The Ego

Here's a simple and amusing cartoon that I found on Belief.net.

Buddhist Festival in Britain

London will be hosting the first Buddhist arts/cultural festival called "The Many Faces of Buddhism".

"The festival, known as The Many Faces of Buddhism, is held in London at the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum and the Barbican Center in collaboration with the Hong Kong-based philanthropic organization -- Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation.

Highlights of the festival include an International Forum on Buddhism and the Arts Today held last Saturday, the opening of the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Gallery at the V&A, performances of Buddhist sacred dance, and the first International Buddhist Film Festival in London.

The new Buddhist sculpture gallery which is to open to the public on Wednesday is the first such gallery in Britain. It features treasures from the V&A's world class collections ranging from monumental Chinese temple sculptures to tiny portable gilded Buddhas."

Read full article.

Colors in Buddhism

Here's a great blog post about the symbolism behind different colors in Buddhism.

Colors of Religion: Buddhism

Developments in the Study of Buddhist Art @ UCLA

UCLA faculty and over 10 guest professors gathered at UCLA for a two-day conference on recent research in area of Buddhist art on Nov. 21, 2008. The event was hosted by Donald McCallum, a UCLA art history professor, and consisted of a full day of public lectures.

"In introductory remarks McCallum recalled a time when scholars in Buddhist religious studies and art history were very separate. 'Previously, there had been a strong tendency to isolate the study of Buddhist religious thought and practice from that of Buddhist art, and ordinarily scholars in the two groups did not interact very much.' "

Read full article.

Photo from UCLA International Institute

UCLA Center for Buddhist Studies

We are pleased to announce an upcoming talk titled "Asian Images Inside-Out: What Can We Learn From the Contents of East Asian Statues?" given by Prof. James Robson of Harvard University.

Friday, December 05, 2008
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
243 Royce Hall, UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Open to the public. Campus parking is available for $9.

"Museums throughout the world are filled with a variety of Asian religious images and icons, depictions of Buddhas, guardian deities, and saintly figures, which are usually rendered in stone, metal, wood, clay or lacquer. The icons and images in those collections tend to be examples of what is termed “elite” or “high” art and are often representations of gods and deities from a standard pantheon comprised of popular national deities and common Buddhist figures. It is now clear, however, that a different class of images and icons also circulated at a more diffused level of society and we are now also aware of a variety of images that were filled with different kinds of contents. The contents of those images might include Buddhist texts, relic fragments, symbolic organs, or consecration certificates. In this talk I intend ask what can we learn when we shift our gaze from external aesthetics to explore what is found inside images? How did the practice of interring things inside of images develop? How has the discourse on idolatry and iconoclasm conditioned the reception of these images? What new insights can be gained when we shift our concerns from traditional issues about the genesis and aesthetics of images, to the function of icons as they are deployed in social and ritual contexts? A satisfactory engagement with any of those questions will entail a substantial reorientation of our previous views about those objects and what inspired their production."

For more information, please go to http://www.international.ucla.edu/buddhist/.

Thank you for your interest.
UCLA Center of Buddhist Studies

UCLA Buddhist Art Symposium

Recent Developments in the Study of Buddhist Art

This symposium is intended to survey some of the most important recent developments in the study of Buddhist art throughout Asia.

Friday, November 21, 2008

9:00 AM - 5:00 PM for Friday's conference:
Faculty Center Hacienda Room
UCLA
Los Angeles, CA 90095

The Friday, November 21 sessions will feature several lectures open to the public. While scholarly in content, these lectures will be accessible to interested members of the university community and the general public.

For participants that will speak at the event, please click here.

This event is co-sponsored by the Paul I. and Hisako Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies, Center for Buddhist Studies, Center for Chinese Studies, Center for Korean Studies, and Center for Southeast Asian Studies.

No registration is required for the Friday conference.

RSVP will be required for the seminar on November 22, 2008.
Please RSVP at mccallum@humnet.ucla.edu.

Cost: None

Tel: 310 - 825- 8681
www.international.ucla.edu/japan/

Special Instructions
RSVP for Saturday sessions. Location TBA.

For more information please contact
Donald McCallumTel: 310-206-6974
mccallum@humnet.ucla.edu