- Title
- Monks in a Temple Holding the Third Buddhist Council
- Date Made
- circa 1791
- Medium
- Glazed ceramic tile
- Dimensions
- 9 1/4 x 9 1/4 x 1 3/4 in. (23.5 x 23.5 x 4.45 cm)
- Accession Number
- AC1994.234.6.1
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
The last kings of Burma (Myanmar) undertook ambitious building projects, including the massive Mingun Pagoda near their capital at Mandalay that was begun by King Bodawpaya (r. 1781-1819). Although the monument was abandoned after the king’s prophesied death in 1819, many ceramic tiles survive that were made for decorating its stepped terraces above the pagoda’s exterior base. This inscription beneath the four monks seated in a pavilion identifies the scene seen as the third Buddhist council convened in the 3rd century BCE to codify the Pali Canon, on which Theravada Buddhist traditions are based. A comparable tile is in the British Museum, London (1925,0413.1). See also AC1994.234.6.2.
- Selected Bibliography
- Little, Stephen, Tushara Bindu Gude, Karina Romero Blanco, Silvia Seligson, Marco Antonio Karam. Las Huellas de Buda. Ciudad de México : Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, 2018.
- Little, Stephen, and Tushara Bindu Gude. Realms of the Dharma: Buddhist Art across Asia. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2025.
