The Khorat Plateau is a landscape of some 155,000 square kilometres of what is now northeast Thailand and central Laos. Despite the rich evidence for the region's dynamism and development in the metal age, knowledge of subsequent first millennium developments on the Khorat Plateau remains limited. The spread of Buddhism across the region has been overshadowed by the attention given the Dvāravatī culture of the Chao Phraya Basin to its west and the Zhenla and later Angkor civilisations to its south and southeast.

This important new work, built on extensive fieldwork and archaeological surveys, reveals the Khorat Plateau as having a distinctive Buddhist culture, including new forms of art and architecture, and a characteristic aesthetic. Moreover, by combining archaeological and art historical analysis with an historical ecology approach, Murphy traces the outlines of Buddhism's spread into the region, along its major river systems. He is able to read this history into and against the Khorat landscape, attending to the emergence of monumental architecture such as stūpa, and Buddha images carved into the rockfaces of hills and mountainsides, and the importance on the Khorat Plateau of the use of boundary markers, or sīmā. This book provides a new picture of the region in the first and early second millennia, adding to our understanding of the development of Buddhism in Southeast Asia, and offering a new basis for other regionally-focused scholarship to thrive —from textual Buddhology to history to anthropology. It opens up new possibilities for understanding the early spread of Buddhism within different landscapes across Asia.

"This book provides the most comprehensive study of the early Buddhist material and visual culture of the Khorat Plateau in Northeast Thailand and Central Laos. The images depicted on sīmā stones are not only evidence for some of the earliest Buddhist lineages, but also reflections of the people and their lives in the region from the 7th to the 11th centuries.” – M.L. Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Visiting Professor, Nanyang Technological University

“Guided by Murphy’s confident leadership through the art and archaeology, this landmark book offers a clear and compelling examination of a pivotal but difficult-to-study period.” – Erik Davis, Professor of Religious Studies, Macalester College

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Stephen A. Murphy is the Pratapaditya Pal Senior Lecturer in Curating and Museology of Asian Art at SOAS, University of London.

288pp / 235 x 187mm
15 maps and 95 images in full colour
Hardback