Palin (throne)


Palin refers to one of six types of thrones recognized in traditional Burmese scholarship. The palin is a major 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:
  1. Aparājitapallaṅka - the Buddha's throne
  2. Kamalāsanapallaṅka - Brahma's throne
  3. Dibbāsanapallaṅka - nat's throne
  4. Rājapallaṅka - monarch's throne
  5. Dhammāsanapallaṅka - Buddhist monk's throne
  6. Aṭṭakaraṇapallaṅka - judge's throne

    Usage by Burmese monarchs

In pre-colonial times, the rājapallaṅka seated the sovereign and his main consort. Traditionally, Burmese palaces possessed eight types of thrones, housed in nine palace halls, leading to the Burmese adage, "eight thrones, 9 palace halls".
and Queen Supayalat on The Lion Throne at Mandalay Palace
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 and glass mosaic.
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:
  1. Mahāpallaṅka -
  2. Majjhimapallaṅka -
  3. Cuḷapallaṅka -
Below is a list of these eight types of thrones:
No.Name Name Primary MotifType of WoodLocation in Palacephoto
1Sīhāsanapallaṅkaသီဟာသနပလ္လင်Chinthe Gmelina arboreaRoyal Audience Hall;
Hluttaw
2Bhamarāsanapallaṅkaဘမယာသနပလ္လင်BumblebeeCinnamomum tamalaGlass Palace
3Padumāsanapallaṅkaပဒုမ္မာသနပလ္လင်LotusArtocarpus heterophyllusWestern Audience Hall
4Haṃsāsanapallaṅkaဟံသာသနပလ္လင်Hamsa Hopea odorataEastern Hall of Victory
5Gajāsanapallaṅkaဂဇာသနပလ္လင်ElephantMagnolia champacaByedaik
6Saṅkhāsanapallaṅkaသင်္ခါသနပလ္လင်ConchMangifera indicaRegalia Hall
7Migāsanapallaṅkaမိဂါသနပလ္လင်DeerFicus glomerataSouthern Gatehouse Hall
8Mayurāsanapallaṅkaမယုရာသနပလ္လင်PeacockButea monospermaNorthern Gatehouse Hall

Usage in Buddhism

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