The thin rectangular plate measures 5 by 4 cm. They are assumed to have come from the same deposit. If this is so the blank plate, which has the same shape as the inscribed plate but is slightly bigger, might have acted as a cover for the inscription, after the fashion of a palm-leaf manuscript.
This raises the possibility that, since covers usually come in pairs, another plate has gone missing. The provenance of the items is not known.
Purchased in Bangkok, they might come from anywhere in the region. Beurdeley, ,. Two Sanskrit inscriptions from central Vietnam. Examples of such tablets and of the ye dharma from Vietnam are rare. They belonged to at least five different types and were not, apparently, inscribed. Neither the image nor the inscription was published, and regrettably the image disappeared almost one hundred years ago. The two tablets published here are iconographically unique, although they use motifs that are common in the region, such as the makara throne and the flanking pair of tall stupas in a distinctively South-East Asian style.
The date of both might be the ninth century, but a careful palseographic and iconographie study is needed. Tablet 1. He is flanked by a pair of tall stupas. The stupas stand on square niches within which are what appear to be crouching lions.
The face of the Buddha is abraded and the upper part of tablet is broken off. Six lines of text are preserved on the verso. The lower part of the last line is broken. The ye dharma verse is given twice. This seems to be unique for clay sealings. The first two lines of the first, upper, ye dharma are lost due to the break.
The language is a Sanskritized Prakrit, 'sa' in 'tesam', with short 'a', is clear three times: in Tablet 2. The large and vigorous makara heads face outwards from the upper back-rest of the throne. The lower portion is broken off. The writing is somewhat crude: angular and cursive. The significance of this, if any, remains to emerge. The bronze images from Sathing Phra are small and could be imports, although such a conclusion is by no means foregone.
The images have no exact counterparts elsewhere and could well have been produced locally. They are inscribed in two different scripts.
The Guimet gold plate adds to the corpus oi ye dharma in the 'avaca recension' from South-East Asia. It is regrettable that its provenance is not known. The tablets from Vietnam add to the very small corpus of tablets from that country. I am grateful to Kannika Wimonkasem Silpakorn University, Bangkok for her comments and suggestions on the reading of the inscriptions.
For a preliminary attempt to classify the recensions of ye dharma inscriptions see Peter Skilling, 'A Buddhist inscription from Go Xoai, Southern Vietnam and notes towards a classification of ye dharma inscriptions', in 80 pi Satsadachan Dr. Prasert na Nagara: ruam bot khwam wichakan dan charuk lae ekasanboran [80 Years: A collection of articles on epigraphy and ancient documents published on the occasion of the celebration of the 80th birthday of Prof.
Prasert Na Nagara], Bangkok, 21 March [], pp. In fact there are no semantic differences between the various recensions.
Other minor differences are that sometimes the inscription closes with i ti, which marks the verse as a citation, and that sometimes the verse is punctuated with single or double danda. I thank the Museum staff for permission to make robbings and take photographs. In these two works no mention is made of the much abraded inscription.
The figure is a bronze from the region of Udon, which Dupont compares with two stone relief images of standing Buddhas from Kanok Nakhon Dupont I pp. For Wat Chantuk see most recently P.
The museum number is given as The present reading is based on the complete inscription itself and new rubbings. The letters on the vertical are not entirely clear and there may be two extra aksaras in the middle, which appear to be duplications. I am grateful to Kannika Wimonkasem Silpakorn University, Bangkok for first making me aware of the inscription and providing a rubbing, and to Saengchan Trikasem and Chusri Preamsanoi at the Phimai National Museum for permission to make rubbings and take photographs.
Originally and most essentially, the dharma teachings were the words spoken and sung by the realized ones. To learn the dharma, we must hear the nuances and subtleties; we must experience the eloquence and the flights of those steeped in living understanding and realization. It is said that the Buddha and the later teachers tailored their discourses to the specific needs of their listeners.
They spoke the reality of dharma in a form that could communicate to their listeners. When teachers give voice to dharma nowadays, they often draw on textual tradition. But at the same time, the words that form in their minds, the images, analogies and logic, are drawn from the atmosphere, they are reflections of and address everyone in the room, and they express the unique configuration of reality that exists in that moment.
The spoken dharma is infinitely more nuanced, evocative, and communicative than anything written could be. It carries an abundant and pregnant burden of meaning that is instantly received in its totality by the listeners.
Hearing Sri Lankan, Zen or Tibetan monks chant a Buddhist sutta is an entirely different experience from reading it in print. Through the recitation, a world is suddenly opened and we are immesed in an atmosphere and a feeling that are complete. In listening the dharma, it is not so unusual to hear a teacher describe a scene, say, from the life of the Buddha, and to find ourselves, before the description is half begun, feeling the coolness of the Indian night and smelling its rich, sweet and pungent scents.
It is true that, beginning the in the first century BCE, the dharma began to be written down and now exists in tens of thousands of pages in the various Asian canons. At the same time, it is important to remember that the dharma as teaching is most fundamentally a spoken truth, of which the written word is an analogue and a support.
Particularly for Western Buddhists, the written word is often the initial gate to the vast world of dharma within. Often a book leads us to encounter a Buddhist teacher from whom we may hear the dharma in oral form.
Often that teacher encourages us to undertake the path, engaging in the practice of meditation. This, in turn, begins to lay bare the raw and rugged character of our ordinary lives. As we make a fuller and fuller acquaintance with our lives, we may begin to sense the background of awareness that runs like a thread through all our experience.
As our sense of this awareness-known as buddhanature-deepens, we begin to realize that, more than anything else, this is who we most fundamentally are and always have been. Although Buddhism became virtually extinct in India ca. The many forms and practices that have been developed within the Buddhist fold have also allowed many different types of people to satisfy their spiritual needs through this great religion. Did you like this article? Subscribe to our global learning newsletter and get resources and materials every month!
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