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[click on the title or the small image to view the articles in full] |
A Voyage to Kanchipuram by Thomas Cole |
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| Passing through the verdant landscape of south India (in contrast to the parched countryside of the north from whence we had come), one can’t help but recall the epic tales of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, stories of chivalry and treachery, virtue and deceit, as well as enduring love and extended war. Paintings and sculpture depict some of the epic events of this history, complete with aspects of the rich landscape that could be seen from the windows of our train. |  |
Published: June 07, 2010 |
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Shamans, Ancestors and Donors: A look at tribal arts and cultures in old Asia by Christian Lequindre and Marc Petit |
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This art comes from the Himalayas, and more specifically from Nepal. Nearly a century after the Cubists and Fauvists discovered the “Negro arts” of Africa and Oceania, half a century after André Breton and Claude Lévi-Strauss exhumed Amerindian and Inuit arts from the storerooms of ethnological history museums, a handful of adventurers, travelers, artists, collectors, and dealers, joined by a few ethnologists, have now unearthed the existence of a new, still largely unexplored continent. |
Published: June 07, 2010 |
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Mysterious Pavilion 2, The wonder continues by Raja Deekshithar |
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| In my previous article “Mysterious Pavilion: Document in stone of astronomical events” I reported on my accidental discovery of a pavilion near Mahabalipuram where unusual reliefs on the ceiling expressed astronomical events through unusual symbolism. At that time these reliefs and their astronomical and (art) historical implications seemed to be like the pavilion itself: isolated, away from any relevant link or context in the landscape. A one-off, unique. Amazingly interesting and mysterious. Maybe even impossible to interpret beyond speculation. |  |
Published: May 20, 2010 |
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The Miniature Paintings of Mongolian Buddhism by Stevan Davies |
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In Mongolia burhani zurags were used by both Mongolian laity and Mongolian monks for devotional purposes and to attract the favorable attention of the deity represented in the painting either to bring benefits or to protect from inimical force. Mongolian miniatures have no standardization in size whatsoever except (by definition) to be small. They are painted on cloth usually and paper occasionally but they are not made of stiff cardboard material and the cloth they are painted on may or may not be sized. |
Published: April 08, 2010 |
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Tracing the History of a Mughal Album Page in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art by Laura E. Parodi, Jennifer H. Porter, Frank D. Preusser, Yosi Pozeilov |
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| This article presents recent research on a Mughal album page whose image panel bears a date corresponding to 1591 CE. On the basis of the suggestion that certain areas of the recto page may have been repainted, a technical examination focusing on the image panel was carried out. A complex sequence of successive interventions has been documented whose dates span a minimum of seventy years, from the mid-16th to the early 17th centuries. |  |
Published: March 08, 2010 |
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Mysterious Pavilion: Document in stone of astronomical events by Raja Deekshithar |
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Mamallapuram is a repository of architecture and sculpture created by the Pallava dynasty. Little is known about the Pallava emperors who built it, why they built it and why it was built here. A little away from this busy tourist spot, across a bridge on the other side of s little back-water water, stands an unremarkable pavilion. It looks insignificant and isolated by the side of the road. But the unexpected and unknown treasure it contains is in its own way as mysterious, as significant, and as valuable as the World Heritage Site of Mamallapuram. |
Published: February 01, 2010 |
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Seeing, Rather Than Looking At, Nepalese Art: The Figural Struts by Mary Shepherd Slusser |
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| Not far from the royal square of the old city of Patan in Nepal is an active Buddhist institution, a monastery in name but one that no longer houses celibate monks. Among several popular names, the most favored is Uku, to which Nepalese append bāhāḥ or bāhāl (from vihāra, Sanskrit for monastery). Ukubāhāḥ is one of the few essentially physically complete and active monasteries among more than 150 that once crowded the small city. |  |
Published: December 18, 2009 |
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Indra’s Ratha in Melakkadambur, a Chola Masterpiece by Raja Deekshithar |
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It is one of the least known treasures of South Indian art. Hidden in the isolated village of Melakkadambur, the Amritagateshvara temple is unique for its sculpture, its architecture and its astronomical significance. The shrine has been constructed as a ratha or chariot. |
Published: September 22, 2009 |
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Sphinxes in Indian Art and Tradition by Raja Deekshithar |
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| A pair of purushamrigas (sphinxes) guard the entrance of the Shri Shiva Nataraja temple in Chidambaram, India. With lion bodies, full flowing and curling mane surrounding their human faces, looking out at the worshippers with a Mona-Lisa-like smile, they accurately correspond to the sphinx so well known from the mythology and art of other parts of the ancient world. |  |
Published: July 31, 2009 |
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Ayesha Durrani: The girl next door by Swapna Vora |
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Ayesha's mannequins represent creatures without personality, uneasy, bound with pale pink ropes, with the fragrance of roses and the memory of dead flowers. She spins tales of female subjugation: cruel and wasteful. Faceless mannequins are a reminder, a bundle, of others' hopes and desires. Dark beauties stand in unreal surroundings like halos, bouquets of stylized roses and in golden bondage. |
Published: July 15, 2009 |
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The Silver Jug of the Lhasa Jokhang: a Reply by Ulrich von Schroeder & Joachim G. Karsten |
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| In 2003 Amy Heller published an article, where she attributes the famous silver jug with an animal head in custody of the Lhasa Jokhang indisputably to Tibetan craftsmen. She refutes categorically the possibility that Sogdian craftsmen from western Central Asia could have created this masterpiece. |  |
Published: July 13, 2009 |
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NAGESHVARA NATARAJA; 885 by Raja Deekshithar |
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Nataraja is called “one of the most popular forms of the god Shiva” by the great scholar of South Indian art and architecture, Dr. Douglas Barrett. Following his and other scholars’ work, many authors support the idea that the Dancing Shiva as Nataraja was a tenth century innovation by Chola artists and architects. |
Published: July 06, 2009 |
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THE LUNGTA COLLABORATIVE: The Living Blessings of Lo by Maureen Drdak |
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| LUNGTA - The Windhorse, is a collaboration of art, music, and dance, premiered to standing room only at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia on March 6th, 2009. The impetus for the collaborative and the imagery for its visual component-the LUNGTA Triptych - springs forth form from that sublime altar of the earth that is the Himalaya—the Abode of the Gods, and from an artistic response to the global impact of accelerating change on its remarkable cultures. |  |
