modern Buddhist murals in northern Thailand: a study of religious symbols and meaning1

Abstract

We draw attention to the importance of visual symbols in the anthropological investigation of religion and cultural values and analyze a recent efflorescence in monastic mural paintings in the city of Chiengmai in northern Thailand in order to discover the iconographic code which might reveal underlying meanings and values. The popularity of certain Buddhist symbols found in the murals is established by means of a quantitative methodology. The results are analyzed in terms of traditional Buddhist explanations of the symbols and then compared with informants' accounts of why the murals were popular. The opinions of the artists and monks and laity involved are considered in reference to cultural changes in values taking place in a modernizing society. The murals are an assertion of certain core values expressed in ancient Buddhist symbols as a defense of the totality of the religious system against perceived threats from competing modern values. An unexpected result of the research was the discovery that the Thai religious symbolic system incorporates into a broad continuum a host of legends and symbols that are not just “folk” beliefs but are central to an adequate anthropological understanding of Theravada Buddhism itself.

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