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Trần, Võ & Sharrock eds. (2018), Vibrancy in Stone

Vibrancy in StoneTrần Kỳ Phương, Võ Văn Thắng, Peter D. Sharrock (eds), Paisarn Piemmettawat (photographs). Vibrancy in Stone: Masterpieces of the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture. Bangkok: River Books. 288 pp. + 324 photographs. ISBN 978 616 7339 99 3. 2,000.00 ฿ (within Thailand). [official site] [official launch] [co-editor Peter D. Sharrock: academia.edu]

Description
The collection of the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture, mostly in sandstone, was gathered from the Champa monuments that were collapsed covered by dense tropical flora for centuries. Only in the late 19th century did the ruined mounds began to attract collectors of antiquities and researchers of cultural heritage. The large undertaking of surveying, recording, clearing and scientifically excavating them took place in the first thirty years of the 20th century, when sculptures from this hitherto little studied culture began to be transferred to the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture, then referred to as the ‘Musée Čam’ or ‘Musée de Tourane’. Continue reading “Trần, Võ & Sharrock eds. (2018), Vibrancy in Stone”

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Furger (2017), The Gilded Buddha

Alex R. Furger. 2017. The gilded Buddha: The traditional art of the Newar metal casters in Nepal, with a contribution by Ratna Jyoti Shakya. Basel/Frankfurt a. M.: LIBRUM Publishers & Editors. ISBN: 978-3-906897-06-6. DOI:10.19218/3906897066. [official] [PDF 🔓]

Note: This extraordinary book covers almost every conceivable aspect of metalworked image production in the Newar Buddhist community.

Furger 2017:147 Figs. 258 [Bhairava at the entrance to the BhairavnathTemple in Bhaktapur], 259 [Man Jyoti Shakya (1917–1991) in 1973], 260 [Two pages from a sketchbook (ṭhyāsaphu) for metal craftsmen.]

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Revire (2016), The Enthroned Buddha

Nicolas Revire. 2016. ‘The Enthroned Buddha in Majesty: An Iconological Study’. PhD diss. (Religions), Université Sorbonne Paris Cité. 2 vols., 410+299 pp. HAL ID: <tel-01552082>. [PDFs: vol.1, vol.2] [author: academia.edu]

Revire 2016 p.215
Revire 2016 II:215 Figs 5.77a-b

From the Abstract: This dissertation consists of a detailed study of a particular representation of the Buddha, in which he sits on a prominent throne, i.e. a bhadrapīṭha or bhadrāsana, in a majestic posture with two legs pendant, that is, in bhadrāsana or the “auspicious pose.” This pendant-legged imagery, generally associated with a throne, has been found widely depicted in ancient religious art associated with early urban complexes and is, as a rule, mostly associated with kingship, fertility, and even divinity. […] Continue reading “Revire (2016), The Enthroned Buddha”

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The Richard R. & Magdalena Ernst Collection of Himalayan Art (2018)

The Richard R. & Magdalena Ernst Collection of Himalayan Art. Auction, 22 March 2018, 10:00 AM EDT, Sotheby’s New York. Sale Number N09800. (Part of Asia Week New York.) [official site] [PDF]

Note: This extraordinary collection contains Nepalese paintings that have received little attention or that are otherwise significant. For instance, Lot 907 (below) is identified as a painted icon of Buddhakapāla (?), which would make it the only one known in Nepal.

Buddhakapāla couple (? supplied identification) with four yoginīs and donors, Nepal, early 19th c., Sotheby’s Sale N09800 Lot 907
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Hua (2016), Buddhist Printing in China under Mongol Rule

Hua, Kaiqi. 2016. The White Cloud Movement: Local Activism and Buddhist Printing in China under Mongol Rule (1276-1368 CE). PhD diss., University of California, Merced. 379 pp. [official repo: escholarship.org/uc/item/2w7452q0] [PDF] [author: academia.edu]

Puning canon mantras
Hua 2016:201 Fig.2, mantras transliterated in ‘Phags pa script in the Puning canon 普寧藏本 [beginning: ꡳꡝ ꡋꡏꡡ ꡎꡁꡓꡊꡠ…]

From the Abstract: This dissertation studies the White Cloud movement in Song- and Yuan-era Jiangnan. […] The movement was mostly led by local laymen rather than monks. Its wealth and reputation peaked with the production of a Buddhist canon during the reign of Khubilai Khan (1276-1294), who provided direct patronage. […] Continue reading “Hua (2016), Buddhist Printing in China under Mongol Rule”

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Dina Bangdel (1965–2017)

Dr Dina Bangdel (5.12.1965–25?.7.2017) is well known among Nepal specialists as a historian of religious art. Her 1999 dissertation, Manifesting the Mandala, and co-authored 2003 exhibition catalogue, Circle of Bliss, emphasised the visual culture of the Cakrasamvara cycle in Newar Buddhism, which is traditionally kept secret. Dr Bangdel had been planning to show a selection of this and related art on a world-travelling exhibition and was scheduled to speak at the “New Research on Newar Buddhism” panel at IABS. This week Dr Bangdel passed away, reportedly after complications following surgery. She is survived by her husband Bibhakar Shakya and two children.

(Added 2018/1/20:) ‘Remembering scholars of Nepalese Art Mary Slusser and Dina Bangdel’ (Rubin Museum of Art)

Aryatara
Tamang, ‘Green Tara’ (Bangdel 2016, fig.6)

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Richardson (2016), Murals at Shalu

Richardson, Sarah Aoife. 2016. ‘Painted Books for Plaster Walls: Visual Words in the Fourteenth-century Murals at the Tibetan Buddhist Temple of Shalu.’ PhD diss., University of Toronto. 271+146+186 pp. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/73147.

From the Abstract: Elaborate mural paintings made after a major renovation of the temple in the early fourteenth century included long Tibetan inscriptions, displaying sometimes large passages of Tibetan sacred texts as part of their communicative pictorial program. By variously projecting books onto the walls, the temple’s abbot, Butön Rinchen Drup (Bu ston rin chen ‘grub, 1290-1364) placed new textual collections, inherently scholastic and elite projects, assertively into a more public domain.