428, 435-6. 15. See, e.g., Q.R.T. Janse, Archaeological Research iulndo-China, Vol. I (f-Jarvard

University Press, 1947), Plate 7 (2), which shows "the undisturbed brick con struction" of one of the Thanhhoa tombs. Or see G. Coedes. Les pe11p!es de fa peninsule indochinoises (Paris, 1962), Pl. V Cbas).

16. Nalanda Monastery No. 1 (Granary) has two radiating barreJ.arches, between vertical front and back walls, the bricks of voussoir being laid Cas in Burma) parallel to the archface. Here wooden lintels are also usual. The date is thought to be 9th cent. These vaults, says Dr. Ghosh, are "among the first specimens of the true arch in ancient India": see his Guide to Nalanda ( Delhi 1959) p. 8.

17. See L. Bey lie, Prome et Samara (Paris, 1907 ), p. 99, flg. 71, for a sketch of an 8th cent. burrel-vault in Chinese Turkestan. Here too the broad face of the bricks is parallel to the arch-face.

16 Gordon H. Luce

architects, whether from Bihar, Orissa or Bengal. Heavy rainfall and earthquake may account for the disappearance of such vaulting, both in Eastern India and at That6n.

MON PEDIMENT ( clec, clac).- For architectural ornament the Pagan Burman was deeply indebted to the Mon. The Mon pediment is the most conspicuous detail of Pagan architecture, crowning or enclosing almost every arch and window. Sri, Goddess of Luck and wife of Vishnu, is often seen in the top centre. This goes back to the carved stone jambs and architraves of Buddhist tora11as at Sanci,lS or to the entrance of the Jain Ananta Gumpha Khandagiri, in Orissa. But the two elephants with trunks bathing her, have passed at Pagan into floral arabesques. At the lower corners of the pediment, there are spouting makaras. Sri and Makara are, properly speaking, Vaishnava figures. King Kyanzittha, who declared himself an Avatar of Vishnu, popularized the Mon clec at Pagan, though it occurs earlier on the Nan-paya and the Nat-hlaung-gyaung ( a Vishnu temple ). The word claco, a pure Mon word, oc-curs in one of the Vat Kukut inscriptions at Haripunjaya;19 and the pediment itself crowns every tiered niche in that magnificent monu-ment.20 Judging from photographs, I guess that the makams are shown, but not the SRI. I do not know if the clac occurs in Dvara-vati art. The two Mon words, K.yax Sri, ''Goddess Sri", have passed into Burmese ' kyesthye ' as an abstract noun meaning "splendour".

VOTIVE TABLETS.-Burma's art here comes nearest to that of Dvaravati. For the origin of Votive Tablets-often shown by the Buddhist Credo ( ye dharma hetuprabhava etc. ) stamped in Sanskrit-Nagari, usually on the obverse-is clearly from N.E. India, especially Bodhgaya. After comparison, not only with Dupont's book ( where few tablets are shown), but also with Coedes' admirable article, "Siamese Votive Tablets", published in the Siam Society's Journal,21 18. See e.g., H. Zimmer, The Art of Indian Asia, Plates Vol., Nos. 18, 27 CSanci). 19. See B.E.F.E.O. t. XXX, p. 97 (Vat Kukut Inscr. II, 1.4 ). 20. See The Arts of Thailand C ed. by T. Bowie, 1960 ), P 50. 21. J.S.S. Vol. XX (Part I,) 1926, pp. 1-23, with 15 plates. Reprinted in the

Fiftieth Anniversary Vol. I, pp. 150172 ( 1954 ),

llVAHAVA1~ AN!J OLD llliH~IA 17 ~tnd also with notes made by Col. Ba Shin on his visits to the Bang-kok and other museums, we have found 8 or 9 types of plaques in Burma which arc exact, or close, copies of yours in Thailand.

( i) Coedes' Plate I (top) illustrates the First Sermon: the Bud-dha seated between stupas in pralambanasana, dharmacalmnnudra, with a Deer on either side of his footstool, and the Wheel of the Law below it. Your plaque comes from P'ong Tlik.~~ Several variants, never (I think) quite the same as yours but very similar, have been found at Pagan,~8 Sri K~etra2 1 and Twant(!:!ri near Rangoon. A bronze mould for such tablets has been found at Myinkaba, and is now in Rangoon University Library.

( ii) A rare variety, from Nyaungbingan in Meiktila district, shows the Buddha seated in the same attitude between two Bodhisat-tvas, seated on the same throne in lalitasana. 21i I do not know if this variety is found in Thailand. But a third variety, oblong with arching top, is shown in Coedes' Plate II, top, right und left corners. Here the Bodhisattvas are standing, and three 'Dhyani' Buddhas arc added at the top or the plaque. The plaques come from Budalung and P'ra Pa~hom. Cocd

is Gordon H. Luce persons, seated in ecstatic attitudes around him. It comes from Tharri Guha Svarga. A good specimen of the same plaque, from Sri K~etra. is in the Indian Museum, Calcutta, and a worn specimen from the same place is also shown by U Mya.29

( iv) On the same plate (bottom right), coming from the same cave, is a round Mahayanist plaque showing the Green Tara (Syama or Khadiravan'i sitting in lalittisana, right hand on knee in varadamudra. This also is in the Indian Museum, found at Sri K~etra.30

( v) Coedes Plate V (centre) shows a high triangular plaque with the Earth-touching Buddha, royally adorned, mounted on three elephant- heads, with many other Buddhas beside and above him. This type was found at Bejraburi. Specimens have also been found at Rangoon Tadagale.31

(vi ) Col. Ba Shin has a photograph of an oval plaque, show-ing the Earth-touching Buddha seated between stupas within an arch crowned with an umbrella. It is said to come from a cave in Khao Ngu hill near Ratburi. The strong tall-torsoed figure with long arm falling vertically, is found in East Benga1;:12 but it is so characteristic of Aniruddha's work at Pagan that I have ventured to call it 'the Aniruddha type'. Aniruddha's own plaques have 2 full lines of San-skrit/Nagari below the double lotus, containing the Icing's signature.:3:l Others like yours, have 3 full lines, containing the Buddhist C1'edo.34 The former come from the Icing's pagoda, Pagan Shwehsanda w; the latter from other sites at Pagan. A terracotta mould has also been found.

