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 While the images have a bit of the whiff of colonialism and the specimen book, they are still fascinating historical documents, not least as examples of the watercolor arts of the nineteenth-century.

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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:

• Filipino costumes
• Photo Wednesday: Kechak
• The endangered Indonesian dagger (kris)
• Photo Wednesday: Borobudur
• The jester Togog
• Photo Wednesday: Bali kite
• The jester Semar
• Photo Wednesday: Bali monkey

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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 inMalaysia, 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 artefacts of cultural heritage and works of art. They should always be treated with respect.

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Some posts related to Southeast Asia:

• Filipino costumes
• Photo Wednesday: Kechak
• The endangered Indonesian dagger (kris)
• Photo Wednesday: Borobudur
• The jester Togog
• Photo Wednesday: Bali kite
• The jester Semar
• Photo Wednesday: Bali monkey

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Kris ritual image is courtesy elbisreverri’s photostream.

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This image of Borobudur in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia. is from shapeshift’s photostream.

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Some posts related to Southeast Asia:

• Filipino costumes
• Photo Wednesday: Kechak
• The endangered Indonesian dagger (kris)
• Photo Wednesday: Borobudur
• The jester Togog
• Photo Wednesday: Bali kite
• The jester Semar
• Photo Wednesday: Bali monkey

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A couple of people were asking for more images of Indonesian jester puppets. Here’s another one from the Asian Art Museum (where the puppets are difficult to photograph because they are displayed in very low light). His name is Togog.

Earlier I posted an image of the jester Semar. There is more information about Indonesian clown puppets at the Museum of Folly.

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The jester Togog, ca. 1800-1900. Ondonesia; Bandung, West Java. Wood cloth, and mixed media. Asian Art Museum; From the Mimi and John Herbert Collection, F2000.85.33.

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While we’re at the Walters Art Museum (see the previous couple of posts), let’s check out this interesting Boddhisattva. As you can see from this detail, the enigmatically smiling figure has an oddly square face and jaw, with very wide eyes. Features such as these, along with the drapery on the shoulders, lead the Walters curators to suppose that it may have been made in what is today Shaanxi province, in the sixth century.

Standing Bodhisattva, 6th century. China, Shaanxi province. Limestone. Acquired by Henry Walters, 1920, 25.5.

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Here’s another great Ganesha from the Walters Art Museum in Baltimor. This one was made in Bihar in the eleventh century, during the Pala dynasty. The material is muscovite biotite schist. Gift of J. Gilman d’Arcy Paul, 1967, 25.49.

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Here’s another great dancing Ganesha. This one is in the collection of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. From Uttar Pradesh, it dates from the ninth or tenth century. I took this photo of a detail of the sculpture when I was visiting Baltimore recently. The label includes this charming commentary:

Like his father [Shiva], Ganesha combines opposing traits: he is a leader of Shiva’s troops, but he is also lovable (there is a bowl of sweets beneath the tip of his trunk). He dances in imitation of his father’s cosmic dance. Ganesha became the lord of beginnings for Hindus and is prayed to at the start of an endeavor. [See early posts on this blog.] Images such as this one were placed in the southern exterior niche of a temple, to be encountered first in a ritual walk around the outside of a temple.

Dancing Ganesha, 9th-10th century, India: Uttar Pradesh, sandstone, gift of John and Bertha Fora, 2004, 25-253.

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BTW, 7 Junipers aspires to post regularly — a reasonable goal for this site at present might be three times a week — but sometimes life just gets in the way, as Mr. Burns (Robert, not George) noted (the best-laid schemes o’ mice an ‘men gang aft agley). In upcoming days I will be filling in missing posts and working my way back to the goal.

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This image of an unusual kite in Bali, Indonesia, comes from sektordua’s photostream.

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Many people are familiar with the shadow puppets that are a popular court art of central Java. Rod puppets (wayang golek) are a puppet form that is popular among nonartistocratic audience in western Java and the northern coast of central Java. The puppets perform tales from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, as well as other Hindu and Islamic texts.

This figure is Semar, a jester. Jesters are a popular element of rod puppet performances. This puppet is part of a large collection at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. The is more information about Indonesian rod pupet jesters at the Museum of Folly (and some more images).

The jester Semar, ca. 1800-1900. Ondonesia; Bandung, West Java. Wood cloth, and mixed media. Asian Art Museum; From the Mimi and John Herbert Collection, F2000.85.29.

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I posted about Zhan Wang’s San Francisco landscape made of pots and pans before. For this image I used this nifty technique for removing color cast. (Compare the color to this image.)

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Lately I’ve been thinking a bit about Bali, so let’s remain there for a while. This fellow comes to us from
Beat’s photostream.

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The other day I commented on Deb Clearwaters’s new blog on Bali. Subsequently, I found this collection of paintings by the Russian-born German painter Walter Spies. Spies, who was born in 1895, moved to Bali in 1927. His painting swings between mannerist and expressionist tendencies, but often with overtones of the primitivism of someone like Dounier Rousseau. With decent connections to the international art community, Spies helped to popularize the notion of Bali as an idyllic and exotic Shangri-La. This painting dates from 1929.

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This photo of a rice farmer in Bali comes from wYnand!’s photostream.

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Indian painting is hot these days. Francis Newton Souza’s Birth (oil on board, 48 x 96 in., 1955), shown above, recently sold for $2,487,931 at an auction at Christie’s London, a record price for modern Indian art.

Souza spent much of his life in London and is the only Indian artist to have a room dedicated to his works at Tate Britain. He was born on April 12, 1924, in Saligaon, Goa, India and died on March 28, 2002 , in Bombay, India. His website is maintained by his estate.

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• Pico Iyer on Tibet, China and the Dalai Lama
• Revisiting Phnom Penh
• Chinese art on bubble?
• “Life and Marriage in Skya rgya, a Tibetan Village
• Philadelphia Museum of Art: Multiple Modernities: India, 1905-2005
• Astro Boy made from recycled train tickets

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This image of the Taj Mahal, the mausoleum constructed by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan in the seventeenth century, is from Stuck in Customs’s photostream.

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Deborah Clearwaters has begun a blog that will present “musings about the Balinese arts of music, dance, sculpture, painting, and the ephemeral arts of offering making.” This is sure to be a good resource for anyone interested in this topic. Visit Bali Art Blog here.

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• Christie’s sets record with Asia art sales
• Passion drives rough diamond (Ling Yaqian)
• Meet Tibetan artist Karma Phuntsok
• Sudarshan Pattnaik’s global warming sand sculpture wins prize
• The Contemporary Tea House: Japan’s Top Architects Redefine a Tradition
• Iranian Cinema
• Balinese artist Ketut Budiana’s Dance of the Witches

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The image above is a Daruma doll. The owner of such a doll paints in one eye and makes a wish. When the wish is fulfilled, the other eye is painted in.

An operation took 7 Junipers out of operation. I had a little trouble with one of my eyes.

Happily, I am now back. And blogging!

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This photo of a bride bedecked and bejeweled for her wedding is from riceFR’s photostream.

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