Ampai Tiranasar, Ph.D. Dept. of Art, Music, and Dance Education, Faculty of Education,

Ampai Tiranasar, Ph.D.Dept. of Art, Music, and Dance Education, Faculty of Education,

Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Email: [email protected]

Appreciating Lai Thai from Exemplars

Appreciating Lai Thai from Exemplars

Prince Siddhartha

Figure 1:

This presentation is designed to accompany the chapter “Lai Thai: A Closer Look at Intriguing Thai Ornaments” in the NAEA publication: Teaching Asian Art: Content, Context, and Pedagogy.

Figure 1 comes from the panel of a bookcase of the Bangkok period depicting Prince Siddhartha leaving his wife and his newly born child to retire into an ascetic life in search of answers concerning his quest or the causes of human birth, suffering, and death. This illustration represents a typical Thai traditional painting. A single image can be composed of several continuous episodes, in this case, four episodes.

Prince Siddhartha

Figure 1:

Prince Siddhartha

1. Domestic life in the palace, the prince’s wife lying along with her baby and a group of sleeping musician-girls.

2. The prince coming into the palace, looking at life in the palace reflected by the first group of people. 3. The prince’s attendant is preparing the prince’s horse for a journey

4. The prince is riding on his horse soaring along with a procession of deities.

Prince Siddhartha

Lai thai in this work

lai kranok pleao surrounding the prince and the procession

Lai Krachang ruan (swaying pattern) was drawn on the palace wall next to the gate at the bottom-left

Nagaras (dragons) placed on top of all the palace poles signify the status of the owner, the prince.

This illustration shows distinctive postures and clothing. For example, the Prince’s wife is sleeping in a very polite position. Deities are drawn as if they were performing Thai traditional dance. Whereas, the common people, in this case musicians, are portrayed realistically (Lyons, 1990). They are sleeping in an inattentive and natural manner. This reflects the Thai way of life, in terms of hierarchy. In order to make Buddha a heavenly personage, one can see him soaring over the procession in which four deities carry the feet of the prince’s horse. Noticeably, all the figures have minimum clothing. This is suitable to the tropical Thai climate where the weather is very warm.