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Published on: 12/14/2002
Last Visited: 12/14/2002
"There's all these similarities (in the art) across this huge ocean and they've been doing it for centuries," says museum curator Ellen Landis.
One of the similarities illustrated in the show include the sacred relationship between humans and nature.
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"These works have survived as long as they have because the places they were in had no light coming in at all," Landis says."The first time many of these saw daylight was when the temples were destroyed and the sculptures were removed."
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"The climate generates a certain freedom about the human body and about sexuality," Landis says.
The human body is praised most notably in the Hindu paintings.When deities took human form on Earth, their chief purpose was typically sexual, both as a flirtatious game and a means of reproduction.Vishnu, named Krishna in his human state, is often seen in sexual dalliances with his lover, Radha, or teasing several maidens who are often washing near a river.
Whether the subject is a deity or a mortal, each painting is set in lavish natural settings with various forms of nature painted in colorful detail.Text panels tell the elaborate stories told in the works.
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Their purpose, says Landis, was not to stimulate, but to celebrate.
"Sex to them is not necessarily what we would consider," Landis says."It's the culmination of the togetherness of man and woman.With sex, you become one whole person."
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American Indians and artists in the mountain region of Asia are the only two cultures to feature prominently both semiprecious stones in their work, Landis says.
In sculptures depicting female deities, necklaces and headdresses adorned in turquoise compliment their gold coverings and suggest the lavishness they could enjoy.The male teachers, on the other hand, are shown with little to no decoration on their untarnished metal bodies, a reflection of the Buddhist belief of disowning worldly goods.
The reason for the prominent use of coral and turquoise is their abundance in those regions, Landis says.
"When a stone is readily available and it's pretty, they tend to use it a lot," she says.
The colorful sand mandala, located in the Tibetan section, further exemplifies the link between the cultures of western Asia and the American Indians.The exhibit's 5-foot-wide mandala was created earlier this year at the museum by Philadelphia native and Tibetan scholar Lobsang Samtem.
Landis says that at the museum's "Tibet: Tradition and Change" show in 1997, a group of local Navajo sand painters watched as Tibetan monks created a similar sand mandala.
"They were fascinated by the similarities," Landis says."They were watching so intently."
Tibetan mandalas are created meticulously on sand or painted on cloth.The Buddha or a deity is often in the center, with figures living in various stages of earth and life radiating outward.
Navajo sand paintings also praise deities, but instead of creating scenes, most Navajo works use symbols of gods as a means to maintain the balance between good and evil and humans and nature.
Navajo sand paintings can remain for years, Landis says, but Tibetan sand mandalas are dissolved after a few months to return the work's energy back to the Earth.
Samtem's mandala will be dissolved at a public ceremony at 2 p.m. Jan. 4.
`DESIRE AND DEVOTION' Tuesday-Sunday through Jan. 5.Albuquerque Museum, 2000 Mountain Road N.W. $3 adults, $1 seniors and children 4-12. 243-7255.
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