Art, Ancient—China
Art, Ancient--India
Art, South Asian
Art, Ancient—Southeast Asia
Art, Korea
China—Antiquities
Buddhist art—China
Buddhist art—India
Buddhist art—Korea
Hindu art
Hindu temples
Ancient China: A Journey Back in Time by 
Ajanta, Volume 2 by
This volume in Brill's renowned Ajanta series discusses contentious views on Ajanta's development, the often-dramatic changes in patronage, and the intriguing problem of why Ajanta's original (Hinayana) caves were not refurbished by the Vakataka. A comprehensive appendix on Ajanta inscriptions is also included.
Ajanta, Volume 5 - History and Development by
Volume Five comprises, along with introductory comments, two "cave by cave" guides. One which, very briefly, describes the character of each cave and its patronage, is intended to be useful for the general visitor to the site. The other, very detailed, discusses the position and peculiarities of each cave in relation to the overall, year by year, development of the site. This volume also contains a complete set of cave plans, and various illuminating charts, graphs, outlines, and maps.
Ajanta, Volume 6 by
Volume 6 of Walter Spink's monumental and continuing study of the Ajanta caves, with over 350 illustrations, explains the gradual evolution of the site's architectural and sculptural features during Ajanta's remarkably brief development (462-480 CE).
Ancient India by
The legacy of past civilizations is still with us today. In Ancient India, readers discover the history and impressive accomplishments of the people of ancient India, including their enduring religions and rich literary traditions. Engaging text provides details on the civilization's history, development, daily life, culture, art, technology, warfare, social organization, and more. Well-chosen maps and images of artifacts bring the past to life. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards.Essential Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Angkor Wat by
Bringing the principles of 12th-century Khmer temple architecture to the modern world, this text finds that the key to understanding the temple lies in the measurement system used by its original builders. By translating metres into cubits, the author uncovered a highly sophisticated system of philosophical and religious principles expressed in the temple measurements themselves. The measurements connect the temple to the stars and the cosmos, bridge the gap between human and divine realms, help unite the king and his deity - in short, they define how time, space, kingship and divinity exist inseparably from each other.
Archaeology of East Asia: the Rise of Civilization in China, Korea and Japan by 
The Art and Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent by 
Art and Devotion at a Buddhist Temple in the Indian Himalaya by
Sixteenth-century wall paintings in a Buddhist temple in the Tibetan cultural zone of northwest India are the focus of this innovative and richly illustrated study. Initially shaped by one set of religious beliefs, the paintings have since been reinterpreted and retraced by a later Buddhist community, subsumed within its religious framework and communal memory. Melissa Kerin traces the devotional, political, and artistic histories that have influenced the paintings' production and reception over the centuries of their use. Her interdisciplinary approach combines art historical methods with inscriptional translation, ethnographic documentation, and theoretical inquiry to understand religious images in context.
Art by the Book: Painting Manuals and the Leisure Life in Late Ming China by 
The Art of Loving Krishna by
Since ancient times, Hindus have expressed their love and devotion to their deities through beautiful ornamentation--dressing and decorating the deities with elaborate clothing, jewelry, and flowers. In this pioneering study of temples in Vrindaban and Jaipur, India, Cynthia Packert takes readers across temple thresholds and into the god Krishna's sacred domain. She describes what devotees see when they behold gorgeously attired representations of the god and why these images look the way they do. She discusses new media as well as global forms of devotion popular in India and abroad. The Art of Loving Krishna opens a universe of meaning in which art, religious action, and devotion are dynamically intertwined.
Art of the Yellow Springs by
We might think the Egyptians were the masters of building tombs, but no other civilization has devoted more time and resources to underground burial structures than the Chinese. For at least five thousand years, from the fourth millennium B.C.E. to the early twentieth century, the Chinese have been building some of the world's most elaborate tombs and furnishing them with exquisite objects. It is these objects and the concept of the tomb as a "treasure-trove" that The Art of the Yellow Springs seeks to critique, drawing on recent scholarship to examine memorial sites the way they were meant to be experienced: not as a mere store of individual works, but as a work of art itself. Wu Hung bolsters some of the new trends in Chinese art history that have been challenging the conventional ways of studying funerary art. Examining the interpretative methods themselves that guide the study of memorials, he argues that in order to understand Chinese tombs, one must not necessarily forget the individual works present in them--as the beautiful color plates here will prove--but consider them along with a host of other art-historical concepts. These include notions of visuality, viewership, space, analysis, function, and context. The result is a ground-breaking new assessment that demonstrates the amazing richness of one of the longest-running traditions in the whole of art history.
