Painting-Thailand

Painting Thailand

     Traditional Thai painting is confined mostly to mural paintings of a temple or a palace. It has a characteristic of its own; so different from those of the Indian and the Chinese which with other cultures form the basis of the cultural life of the various peoples in Indo-China like the classical Greek and Roman did for the rest of Europe. No definite and satisfactory explanation of the origin of Thai painting has as yet been found, though there are suggestions. The life of Buddha, the Buddhist Jataka tales and episodes from the Ramayana mainly the subjects of traditional Thai painting.
     It is a conventionalized art, and is very characteristic because the gesture, dress, ornaments of the characters depicted in the painting are one and the same as those worn by the characters in the Thai classical theatrical performance. Like in the theatrical performance, so in the paintings it is necessary for one to know the meaning of the subject to appreciate fully the artistic value of the painting. But this is a general remark that one may apply to any other art.