Buddhist Storytelling in Thailand and Laos
Subtitle: The Vessantara Jataka Scroll and the Asian Civilisations Museum
Publisher: Asian Civilisations Museum
Published: 2013
Language: eng
Number of pages: 178
ISBN-13: 9789810724788
Description: This richly illustrated, full-colour volume offers an innovative study of the long, painted scrolls of Northeast Thailand and Laos that depict the Prince Vessantara Buddhist birth story. A 31-metre scroll in the Asian Civilisations Museum provides the focus for this popular narrative. The scroll is reproduced in its entirety, with comparative illustrations from other scrolls. The authors analyze these scrolls in the context of the Bun Phra Wet - the Thai-Lao and Lao ceremony in which they are used - and consider the complex interplay of text, art, ritual, and belief which occur in these performances.