Buddhism Illuminated: Manuscript Art from Southeast Asia by 
The Buddhist Caves at Aurangabad by
This is a study that focuses on the art and architecture of a group of Buddhist rock-cut monuments excavated on the western edge of the Deccan Plateau in India. It analyses the various cultural, historical and religious phenomena that shaped the caves at Aurangabad through the first seven centuries of the Common Era and it comments on the Buddhist tradition of the western Deccan as a whole. The result is a comprehensive work that does not address exclusively iconography and chronology, but looks beyond Aurangabad to the larger artistic and religious traditions of the Indian Subcontinent.
Building a Sacred Mountain by
By the tenth century CE, Mount Wutai had become a major pilgrimage site within the emerging culture of a distinctively Chinese Buddhism. Famous as the abode of the bodhisattva Ma�ju r (known for his habit of riding around the mountain on a lion), the site in northeastern China�s Shanxi Province was transformed from a wild area, long believed by Daoists to be sacred, into an elaborate complex of Buddhist monasteries. In Building a Sacred Mountain, Wei-Cheng Lin traces the confluence of factors that produced this transformation and argues that monastic architecture, more than texts, icons, relics, or pilgrimages, was the key to Mount Wutai�s emergence as a sacred site. Departing from traditional architectural scholarship, Lin�s interdisciplinary approach goes beyond the analysis of forms and structures to show how the built environment can work in tandem with practices and discourses to provide a space for encountering the divine. For more information: http://arthistorypi.org/books/building-a-sacred-mountain
Cave by Cave by
Volume Five comprises, along with introductory comments, two "cave by cave" guides. One which, very briefly, describes the character of each cave and its patronage, is intended to be useful for the general visitor to the site. The other, very detailed, discusses the position and peculiarities of each cave in relation to the overall, year by year, development of the site. This volume also contains a complete set of cave plans, and various illuminating charts, graphs, outlines, and maps.
Chang'an 26 BCE by
During the last two centuries BCE, the Western Han capital of Chang'an, near today's Xi'an in northwest China, outshone Augustan Rome in several ways while administering comparable numbers of imperial subjects and equally vast territories. At its grandest, during the last fifty years or so before the collapse of the dynasty in 9 CE, Chang�an boasted imperial libraries with thousands of documents on bamboo and silk in a city nearly three times the size of Rome and nearly four times larger than Alexandria. Many reforms instituted in this capital in ate Western Han substantially shaped not only the institutions of the Eastern Han (25�220 CE) but also the rest of imperial China until 1911. Although thousands of studies document imperial Rome�s glory, until now no book-length work in a Western language has been devoted to Han Chang�an, the reign of Emperor Chengdi (whose accomplishments rival those of Augustus and Hadrian), or the city's impressive library project (26-6 BCE), which ultimately produced the first state-sponsored versions of many of the classics and masterworks that we hold in our hands today. Chang�an 26 BCE addresses this deficiency, using as a focal point the reign of Emperor Chengdi (r. 33�7 bce), specifically the year in which the imperial library project began. This in-depth survey by some of the world�s best scholars, Chinese and Western, explores the built environment, sociopolitical transformations, and leading figures of Chang�an, making a strong case for the revision of historical assumptions about the two Han dynasties. A multidisciplinary volume representing a wealth of scholarly perspectives, the book draws on the established historical record and recent archaeological discoveries of thousands of tombs, building foundations, and remnants of walls and gates from Chang�an and its surrounding area.
China by
Published to accompany an exhibition in New York City from February 1998, arising from collaboration between the Guggenheim Museum and China's Ministry of Culture, this is an exploration of the themes of innovation and transformation during the great eras of Chinese art, from the Neolithic period to the mid-19th century.
Chinese Antiquities by
Chinese Antiquities: An Introduction to the Art Market provides an essential guide to the growing market for Chinese antiquities, encompassing all sectors of the market, from Classical Chinese paintings and calligraphy to ceramics, jade, bronze and ritual sculpture. Aimed at current and aspiring collectors, investors and galleries interested in Chinese antiquities, the book sets out to demystify the process of buying and selling in the Asian context, highlighting Asia-specific issues that market-players might encounter and making this category of art more accessible to newcomers to the market.
