Vipassana Meditation Murals

There is no clear evidence of when Wat Pho Bang O was built. Until during the reign of King Rama III that Pra Sri Sulalai, the King’ mother asked Prince Seniborirak (The founder of the prestigious Seniwong family) to renovate the temple. It is assumed that the murals were drawn during that time as well.

Dust paintings

Vipassana Meditation painting was painted on the wall between the windows on the left of the principle Buddha. The background of the painting is the drawing of the forest with brown rocks. There are pictures of monks and villagers in different position. The men wear loincloths with breechcloths. Women wear sarongs and cover with Sabai. The skin color of each person is different. Even though the artist starts to use shading technique in drawing, the dimension of the painting is still missing, according to the visualization principal. Traditional Thai paintings in the old days are the same; the artists wrote short descriptions under the paintings.

There is no clear evidence of when the murals inside the chapel of Wat Pho Bang O were created. However, based on the storyline which is about Vipassana Meditation, Dharma puzzles, and the routine of the monks, it can be assumed that the age of the murals is not older than the reign of King Rama III. During the reign of King Rama III, the stories of paintings were changed from drawing Buddha’s life to other stories that are still related to Buddhism. There is an example at Wat Phra Chetuphon Vimolmangklararm. One prominent story is about 9 perceptions of Vipassana Meditation which is in Visudhi scripture. It talks about the Teaching of Buddha and the scripture is used by the monks to study since the reign of King Rama III. The 9 perceptions of Vipassana Meditation is abstract. It talks about the mental state of each level of perception. The artist painted the stories with morals and a short description that are easy to understand. For example, a painting of a man running to away from a group of armed people to a monk. The group of armed people is compared to the defilement which are greed, anger, and delusion. The man running away from those indicates running away from the difilement to a practice to become a nirvana.

ธาดา สุทธิเนตร. “ภาพจิตรกรรมฝาผนังในอุโบสถวัดโพธิ์บางโอ อ.บางกรวย จ.นนทบุรี”สารนิพนธ์ศิลปศาสตรบัณฑิต ภาควิชาโบราณคดี คณะโบราณดี มหาวิทยาลัยศิลปากร, 2527.