The Faith on the Creation of Buddhist Art in Lanna

Abstract

According to the term ‘Saddhā’. It refers to faith; belief;
confidence associated with emotion. To the faith in the Buddhist Arts, it
aims to attract the people to venerate the Buddhism that existed from the
fourfold ofjudge or take standard viz., Råpa-pamàõa: the beauty of appearance
or form, Ghosa-pamàõa: faith depends on sweet voice or good
reputation, Låkha-pamàõa: faith depends on shabbiness or ascetic or selfdenying
practices and Dhammapamàõa: faith depends on right teachings
and practices. The above mentioned not only resulted or caused the confidence
to people, but also develop knowledge of the worldly person. The
beauty of arts produces the aesthetic feelings and also the confidence in the
Enlightenment of the Buddha in the form of Uddesikacetiya i.e. a Buddha
image.
Regarding to the development of the Buddhist Arts in Lanna
region, it has been existed and shared the similarities with the
Dvaravati architecture and the Burmese arts in Bagan style. There are some
characteristics that unique to the folk artisans which later it has
developed as the prototype of Lanna architecture around the 20th century.
The highest development of Lanna arts existed around the 20th century and
the Chiang Mai Kingdom becomes the centre of Buddhism. The works of
arts were considered to be strongly related to the propagation of Lankavamsa
Buddhism.
The Lanna Buddhist Arts represent the wide range of forms
that were inspired by architecture in the previous period viz., Sukhothai,
Burma in Bagan period, etc. It was seamlessly developed with the
vernacular architecture and has been passed down for generations
with the confidence of creating the Buddhist arts in Lanna. In case of
building a temple, not only the kings, but also the ordinary people can
be the president of construction. Regarding to Wat Mahawan in Chiang
Mai and WatChedi Saw in Lampang they were appearing in the Burmese
arts, Wat Srisuphan and Wat BuakKrokLuang appeared in the form of Tai
Khuen Arts. There were some temples have been built by the group of 

artists or folks artisans viz., Wat Phuak Tam.
Therefore, it can be seen that the Lanna Buddhist Arts
consisted with the variety of art forms with the beauty that characterized
by the Lanna people.

Keywords: Faith, Buddhist Art, Lanna