The Chinese Neolithic by
This book studies the formation of complex societies in prehistoric China during the Neolithic and early state periods, c. 7000-1500 BC. Archaeological materials are interpreted through anthropological perspectives, using systematic analytic methods in settlement and burial patterns. Both agency and process are considered in the development of chiefdoms and in the emergence of early states in the Yellow River region. Interrelationships between factors such as mortuary practice, craft specialization, ritual activities, warfare, exchange of elite goods, climatic fluctuations, and environmental changes are emphasized. This study offers a critical evaluation of current archaeological data from Chinese sources, and argues that, although some general tendencies are noted, social changes were affected by multiple factors in no pre-determined sequence. In this most comprehensive study to date, Li Liu attempts to reconstruct developmental trajectories toward early states in Chinese civilization and discusses theoretical implications of Chinese archaeology for the understanding of social evolution.
Chinese Religious Art by
Chinese Religious Art is a broad survey of the origins and development of the various forms of artistic expression of Chinese religions. The study begins with an overview of ancient archaeology in order to identify nascent religious ideologies in various Neolithic Cultures and early Chinese historical eras including the Shang dynasty (1300-1050 BCE) and Zhou Dynasty(1000-221 BCE) up until the era of the First Emperor (221-210 BCE) Part Two treats Confucianism as a religious tradition examining its scriptures, images, temples and rituals. Adopted as the state ideology in the Han dynasty, Confucian ideas permeated society for over two thousand years. Filial piety, ethical behavior and other principles shaped the pictorial arts. Part Three considers the various schools of Daoist belief and their expression in art. The ideas of a utopian society and the pursuit of immortality characterize this religion from its earliest phase. Daoism has an elaborate pantheon and ritualistic art, as well as a secular tradition best expressed in monochrome ink painting. Part Four covers the development of Buddhist art beginning with its entry into China in the second century. Its monuments--comprised largely of cave temples carved high in the mountains along the frontiers of China and large metropolitan temples --provide evidence of its evolution including the adoption of savior cults of the Buddha of the Western Paradise, the Buddha of the Future, the rise of Ch'an (Zen) and esoteric Buddhism. In their development, these various religious traditions interacted, sharing art, architecture, iconography and rituals. By the twelfth century a stage of syncretism merged all three traditions into a popular religion. All the religions are reviving after their extirpation during the Cultural Revolution. Using historical records and artistic evidence, much of which has not been published, this study examines their individual and shared manner of worshipping the divine forces.
A Companion to South Asia in the Past by
A Companion to South Asia in the Past provides the definitive overview of research and knowledge about South Asia's past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, provided by a truly global team of experts. The most comprehensive and detailed scholarly treatment of South Asian archaeology and biological anthropology, providing ground-breaking new ideas and future challenges Provides an in-depth and broad view of the current state of knowledge about South Asia's past, from the Pleistocene to the historic era in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal A comprehensive treatment of research in a crucial region for human evolution and biocultural adaptation A global team of scholars together present a varied set of perspectives on South Asian pre- and proto-history
Connections and Complexity by
This compilation of original research articles highlight the important cross-regional, cross-chronological, and comparative approaches to political and economic landscapes in ancient South Asia and its neighbors. Focusing on the Indus Valley period and Iron Age India, this volume incorporates new research in South Asia within the broader universe of archaeological scholarship. Contributions focus on four major themes: reinterpreting material culture; identifying domains and regional boundaries; articulating complexity; and modeling interregional interaction. These studies develop theoretical models that may be applicable researchers studying cultural complexity elsewhere in the world.
Early Buddhist Architecture in Context by 
Early Buddhist Art of China and Central Asia by
Presenting new studies on the chronology and iconography of Buddhist art during the Western Ch'in (385-431 A.D.) in northwest China, including Ping-ling ssu and Mai-chi shan, this book addresses issues of dating, textual sources, the five-Buddhas, and relation with Gandhara.
