Inside this quarterly issue, we take Asian art journeys to Australia, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Silk Roads and Thailand in order to bring you fresh and exciting art creations from Asia and the Asian diaspora.
Thank you, as always, for being here and reading this magazine. Do come back to future issues or take a look at past ones on ISSUU.
Submissions regarding Asian arts and cultures are encouraged to be sent to martinabradley@gmail.com for consideration
Through my many visits to have tea (Chá) with Dr. Cheah Thien Soong, in his home studio, he was proven to be a gentle, sage-like, and unassuming gentleman.
He was born in 1942, in Negeri Sembilan, Malaya (now Malaysia) and has recently died (September, 2024). He was well known, and much revered, Malaysian contemporary Chinese ink-painting artist.
Dr Soong hailed from the second generation of Nanyang-style contemporary ink-painting artists. He graduated from Singapore's famous Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts. There he studied both Chinese and Western painting under the tutelage of artists such as Chen Wen Xi, Choong Soo Peng, Chen Zhong Rui, Shi Xiang Tuo, and Georgette Chen. Later (2002), Dr Soong received a doctorate from Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico (Interamerican University of Puerto Rico).
Dr Soong held his first exhibition in 1962, and had won a number of awards from art institutes in Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. He served as a lecturer at the Malaysia Institute of Art (MIA) in Kuala Lumpur, then returned to his hometown to found the Seremban Institute of Art (Cao Tang Men Eastern Arts Society)
Traditionally, Chinese ink painting revels in symbolism. It is a multi-layered discipline with swift determined brushstrokes revealing the artistry, mind and craft of the artist. It can be ‘read’ simplistically or profoundly. Typically there are few brushstrokes to Chinese ink painting, and therein lies the skill of the painter, for the Xuan
(or Shuan) absorbent paper allows no mistakes from the causal artist, but glorifies the mastery of the professional.
Typically Chinese ink/brush painting is ‘coded’, revealing time honoured symbols such as ‘junzi'
The Four Gentlemen (Four Paragons in Japan) since the time of the Chinese Song Dynasty (960–1279); they are the orchid, the bamboo, the chrysanthemum, and the plum blossom. The orchid represents Springtime, and specifically the cymbidium orchid has lengthy associations with friendship, loyalty and patriotism. Bamboo represents Summer, modesty, or virtue. It is evergreen and therefore also a symbol for longevity. Chrysanthemum represents autumn, courage, longevity (because of its health giving properties). Plum blossoms are the first flowers to appear in the calendar, and stand for renewal, perseverance and purity. Birds, rocks, mountains, rivers, many and varied flowers, fruits and animals are all symbolic in Chinese ink painting, and change meaning depending upon their conjunctions.
Dr Soong’s diligent Chinese ink painting works bear echoes of its ancient history, and yet he had successfully created a fresh, modern and innovative style to further the ink on paper medium.
Using symbolisms and iconography from various Chinese philosophies, including Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism, Dr Soong created vistas and landscapes to intrigue and entice. Dr Soon’s strength of line was unparalleled to guide the watcher’s eye along his paintings, revealing and hiding exactly what the artist wished, with deft
the countryside of the artist’s making, to be in ‘conversation’ with nature, trees and birds.
Dr Soong’s works enable our minds to be in a paintings on Chinese paper.
He is missed.
Ed
The Spiritual in Early
Western Modern Art
Hilma Af Klint, The Ten Largest, No. 3, Youth, Group IV 1907.
The Spiritual in Early Western Modern Abstract Art
(Part 2. continues on page 60)
“The spiritual sparks that helped inspire the pioneering abstract art of Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Kasimir Malevich and František Kupka flew out of spiritualism and the occult. They were generated by such ventures into mysticism as Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism, Eastern philosophy, and various Eastern and Western religions. Spiritual ideas were not peripheral to these artists' lives, not something that happened to pop into their minds as they stood by their canvas. Kupka participated in seances and was a practicing medium. Kandinsky attended private fetes involved with magic, black masses and pagan rituals.”
(Michael Brenson, “Art View; How the Spiritual Infused the Abstract,” the New York Times. https://www.nytimes. com/1986/12/21)
Theosophical Origins
Of course the question arises ‘What is meant by Spiritual Art’ in this context? Maurice Tuchman, at the time curator of Los Angeles County Museum of Art had written in ‘Hidden Meanings in Abstract Art,’
“The five underlying impulses within the spiritualabstract nexus—cosmic imagery, vibration, synaesthesia, duality, sacred geometry—are in fact five structures that refer to underlying forms of thought….”