Published: June 03, 2009 |
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The Repoussé Images from Pharping by Kamal P. Malla |
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This paper attempts to analyze a group of sacred images and objects as the images specifically made for festivities/Skt.utsavamūrtis of the Navadurgās made of gilt copper repoussé. It is focused on the social and cultural functions of these images, and as a historical context, a dated copperplate, too is discussed. |
Published: May 19, 2009 |
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The Creatures of the Rain Rivers, Cloud Lakes: Newars Saw Them, So Did Ancient India by Gautama V. Vajracharya |
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| The magnificent works of the Newar artists and architects of the Kathmandu valley include not only paintings, sculptures, residential houses, public building and royal palaces but also water fountains comfortably positioned in public places near the residential area or inside the palaces. This article approaches presents a novel study on the artistic significance of the water fountains and the meaning of the various creatures sumptuously carved on the spouts. |  |
Published: January 07, 2009 |
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Reflections on Amy Heller’s Early Himalayan Art by Melissa Kerin, Ph.D. |
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A review article: With upwards of 60 exhibitions and collections catalogues on Himalayan art published internationally since 1970, this genre has proven to be the most prevalent and well supported venue for addressing Himalayan material culture. Dr. Amy Heller’s handsomely produced 175-page catalogue, Early Himalayan Art, while not an example of the massive, multi-authored undertaking of late, is indeed a volume of great significance. |
| Published: December 29, 2008 |
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| A Painted Book Cover from Ancient Kashmir by Pratapaditya Pal |
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| The history of architecture and sculpture from Kashmir’s pre-Islamic past (1st c. BCE – 1300 CE) is well-apprised but nothing is known about painting. No example of pictorial art has yet come to light in the Valley of Kashmir. The purpose of this article is to discuss a painted panel in wood that was introduced in the recent exhibition of the arts of Kashmir. This painted panel is the only known object of its type that can be clearly traced to Kashmir itself and the artists there. |  |
| Published: December 22, 2008 |
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A four-fold Vairocana in the Rinchen Zangpo tradition at Halji in Nepal by Mimi Church and Mariette Wiebenga |
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Halji is a village of some 85 households in the Limi valley of northwestern Nepal. It lies directly south of Mount Kailash and Lake Manasarovar, separated from them by the Gurla Mandata massif. The village lies between steep rocky mountainsides and small terraced fields that descend to the river. The southeastern entrance to the village suggests the village’s importance as a religious center, with walls and cairns of inscribed stones between two stupas that each arch over the trail. |
| Published: October 21, 2008 |
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| The Future of Nepal’s “Living” Goddess: Is Her Death Necessary? by Deepak Shimkhada |
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| Many sensational articles have recently appeared in the Western media, some with titles such as “Kumari in Peril,” “Kumari Sacked from Her Throne,” “Nepal’s Living Goddess Retires,” and “Nepal’s Living Goddess May Die Soon.” The last title may prove to be prophetic because Kumari, as a tradition, is about to become extinct, if elements of Nepal’s new government and some Western human rights groups have their way. |  |
| Published: September 10, 2008 |
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Chinese Thumb Rings: From Battlefield to Jewelry Box by Eric J. Hoffman |
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It is not often that an implement of warfare evolves into an item of jewelry. But that is precisely what happened with Chinese archer’s rings. From ancient times, archery in Asia was well developed for warfare, hunting, and sport. Archery implements have been unearthed in Chinese tombs going back at least 4000 years. A number of technological developments contributed to the success of archery in north-eastern China. Among these was the use of archer’s rings, called she in ancient China (modern term banzhi). |
| Published: September 01, 2008 |
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| The Tibet Artisan Initiative and the Dropenling Handicraft Development Center by Claire Burkert and Tony Gleason |
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| In the heart of the old Tibetan quarter in Lhasa, just a ten minute walk from the Jokhang temple, is the Dropenling Handicraft Center. Because it sells crafts made only by Tibetans, Dropenling has been popular with tourists who want to purchase authentic Tibetan crafts. In 2007, Dropenling became a self-sustaining business whose profits are re-invested into further support of the Tibetan artisan community. |  |
| Published: August 01, 2008 |
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| Mughal Jades - A Technical and Sculptural Perspective by Stephen Markel |
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As the French physician François Bernier observed in a letter written in 1665 while traveling in Kashmir with the court entourage of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, jade was highly valued by the Mughal emperors. Mughal jade working presumably began under the Mughal emperor Akbar, but did not achieve its full efflorescence as an art-form until the reigns of the two great aesthetes of the dynasty, the emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan. |
| Published: July 14, 2008 |
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| TIBET – Monasteries Open Their Treasure Rooms by Michael Henss |
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| A detailed review of a landmark exhibition of the art of Tibet: "monasteries and other institutions like the Potala and the Norbulingka palaces in Lhasa have opened their doors – in many cases for the first time – and sent their treasures abroad, together with cultural relics now preserved in the Tibet Museum at Lhasa...". |  |
| Published: December 25, 2007 |
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| Old Chinese Jades: Real or Fake? by Eric J. Hoffman |
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No material is more closely associated with China than jade, a stone the Chinese have used and revered for over 7000 years. But whenever growing numbers of collectors are chasing a fixed number of archaic and antique items, a profusion of copies, reproductions, and fakes arises to meet the demand. This article provides some hints on how to avoid being taken in when collecting Chinese jades. The focus is on older Chinese jades, which are typically carved from nephrite jade. |
| Published: December 10, 2007 |
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| A Rarity in Chinese Contemporary Art by William Hanbury-Tenison |
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| Rarely, if ever, does the auction market afford a comprehensive snapshot of another time and another place. Yet, on the 20th September 2007 at 2pm, Sotheby’s New York will be offering 12 paintings from the 1980s in China at the auction Contemporary Art Asia. |  |
| Published: September 10, 2007 |
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| Snowlions Dancing on Clouds by Thomas L. Guta |
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Finding
