Introduction to the Exhibition
Thailand
and Burma, neighboring countries approximately the same size in area and
population, have many cultural features in common (Theravada Buddhism above
all), but have traditionally been adversaries. Burma conquered the primary
Thai kingdom in 1767, but within a few decades their fortunes began to reverse.
Burma lost a series of wars with the British and was eventually overcome
and reduced to a colony. Thailand—then called Siam—recovered and became
more powerful than ever, and, though it faced enormous pressure from both
the British and the French, was able to maintain a large degree of its independence.
The nineteenth century saw a brilliant flowering of all the arts in Thailand, under the patronage of both the aristocracy and wealthy merchant families. Burma’s arts flourished similarly in the earlier part of the century, but patronage was unsettled by increasing British encroachment, the eventual fall of the monarchy, and annexation by Britain in 1886.
As was true all over Asia, the arts of Siam and Burma in the second half of the nineteenth century began to be affected by Western styles and attitudes, the development of tourism and mass communication, and new technologies such as photography and power machinery.
The artworks in this exhibition come from the Asian Art Museum’s own collection, which is one of the largest and most important collections of nineteenth-century Siamese and Burmese art outside of Southeast Asia. About two-thirds of the works on view were donated from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Southeast Asian Art Collection, though other donors have also been generous.
Sections of the exhibition
The exhibition is divided into three sections. In addition to sections
for the arts of central Burma and central Thailand, there is a section for
the arts of the upland regions of eastern Burma and northern Thailand. The
people of last two areas speak related dialects and share as many cultural
features with each other as they do with their neighbors in central Burma
and central Thailand.
