Precolonial Thai maps encoded cosmology and locality, not abstract territory

Evidence

One was what could be called a ‘cosmograph,’ a formal, symbolic representation of the Three Worlds of traditional Buddhist cosmology. The cosmograph was not organized horizontally, like our own maps; rather a series of supraterrestrial heavens and subterrestrial hells wedged in the visible world along a single vertical axis. It was useless for any journey save that in search of merit and salvation. … Thongchai points out that these guide-maps, always local, were never situated in a larger, stable geographic context, and that the bird’s-eye view convention of modern maps was wholly foreign to them. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 655

Categorization

• DEFINE: Contrast between symbolic cosmograph and modern scale-mapped territory — the premodern cartographic imagination the modern nation-state replaces.
• XREF: connects to: Medieval Arabic maps of Africa mixed myth with empirical knowledge; Universal maps established space as independent of any particular place — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 55; Print-capitalism and maps changed Thai political vocabulary from sacred centers to bounded territory. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on…, 658 (+2 more)

Related

• Maps can precede and shape territorial reality rather than merely reflect it. (similarity 0.88)
• Print-capitalism and maps changed Thai political vocabulary from sacred centers to bounded territory. (similarity 0.87)
• Universal maps established space as independent of any particular place (similarity 0.83)
• The secular map flattened sacred Muslim geography into profane coordinate space (similarity 0.81)
• Maps transformed village-centered sacred space into abstract conquerable space (similarity 0.79)
• Maps can construct territory rather than merely represent it (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Print-capitalism and maps changed Thai political vocabulary from sacred centers to bounded territory. #expands (0.92) — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 658
• Medieval Arabic maps of Africa mixed myth with empirical knowledge #corroborates (0.88)
• Universal maps established space as independent of any particular place #qualifies (0.85) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 55