South Central, East and Southeast Asian
Key IDEAS
- South, East, and Southeast Asia have long traditions of art making, reaching back into prehistoric times.
- The people and cultures of these regions were diverse, but prehistoric and ancient societies based in key regions (e.g., the Indus River Valley, Gangetic Plain, and Yellow River) developed core social and religious beliefs that were embraced across larger cultural spheres, helping to shape the regional identities of people within Asia.
- The core cultural centers in Asia became home to many of the world’s great civilizations and ruling dynasties, including the following: Gupta India, Han China, Khmer Cambodia, and Heian Japan.
- The shared cultural ideas in each region and civilization gave birth to visual traditions that employed related subjects, functions, materials, and artistic styles.
- Many of the world’s great religious and philosophic traditions developed in South and East Asia. Extensive traditions of distinctive religious art forms developed in this region to support the beliefs and practices of these religions.
- The ancient Indic worldview that dominated South Asia differentiated earthly and cosmic realms of existence, while recognizing certain sites or beings as sacred, and understood time and life as cyclic
- The religions that developed in this region — Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, and numerous folk religions — all worked within this worldview and sought spiritual development, spiritual release, or divine union through various religious methodologies and social practices
- The Indic worldview was also grafted onto the preexisting animistic and popular beliefs in Southeast Asia during several waves of importation and Indian attempts at colonization
Religious Traditions
- Korean traditions were heavily influenced by China and incorporate Confucian, Buddhist, and local shamanistic beliefs and practices
- Chinese societies also developed a hierarchical and differentiated society that encouraged appropriate social behaviors. Daoism, with its almost antisocial focus on living in harmony with nature and the Dao, and Confucianism, more of an ethical system of behaviors rather than a religion, both developed in China in the fifth century B.C.E. from these foundations. Buddhism, which arrived in China in the early centuries of the Common Era, shared clear affinities with the indigenous Chinese religions through its focus on nature, interconnectedness, and appropriate behavior.
- The ancient Japanese landscape was alive and inhabited by animistic nature spirits, whose veneration forms the basis of the Shinto religion.
- Buddhism was actively imported to Japan from Korea and China in the seventh and eighth centuries, and as in China, it succeeded because of courtly patronage and similarities with local traditions.
- Religious practices associated with Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism are iconic, therefore figural imagery of divinities and revered teachers plays a prominent role in religious practice.
- The wealth of Buddhist imagery in Asia alone would rival, if not surpass, the wealth of Christian imagery in medieval Europe. Figural imagery associated with Asian religious art may be venerated in temple or shrine settings; may inhabit conceptual landscapes and palaces of ideal Buddhist worlds, or mandalas; and are depicted in paintings.
- Islamic influence is particularly strong in India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, which were under at least partial control of Islamic sultanates during the second millennia C.E. These regions have also been influenced by cultures and beliefs from West Asia and Europe. Today South and Southeast Asia are home to the world’s largest Muslim populations.
Art FOrms
Distinctive art forms from South, East, and Southeast Asia include the following:
-the construction of Buddhist reliquary stupas
- the practice of monochromatic ink painting on silk and paper, which developed in China
-the development of the Pagoda, an architectural form based upon a Chinese watchtower
- the use of rock gardens, tea houses, and related ceremonies; and Japanese woodblock printing
-the construction of Buddhist reliquary stupas
- the practice of monochromatic ink painting on silk and paper, which developed in China
-the development of the Pagoda, an architectural form based upon a Chinese watchtower
- the use of rock gardens, tea houses, and related ceremonies; and Japanese woodblock printing
ArchitecturE
- Architecture from these regions is frequently religious in function.
- Temples intended to house deities or shrines were constructed or rock cut. Rock-cut caves containing Buddhist imagery, shrines, stupas, and monastic spaces span across Asia from India through Central Asia to China.
- Japanese architecture often uses natural materials such as wood or follows Chinese architectural models with wood structures and tile roofs.
- Islamic architecture in South and Southeast Asia takes two major forms: secular (forts and palaces) and religious (mosques and tombs).
- Islamic mosques are decorated with nonfigural imagery, including calligraphy and vegetal forms. All mosques have a Qibla wall, which faces in the direction of Mecca, home of the Kaaba. This wall is ornamented with an empty Mihrab niche, which serves as a focus for prayer.
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