Hanuman seduces the mermaid princess, Supannamacha. Painting from Ramayana story, royal palace complex, Thailand

Historically, and to a large degree continuing today, art in Southeast Asia has not been distinguished from the rest of life. It has been widely observed that the Balinese, who seem so artistic to Westerners, have no separate word for "art". It is thus worth remembering that what one sees in Western museums is what has been designated as "art" by people from outside of Southeast Asia, and that the process of treating artifacts as art has almost invariably wrenched them out of the cultural context that originally gave them their meaning.      In addition, both of our major local museums reflect the tendency among American art curators to see the cultures of Southeast Asia as extensions of either India or China. This results in both quite limited attention to Southeast Asia and the placement and interpretation of what Southeast Asian artifacts they do display as appendages of their Indian and Chinese collections. Nonetheless, while area museums devote rather little attention to Southeast Asia, they do contain several very fine examples of the creativity and sensibility of Southeast Asians.

Philadelphia Museum of Art (26th Street and the Parkway, 215-763-8100)
Hours and Admission

The "Oriental" galleries are located on the second floor, beyond the medieval European section. After passing through several rooms with rugs from the Middle East, you enter a dark room that is a fine reconstruction of a South Indian stone Hindu temple. The stone carvings are superb and can be usefully compared to the (less numerous) stone carvings from Cambodia and Indonesia in the next room. But the most striking single piece in the South Indian temple room is a superb bronze statue of Rama, incarnation of Vishnu and the hero of the Ramayana epic, which spread from India in the early centuries A.D. to virtually all of Southeast Asia and is repeatedly retold today in its now uniquely Southeast Asian versions. This room, along with the recently refurbished galleries off to the right (rooms 229-232), provides a valuable introduction to the Hindu and Buddhist heritage of South Asia which was adopted and adapted with enthusiasm by Southeast Asians in the first millennium A.D.

The gallery (room 225) directly beyond the South Indian temple houses virtually all the Southeast Asian artifacts on display. A case on the left wall displays a variety of bronze sculptures and wood carvings from Thailand, Cambodia, and Indonesia (Java only). Most are Buddhas or depictions of other deities. There are in addition three very fine painted temple banners from Thailand (17th and 18th centuries), largely depicting scenes from the life of Buddha, and a Thai crown from the kingdom of Ayudhya. Note the Thai painting of "merit making" by the giving of alms to monks. There are also several stone sculptures, including a striking and classic 7th century Khmer sandstone sculpture of Avalokiteshvara (the bodhisattva of goodness and compassion), against the wall behind you as you come in. A recently-added case includes several Burmese artifacts.

While this relatively small collection includes some very fine examples of Southeast Asian art, you should note what it does not include. There is nothing in the museum, to my knowledge, from Malaysia, Laos, or the Philippines, and very little from Vietnam. Indonesia is represented by only Java; there is nothing from Bali or the outer islands. While the Thai sculptures and paintings are part of a Buddhist tradition extending down to today, Buddhist art in Indonesia was eclipsed in most places by Islamic art, whose Southeast Asian manifestations are not represented here at all. Nor are there any examples of Southeast Asian modern art.

The next rooms house the far more extensive Chinese collections of the museum. These may be viewed as representative of the culture of the significant Chinese minorities in most Southeast Asian countries, as well as of the Confucianism that influenced Vietnamese society and culture so profoundly. In this connection the Chinese scholar's study, from the late 18th century, conveys a powerful sense of the literary mandarin tradition that deeply influenced Vietnam.

University Museum (34th and Spruce, 215-898-4000) (Tuesday-Saturday 10:00-4:30, Sunday 1-5 pm) Hours and Admission On the second floor is a long-running exhibit, "Buddhism: History and Diversity of a Great Tradition," that provides an excellent overview of the rise and spread of Buddhism and the many differnt forms it has taken. The first several galleries explore Buddhism in China, India and Central Asia, and Japan, but the last gallery focues on Southeast Asia.  The excellent catalog for the exhibit, available in the museum bookstore, contains a very useful country-by-country section on Buddhism in Southeast Asia. There are several other Southeast Asian sculptures nearby. Until Sept. 28, 2003, a photographic exhibit on Touching the Mekong: A Southeast Asian Sojourn will be on display.

Javanese Court Dancer, Jogjakarta

Balinese painting at Klungkung

While more oriented towards social history than art per se, the Balch Institute for Ethnic Studies, now merged with the Historical Society of Philadlephia, has sponsored occasional exhibits touching on Southeast Asia. Check with the Historical Society of Philadelphia for access to Balch Institute collections.

updated December 2, 2004