Sacred Sites Conference 2005 Abstracts
Sacred Centres in Monsoon Asia, and Their Transformations
Ian Mabbett
Robert Taylor's research on the constantly transformed varieties of religious practice associated with the forest monks of Thailand demonstrates clearly the variety of roles, each blurring into others, which can be played by the sacred in the life of devotees. A spot temporarily occupied by a holy man for meditation may subsequently, and retrospectively, be consecrated as a source of spiritual energy, attracting communities of monks, of whom some seek spiritual advance by meditation, others by scholarship, and the sanctity of the place may attract pilgrims who come with a variety of religious motives. Again, Paul Mus has brought clearly into focus some of the ways in which sacred spots or icons can gain or lose layers of religious meaning with shifts in the religious culture of the surrounding community; in Champa the Hindu Indra retreated into the Yan In of local legend, without necessarily changing real identity - the 'real identity' of a sacred object is to be defined in part at least by the persistence of its role in the religious consciousness of the supporting community, rather than by the logic of formal doctrines. In Angkor Wat, a royal vaishnavite temple became a centre for local Buddhism. The divinities whose energies have been considered to be concentrated in sacred places in monsoon Asia can be seen as agents of a 'rupture of plane' by which the terrestrial here and now, populated by its devotees variously practising devotion, meditation, scholarship and ritual, may be sloughed off, revealing an underlying transcendent reality. A sacred space may be used in various ways, but the successful practitioner of any of them may be considered to be gaining access to this transcendent reality, without changing physical position. This makes sense of the widespread principle that a stupa (A. Snodgrass), or a Mount Meru temple, or indeed almost any shrine where divine energy is thought to be concentrated, can reveal itself as the actual centre of the universe to a devotee in the appropriate state or condition.
Incorporating the Periphery - The Classical Temples of Southeast Asia and Their Social Context
Alexandra Haendel
Historiography of ancient and classical religious sites in Southeast Asia has been characterised by a discourse of cosmological representation. This focus on the symbolic meaning of central towers and other shrines has lead to an understanding of temple 'functionality' which largely overlooks the significance of subsidiary buildings, sculpture and textual evidence within its analytical framework.
Based on a multi-faceted methodology developed over a number of years this paper will focus on the temples of classical Cambodia and Java in terms of their spatial conception and temporality; the sites examined date from the eighth to thirteenth century. In order to provide the analytical framework, sources of information available for the different sites will be discussed: architectural remains, mainly of subsidiary buildings, the layout of the sites, the chronology and placement of sculpture, and the information provided in contemporary or later texts (religious and secular). By applying this broad analytical framework with regards to the issue of usage of the sites, a more holistic and deeper understanding of temple functionality than previously attempted will be offered.
Visualising Angkor: Digital Reconstructions of Settlements and Religious Architecture
Thomas Chandler
The ruined temples have been described as Angkor's religious skeleton, and are the most conspicuous architectural evidence left to us from the Angkorean civilisation. These temples have all experienced various degrees of restoration and documentation, and most of them have been carefully studied since the French colonial period. To date however, although much has been written about the temples and the kings who built them, there have been few attempts to render images of the temples as they might have appeared originally or as the socially lived sites they were intended to be. Today, the temples stand as isolated masterpieces amongst modern rice fields; the wooden dwellings of the many, sometimes thousands, of servants and devoted priests have long disappeared.
Recent computer graphic technology provides the opportunity to bring the temples and the neighbourhoods that sustained them back to life. Digitally reconstructed landscapes and urban settlements allow researchers to visualise what does not exist, examine spatial qualities and engage in contextual criticism. Digital animation and special effects can also recreate scenes of spectacle and every day life, from the vivid colours of the temples golden spires and fluttering banners to the walking, murmuring crowds of devotees and the families engaged in growing rice.
Such visualisations can offer new insights regarding both the temples and the surrounding landscape and cityscape. Since no single interpretation of history is absolute, the visualisations will aim to communicate differing (plural) hypotheses of how the temples looked and how they were incorporated into the living environment. The ability to compare and contrast differing reconstructions of the temples within the context of their urban topography will significantly advance their archaeological interpretation and promote further academic discussion and examination. The augmentation of architectural reconstructions with crowds of walking people, animals, and soundscapes will help to present a richer reconstruction utilising the very latest computer graphic technology.