(The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985, Tuchman, Maurice, Published by Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1986.)
The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 18901985’ was an exhibition curated by Maurice Tuchman at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 23rd November 1986 to 8th March 1987. It moved to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago from 17th April to 19th July 1978 and to Haags Gemeentemuseum, at The Hague, from 1st September to 22nd November 1987. Maurice Tuchman, in 1986, wrote that ...
“…the genesis and development of abstract art were inextricably tied to spiritual ideas current in Europe in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.”
A common thread appeared in the notion of an absolute/abstract Modern art, and that was a notion drawn from the esoteric Neo-philosophy of ‘Theosophy’ (aka ‘Divine Wisdom’), which combined Western mysticism with Eastern spiritualism and religions, and claimed to be…
“…a high and living spiritual philosophy which is to be known and lived. It has the effect of bringing about both an intellectual expansion and a deep and life changing spiritual awakening for those who study and practise it.”
The Theosophy Society was founded by the Russian American emigre Helena Petrovna (Madame) Blavatsky, and prospered by her books such as ‘The Key to Theosophy’(1889), which had revealed principles of theosophy and is key to a ‘theosophical mysticism’. Helena Petrovna
Hilma af Klint, Group x no 2 altarpiece altarbild, 1915
Hilma Af Klint, Evolution, No. 7, Group VI, The WUS/Seven-Pointed Star Series, 1908
Blavatsky (1831 - 1891) was a mystic and author. She had cofounded the ‘Theosophical Society’, in the USA, during 1875, along with Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907), and William Quan Judge (1851–96). The term Theosophy, and its international societies had an influence on artists in the earliest years of Modern art, specifically with visual arts appertaining to the esoteric, soul or spirit.
“The essence of Theosophy is the perfect harmonising of the divine with the human in man, the adjustment of his god-like qualities and aspirations, and their sway over the terrestrial or animal passions in him. Kindness, absence of every ill feeling or selfishness, charity, goodwill to all beings, and perfect justice to others as to oneself, are its chief features. He who teaches Theosophy preaches the gospel of goodwill; and the converse of this is true also — he who preaches the gospel of goodwill, teaches Theosophy.”
(Blavatsky in a letter to the American convention, 1888).
In an article in Apollo Magazine, Jonathan Griffin had written of Blavatsky…
“Kurt Vonnegut called her ‘the Founding Mother of the Occult in America’, which is not entirely hyperbole. When she arrived from her native Russia, in 1873, the United States was already in the thrall of new religious movements such as Spiritualism, but it was Blavatsky’s co-founding of the Theosophical Society with fellow seekers Henry Olcott and William Quan Judge that cemented her influence on Western esotericism on both sides of the Atlantic”.
(The artists who wanted to rise above it all”, Jonathan Griffin 20 November, 2021)
Hilma Af Klint
That 1986 Los Angeles exhibition (‘The Spiritual in Art: Abstract Painting 1890-1985’) had included a previously overlooked female artist, the Swedish medium and painter Hilma Af Klint
Wassily Kandinsky Light, 1913. Nlight Picture. Oil On Canvas, 1913
who had lived in Stockholm, Sweden (1862 – 1944). After decades of anonymity, Hilma Af Klint had finally found her place within ‘Modern’ Western art history. She was the undeniable originator of Western ‘Abstract’ art due in part to her nephew, Erik af Klint (1901–81), and his preservation of her works, until 1966, when they were re-discovered. Erik af Klint founded the Stiftung Hilma af Klints Verk, while the Anthroposophical Society in Sweden provided space to store the estate.
Hilma Af Klint, artist, healer, and perhaps visionary had studied at the Royal Academy of Art in Stockholm (1882–87). She had also become familiar with Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical work ‘The Secret Doctrine’, which has been seen as the meeting point of ancient Eastern wisdom with modern science. Later, Hilma Af Klint was to follow the esoteric notion of ‘Theosophy’ and the works of Rudolf Steiner espousing his break away philosophy called ‘Anthroposophy.
Anthroposophy was founded by the Austrian spiritual teacher Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), in 1923.
