Bagan and the World: Early Myanmar and Its Global Connections eds. by Goh Geok Yian, John N. Miksic, Michael Aung-Thwin
2018; Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society; Volume: 91; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/ras.2018.0011
ISSN2180-4338
Autores Tópico(s)Eurasian Exchange Networks
ResumoReviewed by: Bagan and the World: Early Myanmar and Its Global Connections eds. by Goh Geok Yian, John N. Miksic, Michael Aung-Thwin Abu Talib Ahmad Bagan and the World: Early Myanmar and Its Global Connections Goh Geok Yian, John N. Miksic, Michael Aung-Thwin (eds) Singapore: ISEAS, 2017 Bagan and the World: Early Myanmar and Its Global Connections is a collection of ten essays on Bagan (11th–14th centuries) written by twelve scholars from a variety of nationalities: four Myanmar academics, one scholar of Myanmar ancestry and other scholars from Australia, Russia, United Kingdom, India and Singapore. The mix includes historians, art historians, architects and archaeologists, combining well-known scholars like Michael Aung-thwin, Bob Hudson, the late Pamela Gutman and John Miksic with less-known ones (to the non-specialists) like Rila Mukherjee, Kyaw Lat, Pyiet Phyo Kyaw and Goh Geok Yian. These essays were originally presented in 2012 at an international conference 'Early Myanmar and its Global Connections' held in Bagan which was sponsored by the Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, ISEAS. It was a time of heightening contacts between Myanmar and the outside world, notably with Southeast Asian countries. The aim of the conference was to show broader linkages of Myanmar polities, including ancient Pyu cities and Bagan, with other polities in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, China, mainland and insular Southeast Asia. The ten essays in this compendium are liberally interspersed with photographs and sketches. They touch on a variety of themes, including the 'splendid isolation' thesis, construction technologies in Pyu polities and Bagan, repositories for Buddhist scriptures in Mrauk-U (Rakhine) temples, religious symbols like the sikkhara decoration of the late Bagan period, the stone image of Vishnu on Garuda from a Bagan temple, radiocarbon dating on Myanmar's ancient cities, the Ta Mok Shwe-Gu-Gyi temple of Kyaukse, Bagan-Bengal silver linkages, Bagan in the Buddhist common world (ecumene) and settlement patterns and earthenware distribution in Bagan. All these essays make a strong case for the connectedness of Myanmar polities with the surrounding region. The discussion begins with Michael Aung-Thwin's dismissal of the 'splendid isolation' thesis which he finds inconsistent with the flow of Myanmar history. To him 'the period from the Stone and Metal Ages settlements to the early urban period has seen many scholars who have been quite aware of the cultures around Myanmar and have not been as parochial as implied'. Myanmar and non-Myanmar scholars have linked the field of Myanmar studies to the outside, rendering the thesis a myth that was created by misconception of Myanmar's gaze which was always directed toward China in the north instead of lower Burma, the sea and the west. In building construction, Kyaw Lat finds Pyu and Bagan architecture remarkable for its technology, notably the utilization of true arch and vault which [End Page 166] allow the building of taller and larger structures. Bagan architecture also exhibits greater diversity in the design and types of temple structures, while the use of bricks allowed for a shorter construction period. The connectedness of Myanmar temples with the outside world is indicated through a comparison of temple-building techniques with Cambodia's Angkor Wat. During the fifteenth–eighteenth centuries depositories (pitaka-taik or libraries) in Mrauk-U played an important role in the dissemination of Buddhism as they were used to store Buddhist literature. Mrauk-U depositories had their own stone sculpture and architectural styles, and through them Mya Cho believes Rakhine's connection with other kingdoms in mainland Southeast Asia could be better understood. Similarly, Indian influences are much in evidence in the upper portion of thirteenth-century Bagan temples through the sikhara (square tower), goddesses and ogre heads, with each of them symbolizing various meanings. Sikkhara, for instance, symbolized power, strength and stability while the goddesses symbolized wisdom and ogre heads, eternity or time. There is much Indian influence in these sikkhara and other edifices. One interesting essay covers a stone image representing Vishnu on Garuda in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. The image was smuggled out of Myanmar by a German geologist and palaeontologist, Wilhelm Notling, at the end of the nineteenth century. Notling was then employed by the Geological...
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