the core of weaving in Tibet is like unravelling a tangled skein. Loosening
and loosening the loops and catches; getting down to the very heart
of the knot, its nub, and seeing it to be but a single strand. The realization
dawns that nothing was ever there. This is the empty ground, the field
of the rug upon which fertile imaginations played. |
| Published: August 21, 2007 |
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| Snake earrings of India by Waltraud Ganguly |
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| Traditional earrings in the villages and tribal areas of India are manifestations of symbolism, religious meaning and social significance. A woman wears a particular type of earring as a sign of identity, of membership in the defined social group into which she was born. Wearing the specific earrings of her community, she continues the tradition of her ancestors. |
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| Published: July 20, 2007 |
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| Organic Avatar: Teapot and Drinking Vessel Design Approach Nature from the East and West by Julie Rauer |
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Nature abounds in Yixing teapots, collaborative late Ming and Qing dynasty masterworks of artist-scholars, potters, calligraphers, poets, painters, and seal engravers. Quintessential literati object of the East, the Yixing teapot is one of dual refinement—as much intellectual vessel as pragmatic artwork—addressing the architecture and forms of the natural world on both intensely cerebral and purely aesthetic levels. |
| Published: May 14, 2007 |
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| Auspicious Carpets: A Tibetan View of Aesthetics by Ted Worcester |
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| This seminal article on Tibetan carpets by Ted Worcester article first appeared in The Nepalese-Tibetan Carpet, edited by John Frederick, a special issue for the carpet trade published by Nepal Traveller, January 1993; one of a series of issues on Himalayan carpets. Asianart.com will be publishing further articles from this now rare series. |  |
| Published: May 11, 2007 |
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| A
Visit to the Artistic treasures of Maiji Mountain caves
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Maijishan, a Chinese word which literally means wheat stack mountain, is the name of a 142 meter high hill located in the Xiaolongshan forest 45 kilometers southeast to the Tianshui city of the Gansu Province in China. Its location is also significant since it lies just a few miles south of the Silk Road. Its topography and location attracted Buddhist monks, artisans and artists who dug out the caves, meditated, sculpted and painted over a period of many centuries. Consequently it was gouged with grottoes and adorned with sculptures and murals from different historical periods. |
| Published: April 17, 2007 |
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| Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Manuscript from the Yarlung Museum |
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| This manuscript was previously in Keru Lhakhang monastery, Yarlung valley. It is written in ink on palm-leaves and consisting of 139 leaves it has seven lines per page divided into three sections divided by decorative bands of color. A colophon on folio 139v mentions the donor and king Sūrapāla. The manuscript was written in his second year of reign, in the late 11th c. |  |
| Published: December 27, 2006 |
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| Hidden Meanings: Symbolism in Chinese Art by Gary Gach |
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Scholar-curator Terese Tse Bartholomew’s work is known to many. Hidden Meanings is an exhibition which opened at the Asian Art Museum October 7, 2006 and runs through December 31, 2006, accompanied by an over-sized, indispensable book. First conceived with her thesis at UCLA, it's the fruit of nearly 40 years' labor, and the results are essential, exquisite, and utterly charming. |
| Published: November 29, 2006 |
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| Oriental Sacred Art and the Art of Collecting in the West by Ana Pániker |
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| There are many kinds of collectors and many reasons that induce people to collect objects: the compulsion to accumulate things, ostentation, emulation, the irrational fascination for a specific kind of object, the pleasure of owning and contemplating, and, lastly, the interest in collecting and classifying objects to obtain an explanation of the culture they represent. Or perhaps, to a greater or lesser degree, all collectors have a measure of all these characteristics at the same time. |
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| Published: November 14, 2006 |
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| The Last Feast of Lady Dai by Julie Rauer |
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Remains of Lady Dai’s last feast—provisions to span the ages—still linger in her sublime lacquerware, vestiges of beverages and comestibles lurking amongst some of the sixteen distinctive types of lacquer objects discovered. Testament to the legacy of longevity, the corpse of Lady Dai at once reveals a luxurious existence of sedentary pleasures, exceedingly rich diet, and rampant lifestyle intemperance—mitigated by the remarkable effectiveness of Chinese medical ideas, calculations, techniques, and practices. |
| Published: November 02, 2006 |
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| Tracing the Reception and Adaptation of Foreign esthetic elements in Tibetan sculpture by Amy Heller |
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| Criss-crossed by trade routes since time immemorial, the earliest historic records of Tibet in the 7th century describe a flourishing kingdom actively engaged in political and matrimonial alliances with rival tribes and foreign powers. To appreciate how the Tibetans developed their distinctive fusion and adaptation of foreign styles and techniques, this article examines the multiple influences inspired by the arts of Central Asia and China, as well as of India and the Kashmiri and Nepalese schools. |
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| Published: September 20, 2006 |
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| Klee's Mandalas by Julie Rauer |
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Klee’s mandalas, both his kaleidoscopic middle eastern cities of iconic character and timeless historical presence in the psyche of mortal thinkers and builders, and his graphically arresting portraits of interior landscapes made manifest, curl through the waking and dreaming minds of those who see rather than simply observe, uncoiling with the sinuous architectural grace of the human body and the eternal philosophical searching of the human mind. |
| Published: June 27, 2006 |
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| West meets East: Making a Murti in Kathmandu by Karla Refojo |
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| For the last five years, Karla Refojo has been working in the Kathmandu Valley with Newar bronze casters to create a larger than life-sized murti, or sacred statue. This article is a brief account of her experiences and the incredible and challenging process by which a statue was created and a sculptor was transformed. |
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| Published: May 12, 2006 |
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| Stripes and Patterns: The Significance of Locality and Social Relationship in Textile Designs in Eastern Indonesia by Krista Knirck-Bumke |
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Textiles are a sign of belonging to a certain locality and/or ethnic group of people. In a more specific way, the social relationships are expressed in the layouts and patterns that these textiles expose. Textiles are a means to bind the traditional groups of kin visibly together and underline the existing social ranks. |
| Published: April 17, 2006 |
