Buddha and Suvannabhumi (Taton)
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168 THATON: THE BUDDHA AND SUVANNABHUMI · 169 Thaton touches heartstrings of Mon and Burmese alike but for entirely different reasons. For the Mon Thaton marks the spot where the Buddha himself introduced Buddhism to Lower Burma, while for Burmese Thaton is the place from which the Pali canon was seized from the Mon and introduced to Pagan in the 11th century. Thus, Thaton’s small size belies its importance in the national mythology. The Mon name for Thaton in the 15th century was Sadhuim, from Sudhammavati (Pali). Sudhammavati derived probably from Sudhamma, the hometown of the Buddha Sobhita, one of the 28 Buddhas in Burmese Buddhism. But Lower Burma had a flourishing Buddhist culture centuries before Pegu was made the capital in the 14th century. That monks from ‘Aramana’, or Ramanna, were invited to Sri Lanka to launch a purification drive in the mid-12th century is an indication of Lower Burma’s Buddhist stature at that time (Wickremasinghe: 253). The monks were likely from Thaton or Mottama, or both. The earliest surviving mythology surrounding Thaton appears in stone inscriptions from the reign of the Mon king Dhammaceti (r. 1470-1492) whose capital was Pegu. These epigraphs identify Thaton as the place where the Buddha came from India to convert its first king. This mythical ruler, named Sirimasoka, had a kinsmen named Gavampati who was a disciple of the Buddha in India. And it was Gavampati who persuaded the Buddha to visit Thaton to convert his brother and the land. At Thaton the Buddha presented six hair-relics to the same number of hermits. Later, following the Buddha’s cremation, Gavampati brought a tooth-relic to Thaton that replicated itself 33 times. The king then enshrined the teeth in 33 stone pagodas in Thaton which subsequently fell into ruin and became lost (Shorto 1970). Two missionaries from India, Sona and Uttara, were sent to Thaton at the time of Asoka and rediscovered the lost pagodas. They then distributed the tooth-relics to stupas in Lower Burma. The most important was the Shwemawdaw in Pegu (see page 146). These 15th century legends were greatly elaborated upon over the centuries and eventually underpinned countless pagodas in Lower Burma, including the Golden Rock (Stadtner 2008b). Following the 15th century there emerged in Lower Burma a far greater emphasis on hair relics, at the expense of tooth relics. Thaton’s first king was the offspring of a wizard and a snake goddess disguised as a woman, a myth found in many different Mon and Burmese versions preserved in post-15th century chronicles. The king hatched from a snake egg and was raised by a hermit living on Mt. Zingyaik, a sacred peak about 26 kilometres south of Thaton. His brother, a product from this same unorthodox union, was raised by another hermit, on Mt. Zwegabin, a nearby hilltop southeast of Pa-an in neighboring Kayin State and was reborn as the famous Gavampati. Another tradition claims that the Buddha dispensed eight hairs at Thaton, not six (Bigandet: 391). Although by the 15th century Thaton was dwarfed in importance by Martaban and Pegu, even, it remained a fountainhead for Mon identity, as revealed in later chronicles. The Kalyani Inscription records that the capital at the time of Sona and Uttara’s vist was Golamattikanagara, a site possibly identified with a walled enclosure in the village of Ayetthema, at the foot of the range containing Mt. Kelasa (Myint Aung). For Burmese, Thaton is immortalised as the place seized by the Pagan king Anawrahta (r. 1044-77) who captured the Pali canon from the Mon. This version of events was formulated first by the Mon themselves in the 15th century and later adopted by the Burmese. Anawrahta and Pagan kings did exert control over Lower Burma for some time, but the traditional accounts of seizing the canon can be dismissed (Stadtner 2008a). The canon’s association Thaton’s distinctive sculpture rivaled Pagan’s in quality but little survives. Discovered in a mound near Thaton’s Kalyani Ordination Hall, this standing Buddha is perhaps as early as the 11th century but may be much later. Shwesayan Pagoda godown. Stupa foundation faced with laterite, c. 500 A.D., at Zothoke, northwest of Thaton. Such monumental architecture reveals the flourishing state of Mon civilisation in Lower Burma in the first millennium. The Shwesayan Pagoda, left, is noted for tooth-relics of the Buddha, probably reflecting a lingering tradition from the 15th century when the Thaton king received a tooth-relic from his brother, Gavampati, a disciple of the Buddha. This relic multiplied itself into a total of 33 tooth relics. This turn-of-the-century worship hall, right, is a gem. T HATON : T HE B UDDHA AND S UVANNABHUMI 168-173_Mon Country-Thaton_232x170 12/20/10 10:05 AM Page 168
description
History of Taton
Transcript of Buddha and Suvannabhumi (Taton)
1 6 8 THATON: THE BUDDHA AND SUVANNABHUMI · 1 6 9
Thaton touches heartstrings of Mon and Burmese alike but forentirely different reasons. For the Mon Thaton marks the spotwhere the Buddha himself introduced Buddhism to Lower Burma,while for Burmese Thaton is the place from which the Pali canonwas seized from the Mon and introduced to Pagan in the 11thcentury. Thus, Thaton’s small size belies its importance in thenational mythology. The Mon name for Thaton in the 15th century was Sadhuim,
from Sudhammavati (Pali). Sudhammavati derived probably fromSudhamma, the hometown of the Buddha Sobhita, one of the 28Buddhas in Burmese Buddhism. But Lower Burma had a flourishingBuddhist culture centuries before Pegu was made the capital in the14th century. That monks from ‘Aramana’, or Ramanna, were invited to Sri Lanka to launch a purification drive in the mid-12th century
is an indication of Lower Burma’s Buddhist stature at that time (Wickremasinghe: 253). The monkswere likely from Thaton or Mottama, or both. The earliest surviving mythology surrounding
Thaton appears in stone inscriptions from thereign of the Mon king Dhammaceti (r. 1470-1492)whose capital was Pegu. These epigraphs identifyThaton as the place where the Buddha came from India to convert its first king. This mythicalruler, named Sirimasoka, had a kinsmen namedGavampati who was a disciple of the Buddha inIndia. And it was Gavampati who persuaded theBuddha to visit Thaton to convert his brother andthe land. At Thaton the Buddha presented sixhair-relics to the same number of hermits. Later,following the Buddha’s cremation, Gavampatibrought a tooth-relic to Thaton that replicateditself 33 times. The king then enshrined the teethin 33 stone pagodas in Thaton which subsequentlyfell into ruin and became lost (Shorto 1970). Two missionaries from India, Sona and Uttara,were sent to Thaton at the time of Asoka andrediscovered the lost pagodas. They thendistributed the tooth-relics to stupas in LowerBurma. The most important was the Shwemawdawin Pegu (see page 146). These 15th centurylegends were greatly elaborated upon over thecenturies and eventually underpinned countless
pagodas in Lower Burma, including the GoldenRock (Stadtner 2008b). Following the 15thcentury there emerged in Lower Burma a fargreater emphasis on hair relics, at the expense oftooth relics. Thaton’s first king was the offspring of a
wizard and a snake goddess disguised as a woman,a myth found in many different Mon and Burmeseversions preserved in post-15th century chronicles.The king hatched from a snake egg and was raisedby a hermit living on Mt. Zingyaik, a sacred peakabout 26 kilometres south of Thaton. His brother,a product from this same unorthodox union, was raised by anotherhermit, on Mt. Zwegabin, a nearby hilltop southeast of Pa-an inneighboring Kayin State and was reborn as the famous Gavampati.Another tradition claims that the Buddha dispensed eight hairs atThaton, not six (Bigandet: 391).Although by the 15th century Thaton was dwarfed in importance
by Martaban and Pegu, even, it remained a fountainhead for Monidentity, as revealed in later chronicles. The Kalyani Inscriptionrecords that the capital at the time of Sona and Uttara’s vist wasGolamattikanagara, a site possibly identified with a walled enclosurein the village of Ayetthema, at the foot of the range containing Mt.Kelasa (Myint Aung). For Burmese, Thaton is immortalised as the place seized by the
Pagan king Anawrahta (r. 1044-77) who captured the Pali canonfrom the Mon. This version of events was formulated first by theMon themselves in the 15th century and later adopted by theBurmese. Anawrahta and Pagan kings did exert control over LowerBurma for some time, but the traditional accounts of seizing thecanon can be dismissed (Stadtner 2008a). The canon’s association
Thaton’s distinctive sculpturerivaled Pagan’s in quality but littlesurvives. Discovered in a moundnear Thaton’s Kalyani OrdinationHall, this standing Buddha isperhaps as early as the 11th centurybut may be much later. ShwesayanPagoda godown.