Hilma Af Klint had met with Steiner, in Stockholm, during 1908 and, according to Julia Voss (in her ‘Hilma af Klint; A Biography’, 2022 -- University of Chicago Press), several times later. In 1913, Hilma Af Klint had met Annie Besant (1847-1933), Blavatsky’s successor at the Theosophical Society, at the Stockholm conference of the Theosophical Society.
Hilma Af Klint joined Steiner’s Anthroposophical Society (in 1920) while studying ‘Goethe’s Colour Theory’ (Rudolf Steiner’s first book). A decade later (1930), disappointed with the Anthroposophical Society, Hilma Af Klint had parted from them.
Hilma Af Klint’s spiritual abstract paintings such as ‘The Paintings for the Temple’, comprising of 193 paintings and drawings “…convey different aspects of human evolution, instigated by polarity.”
(from the Moderna Museet Malmö website).
The ‘Temple’, in this case, refers both to a physical building, which Klint had thought would house the work, as well as a reference to the body as a temple for the soul.
Wassily Kandinsky
Before Hilma Af Klint had been recognised as a prime initiator of abstraction in ‘Modern’, Western, art, the Western history of art had previously looked towards the Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky. When mentioning his works ‘Improvisation XIV’ (1910) and ‘Composition V’ (1911), Kandinsky had mentioned the term “absolute art”. Those works had appeared in the ‘Blaue Reiter’ (The Blue Rider) exhibition of 1915. Der Blaue Reiter had been formed in 1911.
Painting as Pure Art ‘Malerei als reine Kunst’ Der Sturm, had appeared in Berlin, 1913.
In his book, ‘On the Spiritual in Art’ (1911) Kandinsky praises Madame Blavatsky.
“Mrs. H. P. Blavatsky was perhaps the first person who, after many years in India, tied a strong knot between these "savages" and our culture. From that moment on was started one of the greatest spiritual movements in this direction, which today unites a great number of people, and which has even assumed a material form in the ‘Theosophical Society’.”
(‘Über das Geistige in der Kunst’ (On the Spiritual in Art) Wassily Kandinsky, p25, initially published in Munich, 1911.)
“The subject of Kandinsky’s interest in theosophy, and in the writings of Rudolf Steiner and Madame Blavatsky, has been much discussed. Certainly, Kandinsky refers to both Steiner and Blavatsky in the book; although he himself was never a member of the Theosophical Society, some of his best friends were theosophists. We also know that he attended some of Steiner’s lectures in Berlin early in 1908. But theosophy was only one of a number of influences on Kandinsky at this time.”
(Kandinsky, Complete Writings on Art Volume One (19011921) Edited by Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo G. K. Hall & Co. Boston, Mass. 1982. )
"The tendency toward abstraction is the consequence of man's deep turmoil in confronting the world.” So runs the thought by Wilhelm Worringer (art historian, 1881-1965) and his dissertation ‘Abstraction and Empathy’ (1908) which had a profound effect on Wassily Kandinsky, as did the, by then ex-theosophist, Rudolf Steiner, his theories on art as well as his creative use of performance art called ‘Eurythmy’.“
In ‘Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art,’ (2003) Donald Kuspit had written..
“Steiner didn’t stop at theorising, he created a performance art form called Eurythmy that involved dance, music, speech and colour where the performer, by the simultaneous superimposition of the colour, sound and movement equivalents of a specific worldly emotion attempted to evoke an otherworldly sensation that bordered on the spiritual ecstasy. An effect that Kandinsky attempted to obtain by canvas and paint alone”
Goethe's theory of colours, translated from the German: with notes by Charles Lock Eastlake. by GOETHE, Johann Wolfgang von: Hardcover (1840) 1st Edition
In ‘Kandinsky, Complete Writings’ editors Kenneth C. Lindsay and Peter Vergo mention that...
(Donald Kuspit, “Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art,” Blackbird: An Online Journal of Literature and the Arts, www.blackbird.vcu. edu, Spring 2003, Vol. 2, No. 1).
Piet Mondrian
The Dutch artist Piet Mondrian was born in The Netherlands in 1872 and died in New York, 1944. As well as living as an artist, Mondrian had also read Theosophical literature, and had attended Rudolf Steiner lectures in Amsterdam (1908). He
had later joined the Dutch Theosophical Society (1909). Eleven years before Hilma Af Klint. In ‘Paths to the Absolute’ (2000) John Goldinghad written that..