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| The Lhasa gtsug lag khang: Observations on the Ancient wood Carvings by Amy Heller |
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| In the ninth century inscriptions on the Karchung rdo ring, the foundation of the Lhasa gtsug lag khang, the most revered Lhasa temple, is attributed to the reign of Srong btsan sgam po. The Tibetans had encountered the marvels of Buddhist art as an indirect result of their military expansion towards the Himalaya as well as to the Silk Routes and China. |
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| Published: April 07, 2006 |
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| The Lhasa gTsug lag khang ("Jokhang"): Further Observations on the Ancient Wood Carvings by Mary Shepherd Slusser |
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The role of Newar carpenters from the Nepal Valley in decorating the interior of the gTsug lag khang, Lhasa’s revered Jokhang, has been long recognized. Traditionally, the Nepali carvings are dated about the middle of the seventh century, and in them they expressed the unmistakable aesthetics that characterized their homeland, politically the domain of the Licchavi dynasty. |
| Published: February 07, 2006 |
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| Fathomless Skin by Julie Rauer |
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| One of the more resonant echoes of the human imperative to venerate nature by virtue of mimicry has been virtually overlooked thus far. Chinese lacquer, particularly the inlaid and carved polychrome Yuan and Ming dynasty masterpieces, evolved in both materials and technique to embody the strongly analogous structure and singular, intrinsic properties of arthropod physiology. |
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| Published: January 13, 2006 |
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| Untitled Identities: Contemporary Art in Lhasa, Tibet by Kabir M. Heimsath |
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Contemporary art in Tibet has to do with a much wider field than thangka painting and it should be considered independently of that specific tradition. There is an overt effort on the part of artists in Lhasa to break down the norms and expectations both of the western art world as well as the western Tibetophile world that ignores their paintings. |
| Published: December 16, 2005 |
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| A note on a disputed Khmer sculpture of three figures from the Bàkoṅ known as the Lord Umāgaṅgāpatīśvara: by Annette L. Heitmann |
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| At the time of its apogee (ca. 9.-13. c.) ancient Khmer culture created sculptures at a temple complex known as the Bàkoṅ, about 15 km SE. from present-day Siem Rǎp, Cambodia, that proved to be influential markers for a tradition culminating in the accomplishments of Aṅkor Vat. Time’s grains of sand have worn away some of its former beauty. But the enduring solid material of the temple has preserved the monument with its inscriptions so well that its original set up and purpose are now, after efforts of restoration, evident upon sight. |
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| Published: November 21, 2005 |
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| Conservation and Digitisation of Rolled Palm Leaf Manuscripts in Nepal by Naoko Takagi, Yoriko Chudo, Reiko Maeda (Members of Paper Conservators Asia Unlimited) |
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During the summer of 2005, the conservation and digitisation of 400 rolled palm leaf manuscripts with clay seals housed at the Asa Archives in Kathmandu was carried out over a period of 6 weeks. The Asa Archives is a public library in Kathmandu, Nepal named after the late Mr Asha Man Singha Kansakar, father of the late Mr. Prem Bahadur Kansakar (1917-1991), a prominent activist, social worker, educationist and Newar writer who had founded several social, cultural, literary and educational institutions. |
| Published: November 14, 2005 |
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| Through the Jalis: Europe's Nineteenth Century Romance with Orientalism by Julie Rauer |
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| Danger, romance, violence, eroticism, mystery, nobility, languor, and exoticism delineated the Eastern silhouette in 19th century Western eyes, launching an abiding fascination with the Orient that infused staid European air with sandalwood, frankincense, and myrrh. The handsome chambers of the Dahesh Museum of Art in New York City have been host to three Orientalist exhibitions most recently A Distant Muse since the museum’s founding in 1995. |
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| Published: October 28, 2005 |
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| CT Scans in Art Work Appraisal by Dr Marc Ghysels |
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Just as the technique of computed tomography imaging revolutionized the practice of medical diagnosis in its time, contemporary use of CT scanners in the art world could ultimately change the way some works are appraised. The quality and reliability of the images produced by a CT scanner literally "undress" the art work and reveal its internal structure. (also in French) |
| Published: October 25, 2005 |
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| The Metal Sculpture of the Khasa Mallas by Ian Alsop |
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| The Khasa Mallas must be counted among the least known and the most fascinating of all the Himalayan ruling families. In their heyday from the 12th to the mid 14th century they ruled a sizeable kingdom made up of large portions of West Nepal and West Tibet. They were patrons of the arts, and they oversaw and encouraged a bronze casting tradition that produced metal sculptures of great beauty. |
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| Published: August 26, 2005 |
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| Steaming Down the Mekong by Mary S. Slusser |
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A dour, broken country of "dark impoverishment" now so it is described and of speedboats that rocket down the Mekong "like demented drag-car racers," it would be a world apart from tranquil Mekong travel and the beguiling land that was Laos fifty years ago. That another generation might share those bygone days seemed reason to revive this paper... |
| Published: February 14, 2005 |
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| Soma, Offertory and Elixir by François Pannier |
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| This Tibetan offertory cover is a rare and exceptional object which has until now only been described briefly. It is a head, skinned rather than stripped of flesh, in gilt iron with traces of colour - red for the mouth and blue for the hair; it is 36 cm in height, 19 cm in diameter at the ears and 16 cm at the base. Using the information obtained in Giuseppe Tucci's research, we will try to support the hypothesis of the object's function in rituals, and this will lead us to India, Gandhara and Tibet. (also in French) |
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| Published: December 30, 2004 |
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| Elements of Newar Buddhist Art: Circle of Bliss by Gautama V. Vajracharya |
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This article is a critical study of the Nepalese art and iconography discussed in the Circle of Bliss, Buddhist Meditational Art, an exhibition catalogue, by John Huntington and Dina Bangdel with the contribution of graduate students of Ohio State University, Columbus and some other scholars. The materials are collected and presented in the catalogue and other related works with a great effort to surpass previous scholars in excellence and achievement. This endeavor deserves admiration. |
| Published: December 22, 2004 |
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| Victorious Durga by Krista Knirck-Bumke |
