Abeyadana Temple

Coordinates: 21 ° 8 ′ 55 ″  N , 94 ° 51 ′ 27 ″  E

Abeyadana Temple​

Myanmar

The Abeyadana Temple , Abeyadana Paya , also Apeyatana (No. 1202); is a Buddhist temple in Bagan in northern Myanmar , which was built during the reign of King Kyanzittha around 1102/1103. The temple enjoys a special position thanks to its syncretistic wall paintings inside.

location

The Abeyadana is located in the south of the village of Myinkaba about three kilometers south of Old Bagan, the once walled, archaeological center of the region on the left, eastern side of the Ayeyarwady . The modern small town of Bagan Myothit (New Bagan) begins after another kilometer south. The temple is located on the western side of the thoroughfare across from the stylistically similar and roughly contemporary Nagayon. With the entrance to the north, it was oriented towards the royal palace built in 1101/1102 (made of perishable wood).

history

The founding legend also connects it to the Nagayon Temple. Abeyadana was the name of the main consort of the four wives of King Kyanzittha (r. 1084–1113). The temple is said to have been built on the spot where she waited for the king while he was hiding from his brother nearby, protected by a naga on the site of the subsequently built Nagayon temple, in whose cella the sacred serpent has been one since then guarded giant Buddha figure. Since some of the paintings inside the Abeyadana belong to the repertoire of Mahayana Buddhism, Gordon H. Luce suggested that Abeyadana ("abandoned jewel") might have been a Mahayana-believing princess from Bengal . Another indication of their origins could be that before his coronation, Kyanzittha, as a general, ordered his troops to perform magical rituals before the battle, with which the Hindu god Revanta, the youngest son of the sun god Surya, was conjured up. These rituals, alien to the devout Theravada Buddhist, were brought by Abeyadana and performed on her advice. According to a text of the 15./16. Century was built by the insistence of the queen.

The temples in Bagan are Burmese with Gu called ( "cave"). The idea of ​​an interior dark cult space ultimately goes back to Indian cave temples from the first centuries AD and was first implemented in brick architecture on Burmese soil in the capital Sri Ksetra, which was abandoned in the 7th century . The design of the temples came to Bagan from the early north Indian Nagara type , which developed in Bhubaneswar at the beginning of the 8th century . The addition of the name Paya means "holy" or "sanctified".

The Abeyadana Temple falls in the early Bagan period, which began in the middle of the 9th century and ended with the end of the reign of Kyanzittha in 1113. The heyday of the empire, in which most of the more than 2000 known sanctuaries were built, lasted from the middle of the 11th to the end of the 12th century.

investment

At that time there were probably about 4000 temples ( Pahto s) and stupas ( Cedi s), which can be assigned to certain basic types, within which there is a considerable variety of shapes. The Abeyadana is one of the axial temples with a central cult room, which is surrounded by a corridor. It has a small vaulted portico that leads into a long anteroom and on to the very dark sanctuary. In it sits on a lotus base a larger than life Buddha figure in the gesture of invoking the earth (Bhumisparsha mudra ). She is flanked by two admirers. All three figures are made of brick and stucco. In the now mostly empty, 70 barrel-vaulted niches in the gallery, Buddha figures were once set up in different postures. They may also contain scenes from life.

The main building rises above a bead-like base zone, whose multi-tiered roof is crowned by a bell-shaped stupa with a slender umbrella tip (Burmese Hti ). A Kirtimukha frieze (Hindu demon face) is missing on the base. The central stupa is repeated in miniature form at the roof corners. For a temple building that goes back to Indian roots, the roof structure in the form of a stupa instead of a Shikhara is unusual. This roof style, which had previously come into fashion, goes back to the influence of the Pyu and was later used for most of the temples in Bagan. The Nagayon, on the other hand, has a Shikhara tower.

The style of the early Bagan temples includes the three windows on three of the outer sides of the main building, whose diamond-shaped stone grids ( jalis) let only little light through into the corridor. The structuring between the windows and at the corners is made of smooth pilasters. The walls are made of burnt bricks covered with lime plaster. The basic plan corresponds to the larger Nagayon temple, the walls of which are divided by five windows at a similar distance. The paved temple courtyard is surrounded by a low wall.