(vii) Col. Ba Shin has 3 photographs of a plaque, squared at the base, pointed at the top, which shows the same type of Earth-29. V.T.B. Part II, :figs. 84, 85. 30. Cf. U. Mya, V.T.B., Part II figs. 86. 31. See U. My a V .T.B. Part I, Fig. 88. 32. e.g. N.K. Bhattasali, Iconograj)hy of Buddhist and Brahmanical Sculj>tures

in the Dacca Museum (Dacca, 1929), Plate IX (a). 33. See A.S.I. 1927, pp. 1623 and Plate XXXIX Ca); 1915, Part I, Plate XX (h).

U Mya, V.T.B., Part I, fig. 4. :34. See U Mya, V.T.B., Part I, fig. 18, Mon Bo Kay, "Ye dhammii hetuppabhavii,"

Yin-yf:-lmm magazine, Vol. III, Part 9 (Feb. 1961), P 116.

DVARAVA'l'f AND OLD BURMA 19

touching Buddha, seated between stupas on a high recessed throne, under an arch crowned with sikhara and stupa. They come, I think, from Kaficanaburi.-This type, in Burma, we associate with Anirud-dha's son and successor, 'Saw Lu ', whose title, stamped on some of these plaques in Sanskrit/Nagari, is Sri Bajrabharava. These have only I line of writing below the throne,35 while yours have two. Our Sawlu plaques have been found so far only in the north, at Mandalay, Tagaung, and Kanthida in Katha township.

(viii) Col. Ba Shin has also photographs of plaques, squared below, arching to a point above, showing a similar Earth-touching Buddha seated on double lotus, with 3 stupas below the lotus, as well as 2 faint lines of what looks like Mon writing. They come from Tham Rsi, Khao Ngu hill, Ratburi-Mr. David Steinberg of the Asia Found~tion found the lower half of a suntar plaque at Mokti pagoda, at the mouth ofTavoy river. It is now with the Burma Historical Com-mission. Several other plaques from the same site had Mon writings on the back, showing that they were made by governors ( sambeit) of Tavoy ( Daway ), under king Kyanzittha (Sri Tribhovartaditya ).36

( ix) Finally, Col. Ba Shin has a photograph of a thick-rimmed plaque from Uthong, Suphanburi, showing the Earth-touching Buddha under an arch crowned with an umbrella, between 4 other small Buddhas in two tiers. Below is a line of inscription in Old Mon saying; "This Buddhamuni was made by Matrarajikar", governor of the Madra, a people N.W. of India. Perhaps he was a minister of Kyan-zittha who gave several of his ministers fanciful Sanskrit titles.-Dozens of this type of plaque have been found at Pagan, E. of the Mingalazedi.37 Often they have Mon writings on the rims. One is to be seen in the Tresor at Pegu, Shwemawdaw pagoda.

THE EIGHT SCENES.-One large and important group of votive tablets at Pagan, illustrates the Eight Scenes ( at~hamah'ii!hana) in the life of Gotama Buddha. These have a long history in Indian 35. See U Mya. V.T.B., Part I, fig. 38. A.S.B. 1918-52, Plate I (right). 36. See U Mya, V. T.B., Part I, figs. 79, 80. Cf. Dt~roiselle, A.S.B., 1924, pp. 38-40; Ibid.

1959, Plate 31. 37. See U Mya, V.T.B., Part I, fig. 98.

20 Gordon H. Luce

art, from Gandhara onwards. At Old Nalanda one of the Pala kings built a colossal image of the Earth-touching Buddha against a reredos 15ft. high and 9k ft. broad, showing the Eight Scenes.38 This, and the many Pala carvings on black slate, must have spread the fashion to both our countries. In Burma, at Sri K~etra, only two fragments of a votive tablet of the Eight Scenes have yet been found. 39 At Pagan they are plentiful. They may be painted, as in Loka-hteikpan temple, on a large scale, 18ft. in height.40 They may be condensed onto terracotta tablets barely 3 inches high. The finest are intricately carved on what we call 'Andagu' stone, defined in the dictionaries as Dolomite.41

Not having previously seen mention of the Eight Scenes in Thailand, I was delighted to read, in Artibus Asiae,42 an artiCle by Coedes: "Note sur une stele indienne d'epoque Pala decouverte i1 Ayudhya (Siam)". It is a small gilded stone, a little over 6 inches high. The kind of stone is not stated; one would like to know whether it is a stone common to Bengal and Thailand, or one peculiar to either: for although the style is plainly Pa:la, the size is that of our 'andagu' carvings, not of ordinary Pala black slate reliefs. The scenes shown include the usual Eight:

1. Nativity, 2. Enlightenment,

at Kapilavatthu. at Bodhgaya.

3. First Sermon, near Benares. 4. Great Twin Miracles, at Savatthi.

(bottom left corner ) (center) ( middle tier, left ) (middle tier, right)

38. See A. Ghosh, A Guide to Nalanda, PP 20-21. Burgess, The Ancient Monuments. Temples, and Sculptures of India, Part II, fig. 226, Duroiselle, A.S.B. 1923, p. 31.

39, See L. de Bey lie, Prome et Samara, Plate V, fig. 2, and L'Architecture Hindoue en Extreme-Orient, p. 245, fig. 198 (from the U~myet-hna temple). A.S.I. 1910, Pl. XLIX 7 and p. 123, (from the East Zegu). Col. Ba Shin reports that a complete specimen (except for damaged rims) has been found 300 yds W. of the Li:!myet-hna, Sri K~etra, and is now in the library-museum of Shwehponpwint pagoda, Prome

h ;i" B d l 2" Tl I 1 3 11 Town. He1g t 5 .t rea t 1 45 11c mess Th 40. See Col_ Ba Shin, Loka-hteikpan (Rangoon, 1962), pp. 10-12, and Plates 10, 13, 14,

16, 17a, 18a, 19a, 21. 41. See, e.g., A.S./. 1923, Plate XXXIII (d) and p. 123; 193034, Part I, p. 180 (items

4 and 5), and Part II, Plate C ( c, d). A.S.B. 1935, Plates 9 and p, 14. 42. Artibus Asiae, Vol. XXII 1/2, 1959, pp. 9-14,

5.

6.

7.

8.

IJ\'AHAVATI AND OLIJ II\ liMA

Descent from Tavatin.1sa, to Sarikassa. Monkey's offering of honeycomb, ncar Vcs'iili. Taming of Nata-giri elephant, at Rajagaha. Parini rvui.Hl, at Kusinagara.