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| The Museum Nasional has 32 Durga sculptures on display. They originate from various areas in Java dating from the 7th to the 15 th century, the Hindu-Buddhist period in the history of the Indonesian archipelago. The figures broadly come from three different areas of Java: West Java, Central Java and East Java. |
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| Published: June 03, 2004 |
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Contemporary Japanese Ceramics by James Singer |
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The ceramic tradition in Japan is the most ancient on earth, yet one that has found vital forms of expression in the modern world. Some contemporary Japanese ceramics reflect centuries old traditions while others incorporate elements from an increasingly international arena. Many do both simultaneously. The ceramics presented in this exhibition include work by a number of contemporary artists and illustrate, in a necessarily subjective fashion, their creativity, technical virtuosity and diversity. |
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Published: May 03, 2004 |
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Metal and Stone Vestiges by John Vincent Bellezza |
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| This article focuses on two of the most important artistic media in ancient Tibet: rock art and small metal objects. We will examine petroglyphs (carvings on rock surfaces), pictographs (rock paintings) and copper alloy artifacts known as thokchas, which range in age from deep in the pre-Buddhist period to the first five centuries of Tibetan Buddhism. |
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Published: April 29, 2004 |
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Exaggerated Enmity in Early Modern Indonesian Painting by Adrienne Fast |
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On October 23, 1938, a group of young Indonesian artists met in an elementary school classroom in Jakarta for the inaugural meeting of Persagi, the first platform for the organisation of Indonesian artists. Persagi members wrote art critiques and reviews, held classes and discussion groups, and organised exhibitions until 1942, when the group was forcibly disbanded. Yet many of the artists associated with Persagi then went on to help found other artists' groups and to teach members of the next generation of Indonesian artists. |
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Published: February 23, 2004 |
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Tantric Hinduism in Khmer Culture by Emma C. Bunker |
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| Tantric Hinduism already had a significant presence in India by the middle of the first millennium CE, when scriptural texts (tantras) began to be compiled. “Tantras (texts) clearly state that scripture is the necessary complement to the oral teachings one receives from the mouth of one’s guru.” Much of this literature contains descriptions of deities in the form of precepts for meditation and complex mythologies that served as verbal models for artists. |
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Published: November 18, 2003 |
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Ivory Carving in Thailand by Daniel Stiles, Ph.D |
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Very little is known about the history and artistic aspects of ivory sculpture in Thailand. No art book has ever been devoted to it. This contribution aims to present an introduction to ivory carving in Thailand based on two months of research in Bangkok and central Thailand in early 2003 supported by the National Geographic Society. |
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Published: August 14, 2003 |
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Thangka Restoration and Conservation by Marion Boyer & Jean Michel Terrier |
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| One of the defining technical characteristics of a thangka, its most distinctive feature, is that it is painted on both sides. Thangkas are painted on a canvas support prepared and coated on both sides. Thangkas are rolled, as Chinese and Japanese works often are. The back of a thangka is as carefully prepared as the front, so that consecrated formulas, mantras, and other religious or historical writings can be inscribed on it. |
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Published: June 19, 2003 |
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Conservation Notes on Some Nepalese Paintings by Mary Shepherd Slusser |
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Five of the paintings presented here are now, or will be, in the collection of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia. All have undergone conservation, for the most part minimal but occasionally quite extensive. This report, including pre-restoration photo documentation, is therefore prepared as an aid to scholars and conservators who may be concerned with them. In case of doubt it clearly establishes what is original and what is not. |
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Published: May 19, 2003 |
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Correlating Paintings of Indian Decorative Objects by Stephen Markel |
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| Scholars of South Asian sculpture are well aware of the complications involved in attempting to correlate various iconographic textual descriptions with surviving images. Due to the wide range of regional, temporal, sectarian, and artistic variations, it is often unusual to find a close one-to-one match in terms of form and attributes. The situation in correlating decorative objects represented in Mughal and Rajput paintings with extant examples is, unfortunately, much the same as the text-versus-image dilemma. |
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Published: February 24, 2003 |
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Wood and Transience by Vinayak Bharne & Iku Shimomura |
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In Japan the notion of Setsuna, meaning transience imparted to wood the same materiality of life and death as at the heart of human consciousness. It embodied an architecture of ephemerality, every building type be it a house, shrine, temple or castle using wood as its building material to bear the unpredictability of Japan's typhoons and earthquakes. This philosophical and pragmatic resultant evolved a distinctly Japanese culture of wood - that through renewal and rebuilding ritualized the transience of timber as its greatest celebration. |
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Published: February 06, 2003 |
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Ivory Carving in Myanmar by Daniel Stiles |
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| Very little is known about the history, technical aspects and artistic features of ivory sculpture in Myanmar (Burma). Kunz devotes one paragraph and St. Aubyn does not even mention Myanmar in their seminal reviews of ivory art around the world. This paper aims to help fill this gap in our knowledge of Southeast Asian art by presenting the results of six weeks of research in 2002 with ivory carvers in Mandalay, Myanmar, sponsored by the National Geographic Society. |
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Published: November 19, 2002 |
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The Silver Jug of the Lhasa Jokhang By Amy Heller |
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At present, a silver jug stands in a wooden frame in one of the chapels of the Lhasa Jokhang, traditionally regarded as the oldest temple in Tibet. The people represented on the jug reflect Tibetan familiarity with their neighbors’ appearance and customs. The Tibetans believe this jug to be associated with Songtsen gampo, the first historic ruler of Tibet. |
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Published: July 18, 2002 |
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Darkness and Light By Goetz Hagmuller |
