Mueang Sema
| Mueang Sema | |
|---|---|
| Native name เมืองเสมา | |
 Buddha statue, Dvaravati style, at Wat Dhammachaksemaram | |
| Type | Human settlement |
| Location | Sung Noen district, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand |
| Area | 150 hectares (1.5 km2) |
| Length | 1,800 metres (5,900 ft) |
Mueang Sema (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.) is a moated archaeological site in Sung Noen district, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand. It stands on the Lam Ta Khong in the Mun system and encloses over 150 hectares.[1]:389 It has been described as a centre comparable to Mueang Fa Daet, set in an area nodal to communication between the Mun and Chao Phraya valleys, and walled and enlarged at least twice.[2]:84
Occupation runs from the late prehistoric period into the 12th century, with a Dvaravati phase in the 6th to 9th centuries and growing Khmer influence after it.[1]:389 The archaeological phase of about 600 to 1000 in the Phimai region is named after the town. The site has yielded inscriptions in Sanskrit and Khmer, a large reclining Buddha at Wat Thammachak Semaram (วัดธรรมจักรเสมาราม), and the most easterly dharmacakra yet recovered.[2]:85 Mueang Sema has been held to be the most likely seat of the polity named Sri Canāśa, which others place at Si Thep.[2]:78, 84 The settlement was abandoned after the 970s, by which time a Hindu neighbour, Khorakhapura, had grown up nearby.[3]:87
Site
The town lies on the Lam Takhong, a tributary in the Mun system, and its moat encloses more than 150 hectares.[1]:389 The enclosure is given as a rectangle of 800 by 1,800 metres, and the town was walled and enlarged at least twice.[2]:84 Its interior is made up of small mounds, each carrying evidence of a brick or laterite structure. On that evidence the site may be not a large village or an incipient administrative and economic centre but a large sacred, ceremonial centre.[4]:223–224
A survey describes villages ringing the town, each centred on a temple. They held Dvaravati Buddha images and Lopburi-style door posts, and alignments of standing stones lie at Ban Hin Tang (บ้านหินตั้ง). An earthen dam across the Huai Krok Chanuan and a set of canals were read as irrigation works.[5]:52–53
History
Its excavator divided the occupation into three phases.[1]:389 The first, of the 4th and 5th centuries, is classified as late prehistoric. The second, of the 6th to 9th, is taken as Dvaravati on the pottery and on clear evidence for Buddhism. In the third, of the 9th to 12th, Buriram ceramics and Song dynasty ware mark growing Khmer influence.[1]:389
The regional sequence carries the town's name. In the Phimai region the archaeological phase that follows the early historic transition and precedes the Khmer period is called the Muang Sema phase, about 600 to 1000.[4]:222 Its ceramics belong to a tradition of pottery making and decoration found widely in mainland Southeast Asia at that time, unlike the earlier Phimai tradition, which appears confined to the upper Mun valley. The source of that wider tradition, the directions in which it spread, the closeness of the connections between particular areas and the extent of regional variation within it are described as topics awaiting a broad comparative study.[4]:223
Dvaravati period
Two inscriptions, K.388 and K.389, were found at Hin Khon near the town. They are described as Khmer and idiosyncratic Sanskrit texts in mediocre Khmer mixed with Mon. Although often called pre-Angkorian, they may instead belong to a somewhat later period and to an isolated local dialect.[2]:77 Both are dedications by a Buddhist monk identified as King Nrpendradhipativarman. He erected four sema stones and founded a Buddhist temple and monastery, endowed with ten pairs of cattle, gold and silver utensils, rice-fields and a plantation of twenty betel nut trees.[2]:77
The Bo Ika stela, K.400, comes from a 10th-century temple sanctuary near Mueang Sema.[6][2]:77–78 Its earlier face, in 7th-century Sanskrit, records donations of buffalo, cattle and male and female slaves to a Buddhist community. The later face, in Sanskrit and Khmer and dated 868, commemorates the foundation of a gold liṅga and a gift of slaves by one Ansadeva, described as having obtained an abandoned domain outside Kambudesa.[2]:78
At Wat Thammachak Semaram, near the town, lies a reclining Buddha of red sandstone. It is given as 13 metres long, of the 8th century, the largest in Thailand, and in a northeastern Dvaravati style.[2]:85 The same image has also been put at up to 12 metres, with a view reported that it was first a standing figure that later fell.[5]:52–53
Dvaravati-style Buddha images from the area are now in the Maha Wirawong National Museum in Nakhon Ratchasima, and were found with standing stones, deer statues and Bodhisattva tablets. A hand of a Buddha image from the site is also interpreted as Dvaravati in style.[4]:222 The dharmacakra from the Mueang Sema area is reported as the most easterly yet recovered.[2]:85
