[Tlc] TLC-lecture

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Dr. John Guy.
Thank you,
justin


The British Library and the Royal Thai Embassy  request the pleasure of your company at:


Traveling the Three Worlds
Buddhist Manuscript Painting of Ayutthaya and Bangkok

Memorial Lecture in honour of Dr Henry Ginsburg (1940 - 2007), late Curator of Thai Manuscripts at the British Library
 
Delivered by
John Guy
Senior Curator South & Southeast Asian Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Wednesday 15 April 2009 18:30
The British Library Conference Centre
 
 
The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB
The lecture will be followed by a reception 19:30-20:30
RSVP by 6th April  T: 020 7412 7717  E: lorna.komenda at bl.uk
 
 
This lecture explores the art of Thai manuscript painting through the extraordinary world of Thai Buddhist cosmologies, canonical and non-canonical Buddhist tales, astrologies, divination manuals, and other literary genres which supported the pictorial tradition. Most Thai Buddhists first encounter Thai traditional painting in the murals on the interior of their monastery, where the Jataka stories of the previous lives of the Buddha, or scenes from the historical Buddha’s life, are most frequently illustrated in a continuous narrative mode. Long banner paintings were in the past hung on festival occasions, illustrating scenes pertinent to the Buddhist calendar. Finally, richly painted manuscripts, both of palm-leaf and concertina-folded khoi paper, provided an important genre of painting, largely for the predilection of the monastic community who alone had access to these works, both as ordination manuals (Kammavaca) and as texts for teaching the dharma to the lay community.  
The story of Thai Buddhist painting will be traced from its origins in the Ayutthaya period through into the Ratanakosin (Bangkok) era, when large libraries were created of finely painted manuscripts and elaborate mural programmes were commissioned in royal temples, under the patronage of royal donors.
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______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu