The murals of Wat Bo of Siem Reap
(Cambodia)
Vittorio Roveda
(Copyright text and pictures)
Due to the size and complexity
of Wat Bo murals I had to separate my presentation in two parts
Part 1 – Introduction and murals
of the West and North walls.
Part 2 – Murals of East and
South walls, conclusion and bibliography
PART 1
Introduction. The History of Wat Bo
Located in the central-eastern
part of modern-day Siem Reap, Wat Bo, also known as Wat Reach Bo,
is the largest and most
important of the town, housing more than 100 monks. The monastery has always
enjoyed great popularity, especially for its annexed schools teaching arts and
crafts, local music, dance and drama, in addition to Pali and, more recently, English
language teaching. Quite interestingly, at the side of the residence of the
abbot, the Venerable Pin Sen, there is a unique botanical garden of local
plants and shrubs, which is of great interest to tropical botanists.
The vihara, or main chapel hall, of Wat Bo was built at the end of the
nineteenth century on the site of the previous ancient bricks and wood
structure. The vihara is decorated
with remarkable murals presumed painted sometime between the end of the
nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century when Siem Reap
province was under control under Siamese influence.
The murals
The inner walls of the vihara are decorated with scenes from a local rendition of the Rama
story, a narrative with its roots in the Indic epic, Ramayana. These
murals are some of the most important paintings in all of Cambodia and mainland
Southeast Asia.
They are also among the best for their precision of
design, balance of volume and sense of movement and the originality of the
‘patchwork’ arrangement of the panels.
Most particular is the western
wall for having a continuous sequence of panels in superimposed registers. This
wall depicts a series of conflated myths starting with the myth of
Hiran/Vishnu, the foundation of Ayuthaya and Lanka, the fight of Atchaban/Asura
Prohm, the fight of Shiva/Triburam, the legend of Nonthok (Nandakan), the youth
of Ravana, the story of Achana and Khodom, the birth of Valin and Sugriva,
Sawaha and the birth of Hanuman, the myth of Manimekkala/Ramasoon, the tilting
of the palace of Shiva and its straightening by Sukrip pulling a naga.
The last panel of the western wall shows the beautiful daughter of the king of
the nagas being given as gift to Latsatian. In this paper, this compact
group of events is conventionally referred to as the ‘preamble’, which finds
its most complete explanation in the narrative of the Thai Ramakien and Cambodian Trai
Beht. I follow the former because there is a 1968 publication of the Ramakien and I have access to its first
version of King Rama I (1782-1809) through the translation of my colleague
Fritz Goss. I do not have the full text of the TraiBhet in which events are narrated in a different order than the
Ramakien. The analogies and
differences Ramakien - Trai Bhet will
be discussed in Part II conclusions.
The artists were not a trained
painters, but designers and cutter of leather figures for the shadow theatre,
the scenes/panels are presented as a sequence as they would appear during the
representation of the shadow theatre. However, the murals are not individually
framed on a white background, as in the shadow theatre, but are multi-coloured,
displayed in a ‘patchwork’, the only such display that has been found in
Cambodia and Southeast Asia.
In the Wat Bo vihara, in
addition to the murals depicting the story of Rama, there is a large very
degraded panel illustrating an episode
of the Nimi Jataka at the base of the
western wall behind the altar. On the opposite eastern wall is a mural depicting
Jujuka in a market villa, a scene from the Vessantara
Jataka.
Dating the murals
The murals of Wat Bo are undated and no records exist to
indicate the period during which the painting were created.
According to Madeleine Giteau, they were painted between 1920 and 1924 by an artist named
Ta peul and his nephew Kong Dith,
at the request of the venerable Chau Athikar of Wat Bo (2004: 19). These
findings were confirmed to Giteau, during her research in the 1960s together
with one of the pupil of the master painter Ta Peul and the villagers that knew
the painter.
Both artists were also
designers of leather skins figures for the shadow theatre, the Sbek Thom. Accordingly, they introduced
elements of the shadow theatre as demonstrated by the similitude with the
figures and performance of the Sbek Thom leather
skins, even in the conception of costumes and movement.
Népote & Gamonet disagreed
(2002:19). They believed that the murals date from 1887-1890, painted by the
artists Nep Poeung and his father, both makers of shadow puppets figures that
were commonly produced at the Wat Bo monastery around that period.
Together with Sothon Yem, I
had an interview with the abbot of Wat Bo in March 2012, We learned that the
painter had been Ta Touch, a mixed Khmer-Chinese artist from the village of
Roluos, remembered for always smoking a pipe, with the murals being painted
soon after the construction of the vihara
(date unknown). The wooden doors
and window shutters were carved by the monk Minh, while the pediments over the
doors and the windows, reproducing monkeys and Rama’s compatriots fighting yak
(now covered with silver paint) were modeled by cheang Yu, Cheang means
artist in Khmer in a style
similar to that crafted by cheang
Nhich at Wat Damrei Sor (Battambong).
The influence of the models
designed for the shadow theater (Sbek
Thom) is undeniable and acknowledged by all scholars. The dating of the
paintings appear to have coincided with the popularity of the shadow theater
school in Siem Reap, and the popularization of theatrical performances
including elements of the Ramakien, which
had been embraced by Siem Reap artists. In contrst, it is possible that the
figures and events pained by the artists influenced the creation of the
leather-cut figures for the shadow theater.
The assumption that Wat Bo was
painted at the end of the 19th century (1887-90), is questionable.
We contend that the themes illustrated are from the same source that inspired
Mi Chak, who had memorized in 1920 a manuscript written down in the 1960s. Both
include a preamble clearly narrated in the Ramkien(and Trai Beth) but not represented on the
murals of the Silver Pagoda of Phnom Penh, which was completed in1903.
Considering that Siem Reap was
under Siamese control until 1907 the strong cultural exchange between Cambodia
and Thailand,[1]
at the turn of the 19th century, and the carving of the Siamese coat
of arms over Wat Bo eastern main door, it seems evident that the vihara was planned
during the period of the Siamese occupation. It is possible that the murals
were painted later, probably in the 1920s as claimed by M. Giteau to celebrate
the leading success of the monastery of Wat Bo.
Restoration of the murals
According to the report of Hans & Esther Leisen, the
murals seem to have been restored when the vihara
was renovated in 1940, including raising the roof and the plastering of the
areas below and above the decaying paintings (2003:80). The authors did a study
on the condition of the murals and listed recommendations for their
conservation. During the course of our reading of the murals, we have noticed
coarse re-painting around the figures and progressive water damage causing the
thinning of the paint (see fig.21North). In this regard, it would appear that
further repairs to the roof, tiles and gutters are urgently needed.
Textual source for the paintings
It is noteworthy that the murals of Wat Bo illustrate
many scenes of the Rama epic that do not appear in the best
known Cambodian version of the Rama epic, Reamker
1 of the 16-17th century studied by Saveros Pou (1977) and later translated of Judith Jacob (1986).
Giteau suggested the depictions in Wat Bo murals may have been derived from the
text of the Okña Veang Thiounn (OVT), which she considered a sort of short
version of the Thai Ramakien
(1999:183).
The first 30 panels at Wat Bo
western wall, illustrate what we have labeled the ‘preamble’, which appears in
its most complete in the narrative of the Thai Ramakien, and, as I discovered later, with the Cambodian Trai Beht as narrated by the bard MiChak
(Bizot 1989),
The
Trai Bhet is a text composed in prose, at the latest at the end of the
second half of the 17th century (de Bernon, 2003:80); although the assumption amongst Cambodians of the great
antiquity of the Tray Bhet was based on Brahmanical references, and thus
a pre-Buddhist piece of literature. The attribution of the Trai Bhet to
the legend of Rama was forgotten together with its teaching (Olivier de Bernon
1994:79.)The text narrative is similar to that of the Ramayana, The names of the protagonists are systematically different.
The text starts with a genesis of deities and personified elements,
before becoming a vague tale of the Rama epic (Leclère 1899).
the
initial battles amongst gods and demi-gods, the story of Nonkot and of the
ascetic Kodom, followed by the origin of Bali, Sugrib and Hanuman, the
misadventure Ravana trying to obtain one of Shiva’a wives, and the creation of
an underground city competing in beauty of Lanka, ruled by Ravana. Contemporaneously, the city of
Ayutthaya, created for Anomatan was governed by Atchaban ancestor of king
Dasaratha. The legend of Kayakasei repairing the axle of the chariot on while
her husband was fighting Ravana, is clearly narrated.
Dasaratha
request to have children required ritual having the ascetic Kalaikot preparing
3 balls of rice for each of his queens resulting with the birth of Rama, Lakshmana
from a queen and Subrib and Biruth from another. From here the text narrates
the adventures of Rama. The narrative continues like that of the Ramakien but only until the death of
Ravana.
In Cambodia there are today few manuscripts of
the Traibhet, one translated by Khing Hok Dy in 1990, (Manuscript
No.110 EFEO) and another summarised by Olivier de Bernon in 2003 found in the
southern monastery of Angkor Wat. I believe that
although they are from different manuscripts, they are both copies of a unique
ancient tale////////////////////////////////////
In the 1960s, the bard Mi Chak narrated what he
had memorized in 1920 a palm leaf manuscript of the monastery of Angkor Wat
South (Bizot 1973) where he had been a bonze for nine years. Because his excellent
memory, diction, and clear voice he soon became a celebrated storyteller. His
story was
The
narrative of the Trai Bhet of MiChak
begins with a cosmological introduction: There were the 8 ascetics (rishis) of directions that created
water, earth and rice. They were concerned on who could run the world. Some
proposed Brah Bay (The wind-god), others preferred Jambu Pubvakas Nag (a
snake-god). It was decided to have the two confronting each-other in single combat.
