The aims of this dissertation were: to study the propagation of Theravada Buddhism by using Buddhist arts and landscape of the Isan people; to study the propagation of Buddhism by using Buddhist arts and landscape of the Cetiyaphum monastery, Namphong district, Khon Kaen; to analyze the propagation of Buddhism by using Buddhist arts and landscape of the Cetiyaphum monastery. This study was the qualitative research conducted together with the fieldwork and the study of Buddhist scriptures, document and relevant research. The fieldwork study was carried out by implementing the in-depth interview and non-participant observation and then the gathered data were interpreted by the descriptive analysis.

The research results revealed that since the time of the Buddha, the propagation of Buddhism has been in the form of personal communication and self-practice as the model. After the Buddhist council, this method has been inherited. Today, the importance of Buddhist arts and landscape are mostly taken into the public attention. The temples, for Isan people, are the assemble center of the community as they are the place decorated with Buddhist arts and the monastery landscapes are built as the peaceful sites with the space to organize activities, cultures, traditions, lifestyle of the community. In the Cetiyaphum monastery, the Buddhist arts and landscapes are mixed with Isan style. The results of Buddhist propagation of the Cetiyaphum temple indicated that the main Buddhist arts can be seen in the Kham Kaen Stupa (Phra-that-kham-kean) resulted from the faith, beauty and culture of stupa construction, temple construction, Buddha image building and painting. The space within the temple is arranged to organize the religious activities such as ‘heet sib song khlong sib si’ by adjusting the monastery landscape to suite the activities in each era. The soft and hard scape has been added without deconstruction of the old scape but increase the unity of Buddhist arts with the modern style. For example, the scape is designed to reflect the old atmosphere of the landscape by reserving the origin plants of the temples, in relations to the myth of the monastery construction on the land of the tamarind trees. The forms of Buddhist arts and landscapes are mixed between the old and new versions in other words, the monastery still preserves the original Buddhist arts and improve, restores and maintains them to meet with the modern era with cleanness, brightness and peace in consistency with the principles of suitability (sappāya) in the Tipitaka.

Based on the analysis of the propagation of Buddhism by using Buddhist arts and landscape of the Cetiyaphum monastery through the data gathered from the fieldwork and non-participant observation, it is found that the Cetiyaphum monastery has preserved their ways to disseminate Buddhism in the personal communication form and practice as the model, discipline memorization, additionally supported by Buddhist arts and landscape in consistence with the old and new versions of arts. It can be seen that the Kham Kaen stupa image has been used in the monasteries, government and private sectors in Khon Kaen until the stupa becomes the symbol of sacredness, empirically impacting on the dissemination of Buddhism through Buddhist arts and landscapes within the monastery. All are the methods to disseminate Buddhism to the public to realize the importance of Buddhism, to create the understanding, knowledge and motivate them to practice the dhammas eventually.

Download