THAILAND, SUKHOTHAI STYLE, LATE 15TH-16TH CENTURY

The Walking Buddha is a striking Thai iconic invention emerging in bronze sculpture in the fourteenth century. Buddhist literature dictates four positions in which the Buddha can be portrayed: sitting, standing, reclining, and walking. While seated or standing images are prolific, reclining and walking depictions are more rare, making this exquisite bronze figure of a Walking Buddha particularly important. By the fourteenth century in Thailand the Walking Buddha, which had previously been relegated to relief sculpture, begins to appear in the round. Sukhothai sculptors were guided by descriptive passages in Pali and Sanskrit poetry that prescribe idealized features for the Enlightened One, including a gently protruding chin likened to a lime and long slender arms compared to the smooth trunk of a young elephant. The figure's slimmer features are characteristic of Sukhothai sculpture produced after the mid-fifteenth century, following the annexation of Sukhothai by the Ayutthaya kingdom.

The Chalieng stucco relief dated to the late thirteenth century illustrates the stylistic form out of which later three-dimensional works, such as the present figure, emerged (see C. Stratton and M. McNair Scott, The Art of Sukhothai: Thailand's Golden Age, 1981, p. 68, fig. 57). Compare the long oval faces with arched eyebrows joined just above the long protruding nose. The thin lips are slightly upturned in a subtle smile, the chins are rounded and defined. The curls of the hair tight and thick, the hairline low on the forehead. The modeling of the long undulant bodies are similarly understood, with special emphasis on broad rounded shoulders which appear pulled back, allowing the chest to protrude. The hands of the stucco relief are now lost, but would have mimicked the present work with the right arm swaying in an almost serpentine fashion and the left rising in abhayamudra.

The elongated legs with thick rounded thighs give way to narrow calves, echoing the shape of the torsos. These rounded thighs also appear on a fourteenth-century Walking Buddha in the round in the National Museum, Bangkok (P. Krairiksh, The Sacred Image: Sculptures from Thailand, p. 45) Both show one leg straight, planted firmly on the ground while the other leg bends, lifting the heel as the Buddha steps forward. The figures both wear ankle-length diaphanous robes draped over their left shoulders with a sash dangling down their chests. Both wear a flattened hem and pleated sash of the relief figure. Portraying the Buddha as a three-dimensional figure was well suited to the use of bronze in place of stucco. Stratton and McNair Scott note, bronze casting must have come as a natural development for these Sukhothai sculptors who were already skilled in the art of modeling stucco (C. Stratton and M. McNair Scott, The Art of Sukhothai: Thailand's Golden Age, 1981. p. 73).

Known at Sukhothai as cankrama ("walking back and forth"), the position refers to the pacing of Buddha during the third week after Enlightenment (see H. Woodward, The Sacred Sculpture of Thailand, 1997, p. 160ff). The variety of implications include, being a visual representation of his descent from Tavatimsa Heaven, as well as increasing the accessibility of the Buddha to the devotee by appearing to move towards him, with his right hand raised in the fear-abiding gesture. When Shakyamuni renounced his princely life he dismounted from his horse, Kanthaka, for good to become a peripatetic mendicant. Buddhist texts describe his constant wandering from city to city in the course of his teaching exemplifying the important role that the act of walking had upon the Buddha's life. It is all the more remarkable that there are no Indian prototypes of 'Walking Buddhas'. In the context of walking, the footprint also has an important connotation, first emerging in Gandharan schist sculpture as an ersatz symbol. A Sukhothai bronze image in the National Museum, Bangkok shows a 'Walking Buddha' leaving a footprint behind, literally leaving his mark as a symbol of spiritual conquest.

Sukhothai period bronze images of the Walking Buddha are relatively rare. The majority of the known examples are in museums. Compare the present figure with two monumental walking Buddhas; one in Wat Benjamabopit, Bangkok and another post-classic period bronze in Wat Praya Pu (ibid., p.75, fig. 65 and p. 91, fig. 72). All these works display nearly identical modeling and emphasis on exaggerated proportions, making the Buddha appear almost boneless, moving with water-like fluidity. The latter example shares a similar articulation of the dhoti, set below the navel and flowing over the lower body in a single diaphanous drape. For further comparison, see a bronze Walking Buddha in the Asian Civilizations Museum, Singapore (acc. no. 1999-01714).