‘Priceless’ Buddha heads found under Pathum Thani temple cleaned up and documented

 

 

National Museum officials and archaeologists on Friday cleaned and categorised a number of Buddha heads – believed to be about 400 years old – that were unearthed under the ubosot of Chinwararam Temple in Pathum Thani province.

 

With help from soldiers, they moved the Buddha heads to a site where they cleaned and divided them before documenting the details of each head.

 

More than 100 heads were unearthed after a Tambon monastic monk chief, Phra Mongkon Waropakarn, had requested to lift the floor of the ubosot to prevent possible flooding.

 

The Fine Arts Department has estimated that the artefacts are priceless so it has asked archaeologists to check the heads and take care of the perfect ones as a priority.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/national/30311631

 

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What a fascinating story. I wonder why someone cut the heads off the statues? Maybe they were saved during an ancient war by monks. Hopefully more research will be done and we can find out the full story of how they got there.

About 1986 I bought this Buddha head in  a dusty old Sukhumwit  Rd. shop no longer there. It looks very Khmer to me. It was about the same time pillagers were ripping out stuff from the Angkor Wat region and selling it off everywhere.I don't want to show it to Cambodian experts because if it is the real thing I may not get it back.

Is there anybody out there who can help identify if it might be a genuine Angkor piece? It is very fine and beautiful workmanship and certainly not the cheap touristy crap that is available. 

Thanks in advance.

It is a copy. You got burnt

36 minutes ago, pieeyed said:

It is a copy. You got burnt

B2000 for a copy isn't bad enough  to get burned.

My Thai history is uncertain.

When was Ayuttya   sacked by the Khamer (Cambodian) army.

Could that have something to do with these heads being hidden?

 

 

9 minutes ago, IMA_FARANG said:

My Thai history is uncertain.

When was Ayuttya   sacked by the Khamer (Cambodian) army.

Could that have something to do with these heads being hidden?

 

It was the Burmese that sacked Ayutthaya, not the Khmer.  There were hostilities from the 1500s causing damage to Ayutthaya, but the final sacking was in 1767.

 

Another possibility for the heads is that they were from damaged Buddha figures.  Rather than destroying them (which would be sacrilegious) they were hidden away.

2 hours ago, pieeyed said:

It is a copy. You got burnt

 

Really? Where did you get your degree in Thai and Khmer archeology? Khao San Road perhaps?

4 hours ago, pieeyed said:

It is a copy. You got burnt

He will freely take it off your hands.

33 minutes ago, elgordo38 said:

He will freely take it off your hands.

I have been a collector of antiques for 50 years [Western. Not Asian] I know without doubt that I have not been "burnt". When you handle the piece you can see and feel its antiquity. It has a great patina about it that does not come through in the pics. The incredible fineness of the sandstone is nothing like the tourist rubbish. Anyway faking of antiques was not common 30 or so years ago. It is certainly Khmer style but whether it is from the Angkor region or from the old Khmer areas of Thailand I do not know. It certainly looks very similar to what I have seen in the Angkor temples. My problem is that if I show it to an expert it may be confiscated. 

If I knew that it was definitely from Angkor I would probably want to donate it back to them but then it would just disappear and turn up on some wealthy collectors shelf in the USA or Europe.

"priceless" nothing like exaggeration

Some troll posts have been removed.