Members of the Bay Area Indian community describe the context of Hindu arts in South Asia. Included are clips of temples, festivals, and worship at various sites in India. Part one of a two part series.
Members of the Bay Area Indian community describe the context of Buddhist arts in South Asia. Included are clips of temples, festivals, and worship at various sites in India. Part two of a two part series.
In this lecture series, renowned scholars from across the nation will discuss the manipulation of art by Asian rulers across cultures and time.
An introduction to the art and architecture of the Hindu temples of India.
Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Miriam Mills, tells an excerpt from the Ramayana in the Southeast Asian galleries at the Asian Art Museum with the use of artworks from the museum's collection.
Learn about Bodh Gaya, one of several sights in India associated with the birth of Buddhism.
Discover a story about the beginnings of Buddhism.
Benoy K. Behl's documentary, Ramayana: The Greatest Epic, takes one to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Myanmar, Nepal and Indonesia to document and tell the story of this great epic through multi-religious, international cultural performances. Generations of children have learned the vast story of the “Ramayana” through the incredibly diverse methods of performance and storytelling. Join the conversation with the director and curator of the exhibition, Forrest McGill.
This lecture series examines the origins of traditions and how traditions are renewed, appropriated, and transformed over time.
Learn to drape this traditional women's garment. The video introduces two different styles of sari draping, one from southern and the other from northern India. A perfect activity for students, requiring only a three-yard length of any colorful fabric.
Hear the origin story of the Hindu deity Ganesha and learn how to identify depictions of Ganesha with the use of artworks in the Asian Art Museum's collection.
Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Miriam Mills, engages pre-school students with a story from the Philippines, Odon the Giant.
A short documentary on the stupa, a hemispherical mound that represents the burial mound of the Buddha.
Join the Society for Asian Art as we explore the art of India and the Islamic world. As in past seasons, the Fall 2011 lecture series will feature prominent scholars and curators from across the country and showcase many treasures of the Asian Art Museum. An array of topics will be discussed, including the life and visual representation of the Buddha; Hindu gods and goddesses and the depiction of heavenly bodies; sacred architecture; Hindu epics; the diversity of South Asian religious practice and the rise of Islam across Asia; Mughals, maharajas, and manuscript paintings; and contemporary Indian art. This lecture series coincides with the beginning of a three-year training program for new Asian Art Museum docents.
Audio tour for The demon Maricha tries to Dissuade Ravana, approx. 1780
Learn about the festival in India for one of the most popular forms of the Goddess—Durga.
Dancer and storyteller Pranita Jain from Kalapriya Center for the Indian Performing Arts leads a special interactive storytelling demonstration animating tales of King Vikramaditya with mudras (gestures) and facial expressions at the Asian Art Museum.
The main figure in this stone sculpture from the 900s shows many characteristic features of images of the Buddha. Here we see elements that tell us we're in the presence of the Buddha as he was on the threshold of achieving enlightenment. Above his head are branches of heart-shaped leaves. They indicate the sacred bodhi tree, under which he is said to have attained enlightenment some 2,500 years ago.
Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Monica Desai, tells a story about Narasimha, an incarnation of the Hindu deity Vishnu. You can find images of Narasimha in the Asian Art Museum's collection.
A lecture series wherein renowned lectures from across the national discuss the relationship between art and narrative in Asia.
A lecture series by renowned scholars on the arts of Asia—explore temples, palaces, and sometimes forgotten places of power, religion, and art. Visit world wonders not simply as tourists today, but as monks, monarchs, artisans and artistocrats, traders and explorers experienced them over the centuries.
In this lecture series, renowned scholars from across the nation will discuss the art and culture on pilgrimage paths across Asia.
Anjana, age 17, discusses her favorite artworks at the Asian Art Museum.
A series of lectures on the arts of India.
This lecture series, organized by the Society for Asian Art, explores narrative using Asian art—how myths, legends, histories and moral precepts have been transmitted through visual means. Topics range from sculptural reliefs and murals used to educate pilgrims at famous religious sites to works created primarily for entertainment. Contemporary storytelling is also addressed via lectures on Bollywood and manga produced by San Francisco's Henry Yoshitaka Kiama.
Utilizing the special exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today. Ann Dyer turned her creative energies to the study and sharing of yoga and music almost twenty years ago, after spending years as a celebrated jazz vocalist. Last year she formed the Vak Project, a creative initiative of presentation and performance, committed to awakening the public's experience of sound and voice. Her most recent venture was a yearlong project commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, which gave birth to her seventy-member Vak Choir of "everyday" voices and culminated in the performance of a theatrical work, Vak: Song of Becoming. Ann's recent TED talk, Why Sing? Why Now?, illustrates the connections between sounds in ancient Indian texts and contemporary life. Ann is director of Mountain Yoga in Oakland.