(top tier. lef't)

(bottom right corner)

(top tier, right) (top)

There are also 3 additional figures in the middle ol' the lower tier-the Buddha sheltered by the Mucalinda Naga, flanked by two Buddhas with outer hands on knee, and inner raised in abhayamzulra. Coedes dates the carving 11th or 12th century, judging partly from the writing of the Sanskrit/Pali Buddhist Credo engraved on the reverse.

The arrangement of these scenes is not rigid, except that the ParinirvaJ}a is always shown at the top, and the Nativity at the bot-tom; but the latter may be either on the left or the right, and the same applies to the other scenes. Burma plaques sometimes add an extra scene at the bottom centre; and several 'andagu' slabs udd, bet ween the 6 side-scenes and the central Buddha, another series or 6 (or !:l ) scenes in intermediate relief', showing the Seven Sites'1:1 in the ncigh-boUJhood of the Bodhi tree, where the Buddha, according to the later texts, spent the first seven weeks after the Enlightenment.

THE FAT MONK.- Dupont ( p. 87, and fig. 253 ) shows a re-markable' votive tablet' from Wat P'ru Pat'on in which a Fat Monk, seated with both hands supporting his belly (or is he in dhyamanuulra'!), takes the place of the Buddha. rn one of his reports 41 Duroise!Ie men-tions, without illustrating it, a similar plaque round in a mound near Tilominlo temple, Pag{tn. Statuettes of the Fat Monk arc plentiful in Burma, in stone, bron?.c, silver-gilt, bronze-gilt, plaster, terracotta an~ unburnt clay. They arc found frequently in old relic-chambers: at Sri K~etra, Rangoon, Pegu, Mandalay, Pagan etc., from the 7th to the 17th Century. Perhaps the oldest is a stone statuette, once lac-quered and gilded, found in the stone casket in the relic-chamber or Kyaik De-ap ( Bo-ta-htaung) pagoda, Rangoon.4ii '13. See, e.g., A .S.l. 193034, Part I, p. 180 (item 5 ), and Part II, Plate C (e): A .S.J.

1929, Plate LII (e) and p. 113; A.S.A. 1923, Plate llJ, f1g. 1, and pp. ao.:~1. 44. A.S.!. 1928-29, p. 111. 45. A.S.B. 1948-52, Plate III a, o.

22 Gordon I-I. Luce

In Thailand, I believt< you call this Fat Monk K.acciJyana. -Is this the 5th-6th century author of the first Pal i grammar, K.accayana vyakarm.za? Or is it the eminent disciple of the Buddha, MalzUlwccana, famous for his golden complexion? - The rich youth of Soreyya, according to the Dhanunapada-auhalwtha (I, 324 ff ), wished that his wife were like the latter: a prayer that seems improbable if he was really so obese. In Burma we hardly know how to identify him. Personally, I follow our venerable archaeologist, U Mya, in thinking he is Gavainpati, patron saint of the Mons, and a sort of ' elder states-man' in Buddhism, whose gilded images are mentioned in our in-scriptions.46 But I know no text that says Gavatnpati was abnormally fat. And Burmese scholars have suggested that the monk is the Great Disciple of the Left, Moggallana, uncomfortably swelled by the naughty Mara entering his belly, as told in the Maratajjaniya Sutta of the Majjhinza Nikaya.41

THE DVARA VATI BUDDHA-IMAGE. - Our experts, Dr. Dupont and Dr. Le May,48 are pretty well agreed about the distinctive features of the Buddha image in Mon Dvaravati. Dupont ( pp. 177-185 ) defines three of them:-

( i ) the brow-arches are joined. (ii) the figure seems almost naked, but sexless (''lc nu ascxue"). (iii) both hands tend to execute the same mudra.

For ( i ), Dr. Le May says "lightly outlined eyebrows, in the form of a swallow springing ". For ( ii ), he says "torso ... like a nude sexless body under a fine diaphanous cloth". For (iii), he distinguishes two types:-

( a ) the standing Buddha with right hand raised in abhaya rnudra, or both in vitarl~amudra.

(b) the image seated European wise ( pralambanl'tsana), either in dharrnacakramudra, or with right hand raised, left in lap.

46. e.~. inscrs. of Burma, Portfolio I, Plate 6, 11. 4-6, where gilded ima;~s-cl-St1riputtra C 1 ), Mokkallin C 1 ), and Gavathpati C 2 ), are mentioned.

47. See A.S.l. 192829, p. 110. 48. See ~eginald LeMay, The Culture of Soutlz-J:,ast Asia (1954, London, Allen and

Unwm ), pp. 65 f,

He also adds other features:--( iv ) spiral curls of hair, or abnormal size. ( v ) elliptical form of face. ( vi ) bulging upper eyelids. (vii) the material never sandstone, but a hard bl uc-black

limestone.

How docs all this compare with our images in Burma.- I find it difficult to say. Nearly all these features, except the last, occur in some Burma images, both stone, bronze and terracotta. They arc commonest perhaps at Pegu; but they occur everywhere from N. Arakan to Sri K~etw. And they do not exclude other, different feat-ures. In many cases the images arc so old or damaged that \Ve can-not be sure about the curls, the eyelids or the brow-arches. VIc can, however, usually determine the mudrli and the "iisana. The Burma im-age seated European wise, represents (with f'cw exceptions) tither the First Sermon, or the Parileyyaka Retreat. In the former case hands arc in r!lzannacahrannulra, with Wheel and Deer usually visible at the base. But the j>ralamf)(mflsmuz is not obligatory in this scene. More often the Buddha sits crosslcggecl in Indian fashion. In the Parikyyakll scene he nearly always sits in Jmilambanasana, sometimes turned hulf-lel't towards the Monkey in the right corner. He has usually almsbowl in lap. The Elephant is generally shown in the lcl't corner, with un irrelevant monk behind.

SJJJVIE MlJJ)lUI FOR FJ(J1'11 11/INJ>S. Images, seated or standing, where both hands execute the same mudr7i, arc always, in Burma, an;haic. Here I would readily admit Dvaravati influence: with this difference, that standing images arc commoner in Dvaravati, while seated images arc commoner with us. Here is a sunumuy ,of.' the Burma evidence:-

From Sri K~etra come at least 4 such images, 3 seated cross-legged, 1 standing; 3 in bronze, l in gold. All have both hands raised in vitarkamudra. The gold image, seated right leg on left, was found south of the Tharawady Gate, in a garden just outside it. 49 A beau-tiful bronze, seated in much the same pose, comes from the octagonal

49. See A.S.J. 1929, Plate LI (g) and pp. 106-7. Burm. Arch. Neg. 3097, 3098 ( 1928-29).

Gordon H. Luce

ruin at Kan-wet-hkaung-g6n. 50 Here the robe covers the left shoulder only. A similar bronze image, much cruder in style, is clearly a Pyu attempt to copy an Indian original, with features exaggerated, bulging almond eyes, large hands propped on the robe, and legs awkwardly superposed, right on left. It comes from a site west of Yindaik-kwin.51 The standing bronze image, found by the Shwenyaungbin-yo abbot near his monastery S. of Taunglonnyo village.52 wears a heavy pointed crown: but in all other respects he is dressed as a monk, with an indented line across the waist, and plain robe spreading behind the legs.

