This unusual enso based on the character for heart/mind was made by Daido Bunka in the first half of the eighteenth century.

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The Character for ”Heart/Mind” as an Ens?, 18th century, by Daido Bunka (Japan, 1680-1752). Hanging scroll, ink on paper, image 11 3/16 x 21 in. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Gift of Edwin Janss, M.84.211.1.

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Daido Bunka enso

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The Longest Way

Stones in Japan are used for bridges, water containers, lanterns, and many other purposes. They are especially used as steps on paths.

In an echo of Japan’s animistic native beliefs, stones are chosen for the spirit they emanate. They form a link between people and the earth. Stones that are scored or pitted or covered with moss evoke the spirit of wabi-sabi — of harmonious simplicity and impermanence (more on this in a subsequent post).

This image of petal-covered stepping stone as Shokokuji, a Rinzai Zen temple in Kyoto, comes from EYLC’s photostream.

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The spirit of stones

Indra, a major Hindu deity, also figures in the Thai Buddhist belief system, where he seen as powerful but limited and subservient to the Buddha (and sometimes as one of the four guardian kings of the cardinal directions). He is recognizable by his green skin.

The image shown is a detail from a large painting of the story of the life of the Buddha in the collection of the Asian Art Museum (Scenes from the life of the Buddha, 1800-1850. Thailand; paint and gold on cloth. Gift from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s Southeast Asian Art Collection, 2006.27.122.15).  The painting will be displayed during the museum’s upcoming Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam and Burma exhibition

In an essay I wrote on the subject of translation, I talked about the “middle way” of the Chinese translator Xuanzang (who lived in the seventh century but may be most familiar from his role in the Ming dynasty “Monkey” stories). Xuanzang insisted that translation be both “truthful” and “intelligible to the populace.” In the essay I go on to discuss other advocates of the middle way, such as the Mexican poet Octavio Paz.

In this detail Indra makes a case for the middle way in a charming manner. The Buddha-to-be (shortly before his enlightenment) has been troubled about whether to give up the extreme austerities he has been practicing. Here Indra appears to him and plucks three strings of a lute-like instrument. One string is too slack, and it makes only a dull sound. One string is too tight, and it breaks when plucked. Only the properly tightened string makes a beautiful sound.

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Indra’s lute

This image of patterns and reflections at Wat Rajabophit, Bangkok, Thailand, comes from Taiger808′s photostream. The temple was constructed in 1869 under the command of King Rama V.

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Photo Wednesday: Wat Rajabophit

Check out this entrancingly nutty samurai samba. Via Kenneth Ikemoto at the Asian Art Museum blog.

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Samurai samba

In conjunction with its exhibition The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, the Asian Art Museum is hosting two Bhutanese monks, Lopen Neten, who is from eastern Bhutan, and Lopen Gyem, who is from western Bhutan. The monks created a beautiful sand mandala that can be glimpsed in this video and are now working on a second one.

Usually work on the mandala occurs around 1:00. At about 11:00 and 3:00 the monks perform their prayer, or pujas, as viewed here from the second floor walkway.

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Lopen Neten and Lopen Gyem performing pujas

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Ani Choying Drolmna

Yesterday the Portland Art Museum unveiled a recent purchase: an eleventh-century stone Ganesha from northeastern India.

The Portland Ganesha is shown seated in the posture of “royal ease,” with one knee raised. His rat mount looks up from below, a wisdom bearer (vidyadhara) reaches down from above with a garland of flowers. One of Ganesha’s hands is held in the gesture of reassurance, while the others hold various objects.

How was this object removed from India? No one seems sure.

In the museum world the date 1970 is a significant one. In that year the United Nations adopted measures intended to prevent the looting of antiquities. So objects whose provenance is murky prior to 1970 may be points of contention. The museum bought this work at a Christie’s auction in 2008; in 2000 it had been sold by Sotheby’s. But there seems to be no explanation how Sotheby’s came by the object, as Sotheby’s says its documentation is “missing.”

According to the Association of Art Museum Directors, when a work is acquired despite doubts about its provenance, it is supposed to be listed in an object registry on the AAMD’s website. The registry is intended to provide a mechanism for anyone with a claim to ownership of the work to examine the evidence and come forward. This Ganesha is historic in that it is the first such work to be placed on that list.

Was the sculpture obtained legally, or was it stolen? Why is there no existing record of a sale? Under these circumstances is it appropriate for a Western museum to purchase and display such a work? Does going public and listing the object on the registry make a difference? What will happen if a claimant appears?

These are the kinds of questions that will play out in coming years.

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Ganesha, 11th c. Northeastern India, Pala dynasty (mid-8th-12th century). Stone.

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The Portland Ganesha

I love this very blue blue meanie from The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, a show that’s about to open at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco.

Despite appearances, he’s not really a meanie. He’s a wrathful deity and — so long as you are on the side of the true dharma — he’s your friend. Wrathful deities protect against malevolent forces. As a result, few images of wrathful deities were allowed to be removed from Bhutan for the exhibition, for fear of leaving the country unprotected.

