Burma's Lost Kingdoms: Splendours of Arakan

This is the first book to disclose the cultural history, art and architecture of the country straddling India and Southeast Asia, today a state of Burma.

ALONG THE BAY OF BENGAL, in the northwest corner of Burma lie the spendid capital cities of ancient Arakan: Dhanyawadi, Vesali, the cities of the Lemro valley and Mrauk-U (Myohaung).

Mentioned in Ptolemy's Geography in the 2nd century AD, Arakan was from earliest times a cosmopolitan state with a vigorous and complex culture. Indian Brahmins conducted the royal ceremonial, Buddhist monks spread their teaching, traders came by land and sea, and artists and architects used Indian and Southeast Asian models for inspiration.

Through Buddhism, Arakan came into contact with other remote countries, including Sri Lanka, Nepal, Tibet and China. To the east were the many early empires of Southeast Asia: Mon, Khmer, Burman and Siamese, and to the west Hindu empires were replaced by the Islamic courts of Bengal and Delhi.

This is the first comprehensive study on the history and civilization of Arakan. It serves as an excellent introduction to its hitherto almost unknown schools of sculpture and architecture.