From the relic-chamber of a ruined pagoda at Twante, some 15 miles W. of Rangoon, comes a fine bronze image of the Buddha seated in pralambanasana, his delicate hands raised from the elbow in vitarkamudra. His robe covers only the left shoulder.53

At Pagan, 3 bronzes and 1 terracotta illustrate this feature. One small weathered bronze comes perhaps from Paunggu pagoda,5'1 now mostly fallen into the river, just N. of the junction of Myinkaba Chaung and the Irawady. It is a Buddha seated cross-legged, right leg on left, with large hands propped at the wrist, raised in abhaya-mudra. With it was found another archaic bronze of the Pyu Maitreya. I have a note also, written in Pagan Museum, of a similar "small bronze of' Pyu' style, headless, with tiny round legs and feet barely crossing, and both large hands in abhayamudra ". Another bronze, from Pagan Shwehnsandaw,55 shows the Buddha seated on double lotus, right leg on left, with both hands propped at the wrist. Here, I think, the attitude is vitarlwmudra. The Shwehsanclaw, built by Aniruddha c. 1060 A.D. or earlier, contained some of the oldest Pagan tablets and bronzes, including Pyu.56 --------------------------------

50. See A.S.l. 1928, Plate LlV ( b ) and p. 129 (item c). Burm. Arch. Neg. 3040 ( 1927-28 ).

51. See A.S.J. 1929, p. 105, item ( v ). Burm. Arch. Neg. 3055 ( 192.8-29 ). 52. A.S.B. 1939, Appendix F, p. xii, no. 79. Burm. Arch. Neg. 4124 ( 1938-39 ). 53. See A.S.B. 1920, Plate II, figs. 1 and 2, and p. 25. Burm. Arch. Neg. 2179,

2180 ( 1920-21 ) . 54. It is now at Pagan Museum, oddly labelled as foui)d in a "stone mound W. of the

Myazedi, 4 furlongs W. of the main road". I guess that the reference is to Paunggu pagoda.

55. Burm. Arch. Neg. 2721 ( 1926-27 ). 56. See Duroiselle, A.S.T. 1927, pp. 161-5 and Plate XXXIX (f).

iJVARAVATl AND OLD BURMA 25

The Hpetleik pagodas at Lokananda, 3 miles S. of Pagfm, are probably older than Aniruddha. It was he, doubtless, who encased them each with a corridor to hold 550 unglazed Jataka-plaques, the finest in Burma. In doing so, he reorientated the pagodas so as to face East, instead of North or West where the old stairways are still visible. At the West Hpetleik, the North steps led up to the main niche in the a1J{la or bell. Here a row of very antique bricklike tablets can be seen, and 3 similar ones at Pagan Museum. They have long tenons which ran back into the bell. Faintly visible in the centre is a haloed Buddha of Dvaravati type, standing with Iarge1 hands raised, palms forward, perhaps in the pose of Argument ( vitarkamudra) rather than Freedom from Fear ( abhayamudra). Of the three tiers on each side, the upper one may hold stupas, the two lower ones worshippers.57

CONCLUSION.-Perhaps you will feel, as I do, that the really distinguishing features of Mon, or any other art, are not really con-tained in such rigid criteria. Useful as they are as workaday means of identification, they do not contain the essence of works of art, such as the many noble specimens from Dvaravati to which Dr. Le May has introduced us. I do not think that we can rival these in Burma. But our archaeological record of Ramai'ii'iadesa is far more incomplete, I fear, than is yours of Dvaravati. And while we talk, with some confidence, about the 'Mon' element in the early temples of Pagan, we still write 'Mon' in inverted commas: for though we see clearly that it is different from Burmese, we are not always absolutely sure that it is Mon. To ascertain this, we shall have to do much more excavation in Tenasserim.

57. See A.S.I. 1907, Plate L (d) and p. 127, where Taw Sein Ko suggested that they represent "Dipankara ... prophesying that Sumedhn and Sumitta, a ilower-girl, would respectively become Prince Siddhatlhu and his wife, Yasodhara.'' Cf. A.S.B. 1908, pp. 11-12.

8 '' "''

ASIA

INDIA

.. KNOWN NEGRITO oR PYGHOID TYPES

0 OCEANIC NEGROIDS ~ AUSTRALOIDS m INTER t-11;\E'D Ne:GRITIC PYGHOI DS

Ethnological distribution map of South Asi:J :;howing locations of I'ygrnoid, Negroid and Austr;tl.,id ral'ial t) I""'

.......

THE SOUTIII

isulatccl from contact \\'ith the Asiatic Mainland. In the Philippine~. roughly 25,000 Negrito li\e on several pf the larger islands ll(' the ;trchipelago. Some 3,000 Scmang Negrito, divided into seven known bands, today inhabit the junglcd intcrinr of Northern Malaya and northward on the Peninsula of Thailand as far as~)' N. Latitude. (Sec Brandt 1962 ). Currently dwelling only in remote junglcd mountains, the Negri to seem tu han: in the past also been lowland and coa~;tal dwellers who were pushed into the interior by encroaching Malays or Thai. The surviving tribes or the Andamans :-.till arc adept fisherman and usc canoes in coastal waters.

At times the pygmoid bushman or the Kalahari desert of South Africa is also classified among true pygmies.

