The Persian World & West Asia

In this activity, you will create your own “space sculpture” out of found objects, light, and shadow.

Design a calligraphic plate using Arabic script and images inspired by a meaningful word.

Islam has been an important cultural force in much of Asia for more than five hundred years, and in some parts for more than a thousand. Today, far more Muslims live in other parts of Asia than in the Arab areas of Asia such as Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Syria.

Touraj Daryaee, Howard C. Baskerville Professor in the History of Iran and the Persianate World and the Associate Director of the Dr. Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies & Culture at the University of California, Irvine, gives a talk to teachers about Cyrus the Great in conjunction with the Cyrus Cylinder exhibition at the Asian Art Museum (on view from August 9–September 22, 2013).

Asian Art Museum Storyteller, Leta Bushyhead, tells a story about the Persian New Year, Nowruz.

Use animal templates to make a mix and match game where you create new mythical creatures.

Over the centuries, two main branches of Buddhism emerged: a transmission that traveled to Southeast Asia, and a transmission that evolved in East Asia. A further offshoot of the northern transmission also developed. All three branches began in India, and developed further as they moved across Asia.