Interesting Talk about the Southeast Asian Arts and Culture

Our class had attend a talk with SER a guest speaker all the way from thailand which is also a graduated student from The One academy, can say is our super senior. Actually I was quite worry that i will slept during the talk due to not enough rest and class in the morning section. 

Although is short period of group discusion but SER try his best to finish the talk. Is was a very interesting talk and i do learn new nation culture after the talk which help me in the future. I found that the thai culture interested me the most so i take some keyword from the talk and do some reading on it. And i would like to share some of the research and info that i found in some others website.

During the talk SER did mention about the thailand traditional culture dance.  Beside SER some of the lecture of mine also had been telling us about the Ramakien or in The Ramayana in India. Actually the Ramakien can be said as the evolution of the Ramayana, Base on  the understand of Thai people for the Ramayana in the pass they have change the outlook of the character base on their imagination from the original story. And nowadays Ramakien had become a traditional story in thailand.

The Summary of Story, Ramayana or in Thai Ramakien:
This is a story of good versus evil.  Our hero, Rama is a king.  The villain, or demon king Tosakan.  This epic tale is thought to established after the Thais occupied Angkor in the 15th century.  It has been an inspiration for painting and classical drama with usage of intertextuality. (feel free to refer back on my previous blog entry about intertextuality)

There are few main characters in this story.

Rama –  deep green face, is an incarnation of the god Visbnu Rama’s.
Sita – The daughter of Tosakan’s consort and incarnation of the goddess Laksbmi, remains loyal to Rama.
Lakshman – Rama’s loyal younger brother, is often shown in gold.
Hanuman – The white monkey, son of the wind god, is totally devoted to Rama.
Tosakan – The demon king of Longka and have “ten necks, heads and arms”.


Rama, the king of Ayodhya, was sent into exile by his stepmother. He and his wife, Sita and brother Lakshman went with him into the deep forest. The demon king, Tosakan of Longka (Sri Lanka), kidnapped Sita and carries her away hoping to marry her. Rama and Lakshman chased after try to recue   Sita. And they met Hanuman and volunteers his service, together they found more help to defend the demon king. On their ways, they faced a lot problem and they solve it together.  Finally, Rama defeated Tosakan and killed him. In the end Rama crowns his ally, Piphek (Tosakan’s banished brother) as King of Longka and returns to Ayodha.

Connotation: A traditional story
Denotation: The moral values within the story. For example, no matter how difficult there are to rescue Sita Rama will never give up.
Myth: how good versus the evil and show the power of goodness fight against evil to bring peace to the people.

i mention that this story has been an inspiration for painting and classical drama with usage of intertextuality. The example below is a example of intertextuality of the story Ramayana by Nina Paley (born May 3, 1968) is an American cartoonist, animator and free culture activist. The video below, it show that how she used the modern technology Adobe Flash to animate the story of Ramayana into a flash animation combining with pop music and modern art style  and make the whole into another new aspect which represent a movement of modernism. Trying to make a 'boring' traditional story to a more modern and iterative with the technology and software in the current modern society.

This full video premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 11, 2008. created by Nina Paley alone.

In conclusion, the different of  with thai myth is Hindu Myths are from vedic texts. They tell of Gods  with almost human like flaws and stories.
In Buddhism, it's more of a reverse. A human prince attains a higher state. Thai legends representations for the spirits that both help and hinder humans on their way to enlightenment, as well as a balance to other former beliefs.

                                                        

Extra information :

Beside that, i heard that SER had ask us that do we know what is the curl thingy on top buddha head. I think no much people know that. He said is snail, during the process how buddha having his meditation  he faced different kind of problem. One is the torture of the hot sun, and the snail climb up to his head to protect him from the sun. And this is how nowadays buddha head are sculptured like this.

From this point we can link the buddha's hair to the topic of connotation, denotation and myth.

Connotation: a normal curly hair style

Denotation: Snails covering on buddha to prevent him from the sun heat.

Myth: the process how the prince awakened and become a buddha.

Beside that i found some meaning about the buddha sculpture

Buddha statues have meaning from head to toe

by Janet Eastman, Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2008

Los Angeles, USA -- SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA was a prince in India around 500 BC who set out to discover meaning in the suffering he witnessed. Once he found enlightenment, he began to spread his philosophy. He became known as Buddha, a title, since given to others, that means "awakened one."

-A dot on the forehead brings wisdom and a third eye to see unity.
-A full mouth indicates eloquent speech. Long arms signify generosity.
-White, slender fingers symbolize mindfulness, precision and purity in every act.
-Round heels represent an even temperament, and fine webs between toes and fingers signal interconnectedness.