Celebrate India

By Saturday, August 28th, the city’s sweltering summer heat will yield to a more accustomed winter chill, so we recommend warming up with the Asian Art Museum’s Celebration of India.

Get moving with the Chitresh Das Dance Company, flex your mind and body with yoga gallery tours, sample Indian desserts and spices, and create your own works of art.

And since no fewer than five people have asked about it today, yes, Sanjay Patel will be presenting his new book, Ramayana: Divine Loophole.  Check out his Gheehappy.com, or learn about his influences (he has excellent taste) and read an interview on Pixar’s site.

A huge new shipment of South Asian books just arrived in the Museum Store, so if the docents pique your curiosity, you can take some of the museum home with you.  Namaste!

Bright Sheng

There were moments, in the piece for bass and piano I heard last night, when I thought, “That sounds like an ehru.” Performed by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Sweet May Again was written for Western instruments. Its title is from the last three words of the poem “The Locust Tree in Flower” by William Carlos Williams. But its composer is Bright Sheng, who is Chinese American. Born in Shanghai and much beloved in the United States and Europe, he is an example of what they mean when they say art transcends borders. When it honored Sheng with its “Genius Award” in 2001, the MacArthur Foundation called him “an innovative composer who merges diverse musical customs in works that transcend conventional aesthetic boundaries.”

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our wonderful guests

The scene:

May Target Sunday (our monthly free day) at the museum, around 4pm or so. Our very special guests, Lopen Netem and Lopen Gyem, are monks from Bhutan who have been here since February to protect the sacred artworks in The Dragon’s Gift. Throughout the run of the exhibition, visitors have been privy to their daily purification rituals for the objects, as part of our artists-in-residency program, AsiaAlive.

Here, the charming monks have attracted quite an inquisitive crowd of diverse folks, demonstrating the stirring sounds of an instrument (sorry, I don’t know its name!). The infectious energy, folks’ curiosity, and monks’ sweet smiles of sharing and pride all make for a somewhat poignant moment.

And some photos:

If you’re around, come by and say “Kuzu zampo” (hello!) to our special guests. The show closes on May 10.

tesuto

my new rhyming technique is unstoppable.