What Epigraphy has to teach Us on the Integration of the Khmer Temple Sites into the Lived Environment
Kamaleswar Bhattacharya
Although epigraphy cannot be expected to yield anything close to the spectacular images that modern technology yields, the inscriptions - in both Sanskrit and Old Khmer - do contain valuable information relative to the integration of the Khmer temple sites into the lived environment - physically, spiritually, socially and economically. Some of them will be taken into consideration in this paper, with particular attention to the inscriptions from Phnom Bayang, those inscriptions which, though not directly related to the temples, may illumine us on the purpose of the pre-Angkorean brick temples built deep down into the caves of Kampot, the inscriptions of Yasovarman and those of Jayavarman VII, which give detailed information concerning the temples' links with the surrounding communities. Errors in the translations of the Sanskrit texts - sometimes having far-reaching consequences - will be corrected in passing.
My Son and Po Nagar Nha Trang Sanctuaries: In Regards to the Cosmological Dualist Cult of Champa Kingdom (Central Vietnam)
Tran Ky Phuong and Rie Nakamura
Between the 8th and the 11th/12th centuries, the two major sanctuaries of Champa courts were My Son in Quang Nam Province and PO Nagar Nha Trang in Khanh Hoa Province that reflected the phenomena of the Champa cosmological dualist cult.
Geographically, My Son Sanctuary was located in a deep valley surrounded by high mountain ranges; on the contrary, PO Nagar Nha Trang Sanctuary was located on a riverside hill near by the estuary. My Son Sanctuary was of the North which belonged to the Amaravati State where the God Bhadresvara/father/god-king (devaraja)/ mountain/areca were worshipped; and PO Nagar Nha Trang Sanctuary was built in the South which belonged to the Kauthara State where the Goddess Bhagavati/mother/PO Yang Inu Nagar/sea/coconut were worshipped. Nowadays, amongst the Cham ethnic community living in Ninh Thuan Province in South Central Vietnam, the Cham people are divided into two groups, so call: Ahier and Awar. Ahier is the Cham Brahmanists and Awar is the Cham Bani (old Islamic). In their legends, Ahier belongs to male and Awar belongs to female.
The paper deals with the significant of the religious sites of Champa kingdom in the context of the cosmological dualist cult in order to understand its arts and architecture in the references from the cults adapted in the daily life of the Cham people in present time.
Religious Architecture and Landscape in the Plain of Phan Rang
William A. Southworth
From the 8th to 9th centuries CE the plain of Phan Rang was the centre of a Cham polity known as Panduranga. This state continued in existence until the early nineteenth century and Phan Rang remains the main demographic centre of the modern Cham community in central Viet Nam. Two hill-top temples - the temple of PO Romé dating from the 17th century, and the temple of PO Klaung Garai constructed in the 13th century - remain in use today, while the modern bamun or shrines of PO Nagar and Glai Lomov contain earlier religious sculpture as central icons.
The main focus of my presentation however will be on the religious landscape of the 8th and 9th centuries. Two additional temple groups date from this period: the group of Hoa Lai in the rice plain to the north of Phan Rang and that of PO Dam on the edge of a series of low hills in the neighbouring southern district of Phanri. Both are associated with communication routes leading to the port of Phan Rang and are also linked to fresh water sources. In addition, five stele inscriptions have been found from this period, three of which - from Glai Lomov, Glai Klaung Anuk and Da Trang - can be directly linked to architectural and habitation remains. Despite the historical importance of this region very little archaeology has ever been conducted here. Nevertheless, I hope to be able to draw some preliminary conclusions as to how this area functioned economically and how the temple remains complemented both the demographics of human settlement and the religious significance of the landscape as a whole.
View from the East
D. Kyle Latinis
The following discussion concerns the lack of temple construction and presumably heavy Brahmanic and Buddhist penetration into Eastern Indonesia and the Southern Philippines. Despite the eastern island regions' important role in trade/exchange and other interactions with western and northern polities for over 2000 years prior to Colonial presence in the early 16th century, the temple construction boom(s) seen in mainland Southeast Asia and western island Southeast Asia never occurred further east. Why did monument construction more or less stop at Bali?
