Exploring the Buddhist Landscapes of the Khorat Plateau in the 7th to 11th Centuries

Name: Exploring the Buddhist Landscapes of the Khorat Plateau in the 7th to 11th Centuries
Start: 2024-07-16T19:00:00+08:00
End: 2024-07-16T20:00:00+08:00
Location: 1 Empress Place, Singapore, Singapore 179555

Schedule

Tue Jul 16 2024 at 07:00 pm to 08:00 pm

UTC+08:00

Location

1 Empress Place, Singapore, Singapore 179555 | Singapore, SG

𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐝𝐝𝐡𝐢𝐬𝐭 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐊𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐮 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝟕𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝟏𝟏𝐭𝐡 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬
𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐲
Tuesday, 16 July 2024, 7–8 pm
ACM Ngee Ann Auditorium
This lecture is free. Seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis. No registration required.

The Khorat Plateau is a landscape of 155,000 square kilometres in northeast Thailand and central Laos. Despite rich evidence for the region's dynamism and development in the Metal Age, knowledge of subsequent developments on the plateau remains limited. The spread of Buddhism across the region has been overshadowed by the attention given the Dvāravatī culture of the Chao Phraya Basin to the west and the Zhenla and later Angkor civilisations to the south and southeast.
In this talk, Stephen Murphy discusses his new book, 𝘉𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘤𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘴: 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘒𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵 𝘗𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘢𝘶, 7𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘰 11𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 (NUS Press, 2024), as well as related objects in the ACM collection. The book builds on extensive fieldwork and archaeological surveys to reveal the distinctive Buddhist culture of the plateau, expressed in new forms of art and architecture, and investigates Buddhism's spread into the region along major river systems.
Stephen will illustrate how this history reads into and against the Khorat landscape, attending to the emergence of Buddha images and other forms of monumental architecture carved into the rockfaces of hills and mountainsides. This provides a new picture of the region in the first and early second millennia, adding to our understanding of the development of Buddhism in Southeast Asia.

About the speaker
𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐀. 𝐌𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐡𝐲 is Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology of Asian Art at SOAS, University of London. Prior to this he was Senior Curator for Southeast Asia at ACM from 2013 to 2020. He specialises in the art and archaeology of Buddhism and Hinduism in first millennium CE Southeast Asia, with a focus on Thailand and Laos. His museological focus engages with issues of restitution and curation in Asian art.
Stephen is the co-editor of Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology (2014) and the author of a number of ACM catalogues, including 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘒𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴: 𝘈𝘯𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘛𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘔𝘺𝘢𝘯𝘮𝘢𝘳 (2016) and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘢𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘸𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘬: 𝘈𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘌𝘹𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 9𝘵𝘩 𝘤𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘺 (2017), with Alan Chong. He has contributed to several leading academic journals, including Antiquity, Asian Perspectives, the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of the Siam Society.

About the respondent
𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐲𝐚 𝐌. 𝐉𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐢 is Senior Lecturer and Convenor for Art History, a collaboration between National University of Singapore, the National Gallery Singapore, and the Singapore Art Museum. Priya was Assistant Curator (South Asia) at the Asian Civilisations Museum from 2005 to 2007. She is the author of 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘭𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴: 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 1959 𝘋𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘯𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘵𝘰 𝘔𝘢𝘭𝘢𝘺𝘢 (2024), 𝘍𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢 𝘕𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘈𝘳𝘵: 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘢’𝘴 𝘙𝘰𝘺𝘢𝘭 𝘊𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘵𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 (1875–1924) (2016), and the volume editor of 𝘉𝘢𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘢: 𝘈 𝘊𝘰𝘴𝘮𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘢𝘯 𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, Mumbai: Marg Foundation (2015).
Priya’s current research uncovers the contributions of collections, curricula, and pedagogies to revisionist art histories and historiographies of South and Southeast Asia, particularly India and Singapore.

About the moderator
𝐉𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐨𝐧𝐠 is Senior Curator of Fashion and Textiles at ACM and the Peranakan Museum. She holds an MA in Art History from SOAS University of London on the Alphawood Scholarship. She is currently serving on the International Council of Museums Costume Board. Her research interests focus on Singapore and Asia in global fashion history from the 20th century onwards.