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Abstract
In the murals of Thailand’s centuries-old “Temple of the Emerald Buddha”, a depiction of two dinosaur-like creatures is present within a Ramakien scene: “Sukrip lifting Mount Kailash”. Thus, to provide insights into the depiction, this research was conducted to find out why prehistoric creatures were depicted, what could be their hypothetical species, and how the artist knew of them. This was done first by, identifying the components of the painting to find out what the creatures might represent. Then, comparison results with extant, extinct, and mythical creatures were combined with analysis by experts to find the hypothetical species. Lastly, in order to learn how the artist knew about them, prehistoric publications that entered Thailand during the period in which the mural was painted were compiled. Results revealed that the creatures represent mythical “Himmavanta” creatures, which isn’t unusual as these representations sometimes occur with real animals. Next, the two creatures’ species were hypothesized, with the one baring quadrupedal characteristics and rows of triangular plates and tail spikes hypothesized as a Stegosaur dinosaur and the other with bipedal characteristics, and short forelimbs hypothesized as a Theropod dinosaur, after combining experts’ analysis and comparison with creatures, including Otters, Kangaroos, Iguanodon dinosaurs, and Himmavanta creatures. Finally, after examining historical records and determining that the mural was repainted in 1911 and restored in 1987, it is likely that the artist knew about dinosaurs from publications that entered Thailand with the first evidence of dinosaur exhibits, TV shows, and media articles being in 1965, 1967 and 1976, respectively. The possibility that the depiction was influenced by dinosaur fossils near Mount Kailash is ruled out as the area yielded no dinosaur fossils. In summary, these results provide useful context and identification of dinosaur depictions in Thailand’s temple and the background of early Thai paleontological knowledge.
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References
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