Utilizing the special exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today. Chiraag Bhakta is an artist in San Francisco. His body of work, such as this project, #whitepeopledoingyoga, is part of an identity project called Pardon My Hindi. His art examines the myths and realities of South Asian American experiences. Duality is a consistent theme in his work. He was raised in an independent motel on a New Jersey freeway by devout Jain parents from India, while being taught by nuns at a Catholic school.
Utilizing the special exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today. John Parulis has exhibited his artwork at Paradise Ridge Winery and Hammerfriar Gallery in Sonoma County. He has been is a member of Yoga Society of New York since 1985 and studied with Sri Brahmananda Sarasvati from 1973 to 1993. John served as a cameraman for Greenpeace, filming projects at sea to save human and marine life. He currently serves on Marin County environmental action committees and produces and films live events for the radio station KPFA.
Utilizing the special exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today. Nalini Mehta started teaching Ayurveda cooking classes ten years ago in New York. She began her career in the food industry as a culinary instructor at Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health, followed by Whole Foods Culinary Center, Institute of Culinary Education, and New York Open Center, teaching vegetarian cooking. Nalini has also worked at Candle Café and Hampton Chutney, in New York. She has been a speaker at Baruch College, Rubin Museum of Art, and Princeton University. Teaching inspired her to start Route to India upon moving to California a few years ago, offering an array of vegetarian classes rooted in the science and philosophy of Ayurveda, along with annual Ayurveda culinary trips to India.
Utilizing the special exhibition, Yoga: The Art of Transformation, as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today.
Utilizing the special exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today. Sachin Deshmukh has been trained as a physician in India and holds several degrees and diplomas in holistic medicine, homeopathy, Ayurveda, and yoga therapy. He practiced medicine for ten years in India, where he headed a hospital's department of natural therapy and yogic sciences. Sachin was born into a family of yoga practitioners and trained under several monks, learning diverse Vedic traditions and philosophies. His approach to holistic medicine is tailored to the specific needs of his students and clients.
Utilizing the special exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation as a point of departure, this short, dynamic talk, or Baat Cheet, focuses on California's unique role in the adoption, evolution, and popularization of yoga today. Eric Shaw has spent nearly thirty years practicing Asian traditions, and he is devoted to freshly interpreting them for modern yogis. He is the creator of the Prasana Yoga's Alignment in Movement system and the informational programs of Yoga Education Through Imagery.
A behind-the-scenes tour of the Maharaja exhibition.
Thanks to the Society for Asian Art's renowned Arts of Asia lecture series, speakers from the Bay Area and across the country will transport you across Asia by land and by sea.
his video shows the master artisans in a South Indian bronze-casting workshop.
Dipti Mathur discusses collecting contemporary Indian art on December 10, 2011, wherein ten Bay Area taste-makers give five-minute presentations about the impact of Indian culture and art on their creative work. From Bollywood to yoga, street food to poetry and art, South Asia has inspired creativity across the world.
Julie Romain of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art discusses how she became a curator of South Asian Art.
The Ramayana comes to life through the second in a three-part series of cross-cultural dance workshops. Kathak comes from the word katha, meaning to tell stories. Charlotte Moraga of Chitresh Das Dance Co. will perform an excerpt from the Ramayana— Pandit Chitresh Das’ Sita Haran, the Abduction of Sita — in a traditional Kathak solo. Rama, Lakshmana and Sita are in the Panchavati forest when the demon Maricha, disguised as a golden deer, tempts Sita and distracts Rama so that Ravana can steal her away, setting in motion fateful events. On the surface it appears to be a fairytale of good and evil, but the ambiguity beneath has many layers. In a Kathak solo, the dancer portrays all the characters in a story using abhinaya (facial expression), hastaks (hand movements) and dance. Afterward, families can learn some of this fascinating Kathak vocabulary in a workshop with members of the Chhandam Youth Dance Company (CYDC).
Steven Winn interviews Director James Ivory and musician Zakir Hussain. In the discussion, Ivory will highlight some of the literary antecedents to the creation of the film, "Heat and Dust" such as the work of Jhabvala, E. M. Forster, and J. R. Ackerley.
A series of lectures wherein renowned scholars from across the Bay Area discuss the arts of South and West Asia.
An excerpt from Sita’s Daughters, a dance piece choreographed and performed by acclaimed artist Mallika Sarabhai.
