NY Metropolitan Showcases Early Religious Art Of Southeast Asia

NY Metropolitan Showcases Early Religious Art Of Southeast Asia

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If you are interested in early Southeast Asian art and lucky enough to be in New York City  from now until July 27, you will want to see a landmark exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“Lost Kingdoms” is showcasing 160 sculptures from seven 5th to 8thcentury  Hindu and Mahayana Buddhist kingdoms. One third of the pieces are large-scale and include figures and reliefs in stone, terracotta and bronze.  Most of the pieces come from national museums in Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Myanmar (making its first-ever international loans), Vietnam* and India. There are also loans from Britain, France and the United States.

 

 

The seven “lost kingdoms”  are the Dvaravati (located in present-day Thailand), Pyu(Myanmar), Funan (Cambodia and Vietnam), Chenla (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam), Champa (Vietnam, Cambodia), Kedah (Malaysia) and Srivijaya(Indonesia,Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore) . They all flourished before the rise of the great Khmer Empire (802-1431).

The works were inspired by Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism traditions that had been imported directly or indirectly from India—although frequently filtered by local animistic beliefs.

7th Century Hindu Goddess  from the National Museum of Cambodia

I was going to use a photo depicting the face of  the serenely beautiful Buddha image that illustrates the catalog cover and advertises the exhibition.  That  life-sized 7th -century figure is on loan from Thailand’s National Museum.  Instead, I chose the above picture of a sandstone head of Hindu goddess because it might counter preconceptions of what Cambodian sculpture looks like.  Dating from the mid-7th century Khmer kingdom of Chenla, the devi, or goddess, likely depicts Siva/Shiva’s consort, Uma, better known as Parvati in India.

On loan from the National Museum of Cambodia, the statue is  life size, missing only feet and lower arms. The fleshiness is reminiscent of so many Indian sculptures.  Her knees can be seen nudging her diaphanous skirts, displaying “a startling new naturalism not seen before in Khmer art,”  a the exhibition notes  point out.

Sambor Pre Kuk and the Chenla Kingdom

Further investigation reveals that the statue was found in the ruins of the early Khmer city of  “Sambhupura (Sambor on the Mekong)”  in 1901.   I was initially confused by that name because the ruins of Sambor Pre Kuk, the capital of the Chenla kingdom, are far from the Mekong River, about mid-way between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap  (and not at all difficult to visit today.  Go now before Sambor Pre Kuk is inundated by tourists a la Siem Reap!)  As I now understand it, in the 6th and 7th centuries, Sambor Prei Kuk was known asIsanapura; Sambhupura was a contemporaneous Khmer principality on the Mekong . “The sculptural style suggests that the workshops at Isanapura (Sambor Prei Kuk) and Sambhupura shared a common pool of temple architects and sculptors,” according to the museum notes.

There are photos of all the objects in the exhibition here. The New York Times included a very cool 13-piece slide show.  The Times writer closes with “You’re not likely to get this chance, on this scale, again.”

I was curious whether there was a single mover and shaker or two behind this exhibition because it must have taken years to get permissions from so many sources. I’m guessing it was John Guy, the museum’s curator of South and Southeast Asian art, who organized this show. I also wondered about some of the sponsors.  There are some familiar suspects, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Henry Luce Foundation and William Randolph Hearst Foundation, but there was also “support” from Jim Thompson America and Bangkok Broadcasting & TV Co. The James H.W. Thompson Foundation is sponsoring a symposium during the exhibition as well.

It’s very fitting for the Jim Thompson company and foundation to be associated with the exhibition because, as I recall from William Warren’s biography of Jim Thompson, some of the Buddha images and antique objects  (particularly from Chaiya?) now in Bangkok’s National Museum were actually collected by Thompson himself. In the 1950s, not many Thais thought them especially valuable but there came a time when Thompson was pressured by the ruling generals to donate them to the National Museum.

The James H.W. Thompson Foundation’s presence has been growing in Thailand in recent years, it seems to me. It has been sponsoring lectures as the Siam Society, holding art exhibitions and built a library on the lane leading to the Thompson’s legendary Bangkok home. The foundation’s funds are distinct from the  Jim Thompson company, which today designs and sell home furnishings in addition to the original silk fabrics. Proceeds from admission to the house and other activities on the premises fund the foundation. Jim Thompson America must be a branch of the Bangkok-based company (Wow, it even has offices or stores in Kuala Lumpur, Munich, Atlanta and Singapore. ).

Unfortunately, I couldn’t rouse any responses to my questions from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Thailand and Southeast Asia still aren’t that much of a priority for the Metropolitan Museum.

* Specifically, the Museum of Cham Sculpture of which it is oft-said, “The only reason to visit Da Nang is the Cham Museum.”