Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell

Northeast Thailand before Angkor: Evidence from an Archaeological Excavation at the Prasat Hin Phimai

“…However, there is evidence that the people of this period shared important new Indian-influenced practices with their neighbors to the west and south, particularly the use of inscriptions and the construction of religious buildings in permanent materials. The inscriptions recording the "exploratory probes" (Vickery 1998: 79) of the sixthcentury overlords from the south have already been mentioned, but a number of other inscriptions refer to protohistoric kings, several Buddhist, who ruled in the region (Brown 1996;Higham and Thosarat 1998: 194-195;Jacques 1989).…”

“…The very nature of the ostensible Dvaravati andChenla "kingdoms" have more recently been reconsidered (Brown 1996;Fig. 2.…”

“…Dvaravatistyle stupa bases occur at the site of Muang Fa Daet, which is more famous for its large semas, or boundary stones, carved with figurative Buddhist scenes (Boisselier 1972;Diskul 1956). While nonfigurative sema appear as early as the seventh century, the pictorial semas date to the ninth and perhaps as late as the eleventh century (Brown 1996;Krairiksh 1974: 57). Muang Sema is another particularly important Dvaravati site in the northeast, with a large reclining sandstone Buddha figure, dharmacakra ("wheel-of-the-Iaw"), and many brick structures and semas.…”