Famed Buddhist temple going global: North America Shaolin Cultural Festival, Oct 2013

China Daily
2013-06-19

The Shaolin Temple, known as the cradle of Chinese kung fu, is preparing to stage its first cultural festival in the United States as part of efforts to expand its global clout.

The first North America Shaolin Cultural Festival is scheduled to be held from Oct 8 to 14 in Los Angeles, according to Shi Yongxin, abbot of the Buddhist temple in the city of Dengfeng in Central China’s Henan province.

Ancient Stone Statues Returned to Cambodia After Nearly 20 Years at New York Museum

The Washington Post
Heng Sinith
11 June, 2013

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — Two 10th century Cambodian stone statues displayed for nearly two decades at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art were returned to their homeland Tuesday in a high-profile case of allegedly looted artifacts.

The voluntary return of the pair of “Kneeling Attendants” statues by one of America’s foremost cultural institutions is seen as setting a precedent for the restoration of artworks to their places of origin, from which they were often removed in hazy circumstances.

It comes as the Cambodian government is asking other museums to return similar objects. At the government’s request, U.S. authorities have begun legal action against Sotheby’s auction house to try to force the handover of a contested piece.

Cambodian officials and Buddhist monks were on hand for a welcome ceremony for the life-size sandstone statues at the capital’s international airport.

“The statues are very important to our country,” said Chan Tani, secretary of state for the Cabinet office. “We got back those ancient statues that left us, so we should be proud.”

The statues come from the Koh Ker temple in Siem Reap province, which is home to the famed Angkor Wat temples. Officials say they were stolen from the temple in the 1970s. The museum said the statues were given to the museum in pieces by different donors between 1987 and 1992.

“These pieces were an important part of our museum’s display of Khmer (Cambodian) and pre-Khmer art,” the head of the museum’s Asian art department, Maxwell K. Hearn, said after the Buddhist ceremony. “It was a great privilege to be able to show works of Khmer art in New York, but we are also very pleased to see these pieces rightfully returned to Cambodia.”

Conservation lab itself a museum piece

The stucco sculpture of Buddha, before and after repair by the Archaeological Conservation and Research Laboratory. — Photo by Dawn.

DAWN.com
Jamal Shahid

Updated 2013-06-06 13:19:46

ISLAMABAD, June 5: Research and restoration laboratories are integral to good museums all over the world to preserve the archaeological finds in their area, but the one in our world-famous Taxila Museum itself needs to be saved from human neglect.

“Not the vagaries of time, but rather human neglect has turned the Archaeological Conservation and Research Laboratory (ACRL) at the Taxila Museum into a store room rather than a place where workers and researchers connect the dots into history,” said an officer of the Department of Archaeology and Museum in Islamabad.

Set up in the late 1990s with Japanese technical assistance, the Rs30 million ACRL has been lying shut down since the federal Ministry of Culture was devolved two years ago and the museum transferred to the Punjab government.

How the Buddha Came to Japan

Image: Standing Buddha Mathura, Uttar Pradesh, India; 5th century, Gupta period (320-550 CE), Red Sandstone Brooklyn Museum, Gift of Ernest Erickson Foundation, Inc, 86.227.47

Rubin Museum of Art
Wednesday June 26, 2013 @ 7:00 PM
Price: $15.00
Member Price: $13.50

According to legend the first image of the Buddha was not only drawn from life but was itself alive. It was carved on the order of an Indian king who longed for the Buddha’s presence after the Buddha had left his kingdom. When the Buddha returned the image rose to greet him. Replicas of the miraculous image were produced in India, China, and Japan. This talk explores the transmission of this legend, and the replication of this legendary image in Japan, where it served to bridge the temporal and spatial gulf between Buddhist devotees and the object of their devotion.

SF Theater Review: 410[GONE]: No Game Over in Crowded Fire’s Videogame Afterlife

KQED Arts
Sam Hurwitt
Jun 17, 2013

The Chinese afterlife has gone all to hell. The Buddhist goddess of mercy, Guan Yin, waits under a sacred mountain to help the dead by taking away the pain and memory of their last life to prepare them for the next. Or at least that’s how it’s supposed to work. In actuality she spends eternity cussing out callers on her help line, feeding off the pain of the dead like a drug fiend, and playing videogames, using Dance Dance Revolution to steer pixelated souls where they need to go.

At least that’s how it works in 410[GONE], the new play by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig now being given its world premiere by San Francisco’s Crowded Fire Theater. Or rather, that’s how the goddess and her constant companion the Monkey King are used to things working. But their complacency is interrupted by the arrival of a non-digitized mortal soul stumbling into their sanctuary.

China’s Venetian Quandary: Chinese Artists

NYTimes
11 June 2013

Zhang Xiaotao’s digital animation “Sakya,” a recreation of the Northern Temple of the Sakya Monastery in Tibet, which was razed by Mao’s Red Guards. The work explores the shifting limits on religious freedom in China.

BEIJING — Officially, the Chinese Ministry of Culture supports the China Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, so it seems paradoxical that Beijing’s cyberpolice are blocking the Biennale’s Web site across China.

Every two years, the prestigious art event triggers an uneasy alliance between Beijing’s Culture Ministry and the pavilion’s independent curator, who is selected via an open competition. And artists are notoriously difficult to control.

The naked truth… or is it a lie?

[photo after the jump -- NSFW.]

Thanh Nien News
June 11, 2013

She had been a supporting actress, emcee and model for years, but Thai Nha Van had never been noticed like she was when parts of a photo collection called ‘Nude để thiền’ (Nude for Zen) was leaked.

The photos feature Van in the nude trying to seduce a ‘monk’ – Hue Phong, who claims to be a geomancer. Ignoring the girl’s tempting body and lewd mien, the monk remains in meditation under a tree, his eyes closed.   

The photos are said to be part of Hue Phong’s Thoat (Escape) project, which includes paintings, films and photographs that depict a Buddhist monk’s escape from lusting after women.