Book: Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century

From Yale Press website:

Lost Kingdoms
Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia

John Guy

Numerous Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms flourished in Southeast Asia from the 5th to the 9th century, yet until recently few concrete details were known about them. Lost Kingdoms reveals newly discovered architectural and sculptural relics from this region, which provide key insights into the formerly mysterious kingdoms. The first publication to use sculpture as a lens to explore this period of Southeast Asian history, Lost Kingdoms offers a significant contribution and a fresh approach to the study of cultures in Cambodia, Thailand, Burma, and other countries.

Comprehensive texts written by prominent scholars introduce more than 160 objects, many of which have never before traveled outside their home countries. Gorgeous photography shot on location highlights each artwork, and maps and a glossary of place names elucidate their geographical context. A watershed study of Southeast Asia’s artistic and cultural legacy, Lost Kingdoms is an essential resource on a fascinating and enduring subject.

John Guy is Florence and Herbert Irving Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, Department of Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

With contributions by Hiram Woodward, Robert Brown, Pattaratorn Chirapravati, Peter Skilling, Geoff Wade, Arlo Griffith, Pierre-Yves Manguin, Le Lien Thi, Pierre Baptiste, Berenice Bellini, Thierry Zephir, Stephen Murphy, Federico Caro, Donna Strahan, and John Guy

336 pages, 360 illustrations (304 in full color). 8 3/4” x 12 1/4”. Hardcover, clothbound.

Exhibition Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, 5th to 8th Century, April 14–July 27, 2014

Catalog

Yale University Press

 

Buddhist archive of photography in Luang Prabang, Laos

The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library is pleased to announce the addition of two related catalogues to its web pages.

The catalogues give details of material copied by the project EAP177 and  EAP326 and relate to the Buddhist archive of photography in Luang
Prabang, Laos.

An EAP pilot project (EAP086) investigated the extent and conditions of an archive of Theravada Buddhist photographs now mainly preserved in one monastery of Luang Prabang/Laos, and started scanning and digitizing the material.

The material found is of high scientific and documentary significance, and very rare. In more than 15,000 single photographs, it covers 120 years of Buddhist photography.

Ramayana, Buddhist dance at India’s southeast Asian fiesta

IANS | New Delhi
February 4, 2014 Last Updated at 22:20 IST

Stories of epic Ramayana narrated through ballet dance, Buddhist sacred dance and chants, different cuisines of India, traditional “mehndi” art, yoga and a film festival — these are some highlights of the cultural ministry’s festival in four southeast Asian countries.

With a view to facilitate and encourage cooperation in the realms of art and culture, education and mass media, “Festival of India”, organised under the aegis of ministry of culture will be taking a delegation of 75 artistes to numerous cities of Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar in February and March, where they will use various platforms to showcase Indian culture.

“It is one of the biggest delegations that we (culture ministry) will be taking to southeast Asia. We have focussed on elements of Buddhism and Ramayana because these two have a strong cultural resonance in these countries,” V. Srinivas, joint secretary, ministry of culture, said at a press conference Tuesday.

LACMA releases new online catalogue of Southeast Asian art

artdaily.org
24 Nov 2013

LOS ANGELES, CA.- The Los Angeles County Museum of Art announced the publication of Southeast Asian Art (http://seasian.catalog.lacma.org), a new website featuring in-depth scholarship authored by professor and curator Dr. Robert Brown.

The online publication focuses on 34 highlights from the museum’s extraordinary collection of Southeast Asian art (complemented by numerous comparative images) and includes extended essays on topics such as light symbolism, female deities, and the impact of Buddhism on Sri Lankan and Southeast Asian art.

Southeast Asian Art is the first in a series of online scholarly catalogues designed to provide an in-depth, web-based reading experience previously available only in print publications, enhanced with unique rich media features such as videos, 360-degree image rotation for select objects, and an easy online citation tool. The project is intended to share museum-generated scholarship with the broadest possible audience and enable both students and advanced researchers of Southeast Asian art to use newly developed online research tools.

