Author: Alexandra Green
Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
ISBN: 9888390880
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 248
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Book Description
Step into a Burmese temple built between the late seventeenth and early nineteenth centuries and you are surrounded by a riot of color and imagery. The majority of the highly detailed wall paintings displays Buddhist biographical narratives, inspiring the devotees to follow the Buddha’s teachings. Alexandra Green goes one step further to consider the temples and their contents as a whole, arguing that the wall paintings mediate the relationship between the architecture and the main Buddha statues in the temples. This forges a unified space for the devotees to interact with the Buddha and his community, with the aim of transforming the devotees’ current and future lives. These temples were a cohesively articulated and represented Burmese Buddhist world to which the devotees belonged. Green’s visits to more than 160 sites with identifiable subject matter form the basis of this richly illustrated volume, which draws upon art historical, anthropological, and religious studies methodologies to analyze the wall paintings and elucidate the contemporary religious, political, and social concepts that drove the creation of this lively art form. “Buddhist Visual Cultures, Rhetoric, and Narrative in Late Burmese Wall Paintings is truly a tour de force that allows us to see Burmese temple paintings of the Life of the Buddha and similar themes as an open-ended genre that, like literary discourse, participates in wider social, intellectual, and religious contexts.” —Juliane Schober, Arizona State University “Alexandra Green introduces this relatively unknown material and subjects it to sophisticated analysis. This study is major step towards creating a template that could be used for analyzing other late traditions of Buddhist painting.” —Janice Leoshko, University of Texas at Austin
Author: Alexandra Kaloyanides
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231553315
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 198
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Book Description
In July 1813, a young American couple from Boston arrived in Rangoon to preach the gospel. Celebrated in the Protestant press, which ran dramatic accounts of exotic adventures, the attempt to convert the Burmese met with mixed results. Although Burmese Buddhists resisted Christian evangelism, people from minority communities were baptized in large numbers throughout the nineteenth century. American Baptist Christianity was itself transformed in the Buddhist kingdom. Missionaries who were initially horrified by what they saw as the idolatry of Buddha statues found themselves creating tree shrines and their converts hanging colorful Jesus paintings in their churches. Baptizing Burma explores the history of how the American Baptist mission to Burma failed to convert the country yet succeeded in transforming its religious landscape. Alexandra Kaloyanides examines how the Burmese majority positioned Buddhism to counter Christianity, how marginalized groups took on Baptist identities, and how Protestantism was reimagined as a Southeast Asian religion. She considers a series of holy objects to reveal the mechanics of religious practice in a period of entangled empires—British, Burmese, and American. By telling stories of four key things—the sacred book, the school house, the pagoda, and the portrait—this book illuminates the histories of Burma’s last kingdom and the unexpected consequences of America’s first overseas mission.
Author: Elizabeth Moore
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951994
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 472
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Book Description
Wider Bagan: Ancient and Living Buddhist Traditions is the first book to define the area outside the renowned Buddhist capital where vestiges of Bagan era cultural traditions can be found. From nearly six hundred attributes inventoried in Wider Bagan, thematic and geographical analysis of the Wider Bagan data reveals a related but different trajectory from that of the capital. The Sasanā of the court was honoured, and though its economy profited many places across Wider Bagan, local resilience was foremost. While the capital and Wider Bagan existed in relation to each other, their aims and narratives differed. Much has been written about Bagan, but little attention on the ground has been devoted to areas beyond the capital. These places have stories to tell—ones of the past and of the present—that are narrated in this book. "Wider Bagan is the most important recent publication on Myanmar’s past. Tracing Bagan’s ideational and material legacies, it recovers how this kingdom’s successors related to their heritages. Meticulously researched, beautifully illustrated, studded with clear maps, tables and outlines—Wider Bagan reveals these legacies’ custodians—inhabiting territories stretching as far as Yunnan and Bengal. Multiple topics are examined also in light of local scholarship, often ignored due to linguistic limitations. The resulting evocations of times and places make Wider Bagan an enduring guide to people’s lives—also in the larger scheme of things—like the community tracing its founding to the Buddha Gotama’s grandfather. No one interested in Myanmar’s complex past and fractious present can ignore the author’s conclusions."—Lilian Handlin, Member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences CAMLab. "In her detailed survey of hundreds of sites in the Ayeyarwady River basin, Moore and her collaborators have revealed a long-suspected, but hitherto undocumented, rural cultural landscape with origins well before and persisting long after the political heyday of metropolitan Bagan in the eleventh through thirteenth centuries. During their investigations, the authors had numerous encounters with local scholar-archaeologists who identified frequently overlooked physical attributes that define the local cultural landscape. In mapping these attributes, the authors reconstructed a narrative of local resilience that speaks to a long local history of diversity and adaptability over an extensive region, where other scholars—working mainly from historical chronicles—had observed only a rigid hegemony emanating from the political centre at Bagan. Moore’s innovative methodology breaks new ground for the study of early urban formations, not only in Myanmar but throughout mainland Southeast Asia. This research contributes to a building body of evidence that suggests a fresh paradigm to replace the long-standing concentric circle model most often used to explain state formation throughout the region. In this new paradigm, the contradiction between urban and rural settlements is dismantled as the stories of the smaller villages and towns re-enact the iterative process between places, communities of users, and social memory of Wider Bagan, demonstrating, in the process, an ecology of resilient settlement that has endured through generations of political, social and economic upheaval."—Richard A. Engelhardt, UNESCO Chair Professor of Cultural Heritage Management and Regional Advisor for Culture in Asia and the Pacific
Author: Helen Wang
Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1803276118
Category : Antiques & Collectibles
Languages : en
Pages : 236
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Book Description
24 contributions reflect the vast scope of Joe Cribb’s interests including Asian numismatics, museology, poetry and art. Papers are arranged geographically, then chronologically/thematically including studies on coins, charms and silver currencies in or from China; finds from ancient Central Asia and Afghanistan: coins of South Soghd, and far more.
