Cover: Iconic Buddha at Jahan Abad Restored.
In the People Section: the painter Nicky Nodjoumi; Beijing husband and wife artists Hu Xiaoyuan and Qiu Xioafei; Eddi Prabandono spends his time between Okinawa and Jakarta; Painter Raqib Shaw in London; The gallerist Erik Thomsen; curator Hollis Goodall discuses life at LACMA, Los Angeles. The Travel Section: spending time in Phnom Penh; touring the Jaffna in the north of Sri Lanka; Exploring the Izu Peninsula, Japan; In the footsteps of the Buddha in India. Features: The glory of Jade in Paris. The epic of the Ramayana unfolds in San Francisco. Syria’s civilisations explored in Toronto. Power and Protection in the Islamic World on show in Oxford. Conservation: Preserving Nirvana, the Edo-period painting Death of the Historical Buddha restored at MFA, Boston. Our annual 2017 survey of books from Asian and the Islamic World. Regulars: exhibitions, auctions, listings and Islamic Arts Diary.
A country that has for centuries enjoyed a unique mosaic of ethnicities, cultures, religions, and sects has been reduced in six years of senseless factional war to brutally divided fiefs with ruined cities and towns, and scorched landscape. Nasser Rabbat,… Continue reading
The Rama Epic: Hero, Heroine, Ally, Foe at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco is the most complete exploration of Ramayana-related art to be seen in the US. Exhibition curator and editor of the catalogue Forrest McGill has assembled 135… Continue reading
‘The gentlemen scholars of antiquity all enjoyed the extraordinary qualities found in jade: warmth, smoothness, and a certain gloss, it had a benevolent and good character, as it is considered fine, compact, yet strong, like a man’s intelligence. When struck,… Continue reading
You get to see it briefly from Atami or Mishima, between the tunnels as you head towards Kyoto on the Shinkansen Bullet Express; a fleeting glimpse of steep forested mountains rising from the sea on the left-hand side of the… Continue reading