From the exquisite Sukhothai statues of the walking Buddha, unparalleled in their poetic serenity, to the supreme decorative quality of Ayutthaya-period crowned Buddhas, or the many other masterpieces in stone, bronze, terracotta, crystal, wood and ivory encountered in temples and museums throughout the country, countless works of art display a rich diversity of form and style.

Inevitably not all Buddha images are of equal artistic merit but, that aside, there is a seeming contradiction in calling any Buddhist statue a work of art, or that there are any differences in form. Buddha images are not idols -- they are not worshipped per se but rather serve a reminders of the teaching -- and in theory all statues are copies. Moreover, sculptors were not concerned with aesthetics; the commissioning and fashioning of images was always viewed as an act of merit-making and an expression of faith.

Each and every image of the Enlightened One is supposed to be a faithful copy, theoretically adhering to a convention built up from descriptions recorded during the Buddha's lifetime, although no likenesses were made until long after his death. Artists were kept to strict guidelines and had to reproduce certain features and attitudes that were traditional and accepted as integral. Accordingly all images display certain common features.

Firstly, the Buddha, as the Great Teacher, is represented as a human being, and likenesses display none of the fantastic anatomy of, say, the multi-limbed forms of certain Hindu gods. And yet the Enlightened One is understood as a remarkable personage, bearing 32 major and 80 minor marks which distinguished him from other mortals. Not all of these -- the sound of his voice, for instance -- lend themselves to visual representation, but a few were established as hallmarks of all Buddha sculptures. Especially characteristic are the ushnisha or cranial protuberance, hair curling in a clockwise direction, extended ear lobes, flat feet and projecting heels.

In form, images were confined to just four possible postures -- walking, standing, seated and reclining -- while the position of the hands were fixed in any one of a number of mudras or gestures signifying certain attitudes. Common among these are the meditation pose (a seated image with both hands palm upwards in the lap; an attitude known as "Calling the Earth to Witness" (a seated image with the left hand in the lap and the right hand over the right knee with fingers pointing to the ground;) and dispelling fear (a standing figure with one or both hands raised palm forwards).

Standing and seated figures, various in their mudras, are the most widely seen. The reclining statue does not vary in attitude and represents Buddha's death, the moment of entering nirvana. The walking figure, a pose inspired by the story of Buddha's descent from heaven after preaching to his mother, is far less common.

Limitations of iconography notwithstanding, artists did have freedom of expression to an extent, and it is clearly individual genius -- mastery of technique combined with personal vision -- that accounts for a great statue as opposed to a mediocre one. Function may have taken precedent over form, but talent could always make itself manifest in spite of conventions and limitations. In addition to superior artistic accomplishment between one sculpture and another, there has been a marked evolution of styles over the centuries which sets images apart.

The earliest Buddha images found in the country are examples of Indian sculpture from the Gupta (4th-6th centuries) and Pala (8th-11th centuries) schools, but the first style produced locally, although belonging to a pre-Thai civilization, is that of Dvaravati which dates from the late 6th or early 7th century to the 11th century. This was the art of the Mon, an ethnic group that settled in central Thailand.

Although partly derived from Indian models Dvaravati art has distinct features of its own. Images are less massive, more simplified and, notable in later examples, display indigenous facial characteristics such as broad nose and thicker lips. There are also differences in the postures and, for example, the standing Buddha is styled with both hands performing the mudra whereas in Indian models the left hand was normally placed holding a fold of the robe.More.