Talk about sīmā stones in Thai tradition

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gavesako
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Talk about sīmā stones in Thai tradition

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21 May 2021

M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati (California State University, Sacramento)

Reflections on the Boundary Markers of the Early Rattanakosin Period (1782–1868): ‘Temple of the Reign’ and the New Buddhist Lineage of King Rama IV

After 27 years in the monkhood before King Mongkut (Rama IV) came to the throne, he initiated a new Buddhist sect called the Dhammayuttika (Thai: Thammayut nikaya) that paid strong attention to the Buddhist disciplines (vinaya). The king was concerned about the procedure and demarcation of sīmā stones in temples. As a result, he had a revered monk, Somdet Phra Wannarat (Dang), write instructions and descriptions of how to erect sīmā stones and classify different types of sīmā in sīmāgatha. This article focuses on the new development of concepts and forms of sīmā stones during the King Mongkut (r. 1851-1868) and King Chulalongkorn periods (r. 1868-1910). It will include symbols, types, and functions of different categories of sīmā (i.e., baddhasīmā, abaddhasīmā, khandasīmā, mahāsīmā and visunggāmasīmā).

M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati is an art historian who specializes in Buddhist art and Southeast Asian art visual cultures. She received her Ph.D. in Southeast Asian Art History and Southeast Asian Studies at Cornell University. She has published extensively on ancient Buddhist art (e.g., Votive Tablets in Thailand: Origin, Styles, and Uses (Oxford University Press, 2007) and Divination Au Royaume De Siam: Le corps, la guerre, le destine (Presses Universitaires de France, 2011). She co-curated two major art exhibitions at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco entitled The Kingdom of Siam: Art from Central Thailand (1530–1800) and Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma (1775–1950). She is a faculty member in the Art Department and former Director and Vice Director of the Asian Studies Program at California State University, Sacramento. She is also former Head of Studies, Division of Arts and Humanities at Yale-NUS College (Singapore).

https://theravadastudies.org/after-the- ... ies-talks/
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
Ancient Buddhist Texts - Translations and history of Pali texts
Dhammatalks.org - Sutta translations
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gavesako
Posts: 1794
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 5:16 pm

Re: Talk about sīmā stones in Thai tradition

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From our perspective one of the more interesting reforms was a decision that underlines the centrality of the sīmā to modern state-building. Article 9 of the Siamese Sangha Act (1902) restricted the establishment of new sīmā within commoner monasteries. From this point on this could only be done with royal permission and Prince Wachirayān, son of King Mongkut and supreme patriarch of Buddhism for the last eleven years of his life, warned that such permission would not be secured by ‘return of post’. Refer to Yoneo, Ishii, Sangha, state and society: Thai Buddhism in history (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986), p. 74


More information on sīmā boundaries in Thailand:

https://www.academia.edu/5509691/Petra_ ... 97_141_153

https://www.lirilumbini.com/images/liri ... r_pulz.pdf

https://www.academia.edu/30083220/Petra ... mission_8_

https://www.academia.edu/5643489/Petra_ ... _8_239_253

https://www.academia.edu/32135310/Petra ... 17_103_158

:reading:
Bhikkhu Gavesako
Kiṃkusalagavesī anuttaraṃ santivarapadaṃ pariyesamāno... (MN 26)

Access to Insight - Theravada texts
Ancient Buddhist Texts - Translations and history of Pali texts
Dhammatalks.org - Sutta translations
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