Author: Andrea Acri
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
ISBN: 9814951528
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 265
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Book Description
This edited volume programmatically reconsiders the creative contribution of the littoral and insular regions of Maritime Asia to shaping new paradigms in the Buddhist and Hindu art and architecture of the mediaeval Asian world. Far from being a mere southern conduit for the maritime circulation of Indic religions, in the period from ca. the 7th to the 14th century those regions transformed across mainland and island polities the rituals, icons, and architecture that embodied these religious insights with a dynamism that often eclipsed the established cultural centres in Northern India, Central Asia, and mainland China. This collective body of work brings together new research aiming to recalibrate the importance of these innovations in art and architecture, thereby highlighting the cultural creativity of the monsoon-influenced Southern rim of the Asian landmass. "Although Maritime Asia in mediaeval times was not as densely populated as the agrarian hinterland, Asia’s coasts were highly urbanized. The region from southern India to south China was a heterogeneous blend of cultures, leavened with a strong interest in trade. This cosmopolitan society afforded plentiful opportunities for artists to find patrons and develop individual styles and aesthetic sensibilities. In the bustling ports of Asia’s south coast, rulers sought to embellish their prestige and attract foreign merchants by sponsoring the development of monumental complexes and centres of learning and debate. These educational institutions attracted teachers from all over Asia, and in their cloisters they developed new intellectual frameworks which were reflected in works of art and architecture. Scholars moved frequently by sea, influencing and being influenced by other foreigners such as Japanese and central Asians who were also attracted to these places. This very variety has hindered scholarly research in the past. This volume contributes to the endeavour to show how Maritime Asia was not an incoherent jumble of misunderstood influences from better-known civilizations; there was a pattern to this creativity, which the authors in this collection clarify for us. The maritime world of Asia may have lain on the margins of the land, but it provided a physical and intellectual medium through which artistic ideas from east and west flowed freely. Maritime Asia also made significant original contributions which hold their own with those of the hinterland of the Asian continent. Unconstrained by the burden of static hierarchical courts, the peoples of Maritime Asia built on the inspiration provided by a hybrid society to demonstrate a high degree of artistic originality while testing but not breaking the link with conventional iconography."-- Professor John Miksic, Department of Southeast Asian Studies, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore (NUS) "The collective objective of this two-volume work is to give substance to the oft cited mantra that mediaeval maritime Southeast Asia was as much an innovative contributor to, as a recipient, in the cultural conversations that took place across the Bay of Bengal and South China Sea. In bracketing these studies between the 7th and 14th centuries, the editors have drawn into focus two key traditions that are explicated in texts, ritual art and architecture and religious landscapes of this period: tantric Buddhism and esoteric Shaivism. A great strength of these studies is this focus, for which the editors are to be commended. The chapters contain much that represents significant milestones in building new understanding in the field, including overdue recognition of the importance of Southeast Asian esoteric Buddhist practice in shaping Chinese Buddhism. Nowhere did the architects of the religious landscape of early Southeast Asia think of themselves as being on the periphery, or as outsiders, looking in. Rather, they knowingly imbued their tirthas and sacred centres with the same authority as those in India and created religious edifices that were on occasions beyond India’s experience. I highly commend this publication to anyone with an interest in bringing a wider lens to the study of Indian esoteric religious practices and to understanding the relationship of early Hindu-Buddhist Southeast Asia to the wider Asian world." -- John Guy, Senior Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York "The Creative South is a rich compendium of scholarship concerning the religious art of Southeast Asia and its ties to India in the period beginning in the 8th century. It was a time when merchants were crisscrossing the seas from India to China and when advocates of innovative doctrines and rituals were finding ready support among the rulers of the varied kingdoms. From the identification of images embraced by the seafarers to the mysteries of the fire shrines in Cambodian temples, from the funerary beliefs of Odisha to the unique character of the Javanese Ramayana, these eighteen studies provide fresh understandings of the patterns of reception and innovation." -- Hiram Woodward, Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Quincy Scott Curator of Asian Art Emeritus, The Walters Art Museum
Author: Henry Greenough Huntington
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 592
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Book Description
Author: Sarah Blick
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900420573X
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 1403
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Book Description
Late Medieval and Renaissance art was surprisingly pushy; its architecture demanded that people move through it in prescribed patterns, its sculptures played elaborate games alternating between concealment and revelation, while its paintings charged viewers with imaginatively moving through them. Viewers wanted to interact with artwork in emotional and/or performative ways. This inventive and personal interface between viewers and artists sometimes conflicted with the Church s prescribed devotional models, and in some cases it complemented them. Artists and patrons responded to the desire for both spontaneous and sanctioned interactions by creating original ways to amplify devotional experiences. The authors included here study the provocation and the reactions associated with medieval and Renaissance art and architecture. These essays trace the impetus towards interactivity from the points of view of their creators and those who used them.Contributors include: Mickey Abel, Alfred Acres, Kathleen Ashley, Viola Belghaus, Sarah Blick, Erika Boeckeler, Robert L.A. Clark, Lloyd DeWitt, Michelle Erhardt, Megan H. Foster-Campbell, Juan Luis González García, Laura D. Gelfand, Elina Gertsman, Walter S. Gibson, Margaret Goehring, Lex Hermans, Fredrika Jacobs, Annette LeZotte, Jane C. Long, Henry Luttikhuizen, Elizabeth Monroe, Scott B. Montgomery, Amy M. Morris, Vibeke Olson, Katherine Poole, Alexa Sand, Donna L. Sadler, Pamela Sheingorn, Suzanne Karr Schmidt, Anne Rudloff Stanton, Janet Snyder, Rita Tekippe, Mark Trowbridge, Mark S. Tucker, Kristen Van Ausdall, Susan Ward.