The now extinct inhabitants or Tasmania have been described as Ncgrito of medium stature with broad noses, thick lips, medium racial protrusion, frizzly black hair and brachycephalic skulls in con-trast to the present lnng headed, dolicocephalic, Australnid. h>r Negritos to have reached Tasmania from the Australian continent, a crossing or water at the Bass Straits would have been required by bual, assuming a late migration southward from Asia proper. Even here islands or the htrneaux, Curtis ami Kents would have facilitated such a passage. Earlier migration from Asia could have been accomplished by a short boat trip acrnss the straits scperating the Sunda and Sahul shelves of present Indonesia which joined Horne(), Malaya, Sumatra and Java in the former and Australia, New Guinea and Tasmania in the latter, for some million years during the Pleistocene. An alternate theory of Tasmanian origins by simple craft from the New I fcbrides exists. However, more reasonable speculation is that Australia itself was originally inhabited by Negrito people later replaced by Austra-loids pushing south f'rum the Asian Mainland. Further support is given this proposition by the facl that the Australian aborigine of today, arc themselves divided into what appear to be three sub-types. One a southern type with profuse body hair; a sparse haired dark northern variety and a frizzly haired negroid stock from the rain forests of Queensland, which intermixed and was largely replaced by the two others. This Ncgritic element, it is suggested, is the remaining rem~ nant of the original inhabitants.

The thidc wooly hair of tht.~ Negrito has Parned him the name " Khon Ngo" in Thai whieh likens his hair to the curly spincs on the outside of tlw fruit 1\ambutan.

TIW ~OIITIIE.\ST .\SI\N NEI:lll"rO

Further cast, the Sahul shelf continued on to include several or the larger Melanesian islands of the western Pacific. In tracing the migrations or the Pulyncsians across the Pacific, Dr. Robert C. Suggs, points out that there is reason to believe that some or the islands reached by the Polynesians as early as P.OO BC were already occupied by Negri to Pygmy or Negroid gruups. The place or '' Menuhenes ", or small black forest dwarf's, armed with long bows dwelling in the mountained interior of the islands is a living part or Polynesian and Micronesian mythology and folk lore. The Negrito in all likelihood moved into the island area on fool during the Pleistocene crossing short distance of water with primitive craft where necessary.

During this early period, much or southeast Asia was occupied by Negroids and primitive Paleo-Caucasoicl people. Which of' the principle world races developed first is an unanswered question but many authorities lean towards the Pygmy or Negrito as being one of the earliest examples of primitive man although this is still not too well documented by fossil remains. Contemporaneous development or a perhaps slightly later origin is well ~;uppurted for the Australoid who has been described by Prof. E.A. Hooton a~;" an archaic form uf' modern white man", or Puleo-Caucasoid. Mongoloid intrusion into Southeast Asia is of a rather recent vintage and the area seems to have been largely inhabited by a primitive caucasoid who derived wooly hair and dark pigmentation !"rom whatever Negroid clements, probably Negrito, that existed in the area at that time.

Evidence of an Auslraloid existence on the Asiatic Mainland bas been purported by many physical relationships bet ween these people and the remaining Veddalts of Ceylon as well as umnng several hill tribes or southern India. It would he reasonable to include in the Australoid classification all autochthonous Dravidian people of south India. The Senoi ( Temiar and Semai) of' Central Malaya have suggestions of certain primitive Australoicl characteristics as do the Mokcn or Selung Sea Gypsies of Thailand's west coast centering in the Mergui Archipelago of south Burma. Farther north such physical types are found in the Hairy Ainu of Hokkaido, Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands of Japan and in certain bearded Ainoid tribes of the Amur River in Siberia. All of these are marginal people who seem to have

hn~ll l'li'IWd h\ :Ill llllt:!llal pre;'.\!l't: [,, !ill' oltl!\:r Pl'llpiK'lY ut' !ltc :\~ian land ttLt,: .. :Ill rt~maining individualt: ph;. sit.:al t~ pc r(lu;hly dat.d a < keanio. \;t::~n,id arL' cltaral'leri;ed h;. d n:ry dtdicJcepllalic "ktdl, '' ith a eeph:di~. indn v. ell ht.:lu\'. 75, a deeply dt~prc:.:;ed 11as~d t'PIIt, Pl''!!nathi:.m am! ;1 :.kull \', iih ~traight 'itk' Skulh ~.imilar in ~.hape han: been f'nund in :\mt.rica :1nd the cr i:; that the fir:;! prirniti 1;L: hunter~ 1t1 enter '\urth America\ ia tilt.: Bering Strait:; were pf this mi\ed :\ustralnid-'\letroid typl'. 1 he~c were replaced at a tntH:h !at~r datt~ hy the .\1onJ!tlltlitl ract v. hen it had den! oped It' it':' later :.tal!\: 111' Asian dominance.

Btil.h .ft,,,. lmh~lltlfli ;l!ld llaruld (il:tdwin in their writifl)!' un tilt Jll'jllllatin:' .. r the :\meriL~an l'1;1 h11t llli)rated on lP bccnrnc the Amerit.an lndiatt~; \ll' tlttLt\'.

1 1

TilE !:;tli 1'I'IIEAST ASIAN NJo:t;){ITO :n

of the Negri to in this area may eventually pwve to he it appears his extremely early presence seems i mlicutcd.

Going north into Southeast Asia, severn! Neolithic skulls and fragments have been found indicating the early presence of' Negritos. At Tam Hang and Lang-CLiom in Indochina a series of skeletal remains excavated by French archaeologists have been iclcHtificd as Negrito. Some indications arc that these people had started mixing with early Mongoloids which apparently began filtering into the area in early post-glacial times.

Dr. M. Abadie in 19:24 wrote that the Ho-Nhi tribes of Tong-king had Ncgrito hair and a dark skin color. A skull found at Minh-carn Cave in Annam has been identified as Negrito.

Early Chinese chronicles identify many or the dark skinned jungle people or Indo-China as Negri to and called the people or Funan (Cambodia) Negritos. Natives or the island of' Pulo Condorc, off Vietnam, were identified as Negrito and ancient references identify Negri to slaves in South China during the Seventh Century. Although such evidence of Ncgritos is questionable due to lonsc interpretation of the word "Negro'' the substantiated apparent intermingling or Negroid, Paleo-Caucasoid and Mongoloid types in the Annamese area seems to account for the dark skinned types which appears tn have remained as late as the 'J"ang Dynasty ( 700 A.D.).

On the Thailand-Cambodian border, in the Cardamon Moun-tains, dwell dark skinned jungle tribes called Piirr or Chong. Dr. Jean Brengucs classified ulotrichi hair types among these people indi-cating quite possibly the absorption or a Negrilo group into the now predominantly Mongoloid population. Similm evidence of' Negroid phenotypes throughout Southeast Asia indicate intermixture with an earlier negroid type which existed in the area. LiLLie actual physical evidence exists in Thailand and Burma of the existence of early Negri to distribution patterns since little actual field exploration has been done here. However, in many rural areas a strong negritic cast is evident in remote communities of the western part of Thailand and continuing south on the Peninsula through the isthmus of Kra.