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| In Asia, light and darkness seem to be much closer together than in our minds. As two sides of the same coin they belong to each other. What our occidental intellect divides into particles, opposites, contrasts, and cause and effect, in the holistic world view of the Orient appears as a whole, a totality with no distinct borders, both this and the other, yin and yang, darkness and light. |
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Published: March 29, 2002 |
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Vanishing Dances of Ladakh By Joseph Houseal |
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Today, there remain only three monasteries of the Drikung Vajra order performing intact the great ceremonies of dance. Other orders perform similar dance festivals, but the caliber of dancing varies due to many factors. Among these others, Hemis monastery has led the way in turning the sacred dances into a regional Gilbert and Sullivan entertainment for tourists. |
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Published: February 14, 2002 |
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A Kushan-period Sculpture from the reign of Jaya Varma, A.D. 185: by Kashinath Tamot and Ian Alsop |
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| In April 1992 workers digging a trench for the foundation of a house in Ma-liga-on stumbled across the most important art historical discovery in the Kathmandu Valley for many years. Lying face-down at a level of about three feet they found a life size (171 x 49 cm) standing male figure carved in pale sandstone. |
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Published: July 10, 1996, Updated December 25, 2001 |
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The "Art" of Conservation By Erich Theophile |
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Coming out of the closet about subjectivity and contradictions in an architect's conservation practice: This article grows out of Erich Theophile's introduction to building conservation in 1988 while assisting architect Götz Hagmaller in the restoration of an 18th century palace to house the Patan Museum, Nepal. |
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Published: October 4, 2001 |
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Tashi Kabum: A Cave Temple associated with Luri Gompa in Upper Mustang, Nepal By Gary McCue |
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| Mary Slusser, in an article on this same cave temple, wrote in 1999 that other scholars "had sought (this temple) in vain following an American trekking guide's signal sometime after 1992, the year Mustang was opened to foreigners.” (Slusser and Bishop, 1999, p. 20) Gary McCue was that guide, and this is his account of the cave temple. |
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Published: June 18, 2001 |
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Pata-Chitras of Orissa: An Illustration of Some Common Themes By Bernard Cesarone |
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The state of Orissa in northeast India has a long tradition in various arts, including dance, architecture, and painting. Among the painting traditions, the devotional art of the pata-chitras, or paintings on cloth, is a folk or popular style that centers around the worship of the god Jagannath (or Jagannatha) but that depicts many other religious themes as well, using the strong line and brilliant color that are typical of Orissan folk painting. |
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Published: May. 16, 2001 |
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Kuber Singh Shakya: A Master Craftsman of Nepal By Mary Shepherd Slusser and James A. Giambrone |
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| The metallurgical arts of ancient Nepal have long been famous and their antiquity well established. Moreover, despite the well-entrenched opinion that "no living art supports [Nepal's rites and festivals] any longer," the metallurgical arts at least, yet thrive in the creation of quality sacred art that can hold its own with the best of the past. |
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Published: April 19, 2001 |
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Demons & Deities: Masks of the Himalayas By Thomas Murray |
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The powerful imagery of the Himalayan mask tradition is drawn from the diverse traditions of shamanism, village myths and the classical traditions of Buddhism and Hinduism. In this essay the author probes the 'greater context' of Himalayan masks, finding in them stylistic and thematic affinities with cultures as widespread as those of Eurasia and the Americas, and covering a period extending from the upper Paleolithic era to the present. |
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Published: Jan. 16, 2001 |
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The Lukhang: a hidden temple in Tibet By Ian A. Baker |
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| The wall inscriptions that accompany many of the specific images are drawn from a 15th century work entitled Kunsang Gongdu, The Realization of Vast Beneficence, a compendium of Dzogchen teachings revealed by the Terton, or "treasure revealer", Pema Lingpa. The Lukhang murals illustrate key episodes in the life of this great master, a direct ancestor of the Sixth Dalai Lama who is credited with the Lukhang's original design at the turn of the 17th century. |
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Published: Jan. 04, 2001 |
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Images of Lost Civilization: The Ancient Rock Art of Upper Tibet By John Vincent Bellezza |
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A rock art tradition found on the highest parts of the Tibetan plateau chronicles at least 3000 years of a fascinating but little known civilization. These images in stone are one of our clearest windows into the nature of early civilization in Tibet and they are invaluable to our understanding of the pre-Buddhist economy, environment and religion. They provide us with graphic evidence of early Tibet for they were wrought by the very hand of her inhabitants. |
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Published: Nov. 22, 2000 |
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Whiff of Luxury: By Norman A. Rubin |
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| The Mary and George Bloch Chinese snuff bottle collection is a unique assemblage that combines the expression of artistic craftsmanship with creative Chinese ingenuity. Mary and George Bloch have accomplished a collector's dream. They have, within the relatively short period of fifteen years, assembled an extensive and valuable collection of one of the finest crafts of Chinese artisans. |
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Published: Nov. 17, 2000 |
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The Synthesis of European and Mughal Art in the Emperor Akbar’s Khamsa of Nizami: By Gregory Minissale |
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The purpose of this article is to examine the adoption of the European techniques of sfumato, modeling and stereoscopic perspective in the Khamsa illustrations and then to trace the European sources for the motifs of some the key miniatures. In this regard, it is necessary also to look at the use of motifs taken from European maps for Mughal background landscapes, which is a subject that has not been dealt with in Mughal art history. |
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Published: Oct. 13, 2000 |
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Trance-Dancers of the Goddess Durga: Hamid Sardar |
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| Ancient Nepali chronicles agree that "no dramatic performance equals that of the Harasiddhi priests." The manifestations of the Mother Goddess and her retinue of deities possess the dancers, intoxicated on sacrificial blood and alcohol. A hypnotic musical score, punctuated by symbolic gestures accompanies the spectacle whose secret meanings remain closed to the non-initiate |
