... importance of religion, mainly Buddhism, to the Sukhothai people (Stratton 12-13). Buddhists believed they could obtain merit towards their rebirth if they contributed to Buddhism. Thus the kings and people donated their money and time to Buddhist art in hopes to win merit, which explains the large quantities of sculptures found (Stratton 20). The sculptures do not only hold religious information, but political information as well. For example the change in aesthetics of the Sukhothai sculptures to previous sculptures offers information on the political conditions of the time. Sukhothai, as mentioned above, was Thailand's first free nation and the arts embrace their new found freedom. The people found themselves suddenly independent and sculptors reflect this notion with the progression they made in developing their own style of Buddhist sculpture (Gosling 88, 90). Their inspiration came from the "Mahapurislaksana (Features of the Great Man) Text," which developed the idea of idealistic ...

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