“At the time when Mondrian encountered jan Toorop and his Domburg circle they were becoming increasingly interested in Theosophy and it was then that Mondrian recognised that its cosmology was what he himself had been looking for. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrijie came out in 1888; and it was to his friend Theo van Doesburg that Mondrian would confide that he got ‘everything’ from it.”
Mondrian had not only been interested in Theosophy, but in Goethe’s colour theories as well as Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophical movement (which had grown out of Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society}. Mondrian had begun developing his own relationship to ‘abstract’ art through what he termed to be ‘de Nieuwe Beelding’ (loosely translated from the Dutch as ‘The New Plastic’.
As an introduction to his series of essays ‘The New Plastic in Painting’ (consisting of 7 parts culminating in a book) Mondrian had explained his move towards abstraction…
“The life of modern cultured man is gradually turning away from the natural: life is becoming more and more abstract. As the natural (the external) becomes more and more “automatic”, we see life’s interest fixed more and more on the inward. The life of truly modern man is directed neither toward the material for its own sake nor toward the predominantly emotional: rather, it takes the form of the autonomous life of the human spirit becoming conscious.”
(In ‘The New Art -The New Life; The collected Writings of Piet Mondrian’, edited and translated by Harry Holtzman and Martin S. James, Boston, 1986, and London, 1987.)
A Renewal of Interest in Spiritual Art
In the 1930s, the North American artist Raymond Jonson (1891 - 1982), had also been interested in Theosophical writings, Zen Buddhism,
Wassily Kandinsky’s works, and the paintings of his friend, the Russian esoteric artist Nicolas Roerich. Jonson helped create the loose knit American ‘Transcendental Painting Group’, in New Mexico, which ran from 1938 to 1942. That group claimed an allegiance with Agnes Lawrence Pelton (1881 - 1961) and her Cathedral City ‘Desert Transendentalism’.
(see this issue page 60)
Ed.
Piet Mondrian, Composition in Black and White (Painting 1) 1926
lindy
lindy lee
lindy lee
Ouroboros, an immersive, public sculpture by Australian artist Lindy Lee is now open to visitors in the National Gallery of Australia forecourt.
With a practice spanning more than four decades, Meanjin/Brisbane-born Lee uses her work to explore her Chinese ancestry through Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism — philosophies that see humanity and nature as inextricably linked.
Ouroboros is based on the ancient image of a snake eating its own tail; an image seen across cultures and millennia, the symbol of eternal return, of cycles of birth, death and renewal. Through its location at the entrance of the National Gallery, visitors are able enter the ‘mouth’ of the sculpture and walk into the curved space to experience darkness that is illuminated by light beams emanating from the thousands of perforations on its surface.
During the day its highly polished mirrored surface reflects the imagery of the floating world, the transience of passers-by, cars, birds in flight and passing clouds. At night the Ouroboros is lit internally, returning its light to the world.
The sculpture was fabricated at the Urban Art Projects (UAP) Foundry in Meanjin/
Brisbane. It measures around four metres high and weighs approximately 13 tonnes.
Ouroboros is also a sustainable sculpture — incorporating recycled materials, maximising renewable energy and measures to minimise its carbon impact, making it one of Australia's first sustainable works of public art.
Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros was commissioned to celebrate the National Gallery’s 40th anniversary in 2022 and was completed in October 2024.
The National Gallery is on Ngunnawal and Ngambri Country, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. In the Parliamentary Triangle at the heart of Kamberri/ Canberra, Parkes Place, Parkes, Kamberri/ Canberra ACT 2600, Australia.
Lindy Lee, Ouroboros night
Gilded silver cup from the Galloway Hoard, Scotland, about AD 650-800.
What comes to mind when you hear the term ‘Silk Road’?
Camels? Very likely. Silk? Of course. Deserts, spices and Marco Polo? Quite possibly. All are indelibly linked to this famous route, popularly perceived as a conduit of trade between Asia and Europe in past centuries. For many, the Silk Road weaves visions of far-flung commerce across cultural boundaries and of warm-hued adventures in ‘exotic’ lands.
However, this is only part of the story. Read on to see what the curators of our new exhibition Silk Roads (26 September 2024 – 23 February 2025) reveal about the extent and impact of these fascinating networks.
Introduction
The term ‘Silk Road’ was not used by those plying its supposed path in the ancient and
medieval past. In fact, it was not coined until the 19th century, and only gained wider currency in the 20th century, when the romanticised notion of the Silk Road grew popular. This vision is a modern concept – however, it bears elements of truth. Certainly, exchanges took place between Asia and Europe in the past; they did involve silk and spices; and camels were one of the ‘vehicles’ used. But in the century and more since the term was coined, research has revealed a richer, more intricately connected world whose horizons stretched even farther than first imagined.