Emperor Qin's Terra Cotta Army by
A dead emperor guarded by his army for 2,000 years... One day in 1974, a group of farmers in rural China found a life-size clay statue of a man's head buried deep in a field. When government archaeologists inspected the area, they discovered that beneath the ground were more than eight thousand life-size clay soldiers, each one with a unique face. In nearby chambers, they unearthed clay horses, carefully preserved swords, bronze statues, and other astonishing things. Where did these treasures come from? And why were they buried? Slowly the story revealed itself. It centered around Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China, who died in 210 B.C.. For forty years leading up to his death, thousands of artists from across China had sculpted an enormous city where he would be buried, guarded and protected by thousands of clay soldiers. This city remained hidden for over two thousand years. This important archaeological find offers amazing insight into the civilization of ancient China.
The Hegemony of Heritage by
The Hegemony of Heritage makes an original and significant contribution to our understanding of how the relationship of architectural objects and societies to the built environment changes over time. Studying two surviving medieval monuments in southern Rajasthan--the Ambika Temple in Jagat and the Ékalingji Temple Complex in Kailaspuri--the author looks beyond their divergent sectarian affiliations and patronage structures to underscore many aspects of common practice.This book offers new and extremely valuable insights into these important monuments, illuminating the entangled politics of antiquity and revealing whether a monument's ritual record is affirmed as continuous and hence hoary or dismissed as discontinuous or reinvented through various strategies.The Hegemony of Heritage enriches theoretical constructs with ethnographic description and asks us to reexamine notions such as archive and text through the filter of sculpture and mantra.
Heritage Management in Korea and Japan by
Imperial tombs, Buddhist architecture, palaces, and art treasures in Korea and Japan have attracted scholars, collectors, and conservators�and millions of tourists. As iconic markers of racial and cultural identity at home and abroad, they are embraced as tangible sources of immense national pride and popular �must-see� destinations. This book provides the first sustained account to highlight how the forces of modernity, nationalism, colonialism, and globalization have contributed to the birth of museums, field disciplines, tourist industry, and heritage management policies. Its chapters trace the history of explorations, preservations, and reconstructions of archaeological monuments from an interregional East Asian comparative perspective in the past century.
Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and Its Influences by
The Hindu-Buddhist Sculpture of Ancient Kashmir and Its Influences is a stylistic study of the corpus of stone sculpture, mostly fragmentary, in the Sri Pratap Singh Museum in Srinagar, and elsewhere in Kashmir, in comparison with other examples in collections both in India and abroad.
Hindu India by
There is nothing new under the sun... and then there are the temples of India. For many who have roamed the byways of the subcontinent, it is these myriad mind-expanding palaces of faith that fill the spirit and make the fare worthwhile. They are enough to give you religion. 3-D songs of praise to the fecund possibilities of both environment and human intention, they are as diverse as the landscapes of Asia and yet share a grace and delicacy of invention. Focusing on Jain as well as Hindu constructions, this exemplary volume takes us on a revelatory historical journey to trace both the traditions and developments in their design, from the wood and cave temples of the first few hundred years AD, through early experiments in stone to the three dominant architectural strands. Whether it be Nagara in the north, Vesara in the central highlands or the Dravda ""walled city"" complexes of the south, each style is fully presented and analysed in a series of detailed photographs, drawings, plans and excavations. Just as the temple sancta themselves become more sacred the further in you penetrate, so this book offers greater rewards the longer you spend in its company.
Hinduism and Religious Arts (Gen) by
The roots between the Hindu religion and the wider culture are deep and uniquely complex. No study of either ancient or contemporary Indian culture can be undertaken without a clear understanding of Hindu visual arts and their sources in religious belief and practice. Defining what is meant by religion - no such term exists in Sanskrit - and what is understood by Hindu ideals of beauty, Heather Elgood provides the best synthesis and critical study of recent scholarship on the topic. In addition, this book offers critical background information for anyone interested in the social and anthropological roots of artistic creativity, as well as the rites, practices and beliefs of the hundreds of millions of Hindus in the world today.