Stupa foundation faced with laterite,c. 500 A.D., at Zothoke, northwestof Thaton. Such monumentalarchitecture reveals the flourishingstate of Mon civilisation in LowerBurma in the first millennium.
The Shwesayan Pagoda, left, isnoted for tooth-relics of theBuddha, probably reflecting alingering tradition from the 15thcentury when the Thaton kingreceived a tooth-relic from hisbrother, Gavampati, a disciple ofthe Buddha. This relic multiplieditself into a total of 33 tooth relics.This turn-of-the-century worshiphall, right, is a gem.
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SUVANNABHUMI
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probably reflect lingering 15th century Mon traditions which centreon Gavampati bringing a single tooth to Thaton that multipliedthirty-three times. The Buddha’s instructions and the relics of theprevious Buddhas relate directly to the themes of the Shwedagonlegend. The original shape of the Shwesayan is difficult to determine,
but it may have once have resembled the terraced Thagya Pagodaand another stupa on the platform usually called the Pitaka-taik; all of these examples used laterite extensively, probably excavatedfrom a huge laterite-lined tank in one corner of the compound(Oertel: 22). Three of the four worship halls have been refurbished but the
principal one on the east is nearly pristine, from the early part of the20th century. Most of the sculpture is plaster, formed around thinwire, which has been gilded or painted. It is rare to find old plasterwork in such fine condition. The eclectic pagoda museum displays objects donated over the
last hundred years or so, plus terracotta votive tablets from variousperiods recovered in the area. Panels depicting the history of theShwesayan and its relics are painted on the walls. A storeroombehind the museum holds ancient stone inscriptions, including the famous trap and pandit epigraphs, and sculptures. The panditinscription lists all twenty-eight Buddhas, probably the earliestreference of this concept in Burma (Luce 1974: 133). The modest Thagya Pagoda once boasted 64 terracotta panels
depicting the last ten jatakas, the revered Mahanipata (Pali). If therewere 64 plaques, the n each of the ten tales would have been givenabout six tiles. In the late 19th century the pagoda was in ‘a state ofgreat decay…and many of the tablets have fallen out, while othersare much injured and likely to disappear also’ (Temple 1893a: 240).Twelve were described in the 1880s and fifteen panels survived insitu by the 1930s. The pagoda was repaired around 1896 whichbegan a series of white-washings that has virtually obliterated the
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with Thaton is also tied to Buddhaghosa, a renowned 5th centurycommentator whose home was often identified as Thaton inBurmese sources. He traveled to Sri Lanka and returned to LowerBurma with the scriptures that were centuries later conveyed toPagan in Upper Burma (Vamsadipani: 116). Buddhaghosa becameincluded in the national mythology, together with an embellishedlife history (Glass Palace Chronicle: 46).