,Iilli\ If. lii!ANilT

The May, Cuci and RuP tribes ul' the mountain~. ut'

:u

ur man's relations amtlng the primates, the African Chimpan-zee alsu interestingly has produced a pygmy variety of itself'.

The possibility of ateliotic or achondroplastic development due to pituitary mal-function has been suggested as a reason for dwarfing. Certain pygmoid groups, particularly the Bambuti or Africa, sho\\' certain features associated with pituitary deficicnees such as dispw-protionatcly large heads, flattened faces and distorted limbs. The fact that the pygmy groups are related by blood gene frequencies tu the non-negroid people around them rather than to euch other, has led tu the speculation that pygmies have come about clue to parallel gene mutations bringing on such characteristics. By contrast, however, the Asian Ncgrito, generally exhibits normal body conformation and ba-lance. Yet if parallel gene mutation is considered it must be remem-bered that there is no evidence that full sized negroicls ever existed on the Asiatic Mainland nor areas of the Philippines and Andamuns where pygmies exist. The brachycephalic pygmies of' the Congo also it has bL~Cn shown do not bear much physical relationship to their dnlicoceplwlic neighburs in spite uf a demonstrated blood ~;imilarity.

Similar environments rnay produce similar characteristics over a period of time due to natural sclcdion. Kinky negroid hair is such a mutation having adaptive value although what this adltplution is, is not fully unden;Lood. Yet such mutations, if adaptive, will become rapidly established in small populatiorHi sw.:h as existed among primi-tive man. It appears evident however that whatever gcnes were responsible for producing pygmy slat urc types seem odell y connected with the genes which produced wooly hair. There do not appear to be any known pygmy types in which this characteri!;tic is lacking to one degree or another. Since there is no evidence that any full sized Negroes existed cast of Central Asia in early times little relationship between Asiatic and African Negroids is postulated. Consequently, whatever Negroid charncteristics exist in Southeast Asia seem due to an archaic negritic strain that developed within the Negroid sub-type along lines parallel to equatorial Africa having become established at a very early time in the development of primitive man.

,l!lllN II. 111!\Nlll

II

Little recent "''rk ll:ts het.!n done amun~ the Sem:tllf ~t f'rom the flank nf Gunong ( Mt.) Tahan, Malaya. They had been seen once in 1930 and aJ though a !\CarcJl for l)H.:Jll proved llllslleCe);sf'ul, evidence of their existence in the mea was supported by finding abandoned windscreens and holes where the women had extracted tubec; not more than two months earlier. What the sn called Tahan Negrito arc or their rela-tionship to other known Ncgrito in the area is still undetermined.

During my studies of the Jahai Ncgrito living in Rengae Dis-trict, Naratiwat Province, South Thailand, I received reports of another band which ranged the drainage of the upper Saiburi River in Wang District, Naratiwat. This band is reportedly in contact with Thai or

TilE SIHII'IIF.\ST .\~L\~ "'EI:HITO

Malay villagers ncar Tambnn Mamung which is about a six hour walk over a 300 meter divitlc from Amphur '/lang. Earlier reports of this or another hand rcpurtcd living ncar Kampong Balar or Kampang Lukac which were reported to have moved across from Kelan tan, Malaya ncar Kampong Jcli, could not be substantiated. Material arLiclcs ob-tained from this hand through village headmen in Wang, now in the American Museum ol' Natural History, included a blowpipe, durt cannister, poison spatula, tobacco purse, women's hair combs and plaited pack basket. On the basis of' dccorati ve patterns. on the blow-pipe, in particular, I hesitate to identify this group. Design patterns arc similar to those found on Tcmiar Scnoi bamboo pieces a con-siderable distance to the south. 'Nhcthcr these items were traded north to the Saiburi Ri vcr Negri to, as often happens, or i r these were MuhtVan Negrito who moved north into Thailand during the Malayan Communist insurrection is still unknown. Some aspects of their material culture arc distinctly different f'rorn adjoining Negrito and the rossibility exists that these are a distinct previously unreported. band. Further investigation is called l'or.

On tl1c other side or the Malay Peninsula, in Thailand's Satun Province, previously unrecorded Negri to were located during the 196! investigation. The location of Ncgrito hands identified as the Tonga, (Mos, Chong) has been established l'nr some time in the Kau Ban Tal Mountains which is the southern hill extension or the Central Mountain range running south l'rnm Burma and continuing on to the mountains or Malaya. These 110111Hdk bands wandered iII the forest separating Trang and Pattalung Provinces and have at various times been reported living ncar Ga-C!Jong 1:alls, Trang and earlier in the century ncar NaWong. Reports have also placed them on Ml. Rawn, Mt. Mamtow and Mt. Mai Dam. They trade now ncar a village called Lujangla, Tambon Tanwt, Kauchaison Distric;t, Pattnlung, on the cast drainage of the mountains.

Bands of what appear to be 'T'onga arc reported ncar Toentck Falls on Pu Kau Luang, Trang Province and near Pu Kau Sam Ngam in Bali en District, Trang, as well as near Pha Ban Taket and Ban Trak, near the west coast of Satun Province. These people appear to have

.Iilli:\ II. IIH\:'-llll

littlt: t:

Iltw. Tilt> last surviving 1111111 of a band of Ntgrito frorn :'aillll I 'rovi11n holds a blunt J.ladtd spear and 11 tassclla;"lvd bon l'it'

\Va, tilt last Nt'grito 1\'fllllan of tlw han I loan Band holds hl'r l'hild, Sarnni, whidt ,illagt.'rs tltn~;llt~ned would J,e stolen or llf)llght from lwr.

1

.,; c:: 'v 'l) ,, '.I ~~ c -~

.~ '

The young Negrito child is often quite light ~kinned when born hut gels gradually dmkt~r. The

.\ 1\.cnsiu Semang Negrito rnan twists string. In the foreground i~ a largt J.(Ollrd used for 't"rin~: watl'f. The 1aised plattorm prl!te"ts the sleeper from the tnni,t J.(I'OlltHI.

Seed beads and a rattan armband adorn thi~ Kensiu Negrito girl. In her hair she wears a decorated bamhnn hair cumh with magical designs to protect the wearer from illness.

A Semang Negri to woman of the Kensiu Band of Yala Province. South Thailand. Both mother and child display the deep nasal root frequently observed while the child has an unusually pronounced forehead.