The Hindu Temple by
For more than 1500 years, from the Indian subcontinent to the islands of the Indonesian archipelago, the temple has embodied and symbolized the Hindu worldview at its deepest level and inspired the greatest architectural and artistic achievements in Hindu Asia. In The Hindu Temple, considered the standard introduction to the subject, George Michell explains the cultural, religious, and architectural significance of the temple. He illustrates his points with a profusion of photographs, building plans, and drawings of architectural details, making the book a useful guide for travelers to Asia as well as an illuminating text for students of architecture, religion, and Asian civilizations. Michell's discussion of the meaning and forms of the temple in Hindu society encompasses the awe-inspiring rock-cut temples at Ellora and Elephanta, the soaring superstructures and extraordinary sexual exhibitionism of the sculptures at Khajuraho, and the colossal mortuary temple of Angkor Vat, as well as the tiny iconic shrines that many Hindus wear around their necks and the simple shrines found under trees or near ponds.
History of Early Stone Sculpture at Mathura, Ca. 150 BCE-100 CE by
This volume provides the first comprehensive chronology of the earliest known stone sculptures from the north Indian city of Mathura. It includes new evidence for the reattribution of objects, emergence of the anthropomorphic Buddha image, and predominance of a heterodox sect of Jainism.
The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism by
The Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism is an authoritative text on the specifically Tibetan branch of Buddhism—one which possesses a rich visual history of Buddhist art and Iconagraphy. This book gives a descriptive outline of the principal gods in the Tibetan pantheon, tracing the main features and symbols that are used to denote each one. A Comprehensive illustrated list of the various ritual objects, talismans, symbols, mudras (symbolic hand poses), and asanas and vahanas (position of the lower limbs) that are used in the images of the gods is accompanied with a word list of the Sanskrit terms most commonly encountered in a study of Lamaism. A set of thirty-one thang-kas from the famous collection of Baron A. von Stael-Holstein, formerly of Peking, China, which came to America after the publication of the original edition of the book, has been included in this new and revised edition.
Ideals of the East by
The 1904 book that famously declared "Asia is one" was among the first studies in English to reference Zen as it explored the roots of Japanese beauty. Like the author's The Book of Tea, this volume emphasized the spiritual ideals of Asian, and especially Japanese, art. Kakuzo Okakura (1863-1913) was an administrator and scholar whose writings helped shape the West's early views of Japan and Asia.
Image Problems: The Origin and Development of the Buddha's Image in Early South Asia by
This deft and lively study by Robert DeCaroli explores the questions of how and why the earliest verifiable images of the historical Buddha were created. In so doing, DeCaroli steps away from old questions of where and when to present the history of Buddhism�s relationship with figural art as an ongoing set of negotiations within the Buddhist community and in society at large. By comparing innovations in Brahmanical, Jain, and royal artistic practice, DeCaroli examines why no image of the Buddha was made until approximately five hundred years after his death and what changed in the centuries surrounding the start of the Common Era to suddenly make those images desirable and acceptable. The textual and archaeological sources reveal that figural likenesses held special importance in South Asia and were seen as having a significant amount of agency and power. Anxiety over image use extended well beyond the Buddhists, helping to explain why images of Vedic gods, Jain teachers, and political elites also are absent from the material record of the centuries BCE. DeCaroli shows how the emergence of powerful dynasties and rulers, who benefited from novel modes of visual authority, was at the root of the changes in attitude toward figural images. However, as DeCaroli demonstrates, a strain of unease with figural art persisted, even after a tradition of images of the Buddha had become established.
The Lives of Chinese Objects: Buddhism, Imperialism and Display by
This is the biography of a set of rare Buddhist statues from China. Their extraordinary adventures take them from the Buddhist temples of fifteenth-century Putuo - China's most important pilgrimage island - to their seizure by a British soldier in the First Opium War in the early 1840s, and on to a starring role in the Great Exhibition of 1851. In the 1850s, they moved in and out of dealers' and antiquarian collections, arriving in 1867 at Liverpool Museum. Here they were re-conceptualized as specimens of the 'Mongolian race' and, later, as examples of Oriental art. The statues escaped the bombing of the Museum during the Second World War and lived out their existence for the next sixty years, dismembered, corroding and neglected in the stores, their histories lost and origins unknown. As the curator of Asian collections at Liverpool Museum, the author became fascinated by these bronzes, and selected them for display in the Buddhism section of the World Cultures gallery. In 2005, quite by chance, the discovery of a lithograph of the figures on prominent display in the Great Exhibition enabled the remarkable lives of these statues to be reconstructed.
Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization by
A landmark work that demystifies the rich tradition of Indian art, Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization analyzes key motifs found in legend, myth, and folklore taken directly from the Sanskrit. It provides a comprehensive introduction to visual thinking and picture reading in Indian art and thought. Ultimately, the book shows that profound Hindu and Buddhist intuitions on the riddles of life and death are universally recognizable.
On the Cusp of an Era: Art in the Pre-Kuṣāṇa World by
South Asian religious art became codified during the Ku'a Period (ca. beginning of the 2nd to the mid 3rd century). Yet, to date, neither the chronology nor nature of Ku'a Art, marked by great diversity, is well understood. The Ku'a Empire was huge, stretching from Uzbekistan through northern India, and its multicultural artistic expressions became the fountainhead for much of South Asian Art. The premise of this book is that Ku'a Art achieves greater clarity through analyses of the arts and cultures of the Pre- Ku'a World, those lands becoming the Empire. Fourteen papers in this book by leading experts on regional topography and connective pathways; interregional, multicultural comparisons; art historical, archaeological, epigraphic, numismatic and textual studies represent the first coordinated effort having this focus.
Painting, Sculpture, Architecture: History and Development by
These photographs of the Ajanta cave complex are the indispensable complement to the text volumes of Ajanta: History and Development. With maps, timechart, ornamentation checklist, and numerous details of the art of Ajanta.
Painting Faith: Li Gonglin and Northern Song Buddhist Culture by
Drawing from previously untapped Buddhist sources, this book contextualizes Li Gonglin's Buddhist faith and art through the Chan environment in his hometown (Longmian) and the prevailing Tiantai, Pure Land, Huayan and Chan schools of the Northern Song Dynasty.
Reconsidering Cultural Heritage in East Asia by
The concept of 'cultural heritage' has acquired increasing currency in culture, politics and societies in East Asia. However, in spite of a number of research projects in this field, our understanding of how the past and its material expressions have been perceived, conceptualised and experienced in this part of the world, and how these views affect contemporary local practices and notions of identity, particularly in a period of rapid economic development and increasing globalisation, is still very unclear. Preoccupation with cultural heritage - expressed in the rapid growth of national and private museums, the expansion of the antiquities' market, revitalisation of local traditions, focus on 'intangible cultural heritage' and the development of cultural tourism - is something that directly or indirectly affects national policies and international relations. An investigation of how the concept of 'cultural heritage' has been and continues to be constructed in East Asia, drawing on several case studies taken from China, Japan and Korea, is thus timely and worthwhile.
Rediscovering the Hindu Temple: The Sacred Architecture and Urbanism of India by
This volume examines the multifarious dimensions that constitute the workings of the Hindu temple as an architectural and urban built form. Eleven chapters reflect on Hindu temples from multiple standpoints - tracing their elusive evolution from wayside shrines as well as canonization into classical objects; questioning the role of treatises containing their building rules; analyzing their prescribed proportions and orders; examining their presence in, and as, larger sacred habitats and ritualistic settings; and affirming their influential role in the contemporary Indian metropolis. Going beyond stereotypical presentations of Hindu temples dominated by chronological and stylistic themes, this study, addressed to architects, urbanists, and builders, combines historic scholarship, documentation, personal observations and fieldwork to expand the idea of the Hindu temple as a complex and contradictory cultural entity, that is both formal and informal, monumental and modest, historic and modern, and deserving of a far broader and deeper understanding.
Sanctuary: The Temples of Angkor by
Magnum photographer Steve McCurry (b.1950) has beautifully and evocatively photographed the temples of Angkor in Cambodia, among the world's most impressive monuments. Over 100 of his images of the site are collected in this stunning book, which documents a magical world of carved gods, weathered masonry, tangled vegetation and orange-robed monks. Angkor was the capital of the Khmer rulers from the end of the ninth century until the mid-fifteenth. Each built a state temple at the capital, surrounded by walls, moats and embankments laid out in accordance with cosmological precepts. Designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO, the temples attract tourists, archaeologists and art historians, and are also a pilgrimage destination for Buddhist monks. McCurry first visited Angkor on assignment for National Geographicmagazine, for whom he has photographed all over the world. He has made many return visits, capturing a sublime portrait of the buildings, sculpture and people of Angkor. Winner of numerous honours, including first prize in the World Press Awards and the Robert Capa Gold Medal, McCurry has previously published Portraitsand South Southeast(both with Phaidon). The photographs are accompanied by an informative introduction on the history and meaning of Angkor by John Guy, a leading authority on the cultural history of Southeast Asia.