Vajrabhairava is a wrathful form of Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom (you can see Manjushri’s peaceful head at the top of Vajrabhairava’s multiples heads in this image). He is shown here without his female partner. But, clearly, he is ready for her.

The painting depicts Vajrabhairava performing a war dance by which he transforms demons into protectors of the Buddhist doctrine. Backing up his lead performance is a captivating chorus of similar blue figures. His thirty-two outer hands carry various weapons, which are repeated in the hands of figures dancing around him. His main hands hold a chopper and a skull cup. With his sixteen feet Vajrabhairava tramples on all sorts of creatures to stop harmful influences in their tracks.

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The wrathful deity Vajrabhairava, 1700–1800. Bhutan. Ink and mineral colors on cotton. Phajoding Monastery, Thimphu, Bhutan.

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Vajrabhairava’s war dance

Folks in the San Francisco area on February 26, March 26, or April 23 this year have an opportunity to tour the Asian Art Museum with members of the San Francisco Zen Center. Each group is limited to 15 people. Cost is $20, which includes $15 for dinner in the Asian’s private dining area, which is usually restricted mainly to high-level donors. Sign-up is by e-mail to events [at] sfzc [dot] org, specifying a date.

The SFZC’s appealing logo features an enso by — I think — the center’s founder, Shunryu Suzuki-roshi (not to be confused with Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki), a Japanese Zen priest belonging to the Soto lineage, who came to San Francisco in 1959 at the age of fifty-four and helped popularize Zen teachings in the U.S.

(If I’m wrong about attributingt the enso to Suzuki Roshi, let me know — it’s good enso.)

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San Francisco Zen Center tour of Asian Art Museum

The Chinese invented paper, and paper cutting is an art form with a long history there. Yu Jordy Fu is a designer who was trained as an architect at the Royal College of Art in London. She has developed a 3D style of paper cutting that she turns into lamps with clever use of LED or other lighting. A selection of these, such as the Memory Cloud Lamp, above, are for sale on her website.

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Memory Cloud Lamp, 21st c., by Yu Jordy Fu (Chinese, b. 1982). Paper.

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Cut-paper lamps

This photo is from Reuters:

Here’s a full view of the temple, via Travel Happy:

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Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew

Here’s a trailer for the exhibition Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul, on view at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco from Oct 24, 2008 through Jan 25, 2009.

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Trailer for Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul

This dramatic photo from a Balinese cremation ceremony comes from BALIwww.com’s photostream.

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Photo Wednesday: Bali cremation ceremony

The estimable Peacay of BibliOdyssey has posted a series of images of Filipino men and women in typical costumes. Most of the images, like this one, simply called “Old Woman,” are taken from a 1941 an 1841 book available online from the New York Public Library. While the images have a bit of the whiff of colonialism and the specimen book, they are still fascinating historical documents, not least as examples of the watercolor arts of the nineteenth-century.

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Filipino costumes

While we’re on the subject of Indonesian ritual, here is an image of a Kechak dance from www.viajar24h.com’ s photostream.

This dance tells stories from the Ramayana myth. One of its features is a large chorus of young men, said to represent a forest full of monkeys. The men provide the music for the performance by making percussive sounds.

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Some posts related to Southeast Asia:

• Photo Wednesday: Red house in Singapore
• Indra's lute
• Photo Wednesday: Wat Rajabophit
• Photo Wednesday: Indonesian election officials
• Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaew
• Photo Wednesday: Bali cremation ceremony
• Filipino costumes
• Photo Wednesday: Kechak
• The endangered Indonesian dagger (kris)
• Photo Wednesday: Borobudur

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Photo Wednesday: Kechak

According to legend, Ken Arok, founder of the 13th-century Hindu-Buddhist Singosari kingdom, won his throne through a series of murders accomplished with a wavy dagger called a kris. Ken Arok’s dagger was powerful but it was also cursed, and ultimately it also killed its owner.

In Indonesian trance rituals, celebrants in trance states may stab themselves with krises. (Krises are also found in Malaysia, Brunei, Southern Thailand and the southern Philippines.) I think the stabbing is mostly symbolic, as several observers report they result in little or no blood.

In 2005, UNESCO designated the kris a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. But not everyone shares this appreciation of the ritual object. A Southeast Asian Archaeology Newsblog reports:

According to Tony Junus Kartiko Adinegoro, head of Panji Nusantara, an organization of kris aficionados, … widespread irrational beliefs negatively impact the ability to preserve the kris as a cultural artifact.

“The preservation of kris in Indonesia is neglected because religious leaders do not understand the underlying philosophy of the kris.”

Believing kris’ have mystical powers and supernatural beings living inside them has caused Islamic leaders to tell people to stay away from them, Tony said.

“The cultural artifacts are thrown into the sea or destroyed, which saddens us.”

Krises are both artifacts of cultural heritage and works of art. They should always be treated with respect.

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Some posts related to Southeast Asia:

• Daido Bunka enso
• What do Americans know about Asia?
• Friday roundup
• Friday roundup
• Friday roundup

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Kris ritual image is courtesy elbisreverri’s photostream.

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The endangered Indonesian dagger (kris)