Myanmar Buddhist Imagery by Denis Lepage: The Story Behind the Book
When I first began collecting Buddhist art, Burmese Buddhist sculpture quickly became my greatest passion.
At that time, however, I found it surprisingly difficult to find books that offered a clear and comprehensive overview of the development of Burmese Buddhist imagery. There were excellent publications available, but few books that brought together the different periods, regional traditions, sculptural characteristics, and historical context in a way that was accessible to a collector while remaining useful for serious study.
This lack of a complete reference became one of the reasons I eventually decided to write my own book:
Myanmar Buddhist Imagery by Denis Lepage.
It was not a project I planned when I started collecting. It grew naturally from years of looking, travelling, questioning, researching, and trying to understand the extraordinary diversity of Burmese Buddhist art.
The Books That Started My Research
When I began studying Burmese Buddha images, several books were particularly important to me.
The work of Otto Karow on Burmese Buddha images was already extremely helpful, especially for understanding the development of Burmese sculpture from the 17th century onward.
Another important reference was the work of Lopetcharat, which attempted to present Burmese Buddha images across the different historical periods.
Lopetcharat made an impressive effort to classify Burmese Buddha images and create an overview of their development. His work was valuable to me as a collector because it offered a framework through which different sculptures could be compared.
But as I studied Burmese art more deeply, I also began to see limitations.
Some of the proposed classifications seemed to rely on assumptions that were difficult to reconcile with the archaeological and historical evidence. More importantly, the work appeared somewhat disconnected from the Burmese scholars and specialists who had spent their lives studying the country's own artistic heritage.
This did not discourage me.
Quite the opposite.
It made me want to investigate further.
I wanted to understand the full picture of Burmese Buddhist art, not simply accept existing classifications.
From Collector to Researcher
My research gradually took me beyond books.
I had the opportunity to travel frequently to Myanmar, visiting temples, archaeological sites and museums across the country.
These journeys completely changed my understanding of Burmese Buddhist sculpture.
Seeing the images in their original environment is very different from seeing them in a book.
A Buddha image inside an old temple, surrounded by other sculptures from the same region, can reveal things that are difficult to understand from an isolated photograph.
The architecture, the inscriptions, the materials, the style of neighbouring images and even the geographical setting can all provide clues.
But perhaps even more important than the monuments themselves were the people I met.
During my travels I had the privilege of becoming friends with Burmese archaeologists, scholars, museum specialists and passionate local researchers.
Their knowledge was invaluable.
They helped me understand details that could never have been learned simply by reading Western publications.
They also introduced me to another essential principle of studying Burmese Buddhist art:
the importance of listening to Burmese scholarship itself.
An Extraordinary Opportunity
At one point during my research, I had the opportunity to meet a senior official of Myanmar's Archaeological Department.
I explained to him my ambition to produce a book that would present Burmese Buddhist imagery in a systematic way, with photographs of important and trustworthy examples.
His response was extraordinary.
He offered me the opportunity to photograph sculptures in the national museums of Myanmar.
For me, this was a turning point.
A few weeks later, a special photographic journey across Myanmar began.
It became an enormous undertaking.
We travelled from one location to another, visiting museums and archaeological sites and photographing Buddha images and other Buddhist sculptures.
Over the course of the project, thousands of photographs were taken.
Why Provenance Was So Important to Me
From the beginning, I wanted the book to be different from a simple catalogue of attractive Buddha images.
For me, one of the most important aspects of studying Buddhist sculpture is provenance.
A photograph of a beautiful sculpture is interesting.
A photograph of a sculpture with a reliable archaeological or museum provenance is much more valuable for the study of art history.
I therefore wanted, whenever possible, to illustrate the book with objects whose origins and provenance could be trusted.
This was particularly important because dating Burmese Buddhist sculpture can be extremely difficult.
A stylistic classification is useful, but it should ideally be supported by archaeological context, inscriptions, historical records, museum documentation or other reliable evidence.
The national museums and archaeological collections of Myanmar therefore became an essential part of my research.
Filling the Gaps
Of course, even an extensive photographic campaign could not provide everything.
There were important examples that I could not photograph myself.
To fill some of these gaps, I was fortunate to obtain photographs from the Archaeological Survey of India, whose historical documentation contains valuable material relating to Myanmar.
I also consulted collections outside Myanmar, including important museum collections in the United States, such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Private collections were another important source.
The goal was not simply to accumulate as many images as possible.
The objective was to create a visual corpus that would allow the reader to compare different periods and regional traditions and to understand how Burmese Buddhist imagery evolved over time.
The Help of U Win Maung
Among the people who contributed to the project, U Win Maung, the highly respected scholar based in Sagaing, deserves particular mention.
His knowledge of Burmese Buddhist art and archaeology was extremely valuable to me.
He shared important information, discussed questions of style and chronology, and helped me with corrections to the manuscript.
Having the opportunity to discuss Burmese Buddhist art with someone deeply rooted in Myanmar's own scholarly tradition was an important part of the project.
It helped me question some of my own assumptions and, more importantly, encouraged me to look at Burmese art from a broader perspective.