Old ThatonEarly explorations at Thaton revealed a large rectangular walledenclosure. Finger-marked bricks beneath the walls and at nearbysites suggest a first-millennium settlement (Moore & San Win 2007:215). The major pagoda complex, now dominating the centre oftown, occupies only a small portion of this ancient enclosure. Buddhism was known in the Thaton area from around the
middle of the first millennium, as witnessed by the nearby brickmonastic sites of Kyaikkatha, Winka and a stupa base at Zothoke.Three Hindu stone sculptures were also discovered in Thatonshortly before 1900 but their find-spots are unrecorded; and thereare no surviving Hindu temples in Thaton. All three sculptures weredestroyed during World War II when on display in the library at theUniversity of Rangoon. They probably date to between the 8th and10th centuries. Two of the sculptures relate closely to a sculpture inthe Kawgun Cave, near Pa-an. The iconography, with three godsemerging from Vishnu’s navel, is virtually unique to Burma. Twosimilar depictions of Vishnu occur at Pagan, further evidence ofMon influence from Lower Burma at Pagan (Stadtner 2005: 144).
The Shwesayan Pagoda The principal stupa is inside a vast walled compound facing themain street. Its real history is unknown but the most recent pagodachronicle, or thamaing, probably reflects traditions current in the19th century, if not much earlier. The story begins with the Buddhavisiting Thaton and converting its first king, called Thuri-sanda, orSurya-chandra. The king offered the Buddha his crown and theBuddha then presented his four teeth which were miraculouslyreplaced in his mouth. The Buddha pointed to a hill where hewished the teeth to be enshrined. The king then discovered on thespot an old ruinous stupa containing relics belonging to the threeBuddhas preceding Gotama (hair-relics of Kakusandha, the walkingstick of Konagamana, and the emerald bowl of Kassapa). The fourteeth were enshrined with these other relics and the stupa rebuilt.Another local chronicle claims that Anawrahta from Pagan removedfour tooth-relics from the pagoda placed there by the first Thatonking, according to the Shwesayan Hpayagyi Thamaing (Glass PalaceChronicle: xxi). The spirits became so enraged at this sacrilege thatthey caused the king to go mad and slip on the skirt of his queen,perhaps modeled on a similar episode in a Sri Lankan chronicle(Mahavamsa: XXIV. 6). References to tooth-relics at Thaton
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The Thaton king, right, supervisingthe enshrinement of tooth-relics inthe Shwesayan stupa. The newrelics, on the left, are conveyed to the pagoda by Brahma andThagyamin. The 15th centuryThaton tooth-relic legend makes no mention of relics belonging to previous Buddhas. Mural. By Than Maung. ShwesayanPagoda museum.
A terracotta votive tablet commonto the Thaton region, such as atWinka, c. 500. Private Collection,Yangon.
Vishnu reclining on his serpent,with Brahma (left), Vishnu (centre)and Shiva (right) seated on lotusesabove. This distinctive iconographyis also found at Pagan, suggestingMon influence. Displayed in theuniversity library in Yangon, it wasdestroyed in World War II. AfterTemple 1893a: pl. XIV.
Detail of an intricate plastersculpture created on a wirearmature, early 20th century. TheBuddha cuts his hair after leavingthe palace, the god Sakka waitingabove to collect it. East entrancehall, Shwesayan Pagoda.
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1953). The stones were sculpted on one side with the last ten jatakaswhich have been compared to sima stones in northeast Thailand(Krairiksh 59-63; Murphy Chapters 4 & 5). Two of the jatakas areaccorded two stones, and the others were also probably given twostones, for the sake of symmetry. This would make a total of twentysima stones. The two stones for each jataka would perhaps havebeen placed one behind the other in ten spots equidistantly aroundthe missing hall. Towering behind Thaton is a peak famous for the Myathabeik
Pagoda containing an emerald bowl (myathabeik) and hair-relics of the Buddha associated with King Asoka’s son and Sri Lanka. The hill was visited by a previous Buddha named Anomadassi whowas offered earth by two white mice. The Buddha then prophesiedthat the mice would become the future royal family of Thaton.These are probably 19th century legends but it is hard to be sure.The hill is also the site of an inscription by Kyanzittha (r. 1084-1113)commemorasting the restoration of a nearby shrine (Luce 1969 I: 56). Later, Burmese traditions wove the nats into Thaton’s history by
claiming that the city was protected by the body parts of an Indianburied ‘with diverse charms and rites’ around the city walls (GlassPalace Chronicle: 78). The Indian’s brother escaped to Anawrahta’scourt and defused the black magic shielding Thaton, enablingAnawrahta to seize the city and the canon. This same brothercoupled with an ogress on Mt. Popa and their two sons became thefamous Taungbyon nats. In this way, Thaton and the capture of thecanon was tied at some time to a key nat tradition of Upper Burma.