Jambu rolled herself around Mount Sumer 7 times, opening her hood creating
darkness on earth. Brah Bay, riding a white horse with red mouth, raised with
his crystal wand a terrible storm that dried the intestines of the naga. Brandishing his sword he cut the
head of the defeated naga who
expressed the wish to have his heads divided in three parts: one for paradise,
the other for the middle place, and the last for the hell. The head’s middle
part, gave birth to Tav Tara who asked the 8 rishis to be granted to have
children. Seven rishis abstained but one gave her 12 morsels of rice with which
the ascetic Kalaiyakot conceived 12 children (the 12 brothers of Ravana).It
become the n a story similar to that of the Ramayana.
In fact Khing believes that the Traiphet sources are to be found in the Uttatrakanda of the Ramayana
and in the Bhagavata Purana, with the
exception of the cosmogony part that could have been derived from an unknown
Pali text (Khing 1990: 57)
In part 2 Conclusions I will return on the topic of
the Texts that inspired the murals.
Reading
order
The reading and
decoding of Wat Bo murals is strenuous because of the extravagant sequential
order invented by the artists. The upper registers high on the walls are far
from the viewer, dark and in a poor state of preservation. Furthermore, at the
corners, most of the panels have been damaged by water infiltration from the
roof.
The way the artists made the unrolling of the narrative
is totally unusual and the reader must be assisted.
It
starts from the top left corner of the highest register of each wall,
progressing from left to right, then moves in the opposite direction in the
middle register (right to left), followed again by a reading from left to right
in the lowest register.
The
narrative on the lower register of the West continues on the upper register of
the upper North register. However, the upper register of the East wall
continues on the upper register of the South wall, perhaps to better unfold the
narrative of the early life of Rama.
Photographic
documentation
In this
paper I do not use the marvelous slides donated to me by Dr.Olivier de Bernon,
taken in 1994 by EFEO team using scaffolding and strong artificial lighting.
Those photographs were used for the chapter on Wat Bo in my beautiful book “In
the shadow of Rama” printed by River Books, Bangkok in 2015.
In
here, I use instead the photographs taken by myself with the camera Nikon D200
and various objectives including a fix tele.200: 2.8,; and by my colleague Yem
Sothon with his Nikon D100 and zoom lens up to 200: 2.8. We took dozens of unusable pictures for
lack of light before having the decent sett presented here. The research and
photographing started in 2001 and ended in 2009. For this page, I often
enhanced pictures with Photoshop.
Description
of murals
WESTERN WALL
The
western wall is unique and not found in any of the Cambodian Reamker versions. It starts with the
origin of Earth, saved by Vishnu from a jhak
(monster) Hiran who had cut it to pieces and rolled up as a carpet.
Metamorphosing himself as a ferocious white boar, Vishnu killed the jack and
saved our planet.
Soon
after while Vishnu was resting on Ananta in meditation, from his body a boy was
born, Anomatan. When presented to Shiva, the god gave order to build a
marvelous town for the boy: It was Ayutthaya, ruled by king Atchaban.
The story then switches to the
fight of Shiva against jaks who
wanted to destroy him and his power.
They all were defeated (Asura Prom,
Triburan).
The
murals of the western wall make a several references to the underground world
of demonic people the hjaks and nagas ruled by a powerful naga king Chaturapak.
Brahma
(Preah Prohm) build for them an underground town that was later moved to the
island of Lanka and ruled by a horrifying jak
Laksatian and by his son Ravana. To notice here that Brahma took slightly the
side of the bad people (yaks) in all
the Ramakien narrative.
The
western wall terminates with the legend on Nonthok, who, at death reincarnated
in Ravana.
Many
adventures of Ravana follow, together with those of king Orachyum, who became a
hermit with the name of Kodum, marrying later in life and fathering a girl and
his disloyal wife had two boys named Sugrib and Valin who will be important in
the development of the Ramakien
narrative.
All the
above narrative in unknown ion the Reamker
or its variants.
I
suggest that, the Wat Bo’s murals of the western wall may have been based on
some version of the Cambodian Trai Bhet, composed, at the latest, at the
end of the second half of the 17th century(de Bernon, 2003:80).
It is an old Khmer pre-Buddhist
text of which the attribution to the legend of Rama had been forgotten (Olivier
de Bernon 1994). It contains a cosmological preamble to the legend of Rama,
revealing the genealogy of the main characters and a tale of their origin. The
discussion of Traibeht, Reamker-Ramakien will
be discussed in detail at the end of part 2.
Description of photograph will be explained in the next chapter.
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