I had intended to go to Burma and investigate the guinea pig on the Shwedagon but ended up in Laos with a rabbit mystery instead. (I've talked about the mystery of the guinea pig in Burmese art before so won't go over that again.)
Rabbit imagery seems common enough in Japanese, Chinese and South East Asian culture. I'm sure you have all heard of The Rabbit in the Moon and the Year of the Rabbit. The photo above was taken in a wat in Luang Prabang.
When we think rabbit we usually think European rabbit or American cottontail - I think this is world wide now - but these are among the least typical species. Not many rabbits live in large groups and dig warrens like the European rabbit. So far I have been unable to find examples of them being bred historically for food.
The Asian rabbit seems to be a shy rather solitary nocturnal animal and often extremely rare. Not an obvious choice for a calendar animal like the one above.
Could a commoner species closer to the European rabbit have once existed and been hunted to extinction? Was a domestic version of the European rabbit brought east as a source of fresh meat in the days of the Silk Road?
It is possible that there has been some confusion between the rabbit and the hare but these seem clearly distinguished in Chinese art.
The indonesian word for rabbit is kelinci and the Malay version arnab. The Echols and Shadlily Indonesian dictionary gives only kelinci in English to Indonesian but has arnab in Indonesian to English.) To further complicate things arnab may properly refer to the Indian or Black Naped Hare found on the sub-continent and Java. The two words have very different sounds and I will make a wild guess and say arnab sounds as if its origin lies in to west and kelinci to the north.
There are lots of side tracks and meanders and no time to explore.
One thing I am sure of is that the rabbit in the picture has a very interesting history if only one could track it down.
Do look at this article on striped rabbits of South East Asia
The only reference to rabbits in indonesian folklore that i can find is this:
Si Kelincing dengan sepasang terompah nik gasi : (cerita rakyat di Pulau Bunguran oleh BM. Syamsuddi
Balai Pustaka, 1981
The mystery of the Dong Son Drums is very well known to everyone who has read South East Asian history and it was extraordinary to be able to look at them close up. The small figures on the top of the drum above are frogs - not toads as the Wkipedia entry says. - and often there are frogs on the back of frogs. Three was the most I saw. One theory is that his is a record of rainy seasons and taken with the non-symmetric fish and bird motifs I tend to agree that the drums may have functioned as some kind of calendar. But why their popularity across such a diverse region where presumably any calendrical use relating to seasons would not work.
I am sure there are archeologists working on this puzzle, but it is still open to speculation and the drums certainly tempt you to try to 'read' them.
If you find one in a museum look closely and you will see what I mean.
Who or what does this statue in Vientienne museum represent?
Note the position of the hands, the thin lips,round eyes, narrow nose and rectangular ears.
There may well be a simple and well documented explanation somewhere but the figure intrigued me.
There is something familiar about it yet it does not seem typical Laotian or Thai. Can someone help me out?
Just a mythical beast or unknown species?
The real question is where did the artist see him?
6. How did the Mathura Buddha head come to Luang Prabang?
Unfortunately I could not take a photo, but it looked a typical piece of Mathura sculpture. Did it travel all the way to Laos a very long time ago or more recently? Was it a gift to the king or government or did it belong to the Buddhist sangha? This was one of the most exciting finds I came across.
6. Why did I see so few geckos under the street lamps of Vientienne?
I'm just throwing this one open.
7. The Puzzle of the Lao Economy.
The final question is, how can a Communist state like Laos open itself up to capitalism without spoiling the country through industrial growth, inequality of wealth, corruption and the arrival of all the ubiquitous Western brands?
I find myself coming to the conclusion that it can't.