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Published: Aug. 17, 2000 |
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Phagpa Lokes'vara of the Potala: Ian Alsop |
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Who is Phagpa Lokes'vara? How old is his image and where was it made? For the answer to the first question we must turn to Tibetan religious history; for answers to the other two, we must attempt a stylistic analysis without, alas, a direct view of the figure itself, working only with the shadows left by countless pious copyists.... (originally published in Orientations, April 1990) |
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Published: Dec. 14, 1999 Last Updated: August 4, 2000 |
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Ghosts, Demons and Spirits in Japanese Lore: Norman A. Rubin |
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| Belief in ghosts, demons and spirits has been deep-rooted in Japanese folklore throughout history. It is entwined with mythology and superstition derived from Japanese Shinto, as well as Buddhism and Taoism brought to Japan from China and India. Stories and legends, combined with mythology, have been collected over the years by various cultures of the world, both past and present. Folklore has evolved in order to explain or rationalize various natural events. |
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Published: June 26, 2000 |
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Wangden Meditation Weaving: Rupert Smith |
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Wangden was once famous throughout Tibet for its unique style of carpet weaving, practiced nowhere else in Tibet, and in great demand by monasteries from Lhasa to Amdo to Ladakh. Wangden carpets were used as meditation mats by the Fifth Dalai Lama, and every year a new set of Wangden runners was woven for use by monks participating in the Great Monlam Prayer Festival in Lhasa, the first and largest religious gathering of the Tibetan Buddhist year. |
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Published: March 31, 2000 |
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Conservation of a 5th century Buddhist Manuscript: Susan Sayre Batton |
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| In the fall of 1998, a professional numismatist, with a specialty in Classical antiquity, brought an early manuscript to my studio for consultation. The elongated leaves were brittle, compressed together, water damaged, and folded into a tight “S” curve, like a wad of dollar bills after the wash cycle. This manuscript was found in the Bhamiyan cave region in modern Afghanistan, purportedly from the 5th century, on birch bark, and written in the Kharoshti script. |
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Published: Feb. 21, 2000 |
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The History of an Indian Musical Instrument Maker: Steven Landsberg |
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The shop of Kanailal and Brother was located in a cultural oasis, known as the Barabazar area of Calcutta. Both the renowned poet-philosopher Rabindranath Tagore and the maharaja Sourendra Mohan Tagore, a great patron of the arts, lived in the same area. Many musicians, poets, and writers inhabited this cultural belt of early twentieth century Calcutta and gave it the aesthetic color and feeling that is to this day an inspiration for many of Bengal's contemporary artists. |
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Published: Feb. 4, 2000 |
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A New Ceiling for the Roof of the World: Broughton Coburn |
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| The Thubchen Gompa, dedicated to Sakyamuni, Buddha of The Present, is located within the walled city of Lo Manthang, the capital of the formerly forbidden Kingdom of Mustang, a cultural relic of Tibet near the Nepal-Tibet border. The American Himlayan Foundation has embarked on an ambitious project to conserve and restore this ancient building and the precious paintings found within it. |
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Published: Jan. 20, 2000 |
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Changthang Circuit Expedition 1999: By John Vincent Bellezza |
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While Tibet is synonymous with Buddhist learning and culture, its civilisation extends much further back into antiquity than the Buddhist period. My findings demonstrate that Tibet supported a sophisticated culture long before the dawn of the Buddhist era in the 7th century. This earlier civilisation is closely connected with the Bon religion, an indigenous belief system which seems to have been enriched by various traditions coming from adjoining countries. |
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Published: Dec. 9, 1999 |
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The Giant Thangkas of Tsurphu Monastery: by Terris Temple and Leslie Nguyen |
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| Each great monastery in Tibet once possessed giant silk applique hangings for public display and worship. These often huge banners comprise some of Tibet's greatest art treasures because of their spiritual significance, size and intricate design. Some survived the cultural revolution - most did not. The giant banners of Tsurphu monastery in central Tibet-traditional seat of the Karmapas-were both destroyed during this time. |
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Published: Dec. 5, 1995 Updated: October 08, 1999 |
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Thogchags, The Ancient Amulets of Tibet text by John Vincent Bellezza |
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Thogchags are Tibetan talismans made of bronze and meteoric metals dating as far back as the Bronze Age. While precise dates for the Tibetan Bronze Age have yet to be formulated, archaeological evidence from various sites around the country indicate that it began no later than the beginning of the Second Millennium BCE. An unbroken tradition of producing amulets extends into the Iron Age and Buddhist periods creating a cultural legacy several thousand years old. |
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Published: June 1, 1999 |
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The Murals of Baiya Monastery: by Jonathan Bell |
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| The murals of Dege County’s Pewar (Ch. Baiya) Monastery are truly exquisite works of art that embrace their subject matters with a mixture of vivid color and painstaking detail. From ghastly esoteric scenes of demons wearing human skins to the serenity of buddhas seated in meditation, the depictions on the walls of the temple and upper prayer room comprise a mixture of stylistic influences from within and outside Tibet. |
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Published: March 8, 1999 |
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New Archeological Discoveries in Tibet: by John Vincent Bellezza |
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In August and September of 1998 the author discovered a series of pre-Buddhist archaeological sites in the western Tibet province of Ngari (mNga’ ris). Located in close proximity to what had been important prehistoric sources of fresh water, these ancient sites include burial mounds, villages and ceremonial structures. Situated at 4500 meters in the Changthang (Byang thang), the vast northern plains of Tibet, these finds significantly add to our knowledge of Tibet before the spread of Buddhism in the 7th to 11th centuries. |
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Published: December 17, 1998 |
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Augmented Nationalism: The Nomadic Eye of Painter M.F. Husain (b. 1915): |
