Resources

Inspired by the British Museum’s video Hajj Stories, staff at the Asian Art Museum asked Bay Area Muslims who have performed the hajj to share experiences of their journeys.

In this video, Buddhist monk artists, Seol-min (formerly known as Jae-u) and Myung Chun discuss Korean Buddhist art and paint the Guardian King of the West, which is now in the Asian Art Museum’s collection. This video also includes footage from a symbolic “eye-opening” ceremony, which took place at the museum on December 20, 2003.

This Goddess image appears in a niche on one side of the main structure of the great Shiva Nataraja (Dancing Shiva) a temple in Chidambaram, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Learn more.

Background information on the Hindu deity, Ganesha, and Hindu architecture.

Fudo Myoo (the Immovable One) is one of the powerful deities known as the Five Bright Kings in Japanese Buddhism and folk religion. As a manifestation of the central cosmic Buddha Mahavairochana (Japanese: Dainichi), Fudo is believed to protect Buddhism and its true adherents. Like all Bright Kings, Fudo assumes a frightening form, with a sword in his right hand and a rope in his left. He sits in front of a swiring flame of fire, with which he purifies evil.

Female Shinto spirit, Heian period (794–1185) or Kamakura period (1185–1333), approx. 1100–1200. Japan. Wood with traces of pigment. Transfer from the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, Gift of Mrs. Herbert Fleishacker, B69S36.

Students will: 1.) examine the Hindu tradition of threshold art; 2.) discuss how Indian values are expressed in the ephemeral art of threshold painting; 3.) draw traditional connect-the-dots threshold art designs; 4.) make colored rice flour and create an auspicious floor painting