This important new work, built on extensive fieldwork and archaeological surveys, reveals the Khorat Plateau as having a distinctive Buddhist culture, including new forms of art and architecture, and a characteristic aesthetic. Moreover, by combining archaeological and art historical analysis with an historical ecology approach, Murphy traces the outlines of Buddhism's spread into the region, along its major river systems. He is able to read this history into and against the Khorat landscape, attending to the emergence of monumental architecture such as stupas and Buddha images carved into the rockfaces of hills and mountainsides, and the importance on the Khorat Plateau of the use of boundary markers, or sima.

1. Khorat Plateau (Thailand) ? History. 2. Buddhism ? Thailand ? Khorat Plateau ? History. 3. Buddhist art -Thailand ? Khorat Plateau. 4. Buddhist architecture ? Thailand ? Khorat Plateau.