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jatakas. The pagoda has three staircases today but there wereoriginally four. The dome of the stupa is restored, but its ancientsize was probably somewhat larger. Old photographs show thehorizontal registers of the laterite base with projecting geometricmotifs (O’Connor: 337). The Thagya pagoda is testimony to theimpressive monumental architecture in the Mon country by the 11thcentury, if not earlier. It is possibly the same age as the octagonalMaung Di Pagoda, across the Yangon River near Twante. The narrative sequence of the tiles matches the special Mon
order of the last ten jatakas, an order that differed somewhat fromthe sequence in the Pali canon favoured in Sri Lanka (Krairiksh). The same Mon sequence is repeated in the pandit inscription in thestoreroom and is adopted at Pagan. Luce and others long agorecognised that this ordering of the jatakas at Pagan likely indicatedMon influence from Lower Burma. Only one plaque, cleaned of whitewash, is preserved in the
storeroom. It has been identified as Mahosadha fleeing to a potter’shome, bottom register, while the top half shows Mahosadha sittingin a carriage en route to the palace. Other plaques are also dividedinto two horizontal segments. None of the jataka tiles at Pagan areseparated into horizontal divisions in such a fashion, suggesting amode of depiction local to Thaton.One corner of the compound is occupied by over 500 large
stone slabs incised with the Pali canon. Two sets were commissionedin 1912 by the famous hermit from Mandalay, U Khanti, one forSandamuni Pagoda in Mandalay and the other for the Shwesayan inThaton. For unknown reasons, over 200 of the slabs were nevershipped to Thaton and are still stored in the compound of the Kyauk-taw-gyi Temple, Mandalay (Myanmar Times, 8 September 2008).
The Kalyani Ordination Hall is outsidethe compound wall on an adjoining street.The present structure has suffered manymodern refurbishments, but it probably marks the site of a 15th century ordinationhall used in Dhammaceti’s huge re-ordinationof monks launched from the KalyaniOrdination Hall in Pegu. The KalyaniInscription in Pegu contains a long list of ordination halls in Lower Burma whichincludes one called ‘Gavampati ordinationhall in Thaton’, or ‘sim gawampati sadhuim’(Mon) (Blagden 1928: 276). This hall fromthe 15th century was also probably thelocation of a much earlier ordination chamberfrom the 11th century, evinced by sculptedpillar-like ‘boundary stones’ placed randomlytoday around the basement terrace and adedication stone (Luce 1985: 172; Luce:
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Over 60 terracotta jataka plaques,featuring the last ten tales, wereonce placed inside niches on theterrace. The base and terraces wereplastered and whitewashed in theearly 20th century. Only some tenplaques survive in situ.
Mahosadha taking refuge withpotters, below, and returning to thepalace in a carriage.
This early 20th structure probably marks the spot of an11th century ordination hall. Sima-stones from the periodwith scenes from the last ten jataks encircle the base.
Fragment of one of the 11th century sima stones devotedto the last ten jatakas. Most were around 1.35 metres.This example from the Vidhura Jataka shows four kingsaround a square lake. After U Mya, Exploration in Burma.
The earth goddess, Wathundaya or Vasundari (Pali), rescues theBuddha from Mara and his army by wringing her hair to produce aflood. Late 19th-early 20th centurylacquered, carved wood, ShwesayanPagoda Museum.
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