[Buddha-l] Re: More Buddhist angels?

[jkirk]

>
> I think that's unlikely. Unlike 19th century Siamese
> princes, with their fondness for dressing up as Russian
> cavalry officers etc., the Burmese of that period were not
> much into aping foreign things at all.
>
> One would really need to know what sort of creatures the
> sculptures represent. If -- as I suspect -- they are
> kinnaras or kinnariis (half-bird, half-human) then there
> would be nothing innovative in King Mindon's artists
> depicting them with wings.
>
> Some other Burmese examples:
>
> 13th century
> http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2124/images/20041203000106506.jpg
>
> the same in more detail:
> http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/cooler/Chapter_3/Part4/Images/ux75.JPG
>
> 19th century
>
http://www.seasite.niu.edu/burmese/cooler/Chapter_3/Part4/Images/BC87.1.1.jp
g
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Dhammanando
=======================

Greetings Dhammanando,

You have a point about kinnaras/kinnaris.......but the posture of the
figures I
noted is that typical of flying gandharvas .....these have human legs
whereas
the usual Burmese kinnara has bird legs.....and kinnaras are not usually
depicted in the flying-in-the-air posture. The shape/design of the wings
also in these more Burmese-looking images is very different from the wing
shape on the 19th c. building items I noted...the latter closely resemble
the usual wing shape found in 19th c. "western" art. Two totally different
wing designs.

However, I'm not sure my surmise is right as to how these winged
gandharvas (as I still see them) got on the Burmese monastery building .
Your suggestion that the Burmese did not copy western models
at that time may indeed be correct.  I'd need to check up some works
on Burmese architecture and art to see if further illumination on this
winged
angel point is available, and around here where I live there ain't no such
books.
Maybe someone on the list with access to a good university library
will find some art historian discussion that will shed more light on
the question.  Maybe Prof Cooler knows the answer.

Thanks for the additional links.
Best wishes and pedantically yours,
Joanna











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