Angkorian influence and abandonment
The Mueang Sema inscription, K.1141, is dated 892 śaka, or 970 CE, and names a noble called Driḍhabhakti Simhavarman.[7] The same man is described as a provincial governor in the reign of Jayavarman V, who reconsecrated the royal liṅga and an image of the Buddha.[8]:414
Mueang Sema is described as the home of an important Buddhist polity in the pre-Angkorian period. By the late 10th century it had been joined by a Hindu neighbour, the city of Khorakhapura near the modern city of Nakhon Ratchasima, whose religious centres were the Khmer-style temples of Prasat Muang Khaek and Prasat Non Ku. The old settlement was abandoned after the 970s, and its people moved to Khorakhapura, 6 kilometres to the southeast.[3]:87
Angkorian-style temples were built at Si Thep, Mueang Sema and Si Mahosot, on the cultural border between the Chao Phraya plain and the plateau. One of those at Mueang Sema was converted from Buddhist to Śaiva use.[9]:81
Identification
Mueang Sema is held to be the most likely location of the polity of Sri Canāśa, the dharmacakras from the site being dated to the period of the Bo Ika inscriptions or slightly later. That reading is followed.[2]:78, 84 A competing argument makes Si Thep Sricanasa, which places the polity elsewhere.[2]:88 It has also been observed that Canasa is meaningless in both Sanskrit and Khmer.[2]:78
Si Thep and Mueang Sema have been said to have become allied states of Dvaravati in the 7th century, on shared town planning and material culture, without new epigraphic evidence specific to Canāśa.[10]:50 It has been held that apart from Mueang Sema it is hard to argue for a strong or meaningful Dvaravati political presence on the plateau.[11]:146
Citations
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Murphy, Stephen A. (October 2016). "The case for proto-Dvāravatī: A review of the art historical and archaeological evidence". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 47 (3): 366–392. doi:10.1017/S0022463416000242. ISSN 0022-4634.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Sarah Talbot (2003). "Before Angkor: Early Historic Communities in Northeast Thailand" (PDF). Journal of the Siam Society. 91: 74–89. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2024.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Siribhadra, Smitthi; Moore, Elizabeth; Freeman, Michael (1997). Palaces of the Gods: Khmer Art & Architecture in Thailand. Bangkok: River Books. ISBN 9781872727158. Search this book on
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Welch, David J. (1998). "Archaeology of Northeast Thailand in Relation to the Pre-Khmer and Khmer Historical Records". International Journal of Historical Archaeology. 2 (3): 205–233. doi:10.1023/A:1027320309113.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Wongthes, Sujit (1983). สุโขทัยไม่ใช่ราชธานีแห่งแรกของไทย [Sukhothai Was Not the First Royal Capital of the Thai]. Sinlapa Watthanatham special issue (in ไทย). Bangkok: Sinlapa Watthanatham. ISBN 974-8350-36-3. Search this book on
- ↑ "จารึกบ่ออีกา" (in ไทย). Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre. 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
- ↑ "จารึกเมืองเสมา" [Mueang Sema Inscription]. Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre. 13 February 2007. Archived from the original on 18 April 2025. Retrieved 18 April 2025.
- ↑ Revire, Nicolas (2016). "Dvāravatī and Zhenla in the seventh to eighth centuries: A transregional ritual complex". Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 47 (3): 393–417. doi:10.1017/S0022463416000254.
- ↑ Anna Bennett; Hunter Watson, eds. (2019). Defining Dvāravatī: Essays from the U Thong International Workshop 2017 (PDF). Distributed by Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai. DASTA and BIA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2026. Search this book on
- ↑ Depimai, Anurak (2025). "Ban Wang Phai Inscription: The Historical Context of The Relationship Between Si Thep Dvaravati and Chenla". Damrong Journal of the Faculty of Archaeology Silpakorn University (in ไทย). 24 (2). doi:10.14456/drj.2025.12. Archived from the original on 9 March 2026.
- ↑ Murphy, Stephen A. (2022). "Buddhism and its Relationship to Dvāravatī Period Settlement Patterns and Material Culture in Northeast Thailand and Central Laos c. Sixth–Eleventh Centuries CE". In Nicolas Revire; Pitchaya Soomjinda. Decoding Southeast Asian Art: Studies in Honor of Piriya Krairiksh. Bangkok: River Books and the Piriya Krairiksh Foundation. pp. 144–153. ISBN 9786164510661. Search this book on
Template:Dvaravati Historical Sites
Coordinates: 14°55′41″N 101°47′50″E / 14.92806°N 101.79722°E
Category:Dvaravati Category:Archaeological sites in Thailand Category:Nakhon Ratchasima province
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