Murals

The peculiarity of the temple is not the conventional exterior view, which is less mature than the Nagayon, but rather the motifs of the wall paintings in the interior and in the vestibule, many of which are taken from the canons of Mahayana Buddhism and Tantrism . Together with representations from Hindu mythology, this together with the otherwise predominant Theravada scenes lead to a rare mix of religions in painting. The indispensable picture cycles from Theravada remain of particular importance. The Mahayana Buddhism has otherwise not spread further in Burma, but there are also paintings from the Mahayana narrative circle at some other temples. Often an image of the Hindu creator god Brahma was placed next to a larger Buddha figure, together with Thagyamin, the king of the popular religious Nats .

The Jataka scenes in the vestibule are shaped by legends from the Mon culture. The images from the life of Buddha in the upper area on the side walls of the cella show Maya, the Buddha's mother, who is awaiting the birth of her child. The outer walls of the corridor are divided into six zones above the niches with increasing religious significance from bottom to top. Zone 2 lies over a floral band and, like zone 3, shows seated bodhisattvas . In zone 4 there are cave scenes with other heavenly and revered beings such as hermits, monks, Buddhas from the Jataka stories, Mahayan and tantric deities, the female taras and mythical animals. The band above shows standing bodhisattvas. The upper end is formed by Buddhas on lotus thrones surrounded by adorers .

The six zones of the inner walls begin below with Brahma, heavenly beings and royal figures, litigating and honoring. Arhats in meditation posture (Dhyanamudra) shows zone 2. In zone 3 Buddhas can be seen in Bhumisparshamudra and Buddhas surrounded by disciples with the Dharmachakra , the wheel of teaching. A band with floral patterns is surmounted by Buddhas in zone 5. The top band consists of small stupas.

On the inner south wall there are battle scenes of the attack and flight of Mara , the opponent of Buddha, and his people. It is probably the oldest surviving painting in Bagan with this scene. It is smaller than similar representations in Nagayon and Myinkaba Kubyauk-Gyi from 1113, but clearly expresses violence and terror. On the way from the entrance celestial stars can be seen on the vaulted ceiling. The visitor from outside gets symbolically through the cosmic space into the other, inner world of the temple.

The pictures are painted with tempera on dry stucco al secco . In the 1990s they were extensively restored under the direction of the Guatemalan conservator Rodolfo Lujan as part of an ICCROM project that began in Bagan in the early 1980s.

literature

• Gordon H. Luce: Old Burma - early Pagán. Volume 1: Text (= Artibus Asiae. Supplement. 25, 1). Augustin, Locust Valley NY 1969, pp. 321-344, doi : 10.2307 / 1522657 .
• Nina Oshegowa, Sergej Oshegow: Art in Burma. 2000 years of architecture, painting and sculpture under the sign of Buddhism and animism. EA Seemann, Leipzig 1988, ISBN 3-363-00054-5 , pp. 79-81.
• Paul Strachan: Pagan. Art & Architecture of Old Burma. 2nd UK edition. Kiscadale Publications, Oxford 1996, ISBN 1-870838-85-8 , pp. 59-61.

Web links

• Overview map of the temples in the Bagan region
• Charlotte Kendrick Galloway: Burmese Buddhist Imagery of the Early Bagan Period (1044-1133). Australian National University 2006, pp. 178-184

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Von Strachan: Pagan. 1996, p. 59, the Abeyadana is dated one to two years earlier than the Nagayon, in Luce: Old Burma - early Pagán. Vol. 1. 1969, a little later. In summary, Galloway: Burmese Buddhist Imagery of the Early Bagan Period (1044–1133). 2006, p. 180. Oshegow: Art in Burma dated completely differently . 1988, p. 78, to the year 1090.
2. ↑ Galloway: Burmese Buddhist Imagery of the Early Bagan Period (1044-1133). 2006, p. 178 f.
3. ↑ Strachan: Pagan. 1996, p. 7 f.
4. ↑ Classification according to Oshegow: Art in Burma. 1988, pp. 55-59.
5. ↑ Strachan: Pagan. 1996, p. 60 and Oshegow: Art in Burma. 1988, p. 79
6. ^ Russell L. Ciochon , Jamie James: The Power of Pagan. In: Archeology. Vol. 45, No. 5, 1992, pp. 34-41, JSTOR 41766158 .