Author: Sarah Shaw
Publisher: Shambhala Publications
ISBN: 0834843579
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 305
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Book Description
An accessible introduction to the teachings of the Buddha told through the oral tradition of the Dīghanikāya--the preeminent text of the Pali canon. The Dīghanikāya or Long Discourses of the Buddha is one of the four major collections of teachings from the early period of Buddhism. Its thirty-four suttas (in Sanskrit, sutras) demonstrate remarkable breadth in both content and style, forming a comprehensive collection. The Art of Listening gives an introduction to the Dīghanikāya and demonstrates the historical, cultural, and spiritual insights that emerge when we view the Buddhist suttas as oral literature. Each sutta of the Dīghanikāya is a paced, rhythmic composition that evolved and passed intergenerationally through chanting. For hundreds of years, these timeless teachings were never written down. Examining twelve suttas of the Dīghanikāya, scholar Sarah Shaw combines a literary approach and a personal one, based on her experiences carefully studying, hearing, and chanting the texts. At once sophisticated and companionable, The Art of Listening will introduce you to the diversity and beauty of the early Buddhist suttas.
Author: Mona Baker
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 131739173X
Category : Foreign Language Study
Languages : en
Pages : 1137
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Book Description
The Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies remains the most authoritative reference work for students and scholars interested in engaging with the phenomenon of translation in all its modes and in relation to a wide range of theoretical and methodological traditions. This new edition provides a considerably expanded and updated revision of what appeared as Part I in the first and second editions. Featuring 132 as opposed to the 75 entries in Part I of the second edition, it offers authoritative, critical overviews of additional topics such as authorship, canonization, conquest, cosmopolitanism, crowdsourced translation, dubbing, fan audiovisual translation, genetic criticism, healthcare interpreting, hybridity, intersectionality, legal interpreting, media interpreting, memory, multimodality, nonprofessional interpreting, note-taking, orientalism, paratexts, thick translation, war and world literature. Each entry ends with a set of annotated references for further reading. Entries no longer appearing in this edition, including historical overviews that previously appeared as Part II, are now available online via the Routledge Translation Studies Portal. Designed to support critical reflection, teaching and research within as well as beyond the field of translation studies, this is an invaluable resource for students and scholars of translation, interpreting, literary theory and social theory, among other disciplines.
Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
The Life of the Buddha - Burmese Murals from the Late 16th to the Late 18th Centuries' is the first book to combine expertise in Burmese epigraphy, manuscript paleography, literary production, historiography, monastic history and Buddhist architecture with a close study of the visual vocabulary, iconography and stylistic features of murals. Resulting from a collaboration that began in 2009, this is also the first attempt to move from the examination of a few selected monuments with better preserved paintings to a comprehensive survey of all remaining murals regardless of their degree of preservation. The authors significantly revise the accepted chronology of Burmese murals of the 17th and 18th centuries, provide a timeline of major iconographic innovations in the depiction of Buddhist narratives, and suggest definitions of a range of different styles developed during that timeframe. Indeed, this book provides the first chronological classification of mural styles from the late 16th to the late 18th century, tracing their origin in 14th and 15th century murals and putting them in perspective with 19th century ones. With over 500 mostly unpublished illustrations of monuments and murals, and translations of Burmese captions for more than 150 scenes from the life of the Buddha, this reference book is a milestone in the field of Burmese studies and a fascinating testimony to one of the major cultural heritages of Buddhist Asian art.
