Mahayana Buddhist votive tablets in Perlis
Alastair Lamb’s 1964 article documents the discovery and typological analysis of Mahayana Buddhist votive tablets (pra-bimh) from two limestone caves in Perlis, northern Malaya, arguing that these objects were manufactured locally rather than transported from India or distant Srivijayan centres. The study builds on G. Coedes’ 1927 classification of Thai votive tablets, to which the Perlis finds belong as Type II, a category stylistically linked to the Pala art of Bengal and previously dated to the 10th century A.D.
Summary
Lamb’s investigation was prompted by a 1961 discovery of stamped clay tablets in a small cave at Kampong Kurong Batang, Perlis, made by local villagers. By the time Lamb and Lord Medway arrived in November 1961 to conduct a scientific examination, the cave had been largely despoiled—Siamese Buddhist monks had collected the remaining tablets and ground them into material for a new image. Despite this, Lamb recovered 79 identifiable tablets or fragments from Gua Kurong Batang, all made from unfired yellow clay and falling into five distinct types, the most common being a twelve-armed Avalokitesvara with attendant figures. The cave deposit also contained shells, fish vertebrae, charred bone, and coarse black pottery sherds, though the site’s disturbed condition made stratigraphic dating impossible.
The more substantial find came from Gua Berhala, a larger cave approximately two miles north-west of Kangar, which Lamb identified as the source of earlier collections by Vaughan Stevens (c. 1895), Evans (1929), and Collings (1936). Here the tablets were concentrated in an alcove at the back of the entrance chamber, lying on the surface of a reddish marl floor. Lamb identified at least eleven distinct types, made from both coarse reddish clay (sun-dried) and fine yellow clay (possibly lightly fired). The red clay tablets showed impressions of bamboo matting on their reverse and in some cases a red pigment (possibly haematite) on the inscribed surface. One type bore a sixteen-line inscription in a deeply recessed circular cartouche, which Coedes reported did not contain the Ye Dhamma formula.
A critical argument of the article concerns the provenance of the tablets. Coedes had suggested that Type II pra-bimh might have been brought to their find-spots by pilgrims or even manufactured in India. Lamb’s evidence—identical clay deposits at the cave mouths, the extreme fragility of the unfired tablets, and the use of shared stamps across both caves—convinced him that the Perlis tablets were produced locally. The article closes with an appendix examining four tablets from the Palembang region in Sumatra, raising the question of whether Coedes Type II objects also occur at the other epigraphically attested Srivijayan centre.
Key Findings
- Gua Kurong Batang yielded 79 identifiable tablets or fragments across five types, all of unfired yellow clay, the largest approximately 5 inches in diameter and the smallest about 2½ inches (p. 50).
- Gua Berhala produced at least 11 distinct tablet types in both red and yellow clay; the red clay tablets bore bamboo matting impressions on their reverse, and one type carried a 16-line inscription in a circular cartouche that Coedes confirmed did not contain the Ye Dhamma formula (pp. 53–54).
- The cave deposit at Gua Kurong Batang contained shells, fish vertebrae, crab claws, charred bone, and coarse black pottery with crude sand temper, but the site’s disturbed state precluded stratigraphic dating (p. 50).
- A trench approximately 10 feet long and 1½ feet deep, attributed to Collings’ 1936 visit, had been cut into the tablet area at Gua Berhala (p. 53).
- The tablets from Gua Kurong Batang were made from yellow clay identical to a deposit at the foot of the outcrop, and the red clay tablets from Gua Berhala matched the material composing much of the cave floor, supporting local manufacture (p. 55).
- Appendix III presents four tablets from the Palembang region—two flat clay discs with stamped inscriptions comparable to Gua Berhala Types 1 and 9, and two small clay stupas—suggesting the Type II tradition may extend to Sumatra (p. 59).
Conclusion
Lamb’s definitive takeaway is that the Mahayana Buddhist votive tablets of Coedes’ Type II found in Perlis were produced locally in the immediate vicinity of the two caves, not imported from India or carried by pilgrims from distant Srivijayan centres. The stylistic affinity with Pala art of Bengal indicates that the stamp designs may have originated at an Indian Buddhist pilgrimage centre such as Nalanda, but the physical manufacture of the tablets themselves was a local activity, situating Perlis within the broader Srivijayan cultural sphere associated with the Kra Isthmus region.
Context
- The study draws on collections in the National (Raffles) Museum, Singapore, and the Perak Museum, Taiping, as well as fieldwork conducted in November 1961 with financial support from the Asia Foundation.
- Historiographically, the article extends Coedes’ 1927 typological framework into Malayan territory and challenges the assumption of long-distance transmission of Type II tablets, anchoring them instead to local production within the Srivijayan world.