Renowned scholars discuss the impact of personalities and patronage on the arts of Asia.
The political enlightenment of the West articulated ideals that had no substantial counterpart in the spiritual traditions of Asia according to this event’s featured speaker, Akeel Bilgrami, a leading philosopher and political and cultural commentator. Yet Gandhi, appealing precisely to those traditions, managed to construct a radical political philosophy. In what ways was Gandhi modern despite his explicit opposition to modernity? Is Gandhi relevant to our own time and politics? Dr. Bilgrami presents Gandhi's political philosophy to explore these questions and other contemporary concerns of religion, politics and culture.
The Society for Asian Art's renowned Arts of Asia lecture series will focus on trade roads and sea routes. You will be transported from courts to caravans, from stupas to shipwrecks, from mountain passes and river valleys to open seas. Travel with merchants and monks, monarchs and missionaries and see their riches and relics. Discover ancient ceramics, sculptures, coins, calligraphy, tea wares, textiles and much more.
Farnoosh Fathi reads a poem she wrote in response to the artwork, "Untitled 1 (Peacock with Missiles)," 2010 by Adeela Suleman. This work is in the exhibition Phantoms of Asia: Contemporary Awakens the Past (on view at the Asian Art Museum from May 18–September 2, 2012). For more information: This presentation was part of MATCHA.
Her Highness Princess Gouri Parvathi Bayi of the Travancore Royal Family will introduce the history of her family—an illustrious dynasty that governed, using a sacred concept of trusteeship, one of the most progressive princely states of pre-Independence India.
Asian Art Museum Art Speak interns discuss India and identity with artist and animator Sanjay Patel.
Nalini Ghuman, Associate Professor at Mills College, discusses India in the English Musical Imagination.
Yoga is traditionally associated with ancient schools of Hindu philosophy, in which one attains peace and salvation as the mind, body and spirit unite. Indian classical dance has its own journey that defines a unique path for individuals to attain liberation. The dancers Navia Natarajan (Bharatanatyam) and Niharika Mohanty (Odissi) will demonstrate the benefits of dance and yoga practice, bringing their individualistic styles together while incorporating yoga postures (asanas) and the extension of breath (pranayama).
Yoga is traditionally associated with ancient schools of Hindu philosophy, in which one attains peace and salvation as the mind, body and spirit unite. Indian classical dance has its own journey that defines a unique path for individuals to attain liberation. The dancers Navia Natarajan (Bharatanatyam) and Niharika Mohanty (Odissi) will demonstrate the benefits of dance and yoga practice, bringing their individualistic styles together while incorporating yoga postures (asanas) and the extension of breath (pranayama).
Witness the revolutionary dance technique of Kathak yoga created by Pandit Chitresh Das. Kathak yoga combines innovation within tradition. The dancers (Antara Bhardwaj and Rachna Nivas) perform rhythmic composition through footwork and other movement while simultaneously reciting the underlying rhythmic structure (theka), singing the corresponding melody (lehara), and playing the tabla, harmonium or finger cymbals (manjira).
Witness the revolutionary dance technique of Kathak yoga created by Pandit Chitresh Das. Kathak yoga combines innovation within tradition. The dancers (Antara Bhardwaj and Rachna Nivas) perform rhythmic composition through footwork and other movement while simultaneously reciting the underlying rhythmic structure (theka), singing the corresponding melody (lehara), and playing the tabla, harmonium or finger cymbals (manjira).
Amandeep Jawa discusses the "Indian-ness" in his life.
A Maharaja's magnificent silver and enamel carriage is hoisted into the Asian Art Museum through the large rear windows of the building via crane, and then carefully uncrated and installed for the upcoming Maharaja exhibition. Time lapse video compresses approximately two full days of work into less than two minutes. This carriage was on view during the exhibition, Maharaja: The Splendor of India's Royal Courts (October 21, 2011–April 8, 2012).
New Delhi-based artist Jagannath Panda lives in the burgeoning city of Gurgaon, which is one of India's major outsourcing hubs and bases of operation for global corporations. His works illustrate the city's tensions, as overdevelopment threatens natural habitats and infrastructures collapse before they are completed. Panda's mix of mythology and realism points to the evolving nature of Indian identity and experience today.
Artist Joanna Swan discusses India and her work during the during the PechaKucha Night at the Asian Art Museum.
Asian Art Museum Storyteller Amit Pendyal tells a scene from the Rama epic (Ramayana) with the use of artworks in the museum's collection. Discover more fresh takes on this ageless tale in the exhibition, The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe.