An old Negrito woman in Yala plays a two string b

A Ken~iu Negri to hunter displays his blowpipe and poisoned dart cannister. Both are deeor:t~ t:ed with magical incised de~igns to assure a successful hunt. The moutl1piece of the blow l=>i pe is built up of wood and hardened pitch.

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN NJ

38 JOHN H. BRANDT

platform met diagonally with the slope of the mountain. A small sheltering fence of palm branches surrounded the platform. This had not been reported for other Negrito and may have been designed to protect the infant since no other persons were in the camp which might normally have been available to watch the child. Leaves were used as bedding. Skeats had earlier reported green leaves on Negrito sleeping platforms but Schebesta questioned whether Negritos ever did this as he had never seen this during his long residence among them.

The Negrito had a small swing built on a branch of a tree which is a previously unreported recreational device. It was also reportedly used during courtship at which time love songs were sung. The camp had dried salted river fish hung up which had been caught in the stream. The preservation technique may have been learned from the Malays since food preservation of any kind is not typical of the Negri to. Shortly after this visit the Negri to broke camp and moved. Attempts to visit the new camp site were unsuccessful.

Drinking water was stored in a joint of bamboo and cooking was done in an old metal pot that had been obtained by barter. The small storage baskets at the camp had also been obtained from the Malay. The Negrito claimed food taboos against Tiger, Bear, Elephant, Frog, Lizard, Duck, Pig and Deer. Villagers said the Ne-grito refused beef as well. Pork was of course not offered in a Moslem Malay village. The food taboos conform with those reported for the Tonga who also will not eat Rhino. The group maintained no special food taboos during pregnancy and both sexes ate together.

Both Negrito wore discarded clothing obtained from the Malays and the woman had a black sarong which she wore to the village. The predilection of the Tonga for discarded clothing was reported as early as the turn of the century. The child was naked ex-cept for a necklace of old Chinese coins. A necklace of seed beads was also worn at times. The Negrito attributed magical properties to monkey bones as do other Negrito bands. The Negrito claimed not to know how to make bark cloth from the Ipoh tree.

THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN NEC:HITO

The informant stated that the dead were buried approximately 15 inches under-ground wrapped in cloth or Banana leaves. The head faced the west and the body was placed with the arms extended at the sides. Mourning lasted for 5 days. A windscreen was built over the grave and food offerings were made. This follows the burial practice of the Jahai and Lanoh Negri to in Malaya. The grave is not revisited. Ghosts were reported to appear white and human although they did not eat. Ghosts also reportedly wore clothing. The Tonga had reported to me that a spirit's face shines in the dark but our informant could not confirm this. The Tonga concept of heaven in the western sky to which a "soul" goes by climbing a Nipa Palm and then jumping over a stream was not understood by these Negri to although their "heaven" did lie in the west. This "heaven" had no Tiger and Elephant as in the Tonga belief but the Negri to ad-vised us that men and women go to separate heavens. No children are born in heaven and families are not reunited after death. This lack of reunification differs from the Tonga.

Although the Tonga normally pay a bride price of cloth or trophies of the hunt the band claimed no bride price was necessary and that residence was matrilocal. Children are delivered in a lying position in contrast to typical Negrito parturition which is in a squat-ting position. The informant stated that incestuous relations between brother and sister were permitted.

The items of material culture were extremely limited. The man carried a short stabbing spear with a heavy metal blade which had been obtained from villagers. The blade was about 10 inches long and the shaft about 4 feet long. A short stout digging stick with a spatula shaped metal blade was U:sed to dig out edible jungle tubers and other roots.

Weapons made by the Tonga Negrito are rather crude compa-red to the beautifully decorated blowpipes produced by the Kensiu and Jahai. The blowpipes made in Satun are undecorated as is characteristic of the Tonga. Three blowpipes collected measured 4' lO!r", 5' 7" and 7' 2". Each was made of a two piece inner bore joined with a sleeve of bamboo covered with a hardened pitch. In

4o JollN H. BRAND'!' blowpipe, Th-1390, the inner bore pieces measured 53" and 33~ in~ eluding a 4!" mouthpiece. The outer protective covering was made of three pieces 38", 16" and 8lr" long. The last 19 inches of the inner bore was uncovered but had apparently been covered at one time by another extension of the outer covering. The joints were tightly lashed with rattan and covered with hardened pitch. The ends of the covering were similarly bound to prevent splitting. The joints were made of extremely thin lightweight yellowish cane or undeter-mined species of bamboo. The Negrito in the area do not have access to a good grade of bamboo with long joints such as are ex-tensively traded about among the Negrito in Malaya. The bore diameter of the weapons ranged from 9 I 16 to 11 I 16 inches. The outer bore diameter on blowpipe Th-1930 was 1 inch and on Th-1319 1 114 inches.

The mouthpiece was carved from bamboo and had a crown built up or gummy pitch with a semi soft consistency similar to modeling clay.

A unique instrument found among the band was a bore clean-ing rod. This has been, I believe, previously unreported among any Negrito. It consists of a 114 inch stick 55" in length. The head has a backward bound tassel of split rattan fibres lashed fast with rattan lacing.

The poison container was a joint of bamboo 17'' x 1 114". The top was stoppered with a wad of leaves and contained a long thin spatula. The Tonga made use of sap from the tree, Antiaris toxicaria, for poisoning their darts. The hard chocolate brown sap is collected by slashing the trunk of the tree and catching the sap in a bamboo joint. The sap, originally a milky gray, turns dark and hard upon drying. It becomes very brittle but can be softened again by heating. The Tonga frequently mix this poison with cooked sap from a creeper belonging to the genus Strychnos and add chicken gall and bird fat to increase it's potency. The Satun band claimed they added "other items" to the poison but would not elaborate on what the "other" ingredients were.

Three dart containers were obtained from the group. These measured 16~ x 3t, and 14~ x 2~". Another was 12 inches long.

I. l. llan I loan l'kgrito. Blowpipe

IIH>lltlipir~r

Blowpipe bore cleaner rod collected among the Ban Doan Negri to in Sa tun Province, South Thailand.

TllE S!Hi'I'IIEAS'i' ASI.IN Nl:t:HII'O ll

All were made from large joints of bamboo. The first was a polished joint bound ncar the top with rattan lashings to which were attached a fibre cord and a piece of rag for binding the cannister around the waist. The cannistcrs of the Kensiu and Jahai are normally LUcked into a waistband without a separate strap. The bottom of the can-nister on the outside had a heavy coating of the same soft gummy material of which the blowpipe mouth pieces were built up.

