Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 18. (Budapest, 1999)

Tatjana KARDOS: Buddha Statuette with votive inscription from Laos

shoulder down to his waist at the front, ending at the pedestal at the back side. There is a larger plate with an inscription at the front of the pedestal (we called it "A") and only one of the earlier three at the back (inscription "B").The inscriptions were fixed to the pedestal before the gold paint was applied, because the wood is unpainted beneath the missing plates. The inscriptions have been incised into aluminium plates with some kind of sharp instrument. The form of the letters shows the hand of a skilled writer, but perhaps because the material of the plates was unusual for him it was harder than the palm-leaves used for manuscript, harder than the wax used for modelling bronze statues - or perhaps because the tool was not appropriate for this work, some of the lines have been incised several times, so the inscription looks uncertain. The plates are scratched, which makes reading difficult. The horizontal scratches on the larger plate are deeper than the incised letters, and they must have originated before the inscription was made, perhaps during the flattening process. Even today there is no aluminium production in Laos, so the plates could only have been cut from an aluminium object of foreign production. The inscriptions formulated in the Lao language with several Pali words in them are engraved in Dhamma (tham) script.

2 The inscription "A" consists of four lines; the inscription "B" consists of two lines with one word in each line. In transcribing the inscriptions we have followed the graphic system used by A. B. Griswold.

3 We have numbered the lines and have marked the total accent (as an index number at the end of the syllable) only when it was indicated by the text. Inscription "A" 1. ) van

1 1 dóar 6 rem 4 gäm / 1927 (?) 2. ) va

1 sädu 2 phu

2 khä

2 jó vä ham äm déri dai

2 sari 3. ) brabuddha rup hai

2

mè aak pá hai

2 âp brayad 4. ) dl logâ dè kà vâ(?) dau ni Inscription "B" 1. ) thanad 2. ) danï/don(?) The Translations Inscription "A" The first day of the sixth month, the fourth day of the waning moon.

4 Sathu, sathu,

5 I

6 named by women Ham ordered (this) Buddha image, may I

7 not suffer from illnes of any kind! This is my request.

8 Inscription "B" skilful/ skills are appearing In our opinion the inscriptions on the three little plates on the back of the statuette together comprised one coherent text or a reference to a well-known quotation and the one remaining plate there (inscription "B") consists only of the unknown text. Without references we have been unable to find the text the middle of which is incised on the remaining plate, so our translation could not be more than an interpretation of the expressions that have remained. Thanadthani is a still existing expression in the Thai language; it means: "skilful, well trained, experienced". To accept this interpretation, the same letter had to be used for the two equal "th" consonants.

9 If the second word is not considered as a ligature and is read as dón the interpretation of the sign could be: "the skills are apearing".

1

" There are not too many inscribed statues left. Analysing different inscriptions, we have to take into account the different circumstances on which these sculptures were found. Bearing in mind their differences, the composition of inscriptions has changed little in more than four centuries. The inscriptions usually start with a salutation and date, giving the name of the orderer and the request. The concluding sentences formulate the hope that the donation