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| A study of the art of India's most famous living painter, Maqbool Fida Husain (known to millions of his admirers simply as Husain), by Shyamal Bagchee of the University of Alberta English Department. This wide ranging article examines Husain's art from the perspective of his, and the author's, Nationalism: "A point that is often missed by critics writing about Husain is that he operates out of probably the one country in the world that can mount a really serious challenge to the so called new imperialism of a postmodern, post-rational, fast replicating, information proliferating, media-dominated, United States of America." |
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Published: July 3, 1998 |
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The Conservation of Tibetan Thangkas consists of a series of articles presented at papers to the Western Association for Art Conservation (WAAC) Annual Meeting in Santa Fe New Mexico in September 1992. The articles include technical notes and procedures and photographs of various stages of conservation. Published in Asian Arts 3/5/98, with kind permission of WAAC and the authors. |
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Published: March 5, 1998 |
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Bangladeshi Arts of the Ricksha: by Joanna Kirkpatrick |
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| The three wheeled pedicab or cycle ricksha of Bangladesh has been around at least since the late forties and the partition of India. In those days they were left more or less undecorated. Sometime in the sixties it began its development into a "peoples' art" that combines folkloric, movie, political and commercial imagery and techniques. It serves the expression of heart's desires of the man in the street for women, power, wealth, as well as for religious devotion. |
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Published: December 5, 1997 |
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Early Portrait Painting in Tibet: by Jane Casey Singer |
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One facet of Tibetan iconic art is to be found in early portrait paintings. Portraiture figured prominently in Tibetan art between ca. 1000 and 1400 A.D., and yet almost nothing is known about its functions and its significance. This essay addresses two main questions: What aesthetic and theoretical guides did artists observe in painting historical persons? And what social, political, and religious purposes did portraiture serve in pre-fifteenth century Tibet? |
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Published: November 30, 1996 |
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China Exploration & Research Society: Conserving Tibetan Art and Architecture by Pamela Logan |
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| The
goal
of
the
China
Exploration
and
Research
Society
(CERS)
projects
in
Tibet
is
to
save
some
of
the
last
intact
monasteries
on
the
eastern
plateau.
Internationally
known
experts
are
teaching
Tibetans
how
to
repair
traditional
buildings
while
retaining
as
much
original
material
as
possible.
(Asian Arts is delighted to be able to host the CERS site here, where researchers will be periodically updating the site with CERS activities.) |
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Published: CERS: November 13, 1996 |
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Intro to Kathmandu University Department of Music: by Gert-Matthias Wegner |
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The musical traditions of Nepal are as diverse as the various ethnic groups of the country. The most complex musical culture in the Himalayas is that of the Newar in the Kathmandu valley which in the course of the past 2000 years has absorbed mostly Indian influences shaping a unique musical tradition. |
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Published: April 17, 1996 |
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Images of Earth and Water: The Tsa-Tsa Votive Tablets of Tibet: by Juan Li |
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| In 1938 after returning from one of his extensive expeditions to Ladakh and Western Tibet, the great Italian tibetologist Giuseppe Tucci published a volume on Stupa symbolism as part of the Indo-Tibetica series. The second part of this pioneering study is dedicated to the votive clay tablets known as tsa-tsa. Although Tucci was not the first to write about tsa-tsa, his study remains the only extensive exploration of this art form. The present article aims at updating some the information on this neglected area of studies. |
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Published: November 11, 1995 |
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Introduction to the Art of Mongolia: by Terese Tse Bartholomew |
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Tibetan Buddhism, a highly ritualistic religion with a huge pantheon of gods and goddesses, inspired the religious art of Mongolia (fig. 1). As in most religions, there is a need to create cult images in painting and sculpture, as well as ritual objects and other paraphernalia associated with worship of the deities.The objects in this exhibition associated with religious worship date from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries and are the result of the second wave of conversion to Buddhism in Mongolia. |
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Published: September 7, 1995 |
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A Taglung Lama: by Jane Casey Singer |
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| This charming thirteenth century portrait depicts a religious hierarch from the Taglung branch of the Kagyu order of Tibetan Buddhism. Wearing monastic robes, he is seated on a throne whose symbolic significance reflects the considerable spiritual authority which the hierarch enjoyed in his day. Mountain staves, indicating that the central figure is meant to appear within a mountain cave, surround him and his attendants in the upper and side registers. |
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Published: March 17, 1995 |
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An Early stone fragment in Central Nepal: by Thomas Pritzker |
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Just south of the town of Arughat, along the Buri Gandaki River in central Nepal there is a small hot spring which has been channelled into a public bath. Next to this bath are two small buildings which over the centuries were used as Buddhist and then Hindu shrines. While there are a number of sculptures of interest I would like to point out a fragment which is in the wall of the southernmost building. The figure on the left shows the visible portion of this fragment. |
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Published: March 17, 1995 |
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Licchavi Caityas of Nepal: A Solution to the Empty Niche: by Ian Alsop |
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| Among the curious puzzles of early Nepalese sculpture and architecture are the empty niches of the lovely Licchavi stone caityas that dot the Kathmandu valley. These elegant caityas are fully decorated, often with exquisitely detailed carvings, but the niches where one might suppose the figures of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would normally reside, are vacant. |
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Published: March 17, 1995 Updated: Feb. 10, 2000 |
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Tsakli:Tibetan Miniature Ritual Paintings: by Juan Li |
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Among the numerous items employed in Tibetan ritual is a genre of miniature painting little known in the occident and rarely spoken of in the liturgical literature translated into western languages. These are the 'Tsakli' or 'Initiation Cards' . Tsakli paintings are employed in numerous ritual situations such as empowerment, ritual mandalas, transmission of teachings, substitutes for ceremonial items, visualization aids and funerals. |
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Published: March 17, 1995 |
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