Signless Signification in Ancient India and Beyond by
The collected essays in this book are the result of a series of workshops held at the University of Cagliari in Italy; this work charts the evolution of key concepts on signless signification of traditional Indian grammar and deals with powerful mechanisms of meaning extension, including rituals and speculative patterns. This collection brings an interdisciplinary approach to the examination of possible relationships between different cultural and linguistic systems of signification.
Surviving Nirvana: Death of the Buddha in Chinese Visual Culture by
The Buddha's nirvana marks the end of the life of a great spiritual figure and the beginning of Buddhism as a world religion. Surviving Nirvana is the first book in the English language to examine how this historic moment was represented and received in the visual culture of China, of which the nirvana image has been a part for over 1,500 years. --Mining a selection of well-documented and well-preserved examples from the sixth to twelfth centuries, Sonya Lee offers a reassessment of medieval Chinese Buddhism by focusing on practices of devotion and image-making that were inspired by the Buddha's complete extinction. The nirvana image, comprised of a reclining Buddha and a mourning audience, was central to defining the local meanings of the nirvana moment in different times and places. The motif's many guises, whether on a stone-carved stele, inside a pagoda crypt, or as a painted mural in a cave temple, were the product of social interactions, religious institutions, and artistic practices prevalent in a given historical context. They were also cogent responses to the fundamental anxiety about the absence of the Buddha and the prospect of one's salvation. By reinventing the nirvana image to address its own needs, each community of patrons, makers, and viewers sought to recast the Buddha's death into an allegory of survival that was charged with local pride and contemporary relevance.- -Thoroughly researched, this study engages methods and debates from the fields of art history, religion, archaeology, architecture, and East Asian history that are relevant to scholars and students alike. The many examples analyzed in the book offer well-defined local contexts to discuss broader historical and theoretical issues concerning representation, patronage, religion and politics, family values, and vision.--Sonya S. Lee is assistant professor of art history and East Asian languages and cultures at University of Southern California.-- -
Temples of the Indus: Studies in the Hindu Architecture of Ancient Pakistan by
Drawing on recent archaeology and scholarship, this book establishes a sequence of temples built between the sixth and tenth centuries in Pakistan's northwest that provide a missing chapter in the evolution and origins of the HIndu temple in South Asia.
The Terra Cotta Army: China's First Emperor and the Birth of a Nation by
The Terra Cotta Army is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries ever made. Over seven thousand life-size figures of warriors and horses were interred in the mausoleum of the first emperor of China--and each figure was individually carved. Weaving together history and a first-hand account of his experiences in China, John Man tells the fascinating story of how and why these astonishing figures were created in the third century BC, and how they have become a symbol of China's history, culture, and society.
World Heritage Monuments and Related Edifices in India by
Hundreds of India's stunning temples are catalogued and copiously illustrated in this two-volume work loaded with color photographs. A brief introduction to the principal religious groups who have made their home in this dynamic region leads into a description of the developmental stages of various architectural components and artistic styles in the different regions over the past 1500 years, from pre-historic cave art and ancient temples hewn out of solid bedrock to more recent European-style Christian churches such as those in Goa. India's religions and historical turning points are briefly discussed, enabling readers who may be less familiar with Indian cultures to recognize the value of the region's cultural heritage. The author details the technological and artistic progress of Indian temple construction in the context of cultural and religious shifts throughout history. The four indigenous religions of India, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism, as well as Christianity, are each appreciated on their own merits. The Taj Mahal, the most famous, was declared a World Heritage Monument in 1983. It has been described lyrically as a tear drop on the cheek of time, poetry in marble, a dream in marble, and an image of paradise; and in such superlatives as 'the greatest achievement of all Indo-Islamic architecture, the most beautiful of all monuments made by the hands of man.' But the UNESCO World Heritage Center has also singled out a wealth of monuments that preceded and followed its construction, denoting them as important elements of the heritage of human civilization. In this work, researched through personal visits to World Heritage sites in India and the monuments associated with them, the author shares his enjoyment of the depiction of human beauty in decorative sculpture and architecture and the narration of mythology therein. This is one work bound in two volumes.