It is possible that this phenomenon is related to environment, geography and subsistence, although it cannot be discounted that social factors played a definitive role. The fact that Eastern Indonesia and the Southern Philippines were largely based on arboriculture and root-cropping may be an important variable. This may be supportive evidence that temples and temple construction (including labour organisation), and, the vaguely know social relations and politics behind them, may have effectively functioned more as agricultural and resource management/redistribution institutions, rather than servicing purely ideological religious cults. Not surprisingly, many are located in areas where water management was important. However, exceptions occur. The Northern Philippines may have had early and very organized rice agriculture and water-land-resource management practices. Certainly, the Neolithic to Metal Age circular earthwork sites in eastern Cambodia are evidence of more "rice-agricultural and domesticated animal husbandry" cultures as well. Neither are known for major temple building. Alternative explanations will be explored in the following paper.
The tomanurung sites of South Sulawesi, Indonesia
Ian Caldwell
The tomanurung sites of South Sulawesi, Indonesia are stone and earth structures which are found in both Bugis and Makasar speaking areas of the southern peninsula. The structures are associated by local people with the heavenly-descended progenitors (tomanurung/tumanurung) of the pre-Islamic kingdoms of South Sulawesi, which arose after circa AD 1300. Archaeological research has shown that these sites are associated with the earliest-known political centres of these kingdoms. The paper brings together 20 years of research on these sites (carried out during various historical and archaeological projects) and draws together scattered information and site plans to produce a detailed model of a late-pre-Islamic ritual site and its relation to Austronesian cosmology. Sites examined in the paper include those of Kalimporo in kabupaten Jeneponto, the Bugis site at Sewo in kabupaten Soppeng and the Lemolang site at Baebunta in kabupaten Luwu.
Interpreting Myanmar's Earliest Buddhist Sites
Bob Hudson
The indigenous origin of Burma's First Millennium AD brick-walled "Pyu" cities of Maingmaw, Beikthano, Halin, Tagaung and Sriksetra is masked by later layers of Hindu and Buddhist art and architecture. The scholarly interpretation of these sites may have at times suffered from an over-emphasis on Indian religious, architectural and social influences. This paper will briefly outline the structure of the early urban system in the light of current archaeological evidence. It will review in particular the indigenous approaches to history and archaeology that reflect and direct the current "received view" of history within Myanmar, and discuss some of the issues involved in conducting archaeological research within Myanmar's unique politico-religious framework.
Recent Developments in Archaeology in Myanmar
Ernelle Berliet
As interrelation between urban and religious spaces is a rarely treated issue about ancient South East Asia, sites in Burma in particular have rarely been studied apart from Pagan. This situation results from two main reasons: the prestige of this ancient capital, famous for its numerous temples which represent without any contest a true interest, has somehow eclipsed other archaeological remains, but above all the lack of field research in that country is the cause of this gap.
During my PhD research, which focused on historical geography and urbanisation in Burma between the 2nd c. BC until 13th c. AD and which aimed to collect new data, I had the occasion to survey many archaeological sites unexplored, for most of them, since the British time. This paper aims to briefly present a site belonging, according to the local tradition, to the Pagan period (1044-1287) namely: Myingun. It's apparently unknown from epigraphy and most of documents but, yet, 26 temples and a part of a brick city wall with moat are still standing. By chance, most of them are in a good state of preservation, and if renovation was brought on few buildings, the original structures are still visible. Some of them still show old paintings and stucco as well. All of these remains allow us to confirm the traditional date and give a new case of study in archaeology and architecture of that period.
The Dynamics of Angkor and its Landscape: Issues Arising from the Greater Angkor Project
Roland Fletcher
The Greater Angkor Project has identified that the low density urban complex covered about 1000 sq km and included a massive, elaborate water management system with canals over 20 km long. The urban complex extended from the lake, the Tonle Sap, to the lower slopes of the Kulen hills with the enclosure of Angkor Thom at its centre. Also visible all over the landscape, both to aerial photography and radar, are the bunded rice fields that sustained the populace of Angkor. The urban complex was apparently supported by extensification of rice production through the clearance of forest. Its water management system was capable of supporting irrigation but would have been for risk minimisation not intensification.