Author: J. P. Whaley
Publisher: iUniverse
ISBN: 1475999690
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
Untouched by both time and tourism, the fishing port of Essaouira, Morocco, is known for its prostitutes, black magic, con artists, ghosts-and the legend of a virgin who once lured mariners to her lighthouse, worked them into a frenzy of desire, and then devoured their hearts before they could steal her innocence. Sebastian is a young, easy-going, generous English businessman living in Spain who decides to buy a small apartment in Essaouira with the hope of learning Arabic. Instead, however, he is convinced by his half-brother, Roger, to purchase a thirteen-room brothel and convert it into a hotel. As rumours suggest that the ghost virgin, Aïsha Qandeesha, still haunts the streets-enticing victims to the cemetery and then tearing them to shreds-Sebastian is mesmerized by the previous brothel owner's stories that there is a buried treasure within the house. But after he hires the madame's former maid, Aïda, to work for him, problems begin that cause Sebastian to wonder whether tragedy will follow him forever. Magic Lobsters and Flying Tagines is the tale of one man's attempt to open a boutique hotel in an exotic country as he is helplessly controlled by the strange twists and turns of his destiny.
Author: Michael Scott Rohan
Publisher: Gateway
ISBN: 0575092254
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 342
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Book Description
Centuries before the building of the Great Causeway, when the enveloping Ice seems to be in retreat, the lands of the North and South are on uneasy terms. War appears to be inevitable. But there is still some trade between them, particularly for the peerless weapons created by the Northern mastersmiths. In one small town, Kunrad, one young mastersmith, has carved out a reputation as a fine armourer. Helped by his two apprentices, the ox-like Olvar and the silver-tongued Gille, Kunrad has created the greatest suit of armour ever made: armour fit for a hero or a king. When that armour is stolen by a powerful Southern lord, Kunrad has only one concern - to regain it. And so begins an epic journey of discovery, filled with danger, magic - and love.
Author: Bahaa Taher
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 1551993260
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 322
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Book Description
Winner of the first “Arabic Booker Prize,” a vivid compelling historical tale set in late nineteenth-century Egypt. When Mahmoud, a disgraced Egyptian officer, is posted to the remote desert town of Siwa, his Irish wife insists on accompanying him, to pursue the secrets of Alexander the Great. Neither is prepared for the stultifying heat, the hostility of the townspeople, or the astonishing and disturbing events that befall them in the dreamlike other-worldliness of the Sunset Oasis. In turns mesmerizing and shocking, Sunset Oasis is an enthralling story of mystery and frustrated passions set against the backdrop of an exotic locale in the late 1800s.
Author: Monika Dolińska
Publisher: Otto Harrassowitz Verlag
ISBN: 9783447062381
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 252
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Book Description
Die internationalen Agyptologischen Tempeltagungen wurden 1990 mit einem Kongress in Gosen bei Berlin eroffnet. Dort ging es zum Auftakt um "Struktur, Funktion und Programm" agyptischer Kultanlagen als zentrale staatliche Einrichtungen. Inzwischen gab es Folgeveranstaltungen mit unterschiedlichen Themen in Deutschland, den Niederlanden und Belgien. Sie unterstrichen zum einen die internationale Ausrichtung des Faches Agyptologie, zum anderen aber zeigten sie die Bedeutung agyptischer Tempel fur die politische und kulturelle Basis des pharaonischen Agypten. Immer wieder aufs Neue beweist die Erforschung der agyptischen Tempel die enge Verzahnung dieser religiosen Machtzentren mit samtlichen Aspekten des pharaonischen Agypten bis weit in die romische Zeit hinein. Thema der 2008 in Warschau abgehaltenen 8. Agyptologischen Tempeltagung waren die kultischen und politisch-kulturellen Verknupfungen einzelner Kultanlagen. Dieser Gesichtspunkt wurde in 16 Referaten ausfuhrlich beleuchtet. Die Veroffentlichung der Ergebnisse dieser Tempeltagung gibt wie auch schon die Bande zu den fruheren Tempeltagungen Anstosse zu weiteren Forschungen in der Agyptologie und ihren Nachbardisziplinen.
Author: Mohammad Zaman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030735923
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 458
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Book Description
In Bangladesh, the chars within the river channels are an important part of its landscape. However, these land masses continue to remain isolated, deprived of services, and pockets of poverty in the country. The char dwellers are vulnerable to natural hazards like flood and erosion. In addition to these hazards, the coastal chars are faced with the imminent problem of widespread inundation due to sea level rise resulting from climate change. Within this context, the book Living on the Edge: Char Dwellers in Bangladesh has brought together valuable scholarship on the diverse issues relating to the chars and the communities living in there. This comprehensive collection, with contribution of experts on the subject from across the globe, provides an understanding of the problems faced by the char dwellers and also comes up with policy prescriptions for ensuring overall welfare of char communities in the country.
Author: Sandra Miller
Publisher: Onda Mountain Books
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
Alannys and her friends have finally set out to perform the acts that will prove her--or ruin her--for all time. With Baronet Athniss hunting them, they arrive at last at Mount Mouseion. But they discover more among the ruins of the Spire of Glory than simple murder. The ancient monument conceals many secrets, some of which could change the world as they know it. Unanticipated consequences of the acts of the Redeemer throw Alannys and her dearest friends into mortal jeopardy. As they close in on the Lord's Retainers and those who seek to 'bring the power of the few to the many,' they discover an even bigger threat lurking in the shadows--a threat vast beyond imagining. Join Alannys and her friends as they fight to save each other, Ravanmark...and the world.
Author: Jeffrey H. Jackson
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0230108040
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274
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Book Description
Jeffrey H. Jackson captures the drama and ultimate victory of man over nature during Paris's Great Flood of 1910.
