colour scheme
Pegu Tiles
Pegu Tiles
The Pegu Tiles have been given their own category because of their significance to the RAMM collection as a whole, and their significance in terms of other collections of Pegu Tiles. There are nine sets of Pegu Tiles in the collection each of varying workmanship. The tiles are part of the William Ninnis Porter Collection and were acquired by the museum in 1898. The actual tiles can be dated back to the reign of King Dhammaceti (AD 1460-92) who commissioned the pieces during the 15th Century. They were made to represent the portrayal of the seven sites, which is a seven-week series of events associated with the Buddha’s enlightenment at Bodhgaya, India (Fraser-Lu 1994:203). The tiles fall into two different genre: those depicting Mara’s army and those depicting his daughters. The tiles representing Mara’s army depict either a pair of monsters or pairs of ‘armed warriors in human form with bird and animal masks replete with bulging eyes and bared teeth’ (Fraser-Lu 1994:203). The tiles depicting Mara’s army, of which over 200 were made, were set in the enclosure of Shwei-gu-gyi temple, 4.8km South of Pegu.
The tiles which depict Mara’s daughters symbolise hatred, greed and lust. They daughters were sent to entice the Buddha during his fifth week of meditation, beneath the Ajapalia tree in Bodhgaya. Approximately 100 of these tiles were made, and were located at the Ajapala pagoda nearby the Shwei-gu-gyi temple.
To represent the collection one tile from each genre will be described in this report.
Pegu Tile – 1898.6. 12
This glazed earthenware tile with buff pink body depicts two warriors from Mara’s army. The warriors, who are in human form but wearing animal masks, bear swords and shields. Their bodies are glazed green, and their clothing (a sarong) is glazed in a rust colour.
Pegu Tile – 1898.6.11
This glazed earthenware tile with buff pink body depicts two of Mara’s daughters. Symbolising greed, lust or hatred, the tile depicts elegantly coiffured women, who are bare breasted and liberally bejewelled. A chocolate brown glaze has been applied to highlight the women’s sarongs.
Conclusion
In all there are five tiles depicting Mara’s army and four tiles depicting Mara’s daughters. This is an excellent collection and one that should be noted. The British Museum have approximately fifteen tiles, the V & A also have tiles as does Hastings Museum. In Europe a significant collection is found at the Museum fur Indische Kunst, Berlin, Germany.
The collection at the RAMM may not have tiles in equal numbers to these institutions, but the collection is significant and should certainly be conserved adequately and publicised throughout the museum world. They are also significant in that a donor as significant as Porter can be attributed to the collection.