Inside the larger of the cannisters were 22 individual tubes of cane, each containing one poisoned dart. These were arranged around the walls of the container. The core was packed with plant fibre flocculence probably Caryota or Calamus. This is used as an air seal behind the dart in the breech so in expelling the projectiles no air is lost. The medium sized cannister contained 17 dart tubes. This cannister was also of Bamboo from which the glazed outer coating had been scraped. Both the Tonga and the now extinct Hami made cannisters bound about the waist in which each dart was in a separate container. Other Negrito bands usc small narrow cannistcrs without tubes. The Tonga cannisters and blowpipes are also unique in that they arc without decoration. Among other Ncgrito, decorative patterns have important significance as attractants for game or to prevent animals from being afraid of' the hunter through it's magic properties. Most Negri to consider undecorated blowpipes as ineffec-tive.

On the outside of' the larger cannister were two sharpened bone awls, 5 3/4" and 4 1/4" long placed under the rattan binding. Al-though their utilitarian purpose was quite probably otherwise, the informant said they were used for removing splinters from his feet.

The rather hca vy darts were 14" long and made of what ap-peared to be palm wood. 3 1/ 4" from the tip the darts were deeply notched so as to break off in the wounded animal. On the upper end was a conical cap of light pithy wood which was cut to fit the bore diameter. The darts arc considerably heavier than the light splinter like darts made by the Kensiu from Bertam Palm rib.

The Negrito claimed not to make musical instruments although Jews Harps have been reported among the Tonga.

42 JOHN H. BRAND'i' With only one informant, with whom communication and con-

tact was limited, the accuracy of acquired information is questionable. The intelligence of the informant and his familiarity with some of the aspects of his culture could not be ascertained. His long isolation from . others of his kind may have dulled his recollection of some cultural matters. The items of material culture described may be crude due to poor craftsmanship rather than being typical of the group, recognizing that all persons are not equally gifted craftsman. His lack of know-ledge, i.e. regarding musical instruments, may be due to the same reason.

The last contact with Hew, Wa and Samoi was on May 24, 1964.

Note: On April 17, 1964 a Malay woodcutter from Ban Doan was approached in the forest by a powerfully built bushy haired nude Negrito man carrying a blowpipe, dart cannister and a long sword like machete. The Negrito asked in southern dialect Siamese for food and clothing. The badly frightened Malay guided him to the village where he was given a pair of old Khaki shorts. The Negrito did not know apparently how to put on trousers and was instead given an old pakoma (short wrap around sarong). He asked that food be placed upon a rock in mid stream above the village for him. This was done and the food was gone next morning. I visited Ban Doan on this particular day and found the villagers extremely excited by their jungle visitor. The Negrito did not return after the initial contact.

Ten days later an entire new band of Negri to, all nude, emerged from the forest guided by the former visitor who had acted as recon-naissance scout. This group consisted of three adult females, three adult males, one male child of approximately 11 years and one male child of 8 or 9. All asked for clothing and food and then returned to the forest. The women wore head bands of twisted grasses over closely cropped hair. The male scout, a powerfully built unusually tall Negrito, wore long bushy hair. All members of the band wore red dyed fibre neck cords called "gasai ", worn to prevent illness. No earrings or bracelets were seen.

The new band soon joined the Negrito family of Ban Doan and established a joint camp with Hew acting as group leader. The new

An unusually large bushy heudc:d Nel-(rilo acted as scout for his band nt Tambon Tungnui, Satun Province and emerged from the forest with eight other Negrito. He wears a 1

Two Negrito girls from the Satun Negrito band at Tambon Tungnui. Twisted plant fibres are wrapped around their foreheads. The band came from the forest to trade after having wandered for six years in the Dong ChUok Chang Forest Tract on the Thai-Malay border.

TilE SOUT!IEASI' ASIAN NEC:HITO

comers were uninhibited and aggressive around the village in contrast to the normal shy retiring character of Negri to. The two Negri to boys particularly delighted in grimacing at the Malay children fully a ware of the fears that the villagers had of the jungle people. All the men were armed with blowpipes and poison darts. No permission could be obtained to accompany them to their camp and they advised that they would run away if any attempt was made to follow them.

The band informed us they had formerly lived near Kau Krai (where Hew's band had also originated) but had been away from contact with villages for over six years. On May 24, 1964 the group visited Ban Doan and said they were tired of eating rice and were going back into the forest to live. Apparently Hew and Wa joined the new group which was the first of their race they had seen in a decade. No Negrito has been seen in the village since their departure. Where they have gone or where from the huge forests they will again emerge, and when, no man knows.

THE ANGLO~SIAMESE SECRET CONVENTION OF 1897 (.ihamsook 9Vurnnonda

Faculty of Arts) Chulalongkorn University1

The last quarter of the nineteenth century saw Siam became the target of jealousy and rivalry between Britain and France, her territorial neighbours on the west and east. Of these two strong colonising Powers, the Siamese, in their best interests, looked to the British Government for help. As King Chulalongkorn of Siam put it, "We always rely on England as our support ".2 As regards the rela-tions with France disagreement was always chronic, and periodically developed into an acute form. Doubtless Siamese procrastination and shuffling were to some extent responsible for this fact. But on the other hand, Siamese hatred and mistrust for France were due to the aggres-sion and hectoring tone of the French Colonial Party. The difficul-ties over claims to territory on the left bank of the Mekong which boiled up with the passage of the Menam by the French gun-boats culminated in 1893 in a rupture of relation. It, however, brought salvation to Siam since the Siamese cession of all territory to the east of the Mekong made French possessions contiguous with the British Protectorate on the Burmese frontier. Such a situation aroused a consi-derable amount of mutual suspicion between England and France as regards designs upon Siam, and led to protracted pourparlers, which after some three years, resulted in the Anglo-French Declaration of 1896. Summed up briefly, this was to the effect that neither England nor France should advance their armed forces, nor acquire any special privilege or advantage within the region which roughly speaking might be termed the valley of the Menam.

This settlement, though it guaranteed the independence of Siam, gave a rather loose definition of the non-guaranteed portion of Siam, the Malay Peninsula in particular. The Foreign Office and Colonial Office both agreed that "Whoever holds the Peninsula must to a great 1. Mrs. Thamsook Numnonda is presently doing research on Anglo-Thai relations

190009, at the School of Oriental & African Studies, University of London. 2. Foreign Office Paper, hereafter cited as F.O. 422/56, Archer to Lansdowne, Sep-

tember 29, 1902