The temple you might be talking about is temple of
Emerald Buddha in side the Grand Palace Complex. It is
known as 'Wat Phra Kaeo' in Thai. The boundary wall
has illustration of Ramayana.
In fact, the present Chakri Dynasty, to which the
present King belongs, claim to be descendants of 'Lord
Ram'. So they are also called King Rama (X). Wat Phra
Kaeo was built by King Rama I. The present king is
known as King Rama IX. There is a place called
Ayuthaya, about 50km from Bangkok. Thais claim that,
that is the birth place of Lord Ram.
I had chance of visiting the grand palace and Wat Phra
Kaeo numerous times.
Ganesh
--- Dilip/Dil Deka [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Barua,
That is a good article.You had to do exhaustive
research and it shows.
Regarding Ramayana in the South Asian countries, the
story has gone through so much of transformation
that at times you have to wonder if it is the story
from India or it is a local story.
At least one Bangkok temple I visited had a story
illustrated on the walls that was called Ramayana
but it wasn't quite Ramayana.
Dilip
Barua25 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
On request of some netters, I am posting the full
article which aparaently is not available any more
in the latest Assam Tribune Website:
Christianity, The Bible and the Development of the
Indian Languages:
Rajen Barua
We must admit, in spite of Bertrand Russells
critical observation of disdain against religion,
which I tend to agree in general, that religion is,
after all, responsible for some of the good things
of our civilization. Besides astronomy and
mathematics, the two prominent areas where religion
had contributed, I would add that religion has also
contributed immensely, albeit as a side benefit, to
the development and spread of languages in general
in the world. We may even say that religion was also
mainly responsible for the spread of culture itself.
From earliest times, people travelled to far off
places mainly for two basic reasons: for business
and for belief. Starting from the Hindu Vedas down
to the Bible and the Koran, religion had been making
a great impact on language and culture. Buddha did
not name any of his followers to take his place
after his death. Instead, he left his disciples only
with one basic axiom: In my absence, the Law
(Dharma) will be your guiding light; follow the Law,
be a light unto yourself, and travel and spread the
Law in unknown lands.
True to the Law, the Buddhist monks from India
travelled far and wide to unknown countries to
spread Buddhism. The same Silk Road, which brought
Chinese silk and Chinese noodles to the West, also
was used to carry Buddhist sutras from India into
China. It was with a religious zeal that King Ashoka
adopted Buddhism and not only sent Buddhist monks
all over Asia and the West to spread the Law, but he
built hundreds of stone pillars, in a land spreading
from India to Afghanistan, where he wrote his royal
decree in Brahmi script to spread the Law. Today, it
is these written words of Ashoka in Brahmi script
which throw the first light on writing in India. We
read of many Buddhist monks from India who went,
lived and died in China only with one goal in mind:
to translate the Buddhist sutras into Chinese
language for the purpose of spreading the Law. We
read of the prolific Indian writer Kumarajiva, who
travelled to China in 401 AD, lived there, learned
Chinese and wrote a total of!
about 47
books on Buddhist sutras in Chinese. Jinagupta,
another Indian monk, went to China in the sixth
century AD, and translated about 37 original
Sanskrit works into Chinese. His great knowledge was
so admired by the emperor of the Tang dynasty who
became his ardent disciple. Today, these Chinese
books written by the Indian monks are considered
jewels of Chinese Buddhism.
In similar line, Hindu priests went to many
countries in southeast Asia and established the
basic structure of local languages based on Sanskrit
and Pali. From Burma (Myanmar) to far off Korea,
religion carried the Devanagri script based on which
the local scripts were developed. Religion also
carried the popular story of Rama to all these
southeast Asian countries. With the development of
written words, the Sanskrit Ramayana was translated
in almost all these southeast Asian countries
Ramakien (Thailand), Hikayet Seri Rama (Malayasia),
Ravana Badham (Indonesia), Ramakavacha (Bali),
Phra-Lak/Phra-Lam (Laos), Kakawn Ramayan (Java),
Maradia Lawana (Philippnes), Yama Zatdaw (Burma),
etc. Today, many of these countries have different
religions. However, whether it is Islamic Indonesia
or Christian Philippines, all these countries owe it
to Hinduism and Buddhism for the development of
their languages.
It was with the same religious zeal that we saw a
new revolution of travel activities from the West to
spread the words of Jesus Christ in the eighteenth
century. Along with
