Chapter 23: Indian and Southeast Asian Art

Ashlar masonry

carefully cut and grooved stones that support a building without the use of concrete or other kinds of masonry

Bas-relief

a very shallow relief sculpture

Bodhisattva

a deity who refrains from entering nirvana to help others

Buddha

a fully enlightened being. There are many Buddhas, the most famous of whom is Sakyamuni, also known as Gautama or Siddhartha

Cella

the main room of a temple, where the god is housed

Darshan

in Hinduism, the ability of a worshipper to see a deity and the deity to see the worshipper

Garbha griha

a “womb chamber,” the inner room in a Hindu temple that houses the god’s image

Horror vacui

(Latin, meaning “fear of empty spaces”) a type of artwork in which the entire surface is filled with objects, people, designs, and ornaments in a crowded and sometimes congested way

Hypostyle

a hall with a roof supported by a dense thicket of columns Iconoclasm— the destruction of religious images that are seen as heresy

Mandorla

(Italian, meaning “almond”) an almond-shaped circle of light around the figure of Christ or Buddha

Mithuna

in India, the mating of males and females in a ritualistic, symbolic, or physical sense

Mudra

a symbolic hand gesture in Hindu and Buddhist art

Nirvana

an afterlife in which reincarnation ends and the soul becomes one with the supreme spirit

Puja

a Hindu prayer ritual Sakyamuni

Shikara

a bee-hive shaped tower on a Hindu temple

Shiva

the Hindu god of creation and destruction

Stupa

a dome-shaped Buddhist shrine

Torana

a gateway near a stupa that has two upright posts and three horizontal lintels. They are usually elaborately carved

Urna

a circle of hair on the brows of a deity, sometimes represented as focal point

Ushnisha

a protrusion at the top of the head, or the top knot of a Buddha

Vairocana

the universal Buddha, a source of enlightenment; also known as the Supreme Buddha who represents “emptiness,” that is, freedom from earthly matters to help achieve salvation

Vishnu

the Hindu god worshipped as the protector and preserver of the world

Wat

a Buddhist monastery or temple in Cambodia

Yakshi

female and male figures of fertility in Buddhist and Hindu art

The Lion

a symbol of Buddha’s royalty

The Wheel

Buddha’s law

Lotus

a symbol of Buddha’s pure nature. The lotus grows in swamps, but mud slides off its surface.

Columns surrounded by a wheel

Buddha’s teaching

Empty Throne

Buddha, or a reminder of a Buddha’s presence.

Bodhisattvas

helpers of the Buddha, are usually depicted near the Buddha.

mudras

Buddhas' moods vary but most suggest meditation. Hand gestures called \____, reveal Buddhas' actions and feelings.

ushnisha

The head has an \______ or top knot, hair has tight curls, and extremely long ears.

Yakshas and yakshis

These are distinctive figures that appear frequently in Indian popular religion and are often incorporated into the Buddhist pantheon.

Gandharan

• By Buddha from Bamiyan (400–800)

• First colossal Buddhas.

• Pilgrimage site linked to the Silk Road.

• These Buddhas served as models for later large-scale rock-cut images in China.

churning of the ocean of milk

one of the central events in the ever-continuing struggle between the devas (gods) and the asuras (demons, or titans).

Jowo Rinpoche enshrined in the Jokhang Temple

• Statue thought to have been blessed by the Buddha himself

• Temple founded in 647 by the first ruler of a unified Tibet.

• Disappeared in 1960s during China’s Cultural Revolution.

Mt. Meru

The stupa represents _____, the mountain at the center of the world in Buddhist cosmology that connects the earth and the heavens.

giant hemisphere

The stupa's distinctive shape, like a ____, and the direction of prayer with the sun, give it cosmic symbolism.

Great Stupa

• Pilgrimage site.

• A Buddhist shrine, mound shaped and faced with dressed stone containing the relics of the Buddha.

• The worshipper circumambulates the stupa clockwise along the base of the drum

Great Stupa Torana

• orientation and direction of ritualistic circumambulation correspond with the direction of the sun’s course

• richly carved scenes on the architraves

Borobudur Temple

• Pyramid in form; aligned with the four cardinal points of the compass.

• This massive Buddhist monument contains 504 life-size Buddhas, 1,460 narrative relief sculptures on 1,300 panels 8,200 feet long.

• Meant to be circumambulated on each terrace

Borobudur Temple Body

• five terraces in which people abandon their earthly desires;

• this is the world of forms—people have to control these negative impulses;

• sculptures here show the pilgrimage of the young man, Sudhana, who sets out in search of the Ultimate Truth.

Borobudur Temple Superstructure

an area that represents a formless world, in which a person experiences reality in its purest stage, where the physical world and worldly desire are expunged.

Queen Maya riding a horse carriage retreating to Lumbini to give birth to Prince Siddhartha Gautama

• Densely packed scene; horror vacui.

• The queen is majestic and at rest before giving birth.

• Ready to give birth to her son, Prince Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha.

• She is brought to the city in a great ceremonial procession.

Brahmins

Orthodox Hindus accept the Vedic texts as divine in origin and maintain aspects of the Vedic social hierarchy, which assigns a caste of ritual specialists known as _____ to officiate between the gods and humankind.

Shiva as Lord of Dance (Nataraja)

• Shiva has four hands.

• The sculpture becomes the receptacle for the divine spirit when people pray before it

• The distribution of this figure due to the patronage of a queen, Mahadevi.

Lakshmana Temple

• The temple is placed on a high pedestal, or plinth, to be seen from a distance. It appears like rising peaks of a mountain range.

• It is a Hindu temple grouped with a series of other temples in Khajuraho.

• The temple is dedicated to Vishnu.

Angkor Wat Temple

• Dedicated to Vishnu; most sculptures represent Vishnu’s incarnations.

• May have been intended to serve as the king’s mausoleum.

• built by King Suryavarman II.

• Mountain-like towers symbolize the five peaks of Mount Meru

South Gate of Angkor Wat Temple

• one of the 5 gates which guard the ancient city of Angkor Thom, and is the best preserved of all the gates.

• It was built by King Jayavarman VII in the late 12th Century, serving as 1 of the 5 holy Buddhist gateways to Angkor Thom.

Jayavarman VII as Buddha

He was considered to be a living Buddha, or bodhisattva who turned his back from the brink of enlightenment to redeem or save his people from suffering; he imagined himself in a role similar to that of the present day Dalai Lama of Tibet.

Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings

• By Bichitr (c. 1620)

• Great interest in the Mughal court for European allegorical portraits, techniques, and motifs.

• Quotation, in frame: “Though outwardly shahs stand before him, he fixes his gazes on dervishes.”