Term Paper on "Asian Art of India"

Quoted Instructions for "Asian Art of India" Assignment:

Assignment One

After reading the required section of your textbook, write a five-page essay on one of the following topics using the same formatting as in Unit I, each with fully identified and analyzed works of art in your answer.

How are Buddhist and Hindu religious ideals reflected in temple structures from this region of the world? Select, identify, describe, and discuss four examples (two of each) to focus your discussion.

Please compare the figure of Buddha with images of Hindi gods and goddesses. How do they reveal differing religious beliefs? How are they similar? Identify, describe, and discuss four specific examples (two of each).

Please examine how the Bhagavad-Gita reveals the fundamental teachings of Hinduism, and how those teachings are expressed in visual images. Click here for an online version of the Bhagavad-Gita. How is this poem written to express its ideas in a lyrical format? Do these aesthetics find a parallel in visual images? Use four examples of art to answer these questions.

Give a historical and artistic overview of the Taj Mahal in Agra, India, using your textbook and three additional online sources to discuss this important architectural complex.

Unit Overview

In this unit, you will study the art of Asia, which is the largest geographic region covered in this class, and will focus on India, Southeast Asia, China, Japan and Korea. The Indian subcontinent, or Indus Valley, which includes both modern-day India and Pakistan, was the birthplace of many great religions, including Brahmanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, which all have common roots in the literary and philosophical writings of India in the first millenium BC. From the first through the fourth centuries AD, Buddhism spread throughout Asia into Afghanistan, Nepal, Tibet, and then further southeast into Sri Lanka, Burma, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, and finally into China, Korea and Japan, among other countries.

These religions remain important today in all aspects of Asian culture and the arts. For example, Buddhist temple complexes are often designed with several tall temples in the center surrounded by walls and smaller temples to replicate the Buddhist image of the universe. The sacred image of the universe includes Mount Meru in the center, surrounded by smaller mountains, oceans with the island continents, and a massive wall. High ranking priests known as brahmins, speculated on the nature of Indian art and developed the concept of rasa, which lies at the heart of traditional Indian aesthetics. Rasa is the emotional reaction of pleasure and satisfaction that the visual arts, music, poetry, and drama can give to the sense and ***** of the viewer. Reacting to art, the viewer becomes one with the rasa-inspiring object and all of creation. He or she can transcend the surrounding world and harmonize with the ultimate bliss of the Brahman. However, for art to accomplish this, it must go beyond mere description. It must also have style and be capable of conveying universal ideas that appeal to the viewer*****s heart and instincts. In Indian thought, the cumulative experience of the emotions of many past lives within everyone can be activated into spiritual responses by art, leading to the pure bliss of Brahman and the ultimate fulfillment of the inner being. One irony, however, is that the artists who were commissioned to create the art did not belong to the brahmin caste themselves, but they nonetheless understood and followed the theories of the brahmin aestheticians in creating their art. Angkor Wat in Cambodia is one of the best-known religious complexes today.

The religion of Islam was then introduced into Asia by Arab armies in the 700s, and by the 1200s, India was transformed into a Muslim culture. Islamic Mughal leaders commissioned the famous Taj Mahal in Agra, India in the 1600s, which remains one of the most important architectural sites in the world and an important tourist destination. More recently, however, these sites have been threatened by violence, including the well-known Colossal Buddha in Bamiyan, Afghanistan. At 180 feet tall and from the 2nd century AD, this huge standing figure was the largest stone statue in the area, destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

East Asia is dominated by China, the most ethnically-diverse country in the world. Chinese artists introduced new technology into the arts to create beautiful bronze sculptures, and works in jade, silk, ivory, porcelain and lacquer as well as architectural innovations to include a unique system of ceiling bracketing that allowed for the use of screen walls. In addition to these innovations, Chinese aesthetics, based on the ancient philosophy of Confucianism, religious beliefs, and literature, an example of which we know today being the principles of Feng Shui. Korea became part of the Chinese Han Empire in 108 BC and was responsible for introducing Buddhism into Japanese courtly culture in the 500s AD.

The Japanese archipelago consists of four large islands and hundreds of smaller ones. Japanese culture reveals the influence of Buddhism and Chinese culture, but has its own distinct Shinto features as well that predate Buddhist intervention, and focus on a spare aesthetic code inspired by a Zen Buddhist rejection of worldly ties and the creation of rigorous ceremonies such as the tea ceremony that reflect a high degree of cultural refinement.

Required Readings

In the Gardner*****s text, read Chapters 1 and 2 for India and Southeast Asia, Chapters 3 and 4 for China and Korea, and Chapters 5 and 6 for Japan.

Unit Objectives

By the end of this unit, students should be able to:

Describe how Buddhist and Hindu religious ideals were reflected in the layout and structure of the temples;

Compare and contrast the figure of Buddha with images of Hindi gods and goddesses, providing several examples;

Describe how the Bhagavad-Gita reveals the fundamental teachings of Hinduism, and how those teachings are expressed in visual images;

Explain how the teachings of Confucius reflect many social and political ideas of ancient China by providing examples;

Discuss daoism and how this principle of natural order conforms to the basic aesthetic of Chinese art, with reference to the philosophy of Feng Shui;

Discuss the aesthetic canon as explained by Xie He in the fifth century by providing examples of painting and calligraphy from several different time periods;

Describe Shinto worship and how it differs from Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism;

Describe some of the changes in art that took place at the beginning of the Kamakura period;

Describe how Korean ceramics differed from those made in China or Japan;

Describe the tea ceremony, the architecture and ceramics involved, the purpose behind the tea ceremony, and some of the apparent contradictions concerning the ceremony; and

Describe how Japanese art has been influenced by Western culture, and in turn, how modern architecture has been influenced by Japanese architecture.

Religious Ideals in India and Southeast Asia

Please read this section of your textbook, thinking specifically about the various religious ideals that form the basis for art in this region of the world, and how architecture and sculpture work together to express these ideals. Make sure you understand the differences between Buddhism, Hindi, and other related belief systems such as Jainism and Islam.

Key Terms

Shinto Worship

Bhagavad-Gita

Taoism

Esoteric Buddhist Art

Pure Land Buddhist art

Daimyo

Bushi

Zen Buddhism

Zen Gardens

Tea Ceremonies

Japonisme

Asuka and Hakuho Periods

Nara Period

Heian Period

Kamakura and Koryo Korea Periods

Muromachi Period

Momoyama Period

All written assignments should be double-spaced, with a 1*****" margin on all sides, and a 12 pt. font. Any images and/or bibliographies are not included in the five page length requirement. Note: five pages of text is roughly 1,250 words. In each essay, you will be discussing works of art. In all examples that you discuss, your images should be fully identified by title, artist (if known), date, and location of object. Then, give a brief formal description and analysis of the work, and explain in a very specific and detailed way a response to the essay question. Your paper should be written entirely in your own words, although you may use a limited number of quotations from your textbook, with page references given in parenthesis at the end of the sentence. This essay format will be the same for all essays you write in all units of this class.