Murals from the assumption in Chapel of Wat Prasat

Abstract

The objectives of this research are (1) to study and analyze information related to murals in the Chapel of Wat Prasat, Nonthaburi Province, and (2) to disseminate and preserve the murals in the Chapel of Wat Prasat, Nonthaburi Province with Digital Painting technique.

The results are as follows. The murals in the Chapel of Wat Prasat has been painted in the late Ayutthaya period with Craftsmanship of Nonthaburi Province. They can be considered as the oldest murals in Nonthaburi Province. At present, these murals have been severely damaged. The front wall and back wall of the Buddha statue inside the Chapel have been repaint over completely. Approximately 40 percent of the murals on left and right walls have been lost so original Image cannot be identified. As for the parts of murals that still appear, about 50 percent of them have faded. Furthermore, the lower part of the murals, around one-fifth of the overall, was damaged completely. Concerning the positioning of murals in the Chapel of Wat Prasat, it has been found out as follows. It is clear that the murals have been related to the Buddha image inside. Actually, these murals can be divided into 3 groups, namely, 1) the Ten Jataka (stories of the 10 major past lives of Lord Buddha) murals, 2) Thep Phanom (greeting angels) murals, and 3) Past Buddhism murals. I, the researcher, have selected two murals, namely, “Mahosadha” and “Narada Jataka” with purposive sampling. Both of these murals are in the group of “The Ten Jataka murals”. They are used as prototype images for creation with Digital Painting technique, with the concept  "Conservation by minimizing touch of the original murals". In evaluating “Murals from the assumption in the Chapel of Wat Prasat”, I, the researcher, have used questionnaires of performance indicators. The results show that most of the viewers of the murals are satisfied in the "high" level. In addition, it is also found out, "this work can be a part to conserve ancient Thai murals” with the mean of 4.40 which falls in "high" level. The results from the questionnaire show that the conservation of murals with digital painting technique is one of the ways of the conservation of ancient murals.