The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

CEYLON
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AND SOUTH-EAST ASIA
Khmer temple mountain and the plan appears
396. Candi Mendut, Buddha and Bodhisattvas
as an ultimate derivative from the shrine at
Paharpur in Bengal [195]. The most notable
feature of the decoration of this sanctuary is the
frieze of reliefs illustrating the Rdmdyana on the
exterior of the balustrade of the upper terrace
[395]. The style of carving corresponds to that
of the panels devoted to the life of Buddha at
Barabudur. Owing perhaps to the nature of the
subject matter, the actual compositions are
more dramatically conceived and more dynamic
in execution.
Belonging to the same period as Barabudur
is the Buddhist shrine of Candi Mendut, notable
for the magnificent trinity of Buddha with
attendant Bodhisattvas [396]. Like the Buddhas
of Barabudur these images reveal a marvellously
plastic translation of the Indian Gupta formula
into Indonesian terms. What distinguishes these
statues particularly is the wonderful sense of
form combined with a reduction of the volumes
of heads and bodies to interlocking spheroidal
and cylindrical shapes that imparts a feeling of
almost architectural simplification and makes
them such moving symbols of the serenity of
The end of the great period of art in central
Java comes with the unexplained desertion of
the Dieng Plateau in 915 and the removal of the
centre of government and religion to eastern
Java. The next centuries marked the emergence
of Java as a great commercial power and the
development of a maritime trade linking the
island with the entire Far Eastern world. The
final revival or renaissance in Javanese art
begins in the thirteenth century with the Singasari
and Majapahit Dynasties. The monuments
395. Loro Jongrang, Siva temple,
Rama and the Crocodile, scene from the Rdmdyana