The key environmental significance of Angkor is that it was large enough to have a substantial impact on its environment. The Greater Angkor Project is investigating this impact and the implications of altered water flow and sediment deposition rates on the stability and integrity of the water management network. In some parts of Angkor the current channels are several metres below the Angkorean ground surface, elsewhere entire canals 1-2m deep and about 40-50 m wide are filled with cross-bedded sands. The implications for discussions of the demise of urban complex of Angkor will be reviewed.
Secrets of Phnom Kulen: The Geography of Relocating the Capital
Bob Acker
I. Mystery of the ninth century relocation
A. Location of
the capital at Hariharalaya in 802 probably a matter of general strategic
considerations.
B. But general strategy cannot have
played a role in the relocation from Hariharalaya to Yasodharapura
at the end of the ninth century-a shift of only 17 km
.
C. At one time it was thought that this was a relocation
from the Roluos river to the Siem Reap river. But the Siem Reap is
an artificial river, created by building a diversion structure from
the Puok.
D. So the move was to the only place that
did not have a river; but rivers were so important that one was diverted
to that spot. But why move there in the first place? What was so
attractive about that spot?
II. Background: Geography of Cambodia
A. Climate Seasonality and quantity
of rainfall Pulsating lake
B. Topography and soil Flat
(1:1000 slope) to very flat (1:5000). Occasional sandstone outcroppings
Geology: Alluvium over impermeable sandstone, causing high water
tables
C. Effects on rice farming
III. Phnom Kulen
A. The question is what geographic
peculiarities led to the selection of the site for the new capital.
But the north Cambodian plain is flat and featureless, with almost
nothing to distinguish one spot from another. In fact, the only significant
landmark is a single range of hills, the Phnom Kulen. Significantly,
the new capital is directly downslope from the Phnom Kulen
B. Mythic significance of the Phnom Kulen.
C. Geography
of the Phnom Kulen
1. General description
2. Effects on the area downslope from ita. Increased rainfall through orographic lifting
b. Higher water table than elsewhere because of greater rainfall
c. Greater slope; 1:1000 slope vs 1:5000 elsewherei. Better urban drainage during the rainy season
ii. Closer to lake (city must be built above inundated zone around great lake; given an 8-meter rise in lake level during the rainy season and a 1:1000 slope, the inundated zone is 8 km in breadth; given a 1:5000 slope, it's 40 km in breadth.) d. Proximity to sandstone quarries.3. Importance of these factors in influencing the move from Hariharalaya to Yasodharapura:
a. Neither the sandstone quarries nor the lakefront are closer to Yasodharapura than Hariharalaya.
b. Increased rainfall is an obvious gain, but what of the water table? This is practically unstudied, and that is what the balance of this study is about.
IV. The water table
A. Agronomic effects of a high water table
1. Paddies fill faster during the rainy season and stay filled longer.
2. Drinking water for people and animals during the dry season is more available.
3. Horticulture is more fruitful.
4. Second cropping after the rice harvest is possible.
B. The water table around the site of the new capital
1. [Body of the empirical study]
2. Preliminary conclusion: The new capital was sited in almost the center of a subsurface water plateau, where water is less than 2 meters below the surface almost everywhere, as opposed to more than three meters elsewhere on the north Cambodian plain
Appendices
A. Considerations of climate change
B. Using
vegetation to mark the boundaries of Angko
Connecting the Dots: Investigating the Issue of Transportation between the Temple Complexes of the Medieval Khmer (9th to 14th centuries AD)
Mitch Hendrickson
Research on the temple complexes of the medieval Khmer has largely avoided the concepts of landscape and interaction between centres. Evidence of an elaborate road network, including bridges, resthouses and tanks (trapeang), radiating out from Angkor to its provincial centres, however, demonstrates a deliberate concern for mobility and transportation across the Khmer world from at least the 12th century. In fact, it is difficult to deny that similar routes facilitated the spread of the Khmer empire at a much earlier date. By combining remote sensing imagery, archaeological, inscription, and topographic data in a Geographic Information System (GIS) the aim of this paper is to map the connectivity of these 'isolated' temple complexes through space and time. Terrestrial (i.e., road) and riverine transport routes are used to investigate the Khmer understanding of transportation logistics, the significance of formalized or 'royal' road construction, the feasibility of year-round mobility between sites and the impact of such routes on trade and defence. Riverine transport is also inextricably linked to water control in the Khmer world and the more practical necessity of water to sustain local populations over time at a single locale. It is argued therefore that the study of water transportation also provides important clues about Khmer site location strategies across the landscape.
