• Dynamite Doug, a podcast by Project Brazen and narrated by @ellewongster , takes a look at the looting of Cambodian cultural heritage by disgraced art dealer Douglas Latchford. Latchford facilitated the looting and sale of numerous Cambodian (and other Southeast Asian) artefacts which ended up in some of the most prestigious museums in the world, including The Met. Looking forward to the next episode!
There are a lot of news stories related to Douglas Latchford, the Pandora Papers, and cultural heritage looting on the website - link in description. #cambodia #looting #antiquitiestrade #dynamitedoug #podcast #archaeology #southeastasianarchaeology
  • It’s been a great week in Laos conducting a training workshop on rock art recording and other archaeological methods for the Department of History and Archaeology at the National University of Laos. The participants, both lecturers and students, were a great bunch to work with, and they picked up the principles really quickly. And as a bonus, we ended up finding more rock art than we originally expected! Looking forward to working with this bunch again in the future! #laos #nuol #fieldschool #xaingnabouli #paklai #rockart #archaeology #laoarchaeology #southeasgasianarchaeology
  • That’s a wrap for today! Learning how to systematically document a rock art site, from theory to practice. Some more data gathering tomorrow, and then putting all the information in the data after! #paklai #rockart #mekong #xayabouli #nuol #laosarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #laos
  • Last post of the year - looking back in the year that was archaeology in Southeast Asia in 2022. Check out the full post here: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/12/16/southeast-asian-archaeology-2022-year-in-review/

And see you in the new year! Best wishes to all for the holiday season!

#southeastasianarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology2022 #recap
  • Last month I was at the Si Thep Historical Park in Phetchabun province - a less-known archaeological site, but an impressive one considering the ancient town has remnants dating from prehistoric times until the 13th century CE. Khao Klang Nok is a massive Buddhist stupa dating to the 8th or 9th centuries CE, located outside of the ancient town of Si Thep. I was able to get som cool shots from my drone, check out my post here: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/12/15/drone-flight-over-khao-klang-nok-si-thep-historical-park/

#khaoklangnok #sithephistoricalpark #phetchabun #drone #dronestagram #dvaravati #khmer #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #southeastasia #อุทยานประวัติศาสตร์ศรีเทพ #เพชรบูรณ์ #archaeology
  • Extended edit from Khao Klang Nok in Si Thep Historical Park, very grateful for the permission to take some shots for the @seameospafa post-#ippa2022 excursion.
  • Ending the second day of the @seameospafa #ippa2022 post-conference excursion on a high note - literally. Khao Klang Nok at the Si Thep Historical Park #southeastasianarchaeology #sithephistoricalpark #khaoklangnok
  • Terracotta elephant statue from the pre-Thang Long period, approximately 8-10th century. On display at the museum under the National Assembly Building in Hanoi. #vietnamarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #vietnam #hanoi #thanglong #terracotta #elephant #ceramics #ancientart
  • Earlier this week there was a news article about a Thai archaeologist’s attempt to repatriate a statue that was reportedly looted from Buriram province and now on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/07/08/thai-archaeologist-on-mission-to-reclaim-ancient-khmer-sculpture-from-us/

This is the so-called Golden Boy, taken at the Met last December. The label calls it a Standing Shiva(?) and attributes it to the Cambodia, Siem Reap origin but it may be in fact a representation of Jayavarman Vi. You can see the museum info here: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39097?ft=khmer&offset=0&rpp=40&pos=3

#khmer #sculpture #looting #antiquitiestrade #themet #metropolitanmuseumofart #khmerarchaeology #thaiarchaeology #southeastasianarchaeology #southeastasia #museums #repatriation #angkor #cambodia #thailand #buriram
  • What’s in your field kit? Here’s what’s in mine: https://www.southeastasianarchaeology.com/2022/07/04/whats-in-my-archaeology-field-kit-june-2022/ #fieldwork #fieldgear #camera #drone #archaeology #photography #videography
Wednesday, March 29, 2023
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Home » Thailand » New Buddhist rock art at Wat Phraphuttachai, Saraburi

New Buddhist rock art at Wat Phraphuttachai, Saraburi

25 June 2018
in Thailand
Tags: BuddhismDStretchrock artSaraburi (province)Wat Phraphuttachai (temple)
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New Buddhist rock art at Wat Phraphuttachai, practically invisible to the naked eye. Only parts of the "wings" can be seen easily.

New Buddhist rock art at Wat Phraphuttachai, practically invisible to the naked eye. Only parts of the "wings" can be seen easily.

Over the weekend, fellow rock art enthusiast Francesco Germi and I took a day trip from Bangkok to Saraburi province to visit Wat Phraphuttachai, a temple known for its Buddhist and ‘prehistoric’ rock art. For my doctoral research, I studied rock art sites across Mainland Southeast Asia that had later become religious shrines and so this site was of some personal interest.

Wat Phraphuttachai, Saraburi province, Thailand
Wat Phraphuttachai, Saraburi province, Thailand

Wat Phraphuttachai is located on a cliff face and the gold-roofed pavilion at the side of the cliff contains its namesake: a Buddhist rock painting in which is said to be an imprint of the Buddha himself.

Buddha's imprint, the 'Phraphutthachai' of Wat Phraphuttachai
Buddha’s imprint, the ‘Phraphutthachai’ of Wat Phraphuttachai

Just beside the entrance of this pavilion is a small section of wall that contain some other rock paintings. The rock art, which was gazetted by the Fine Arts Department in 1935, consists of hand prints, some honeycomb designs and an assortment of fragmentary red paintings. Most are extremely hard to see today.

The cliff side of Wat Phraphuttachai. The rock art is located just to the right of the pavilion's entrance, behind the Buddha statues.
The cliff side of Wat Phraphuttachai. The rock art is located just to the right of the pavilion’s entrance, behind the Buddha statues.
Red handprints and examples of very faded paintings at the site
Red hand prints and examples of very faded paintings at the site.

It wasn’t until we got back home and started to analyse our pictures with DStretch that we realised that one section of the wall with fragmentary paintings was actually a massive and magnificent image of the Buddha! Like the Phraphutthachai image, this Buddha is also life-sized but is more embellished.

New Buddhist rock art at Wat Phraphuttachai, practically invisible to the naked eye. Only parts of the "wings" can be seen easily.
New Buddhist rock art at Wat Phraphuttachai, practically invisible to the naked eye. Only parts of the “wings” can be seen easily.

I’m wondering now if the paintings all belong to the historic Buddhist period, rather than a two-layer prehistoric-then-Buddhist occupation. It could be some of the earlier paintings that were called human and animal figures were really misidentified. Finding this elaborate Buddhist image was quite cool, and if any readers could comment on the style of art, we would like to hear them – leave a comment below. For now, we have submitted a preliminary report of the finding to the Fine Arts Department of Thailand.

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Comments 3

  1. Thanik says:
    5 years ago

    So, there two painted figures of Buddha there?

  2. Noel Tan says:
    5 years ago

    Yes, apparently so. The first one is the one everyone knew and was worshipping. This second one is pretty much invisible.

  3. wilaiwan says:
    5 years ago

    This site found prehistoric and historic rock art . I survey and copy prehistoric rock art that founded on cliff in phraphutthachai last year.
    In addition this site have Buddha footprint on the top hill.

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