The book became less about imposing a classification and more about trying to understand how the evidence fits together.
Then Came Covid
Like so many projects around the world, mine was interrupted by the Covid pandemic.
I was no longer able to return to Myanmar for the final stages of the research.
The fieldwork had to stop.
The final stages of the book therefore took place from my home, surrounded by thousands of photographs, notes, books, documents and years of accumulated research.
What had begun as a desire to better understand the Buddha images I was collecting had become a much larger project.
I had to bring together the material I had gathered over many years and try to transform it into a coherent history of Burmese Buddhist imagery.
It was an intense period of work.
The Result: Myanmar Buddhist Imagery
The result of this adventure became my first book:
Myanmar Buddhist Imagery
By Denis Lepage
The book brings together thousands of photographs and presents a systematic overview of Burmese Buddhist sculpture.
Its objective is to help the reader understand the development of Buddhist imagery throughout the different historical periods of Myanmar.
Rather than simply presenting individual Buddha images, the book attempts to place them within their broader historical and artistic context.
The different periods of Burmese Buddhist art are examined through their sculpture, allowing the reader to follow the evolution of:
facial features;
body proportions;
robes and garment arrangements;
seated and standing postures;
hand gestures;
crowns and jewellery;
hairstyles and ushnisha forms;
materials and casting traditions;
and changing artistic influences.
The intention is to provide a clear classification of Burmese Buddhist imagery, while also explaining the historical development behind each major period.
Why I Wanted to Write This Book
For me, Myanmar Buddhist Imagery is more than a reference book.
It is the result of a personal journey.
I began as a collector looking for answers.
I wanted to know why one Burmese Buddha looked different from another.
I wanted to understand how to distinguish Pagan from later Burmese traditions, how Burmese sculpture changed through the centuries, and how regional styles developed.
The more I learned, the more questions appeared.
Those questions eventually took me from books to museums, from museums to temples, and from temples to conversations with Burmese archaeologists and scholars.
The book is the result of that journey.
It is also an attempt to make Burmese Buddhist art more accessible to collectors and enthusiasts who face the same difficulty that I encountered when I started.
A Visual History of Burmese Buddhist Art
One of the greatest strengths of Myanmar Buddhist Imagery is its visual approach.
Burmese Buddhist sculpture is an art form that must be studied through comparison.
A single Buddha image can be difficult to date or classify.
But when dozens or hundreds of examples are placed alongside one another, patterns begin to emerge.
Facial shapes change.
Bodies become more elongated or more powerful.
Robes evolve.
The treatment of the hair and ushnisha changes.
Postures and mudras develop.
The artistic vocabulary of one period gradually gives way to another.
This is why I wanted the book to contain such an extensive photographic record.
The images are not simply illustrations.
They are part of the research itself.
From Pyu to Later Burmese Art
One of the central aims of the book is to help readers understand the extraordinary continuity and diversity of Burmese Buddhist art.
Myanmar's Buddhist sculpture developed over many centuries, beginning with the early Pyu and Mon traditions and reaching extraordinary expression during the Pagan period, before continuing through the successive kingdoms and artistic traditions of Ava, Shan regions, Toungoo, the Konbaung period and later Myanmar.
Each period contributed something distinctive.
At the same time, Burmese Buddhist art was never isolated.
It was influenced by the wider Buddhist world of South and Southeast Asia, including India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and neighbouring regions.
The challenge is to understand these influences without reducing Burmese art to a simple sequence of outside influences.
Myanmar developed its own powerful and recognizable artistic identity.
A Book Born from the Desire to Understand
Looking back, I realize that the book was really born from one simple desire:
to understand.
When I began collecting, I wanted better references.
When I began travelling, I wanted to see the sculptures in their original environment.
When I met Burmese scholars, I wanted to learn from their knowledge.
When I photographed the national collections, I wanted reliable examples.
And when I finally sat down to write the book, I wanted to bring all of this together into something useful for others.
The result is not intended to be the final word on Burmese Buddhist art.
There is still much to discover.
New archaeological discoveries will continue to change our understanding.
New research will challenge old classifications.
And many sculptures remain to be studied.
But I hope that Myanmar Buddhist Imagery provides a solid foundation for that continuing conversation.
A Personal Journey Through Myanmar
Perhaps the most meaningful part of the project was not the book itself, but everything that happened along the way.
The journeys through Myanmar.
The temples.
The museums.
The archaeological sites.
The thousands of photographs.
The long conversations with scholars.
The friendships.
The unexpected discoveries.
The moments when an image that I had seen many times in photographs suddenly made sense because I was standing in front of it in Myanmar.
And, finally, the long months of research and writing when all of these experiences had to be brought together.
That is what Myanmar Buddhist Imagery represents to me.
It is the result of many years of curiosity, travel, friendship and study.
Most importantly, it is a tribute to the extraordinary artistic heritage of Myanmar and to the people who helped me understand it.
Myanmar Buddhist Imagery by Denis Lepage is, ultimately, the book I wished I had when I first began collecting Burmese Buddhist art.
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