Journeys and Landscapes: Some Preliminary Remarks on Ancient Javanese Perceptions of Their Lived Environment
Peter Worsley
The paper is intended to be a contribution to the environmental history of Java. Taking the work of Zoetmulder (Kalangwan [1974]) and Day ("Landscape in Early Java"[1994]) it explores our understanding of how the inhabitants of ancient Java imagined their lived environment. What did they imagine it was to be an inhabitant of the topographical, faunal and floral space which they themselves referred to variously as Jawa, bhumi Jawa, tanah Jawa, nusa Jawa, Jawadvipamandala (old Javanese) or alas Jawa (old Sundanese)? How did they imagine that this space had come into being? What ideas, values and emotions organised the ways in which the inhabitants of this space apprehended and naturalised the world in which they lived?
The paper examines accounts of journeys and landscapes found in a number of epic kakawin works to determine the types of landscapes they describe and the location of temples and other religious sites in them. Other genres of writing will be drawn upon to assist the analysis. Reference will be made to such works as the Tantu Pangelaran and Korawasrama, Mpu Prapañca's mid fourteenth century description of the realm of Majapahit in the Nagarakrtagama, the late fifteenth century old Sundanese account of the journeys of Bujanga Manik who travelled from the court of Pakuan to central, and eastern Java, and the kidung Wargasari with its account of the journey of the hero Wargasari from Wewetih to Majapahit. Reference will also be made to the corpus of legal documents found in inscriptions from the eighth to fifteenth centuries and visual evidence found in the bas-reliefs of ancient Javanese temples.
Imagery of the Temple in Old Javanese Poetry
Stuart Robson
A reading of Old Javanese poetry (kakawin) reveals that the temple (candi) and other religious buildings feature in it in various ways. There are descriptions that are meant to be realistic, as found in the 14th century poem Desawarnana (Nagarakretagama), but this work occupies an unusual position in the literature. We might also think of the description of a temple complex found in the (Old Javanese) Ramayana (mid 9th century).
In many poems, temples and hermitages are part of the description of the countryside which constitutes an important requirement of kakawin poetry. This includes mentions of ruined temple buildings, even as early as the 11th century. Because of their condition, they create feelings of nostalgia and longing.
And finally the poem itself can be depicted as a literary monument (also termed candi), because of its religious function as an artifact into which the deity is summoned to descend. This is an aspect of the yogic practice of the poet.
Temples must have been a prominent part of the landscape in early Java, so it is not surprising that they feature in literary works in these ways. We can conclude they were important for the literary imagination, where the description of 'sea and shore', including religious buildings, was regarded as essential, as well as reflecting the experience of poet and audience.
Graves, Trees and Powerful Spirits as Archaeological Indicators of Sacred Spaces
Andrea DiCastro
The study of the religious phenomena in South East Asia is characterised by the complexity of intertwining, overlapping and syncretism of the local religious substrates with the superstructure of the world religions (Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam).
This paper will take into consideration the liminal sacredness of space(s) in an attempt to define a limited framework of inference for the archaeology of religion. Such spaces are often characterised by the presence of graves and/or sacred trees which are perceived as abodes of powerful spirits. The latter can be the spirits of the ancestors, founders of villages, initiators of lineages, chiefs, local heroes, and can be identified with the genii loci. These powerful spirits are the foci of rituals and are meaningful for social cohesion and identity. The local people can see themselves as part of the land they live in by means of the worship and rituals performed at the sacred trees or at the ancestors' graves. In the anthropological research this relation between sacred space and cultural landscape is well established.
The selection of various cases from Java, Singapore, Malaysia and Burma will be compared with the worship of holy trees, at times associated with the spirit rider, and the erection of hero stones in tribal and rural Indian contexts, as well as with the worship and prayers performed at particular sacred places of Islamic Central Asia. This will provide an opportunity for an assessment of a preliminary categorisation based on the theory of family resemblances.
