''Palin'' ( my, ပလ္လင်; from pi, pallaṅka, or 'sofa') refers to any one of six types of

throne A throne is the seat of state of a potentate or dignitary, especially the seat occupied by a sovereign on state occasions; or the seat occupied by a pope or bishop on ceremonial occasions. "Throne" in an abstract sense can also refer to the monar ...

s recognized in traditional Burmese scholarship. The ''palin'' is an important symbol of the Burmese monarchy and features prominently in Burmese architecture and Burmese Buddhist iconography. The ''palin'' is featured on the seal of Myanmar's Ministry of Religious Affairs and Culture.

Types of ''palin''

Traditional Burmese scholarship recognizes six types of thrones, namely: # () – the

Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a śramaṇa, wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was ...

's throne # () –

Brahma Brahma ( sa, ब्रह्मा, Brahmā) is a Hindu god, referred to as "the Creator" within the Trimurti, the trinity of supreme divinity that includes Vishnu, and Shiva.Jan Gonda (1969)The Hindu Trinity Anthropos, Bd 63/64, H 1/2, pp. 21 ...

's throne # () –

nat Nat or NAT may refer to: Computing * Network address translation (NAT), in computer networking Organizations * National Actors Theatre, New York City, U.S. * National AIDS trust, a British charity * National Archives of Thailand * National As ...

's throne # () – monarch's throne # () – Buddhist monk's throne # () –

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

's throne

Usage by Burmese monarchs

In pre-colonial times, the (Burmese ''yazapalin'') seated the sovereign and his chief consort. Traditionally, Burmese palaces possessed eight types of thrones, housed in nine palace halls, leading to the Burmese adage, "eight thrones, nine palace halls" (ပလ္လင်ရှစ်ခန်း ရွှေနန်းကိုးဆောင်). Lion Throne of Myanmar

The thrones were carved of wood, specifically by hereditary palace carpenters. An auspicious time was chosen by astrologers to commence operations, and construction of these thrones was heralded by a royal ceremony to propitiate spirits. The thrones were simultaneously constructed according to a prescribed list of requirements, coated with resin, and decorated with

gold leaf Gold leaf is gold that has been hammered into thin sheets (usually around 0.1 µm thick) by goldbeating and is often used for gilding. Gold leaf is available in a wide variety of karats and shades. The most commonly used gold is 22-kara ...

and

glass mosaic In Myanmar culture, glass mosaic ( my, မှန်စီရွှေချ) is a traditional form of glasswork where pieces of glass are used to embellish decorative art, structures, and furniture. Glass mosaic is typically divided into two sub ...

. The most important throne was the "Lion Throne" (), which had a replica in the Hluttaw as well. The thrones used different prescribed motifs and designs, types of wood, and were allocated to specific halls in the royal palace. The thrones were also grouped by height, as follows: # (မဟာပလ္လင်) – # (မဇ္စျိမပလ္လင်) – # (စူဠပလ္လင်) – Below is a list of these eight types of thrones:

Usage in Buddhism

The ''palin'' is also used to seat images and statues of the Buddha, variously called ''gaw palin'' (ဂေါ့ပလ္လင်), ''phaya palin'' (ဘုရားပလ္လင်) or ''samakhan'' (စမ္မခဏ်), from the Pali term . This ''palin'' is a feature of many Buddhist household shrines in Burma.

Types of ''palin''

Usage by Burmese monarchs

Usage in Buddhism

References

See also