Sous les voûtes de Pagan

Abstract

Some 350 temples at Pagan still have mural paintings on their walls or under their vaults. This is the largest corpus of murals from 11th to 14th centuries AD in South-East Asia. On the walls, the large diversity in decorative and iconographie themes calls for a thorough study and monographs on selected temples. The decoration painted under the vaults is more systematic and can be outlined under two main topics : Emblematic motifs, usually circular, sometimes square, painted under the apex of the vaults : the lotus rosace, at the centre of the cloister vault of shrines ; the Buddha's footprints, under the vault of vestibules and entrance halls in a large number of temples ; the map of universe, with its concentric circles of mountains and rivers around the Mount Meru and the four continents in the peripheral ocean ; the horoscopes of Buddha's life, depicting the zodiacal chart for the major events in the Buddha's life (conception, birth, enlightenment and parinirvana) ; the map of Anotatta Lake, considered by the Buddhist cosmogony to be the source of the five sacred rivers of India. Decorative patterns, generally covering the whole of the vault and composed of simple geometric elements, occasionally with a figure on the centre : the circle pattern, most frequently used, with numerous variations in their detail and in their arrangement ; the polylobe pattern, primarily with quatrefoils or cruciform elements ; the polygon pattern, combining octagons, squares, diamonds or hexagons ; the figure pattern, with rows of Buddha figures generally of very small size ; the floral pattern, which can include figures or animals on a vegetal patterned background.