About The Book
Buddhist Stupa (Phra Chedi) Architecture of Thailand is the most exhaustive study ever done by a Western researcher on the Buddhist edifices known in Thailand as phra chedi. Karl Döhring, who worked in Siam during the early decades of the twentieth century, personally visited phra chedi or stupa edifices in various Bangkok temples. He traces the origins of this peculiar building, dis-cusses its uses, and ex-amines its place in Thai Buddhist temple com-plexes. A complete classification of all the architectural forms these buildings take is presented, along with architectonic details, and the decorative ele-ments of the round and square stupa types are analyzed. This study is enhanced by a unique col-lection of photographs and the author's own sketches and drawings.
Introduction
The present work deals with Siamese phra chedi (pronounced phratjedi), which, succinctly translated, are reliquaries or memorial buildings.¹ These religious structures are found in such great number and have such a peculiar shape that every visitor to the country immediately notices them. The discussion of these buildings here mainly depends on those in the modern-day capital of Bangkok, the largest city in Siam. The multiplicity of shapes there permits a good overview. The old capitals have been destroyed, and tropical vegetation grows over the rubble of their temples and phra chedi, hiding from sight every handsomely built monument with a cover of lush creeping plants. Shrubs and impenetrable brush prevent access to them. The development of building shapes in Siam progressed only slowly and, here, as elsewhere throughout the Orient, there is a tenacious attachment to old traditions. In Siam's building and art history we find periods of flow-ering and of decline that, in general, faithfully represent the nation's politi-cal history. We cannot deny, however, that in addition to these fluctua-tions-small in comparison to the development of European art-after the great period of blossoming more or less under King Phra Ruang around 1250, a regression occurred that nevertheless further developed the indi-vidual types of national style and gradually led to fixed schematic forms. In the course of the development of Bangkok and during the expansion of the street network in the layout of the new city, temple complexes have not been much taken into consideration. Many have thus been increasingly hidden by rows of houses. Only the spires of the large phra chedi emerge to reveal the presence of a temple. Already from afar the first sight of Bangkok is the many slender pointed towers that stand beside the smoking chimneys of rice and timber mills, the rather unattractive testaments to modernity. But, even if times have changed, the smoke from these chim-neys has not been able to completely darken the sparkling splendor of the phra chedi. The cityscape in the vicinity of the old Chakri Palace as seen from the River Menam is especially beautiful (Plate 1). The many splendid phra chedi of the ancient, now ruined, capital of Ayutthuya played an important role during all periods and figures in all travel reports about Siam. Mendez da Pinto in the mid-sixteenth century already remarked upon them, while later Dutch, English, and French visi-tors of the seventeenth century are filled with praise for the magnificence of these buildings. Unfortunately, during those times exact descriptions were not customary among Europeans. The word "pagoda" was used for all Buddhist edifices, for whole temple complexes as well as for their indi-vidual parts, for Buddha images, or for phra chedi. This fact makes most of these reports unclear. Such vague descriptions are in use even today, although more precise expressions are gradually gaining ground among Europeans. Today's phra chedi are a characteristic temple ornament, and a temple complex without a place for them is really unimaginable. Even in the coun-tryside outside the capital, already from afar the tall principal phra chedi of a temple complex greets the visitor when the actual temple building lies hidden from sight behind the sheltering green shade of trees. The phra chedi play a major role in religious customs. Their veneration is often not inferior to the veneration of Buddha images, and sometimes even more significant. Important celebrations are held to venerate them, and, indeed, the preponderant position given to the phra chedi, in architecture as well as in religion, accords with their significance in Buddhism as such. Every where in Siamese history books one reads descriptions of phra chedi and phra chedi construction, as well as about their veneration.
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