Asian America

Artist Joanna Swan discusses India and her work during the during the PechaKucha Night at the Asian Art Museum.

The Buddha—that is, the “Enlightened One”—lived nearly 2500 years ago in northern India. His followers have always seen his life as a shining example to all, but what “really happened” is now impossible to know for certain. Even the earliest stories of his life include miraculous events that may seem hard to take literally. Later versions are even more elaborate, and they differ from one another in many details.

“Asia” is a term invented by the Greeks and Romans, and developed by Western geographers to indicate the land mass east of the Ural Mountains and Ural River, together with offshore islands such as Japan and Java.

Commissioned for our 50th anniversary, Liu Jianhua’s striking artwork “Collected Letters” links the Asian Art Museum building’s past as the city’s Main Library with the museum’s distinctly forward-looking mission.