Crossing continents
This expanded world forms the basis of the new exhibition Silk Roads (26 September 2024 – 23 February 2025). The plural title highlights that, rather than a single route of exchange, there was a web of interlocking networks that spanned Asia, Africa and Europe, from Japan to Ireland, from the Arctic to Madagascar. Their arteries ran
Envoys with horse and camel. Silk Road 2
in multiple directions, crossed diverse terrains, and conveyed not just silk and spices, but a multitude of objects and materials, people and ideas, which were exchanged in many contexts besides trade. Such interactions helped to shape cultures and histories across continents.
The exhibition’s very first object sets up this richer version of the Silk Roads: a figurine of the Buddha, made in what is now northwest Pakistan in the decades around AD 600, but found thousands of kilometres away on the tiny island of Helgö in eastern Sweden, where it had arrived by about AD 800. Its message is that this story goes far beyond desert dunes into less familiar lands.
The exhibition’s timeframe of about AD 500 to 1000 may also surprise, since it ends long before Marco Polo’s (1254–1324) travels in Asia – a common Silk Roads touchpoint. These five centuries mark perhaps a less familiar but
defining slice through the Silk Roads’ long history. They witnessed the rise and transcontinental activities of several major powers, including the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) in China, Islamic states beginning with the Rashidun Caliphate (AD 632–61), the Byzantine empire from emperor Justinian (d. AD 565) to Basil II (d. AD 1025), and the Carolingian empire in Francia (AD 800–87). It also saw the spread of Buddhism, Christianity and Islam; large-scale migrations of peoples; and movement of objects through trade and other methods on an unprecedented scale.
Silk Roads further departs from convention in its experimental approach to telling big stories in a museum setting. With three curators from different specialisms it marshals, for the first time, artefacts and cross-disciplinary expertise from across the British Museum, while drawing upon existing external networks and forging new ones – truly in the spirit of the Silk Roads. Objects from the Museum collection are generously
supported by others borrowed from 29 international lenders, some of whom have never lent to the Museum, or the UK, before. The result is a unique chance to view objects from across Afro-Eurasia together, in one space, where they can be compared and contextualised.
Many journeys, myriad exchanges
Visitors to the show experience this connected world by making their own epic journey from East Asia to northwest Europe, winding through several large geographic zones and pausing at six intimate moments focusing on a particular people or place of notable cultural interactions in the Silk Roads’ history. For within this sprawling story are opportunities for quieter, more personal connections through objects evoking individuals who lived, travelled, worked and died on these networks. You’ll encounter Willibald, a monk from England who smuggled balsam out of the city of Tyre (in present-day Lebanon) and the monk Xuanzang, who embarked on an intrepid 16-year-long journey from Tang China’s capital of Chang’an to India.
Diplomacy and warfare
Few may associate diplomacy and warfare with the Silk Roads, but both helped propel people, objects and ideas across cultural boundaries. A lively sketch from the ‘Library Cave’ in Dunhuang, a Buddhist centre in northwest China, evokes diplomatic relations between the local ruler of Dunhuang, neighbouring kingdoms in the Tarim Basin and Chinese dynasties during the AD 900s. It shows two envoys, wearing the
headdress of government officials, travelling with a horse and camel that were probably intended as tribute given that they’re not carrying goods to trade.
People on the move
The Silk Roads’ many arteries were busy with people of all kinds, from merchants to missionaries and mercenaries. Some travelled by choice, while others were forced to move by factors beyond their control. The Sogdians of Central Asia were great traders who have left traces on lands from the Eurasian Steppe to India, and from China to the Mediterranean. A spectacular glimpse of the Sogdians in their homeland is offered by a mural section from the ‘Hall of the Ambassadors’ in Afrasiab (Samarkand), Uzbekistan, displayed for the first time in the UK. A masterpiece of Sogdian art, it shows the local ruler’s entourage travelling to the shrine of his ancestors to pay their respects. The entire mural features envoys from distant lands, and scenes about India and Tang-dynasty China, conveying the Sogdians’ vision of themselves as integral players along the Silk Roads.