Temples and Landscape in South Central Java
Véronique Degroot
From the 8th to the 10th century, Central Java saw the rise of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms that influenced large parts of Southeast Asia. As no literary texts have survived, early Javanese society can only be studied and understood through its inscriptions and archaeological remains. Unfortunately, most of the available archaeological studies focus on specific temples, so that a general overview of the area is lacking. Since almost four years, under the supervision Dr M.J. Klokke, from Leiden University, I have carried out researches to try to reconstruct the occupation of the territory during the Central Javanese period, focusing on the distribution, organization and spatial arrangement of Hindu/Buddhist temple remains.
For this conference, I will concentrate on the plain of Prambanan, around the famous temples of Loro Jonggrang. I would like to show how landscape markers and river systems played an important role in the choice of a building site and how, in the whole southern Central Java, rivers had an influence on temple orientation.
Epigraphy, although it does not mention temple orientation as such, does suggest that the Indian conception of space was not the sole reference for the Javanese society. Inscriptions show indeed that, during the Central Javanese period, two different systems of orientation were coexisting, one being of Indian origin, the other probably indigenous.
Speculation on Landscape Usage Around Sambor Prei Kuk
Heng Piphal
Based on the interpretation of several inscriptions found within the 7th century and later Sambor Prei Kuk temple complex, scholars believe that Sambor Prei Kuk was Isanapura, the capital city of Chenla during the reign of Isanavarman I. However, no archaeological evidence has been provided to clarify this speculation.
Groslier's excavation in 1962 shed light on continuing occupation that spanned periods beyond the inscriptional evidence. Chenla, always thought to be conveniently periodised within the 7th-9th centuries, likely had a significantly large and active population, which may suggest the "Chenla Period" as defined by researchers may actively mis-portray the history. Many temples have been documented, although many new ones are being discovered. Nevertheless, past settlement territories and settlement patterns remain obscure. Also, the relationship between temples, settlement, and life in general are unknown.
This paper explores past landscapes in relation to the scattered brick architecture, temporal periodisation (currently based on architectural and art historical studies), as well as oral historical records within and surrounding the temple complexes. These analyses could provide a better understanding on why pre-Angkorean kings chose this area as a capital. Beyond purely religious interpretations, more "functional" aspects of the temples, etc. will be assessed vis-à-vis landscape, environment, population, trade/exchange, and other variables.
Life Among the Ruins: Habitation Sites of Trowulan
John N. Miksic
Trowulan, the probable capital of the kingdom of Majapahit, contains several large monuments of the 14th century. Most archaeological activity at Trowulan has concentrated on the monuments. From 1991 to 1993 the Indonesian Field School of Archaeology conducted archaeological surveys of the Trowulan region. Large quantities of artifacts derived from habitation sites were recovered. It is now possible to reconstruct a few details of the context of the inscriptions and brick structures, and of the text of the Desawarnana, the narrative poem of 1365 which describes the royal court.
The Khmer Temple at Phimai and its Ties to the Regional Communities
David J. Welch and Judith R. McNeill
The process that made the temple-town of Phimai a major regional centre of the Angkorean Empire bound it closely through social, economic, and political ties to the villages and farms in the surrounding countryside. Phimai's development followed four major phases of transformation beginning around 600 BC. The Prasat phase established the basic pattern of wet rice agriculture; the Phimai phase was one of expansion of this agricultural economy, during which Phimai emerged as the major centre of exchange in the upper Mun River valley. The Sema phase brought the spread of pan-regional ceramics, art styles, and religions into the Phimai region, culminating in its integration into the Khmer state during the Vimayapura phase. Analysis of the patterns of settlement in the Phimai region illuminates the changes in community relationships. The distribution of archaeological sites suggests that by the Vimayapura phase Phimai was a primate centre and that other, originally competing and later secondary centres had declined in importance, leaving a pattern of numerous small, dispersed, dependent settlements.
Phimai's history must be seen in the context of the risks that arose from dependence upon wet rice agriculture in a region of unpredictable rainfall. Phimai's emergence was strongly based on its pivotal role in the exchange of goods among local communities and the way such exchange could mitigate the uncertainties of the agricultural system. Following a typical Khmer pattern, the temple became the focal point of the economic, political, and religious ties binding the community and elite together. The role of the temple in the management of production and distribution marked a culmination of a long process of seeking successful adaptation to an unpredictable environment.