first came from its native India to the part of Southeast

as is known. Gradually, over the centuries, a combina-

tion of animism and religious faith resulted in the making

of statues and images in the supposed likeness of the

Buddha as objects for people's homage and worship.

Strictly speaking, such statues and images are reminders

that the Buddha once lived and walked on the earth, and

of his Teaching.

Various styles of sculpture influenced the region in

succession. From roughly the first century to the fifth

century A.D., the Indian style of Buddha image was

bronze Buddha images appeared for the first time in

Thailand. This was the so-called Lopburi Period, and it

was followed in turn by the Chiang San, Sukhothai and

Ayudhya Periods. Thus Lopburi, the province whose

Bangkok, can be considered the place where bronze

Buddha images, and the techniques still used for casting

them today, originated in Thailand.

There is, of course, no single "authentic" image of

the Lord Buddha, because after his lifetime no one knew

what he looked like. Each individual sculptor produced

his own conception of the Buddha, trying as far as pos-

sible to express the feeling of Enlightenment in the facial

features.

Today Buddha image makers are found all over

Thailand. Lopburi Province is still one of the main

centers, and in Tha Kayang not far from Lopburi town,

the whole village knows the craft. Another spot well-

known for this trade is Ban Chang Lor in the heart of

Bangkok.

But although there are about a hundred Buddha-

image craftsmen left in Lopburi Province, the craft is

slowly dying out and is unlikely to survive much longer

as a major way of life in Thailand. Craftsmen who learnt

the trade from their fathers are finding that their own

children don't want to carry on with it. Further south, in

Phetchburi, there is only one Buddha-image maker left

in the whole province. He is quite poor, and lives in a

plain wooden house by the river. He says one can't make

a decent living, let alone get rich, from casting Buddha

images. He makes them to order, whenever monks need

one for a temple, or someone wants a small image for his

home. He makes a lot in the 'pang leela' or standing

attitude. {'Pang means "style or period," and 'leela' is

grace or rhythm; this attitude is also known as the

walking posture). Once in a while he also makes an image

in the 'pang samathi' or sitting posture with legs crossed

and hands folded in the attitude of meditation; these, he

says, are much harder to make.

The original method for casting Buddha images uses

a technique for casting bronze known in many parts of

the world since ancient times, it is called the "lost wax

process" (more commonly known by its French name,

'are perdue'). Basically, a cement or plaster statue is made,

which is then coated with wax; the whole thing is then

covered with a cement or plaster mold which is allowed

to harden. Two holes are left between the inner core and

outer mold; When the molten bronze is poured in

through one hold, it melts the wax and displaces it,

taking the shape of the mold; the molten wax meanwhile

runs out through the other hole.

In the traditional Lopburi method, a mixture of clay

and sand is used and sculpted into the desired shape

according to the individual craftsman's taste and skill.

This is then covered with orange-colored wax (the same

kind as is used in candles for paying homage to the

Buddha) to the thickness required. Nowadays this thick-

ness is usually no more than a quarter of an inch. The

Thai deftness of hand and love of exquisite detail again

appear at this stage, as thin strands of wax are bent into

tiny delicate curls and ringlets of hair and painstakingly

applied to the images head. The outer mold is then

formed; the two holes are left in the feet, in the case of

standing images, and the molten bronze is poured with

the image upside-down. The clay-and-sand core may be

retained in the finished image, or it may be removed bit

by bit through the holes, depending on the final weight

desired.

especially for much larger statues for temples, it is very

uneconomical, as it can only produce one image, and the

sculpture must be done afresh for each new one, so in the

modern method, plaster-of-Paris is used for the outside

mold, which is made in two separate halves. These are

heated for three hours to harden them. After the inner

clay core has been sculptured and coated with wax, the

two halves of the mold are first spread with a mixture of

cattle droppings and water, which helps the molten

bronze to flow and displace the wax more easily; they are

then placed over the wax-coated core and tied firmly

together. The bronze is poured in, and when it has

cooled and hardened the two halves of the outer mold

are separated. They can be used over and over again to

cast new inner clay cores of the same shape, and so make

almost unlimited bronze copies of the same image. In this

way the sculptor can get a much higher return for his

craftsmanship and labor.

Each Buddha-image maker chooses his own size of

image, and each family of craftsmen is known for their

particular style and "period". The names of these families

are known not only to one another, but also to those