Tracing Buddhism’s journey in “Culture of Compassion”

MetroLife
Baishali Adak
25 September, 2013

In this day and age of communal strife seen all around the world, a film on Buddhism and its essential philosophy of forgiveness comes as a breath of fresh air. Benoy Behl, the acclaimed art historian and author of several books on religion and philosophy, recently premiered his film Culture of Compassion: Buddhism in India and ASEAN countries, at India Habitat Centre.

With this, he took the audience on a virtual pilgrimage of important Buddhist sites across India and the Southeast Asian part of the world.

Stanford U Seminar: Theravada Buddhist Arts of Mainland Southeast Asia

Presented by Stanford Continuing Studies Program at Annenberg Auditorium – Stanford University
February 2, 2013

This seminar will introduce participants to the little discussed Buddhist art and architecture of Laos, in particular the mural paintings, textiles, and ephemeral ritual arts of Luang Prabang. It will also address the role Theravada (and Socially Engaged Buddhism) plays in the contemporary arts of Southeast Asia. In the course of the seminar, there will be an exploration of questions such as: “How do artists integrate Theravada Buddhist philosophical perspectives on materiality, ritual, space, and performance into their practice?” and “In what ways do socially engaged Buddhist arts offer alternative ways for thinking about political movements and social communities?”

Boreth Ly was born in Cambodia and educated in France and the United States. He teaches courses at UC Santa Cruz on ancient and contemporary arts of Southeast Asia and its diaspora. Ly has published numerous articles on the visual culture of Southeast Asia and its diaspora. In addition, he has co-edited a book with Nora Taylor entitled “Modern and Contemporary Southeast Asian Art: An Anthology.”

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Buddhist Gong

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BUDDHIST ART OF MEKONG

Visual Art Workshop
Buddhist Art of Mekong Basin
Louangphabang, 14 -20th June 2012

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Habersham County will not restrict Buddhist celebration

A tearful Noy Nations stresses the importance of Wat Lao Buddha Sattha Dhamma being allowed to hold their new year's festival on the temple grounds in Alto. (Photo/Rob Moore)

AccessNorthGA.com

Tuesday, April 17th 2012 at 12:33pm
By Rob Moore

CLARKESVILLE – After more than 45 minutes of discussion, the Habersham County Commission decided not to set a precedent regarding First Amendment issues that arose at Monday night’s meeting.

Jerry Loonubon, representing Wat Lao Buddha Sattha Dhamma Inc. of 241 Buchanan Road, Alto, had requested a conditional use to establish a special outdoor event use in a low intensity district. The Wat Lao Buddha Sattha Dhamma Inc. temple is located on the 17.65-acre parcel, situated a short distance from Highway 365.

The group was seeking to hold its annual Songkran Festival, which is the Lao, Thai, and Khmer New Year festivities, celebrated each year in April or May.

“They have come and asked in this application for permission to celebrate their native holiday,” said Habersham County Building and Planning Director Tom Braswell.

Ordinary Mail

From the excellent blog, Digital Tibetan Altar, a post on memory, stamps, and “the enormous blessing associated with Buddhist images”. – Buddhist art news

Digital Tibetan Altar, Wednesday, October 13, 2010

In the middle of the last century, in the West, Buddhist images were few and far between. For some of us, childhood was a struggle to resolve what we saw in our hearts with what we saw by our eyes.

In my own experience, had it not been for a painter, an engraver, and a postage stamp, I might have easily lost direction for a while.

Today, among other things, I want to honor the three of them — this is something I have been thinking to do for what seems a very long time — and in so doing, it is my intention to acknowledge the enormous blessing associated with Buddhist images.

The French painter Marc Leguay is sometimes called the “Gauguin of Laos.” While still in his early twenties, an exhibition of his paintings caught the eye of the then Governor-General of Cochinchine, who kindly invited the young artist for an all-expense-paid tour of Laos.