Lopburi Buddha images were both carved in stone and cast in bronze, and typical characteristics are the cranial protuberance modified into three rows of lotus petals and a lotus bud halo. As Mahayana Buddhism was dominant with the Khmer, statues of the Buddha in royal attire appear at this time. These followed from the Mahayanist belief in both an historical Buddha and an eternal Buddha, Adibuddha, who ruled over the universe. Royal attire included a diadem and many types of jewellery of which only a selection was generally depicted in any one image, earrings and necklaces being most common.

By the 13th century the power of the Khmer was waning while the Thais, who had migrated from southern China, were gaining strength. They established their first sovereign kingdom at Sukhothai in c.1250. It was here that Thai art had its first and arguably finest flowering, the most beautiful and most original Buddha images dating from this period. Influences from Dvaravati, Khmer and Sri Lankan art (the latter reviving and strengthening the impact of Theravada Buddhism) were combined with indigenous genius to produce something unique.

Sukhothai images were far more stylized than anything that had gone before and are marked by a greater fluidity in the line of the body and an uncanny degree of serenity and spirituality expressed in the facial features. Principle characteristics are a tall flame halo, small hair curls, oval face, arched eyebrows, hooked nose and a smiling expression. In addition the artists interpreted descriptions of the Buddha as given in Pali texts and tended to emphasis supernatural features such as the cranial protuberance, extended ear lobes, long arms, and flat-soled feet with projecting heels.

Statues in the seated posture were popular but the real triumph of the Sukhothai artists, and perhaps the highest artistic achievement in Thai sculpture, was the walking Buddha. This posture had appeared before but only in carved relief and it was a Thai innovation to produce walking images in the round.

But not only was originality achieved, it was achieved in a most stunning fashion with the artists brilliantly capturing their subject in a frozen moment of walking with one heel raised and the other foot firmly planted on the ground; one arm swings freely at the side while the other expresses a mudra. The aesthetic quality of these Buddha images has never been surpassed.

At roughly the same time as Sukhothai was consolidating its kingdom, the Thais in the north of the country were united in the Lanna kingdom which had its capital at Chiang Mai, founded in 1296. Its school of art is generally referred to Chiang Saen style, named after the town which was an early power centre of the region and where a number of images of great merit have been found.

Chiang Saen art falls into two basic groups, early and late. The images of the former exemplify Indian Pala styles which were likely inherited from Haripunchai (present-day Lamphun), an off-shoot of the Mon Dvaravati kingdom which was conquered by Lanna. Distinctive characteristics are a halo in the form of a lotus bud, round face, prominent chin and a stout body with a well developed chest.

The later period, at its height during the reign of the Lanna King Tilokaraja (1442-1487), coincides with the blossoming of Theravada Buddhism in the north and shows both Sukhothai and Sri Lankan influences in the flame halo, oval face and more slender body of the Buddha images. As with Sukhothai art, seated statues were common but the Chiang Saen examples differ in that they are usually mounted on lotus flower pedestals.

In art as well as politics, both Lanna and Sukhothai eventually became subordinate to Ayutthaya, a younger Thai kingdom which consolidated its power in the Chao Phraya river basin. The sculpture of this period is divided into two categories, that of U-Thong or early Ayutthaya (12th-15th centuries) and Ayutthaya proper which lasted until the mid 18th century.More.