Author: Alexy Kirichenko
Publisher:
ISBN: 9786164510166
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 320
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Book Description
With over 500 mostly unpublished illustrations of monuments and murals, and translations of Burmese captions for more than 150 scenes from the life of the Buddha, this reference book is a milestone in the field of Burmese studies and a fascinating testimony to one of the major cultural heritages of Buddhist Asian art Preserves deteriorating murals Includes new multidisciplinary research Includes images from rarely visited temples The Life of the Buddha - Burmese Murals from the Late 16th to the Late 18th Centuries is the first book to combine expertise in Burmese epigraphy, manuscript palaeography, literary production, historiography, monastic history and Buddhist architecture with a close study of the visual vocabulary, iconography and stylistic features of murals. Resulting from a collaboration that began in 2009, this is also the first attempt to move from the examination of a few selected monuments with better preserved paintings to a comprehensive survey of all remaining murals regardless of their degree of preservation. The authors also significantly revise the accepted chronology of Burmese murals of the 17th and 18th centuries, provide a timeline of major iconographic innovations in the depiction of Buddhist narratives, and suggest definitions of a range of different styles developed during that timeframe. Indeed, this book provides the first chronological classification of mural styles from the late 16th to the late 18th century, tracing their origin in 14th and 15th century murals and putting them in perspective with 19th century ones.
Author: Alexandra Green
Publisher: Ad Ilissum
ISBN: 9781912168279
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 256
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Book Description
This stunning catalogue presents an exceptional collection of rare Burmese silver. Accompanied by detailed photographs and explanatory texts, this ground-breaking book proposes a new way of looking at Burmese silver. Names, dates, places, and stories - identifying the who, when, where, and what of Burmese silver has been the focus of publications on the topic. Are these questions the best way to understand silver, however? Alexandra Green argues that they are not. Too few pieces provide reliable information about silversmiths, production locations, and dates to allow for a comprehensive understanding of the subject. Instead, a close examination of silver patterns reveals strong links with Burmese art history reaching as far back as the Bagan period (11th to 13th centuries), connections with contemporary artistic trends, and participation within the wider world of silversmithing. The first European to write about Burmese silver was H L Tilly, a colonial official from the late 19th into the early 20th century. Tasked with collecting objects for various fairs and exhibitions, he took an interest in Burmese art, publishing articles and books from the 1880s onwards. While much of what he wrote was factually inaccurate and coloured by the prejudices and stereotypes common at the time, his two volumes on Burmese silver published in 1902 and 1904 contain pictures of pieces from the early to mid 19th century. These enable a reconstruction of how silver designs evolved as the country was absorbed into the Indian Raj, and British and other Westerners became consumers of local silver products. Tilly was also correct in his interest in silver designs. Green uses the visual information from his books to describe the continuities and innovations of designs found on silver from the mid 19th through the mid 20th century, and she places these trends within local, regional, and global flows of ideas. Many studies of Burmese silver have been plagued by a lack of understanding of the Burmese context. In contrast, Green examines silver from a local perspective, drawing on Burmese texts and information that allows for a nuanced view of the motifs, designs, and patterns that appear repetitively on silver pieces. Using Graham Honeybill's collection, formed over many years, as a basis, she explores how designs and patterns circulated around the country and were innovatively combined and recombined on pieces by silversmiths producing objects for Burmese, Western, and commercial clients.
Author: Alexandra Green
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 196
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Book Description
This volume presents papers from a unique two-day conference organized in London in 2000 by The British Museum and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. The academic study of Burma, especially the study of its cultural history, has been very largely ignored over the last fifty years. The conference papers published here together form a major contribution towards the redress of that neglect. Current research was presented by scholars from the USA, Germany, France, Australia and the UK. Topics covered are prehistory, architecture (monastic and secular), the cult of the nats, lacquer, illustrated manuscripts, mural paintings, sculpture, textiles and the Ferrars Archive of Burma photographs at the Royal Geographical Society. Contents: - Introduction by Alexandro Green and T. Richard Blurton - Prehistoric grave goods from the Chindwin and Samon River regions by U Nyunt Han, U Win Maung (Tanpawady) and Elizabeth Moore - Digging for myths: archaeological excavations and surveys of the legendary nineteen founding villages of Pagan by Bob Hudson, U Nyein Lwin and U Win Maung (Tanpawady) - Offering up a rare jewel: Buddhist merit-making and votive tablets in early Burma by John Guy - A Burma origin for the Sukhothai Walking Buddha by Pamela Gutman - Relationships between Buddhist texts and images of the Enlightenment during the Early Pagan Period by Charlotte Galloway - Bronze sculptures from Burma in the British Museum by T. Richard Blurton - Narrative modes in late seventeenth to early nineteenth century Burmese wall paintings by Alexandra Green - Burmese cosmological manuscripts by Patricia Herbert - 'Royal images' in their'palaces': the place of the statues in the cult of the 37 nats by Benedicte Brac de la Perriere - Problems and prosecpets for the preservation of wooden monasteries in Burma by Sylvia Fraser-Lu - The Kachin Manau and Manau Shadung: the development of an ethno-cultural symbol in Burma by Mandy Sodan - Court dress, politics and ethnicity in the Shan states by Susan Conway - Diversity, identity and modernity in exile: 'traditional' Karenni clothing by Sandra Dudley - Burmese arts and crafts: the Scherman collection in the Ethnographical Museum, Munich by Uta Weigelt - Photographs by Max and Bertha Ferrars by Joanna Scadden
