The Funeral Pile of a Talapoin, Buddhist Monk's Cremation, Engraving, circa 1783

About this sheet

An eighteenth century copper engraving lettered "The Funeral Pile of a Talapoin", showing the cremation of a Buddhist monk. Talapoin was the word used by European travelers and missionaries of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for the Buddhist monks of Burma and Siam. The plate was published by Harrison and Co. in London in 1783; this impression carries no names or imprint.

At the center rises the funeral pile itself, a great mound of bundled straw and brushwood built up in tiers within a wooden frame and crowned by a raised platform. Ropes run down to it from tall posts on either side, and along them blazing rockets race toward the pyre trailing great plumes of fire and smoke, the means by which it was to be set alight. Around the open ground a large crowd watches, seated and standing, some raising their arms. In the foreground musicians beat drums, a robed figure holds a long staff aloft and another stands with an arm raised beside one of the posts. A raised wooden pavilion stands at the right, and palm trees and dense foliage frame the scene beneath a sky heaped with cloud.

Accounts of Burma and Siam described the cremation of senior monks as great public festivals, attended by whole towns, with music, offerings and fireworks, and with rockets fired along ropes to kindle the pyre. Such descriptions fascinated readers in Europe, and this plate gives a vivid impression of the spectacle as it was imagined in London.

The engraving is crisp and well printed on laid paper with good margins, the bright fire and smoke standing out against the darker trees and crowd. It will appeal to collectors of Southeast Asian subjects, of Buddhist history and of early European images of Asia, and it would make an unusual and striking picture for a study or library.

Condition: Good condition for its age. Light toning; a few foxing spots to the left margin and scattered fine specks elsewhere; a small nick at the right edge. Please review the images for further condition details.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.