Customer Reviews

Reading Thai Murals

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David K. Wyatt's book is a historian's interpretation of the murals of Wat Phumin, a temple in northern Thailand. Despite its rather misleading title, this book is neither an introduction nor a guide to reading Thai temple murals; nor is it art history or criticism. Written in plain language that is essentially jargon-free, this slim volume of 80 pages is quite accessible and reflects Wyatt's view that the Wat Phumin murals can be "read" as evidence of the past.

The overall purpose of temple murals, of course, is to teach. Wat Phumin's murals were commissioned by the King of Nan at the end of the 19th century, not long after the Siamese king ceded half of Nan, then a vassal state of Siam (now Thailand), to the French. There are no written records of what the King of Nan must have thought or felt about the loss of his territory. Wyatt conjectures that the murals of Wat Phumin were a political and social commentary of contemporary events as re-told in scenes from the Buddhist tale of Gaddhana. Because it would have been impolitic to openly criticize the Siamese king, the murals depict the story of Gaddhana, a boy who goes in search of his father, the god Indra. "The message that viewers were reading off the walls," Wyatt concludes, "was from a cautionary tale of persistence through adversity, in a world suffused with evil in which virtue was rewarded eventually" (p. 21). Wyatt offers compelling evidence for historical commentary, revealing at different times slyness (the Gaddhana tale) and startling directness (the French depicted as copulating monkeys) in the parallels between story and history.

In contrast, some of the social commentary proves elusive, undoubtedly, because it is also cultural. There are some clever and even bawdy scenes that have been inserted in these religiously themed murals, which remind the reader/viewer that mural painting may have had more than teaching as its purpose; for example, the "shrouded man" which Wyatt interprets as a transvestite, and which may indicate social attitudes at the time. Examples such as this are references to local conditions, now forgotten. Though Wyatt attempts to avoid unfounded generalizations by providing examples and illustrations, the danger is in claiming to be able to "interpret" another culture's symbols. His book reminds us that ambiguities, both deliberate and accidental, are the result of time passing and cultural differences, and demonstrate the artist's ability to both reveal and coyly conceal a world and its politics.