Resources

Watch the installation of two monumental Japanese bronze lion sculptures on granite plinths outside the museum’s front entrance on Larkin Street.

Preparators at the Asian Art Museum install a 2100-pound bronze bell for the Bell Ringing Ceremony on December 31. In this annual tradition at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, visitors, led by a Buddhist priest, mark New Year by ringing a 2100-lb., sixteenth-century Japanese bronze bell originally from a temple in Tajima Province in Japan. Now part of the museum’s collection, the bell will be struck 108 times with a large custom-hewn log. According to custom in several Buddhist cultures, this symbolically welcomes the New Year and curbs the 108 mortal desires (bonno) which, according to Buddhist belief, torment humankind.

Sneak a peek behind the scenes of the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco as staff and Ship Art employees install a colossal statue of a man in the museum for the Roads of Arabia exhibition.

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).

Asian Art Museumn’s Art Speak interns collaborate and create guides to the San Francisco Bay Area.

Amandeep Jawa discusses the “Indian-ness” in his life.

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).

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).

Nalini Ghuman, Associate Professor at Mills College, discusses India in the English Musical Imagination.

Asian Art Museum Art Speak interns have a conversation with artist and animator Sanjay Patel.