| Abstract: |
Based on literary, artistic and archaeological evidence. Haripunjaya came into existence during the 8th century AD. Its cultural and religious contacts with the Dvaravati Buddhist centres in the Chao Phraya Valley was well attested by the discovery of typical Dvaravati pottery vessels and the similarity of religious images recovered from the two communities. The distribution of the clay votive tablets depicting the Buddha inside the Bodh Gaya Temple and the popularity of the pyramidal shape of stupas in the Haripunjaya region indicated cultural and religious contact with the Buddhist centre at Bodh Gaya during the 11th century, directly or indirectly via Burma. During the 12th-13th centuries, the influence of Mahayana Buddhism from the northeastern part of India was quite clear, as a large number of votive tablets representing the crowned Buddhas have been reproduced by the local inhabitants.
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