A very different story is told by a silver neck-ring found near Tallinn, Estonia. During the AD 800s and 900s, Scandinavian Vikings traded human beings, many seized from eastern Europe, into the Islamic east, in return for silver dirham coins, which were conveyed back to Scandinavia via rivers that flowed through Russia and Ukraine into the Baltic sea. The neck-ring was probably cast from melted-down coins that had been used to purchase captives caught up in this exploitation.
This little bronze Buddha was made in Pakistan in the 6th or 7thC and was discovered on the Swedish island of Helgo, close to houses dating to around 800.
Objects and raw materials
Objects of every form and function also traversed the Silk Roads, from books and cookware to weapons and jewellery, along with countless raw materials including gemstones, elephant ivory, furs and marble. Marble fragments from a church built in the AD 500s using local techniques at Adulis, a Red Sea port of the Christian kingdom of Aksum (present-day Eritrea and northeast Ethiopia), have been scientifically identified as Proconnesian marble from across the Mediterranean sea, quarried near Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine empire.
Similarly, scientific analysis has traced garnets used in cloisonné jewellery, favoured by the social elite across Europe into the AD 600s, to distant lands. A superlative example is a shoulder-clasp from the famous Sutton Hoo ship burial in Suffolk, England, which depicts two boars set with purple-red Indian garnets, their backs bristling with orange-red Czech and Sri Lankan gems.
Adoption and adaptation
Throughout the exhibition, objects evoke the adoption and adaptation of elements from one culture by another: a process motivated by diverse factors and leading to rich, often innovative, developments. In Italy the Lombards, a Germanic-speaking people who had migrated from Pannonia (central Europe) in AD 568, assumed and modified many Byzantine aspects of life, from political infrastructure to tableware. A witness to this is a fine drinkinghorn, characteristically northern European in form, but made from cobalt-blue Mediterranean glass.
A fitting counterpart from the other end of the Silk Roads is an animal-headed white stoneware cup, made in Tang China but modelled after a type of vessel known as a rhyton, which originated in the Iranian world. The emergence of this and other vessel types in Tang China coincided with the popularity of grape wine,
supplied by Sogdian merchants in the capital Chang’an.
Religious encounters
The Silk Roads’ networks brought about encounters between peoples of different faiths, from small local religions to vast, universalising ones that spread across continents. In the exhibition, Buddhism’s progress across central Asia is evoked by objects loaned from Tajikistan, another first for UK audiences. Here, the region of Tokharistan (formerly Bactria) experienced a revival of Buddhism when under the sway of the Türks from the Steppe and Tang China during the AD 600s and 700s. Sculptures from this time reflect connections with India and the legacy of Gandharan art based in present-day northwest Pakistan, which developed from interactions with the cultures of ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. The muscular torso and draped clothing of a bodhisattva image characterise its blended visual vocabulary.
Meanwhile, from northwest Europe, a crossshaped brooch could relate to diplomatic exchanges between the Christian ruler Charlemagne in Francia (covering much of present-day France, Germany and the Low Countries), and the Muslim Abbasid caliph Harun al-Rashid in Baghdad, during the years around AD 800. Made in Charlemagne’s realm, the brooch’s centrepiece is an Islamic glass seal that may have been acquired during these exchanges.
Transferring knowledge
Ideas, knowledge and technology flowed along the Silk Roads as readily as people and objects. A famous evocation of this is a painted wooden votive panel that relates how silk farming reached the Buddhist kingdom of Khotan in the Tarim Basin (in present-day Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China). It is believed to depict a Chinese princess who smuggled silkworm eggs and mulberry seeds in her headdress as she travelled to marry the
Khotanese king. Around her are a basket of what may be silkworm cocoons, a woman with a loom and a comb beater, and perhaps the patron deity of weaving. By the AD 600s, Khotan was farming silk and had a flourishing textile industry.
Conclusion
Silk Roads ends with an object from Britain, the final stop on the exhibition’s journey. Made in northern England in around AD 700, it is an extraordinary whalebone casket carved with scenes that narrate Christian traditions, northern European myths, and Jewish and Roman history, captioned in Latin and runic Old English. It offers a parting image of a deeply interlinked world traversed by people, objects and ideas. It also reminds us that while modes of transport and ways of connecting change, exchanges between cultures near and far have always been a part of humanity’s past and will continue to shape its future.
Supported by The Huo Family Foundation
Additional supporters
James Bartos
The Ruddock Foundation for the Arts
Uzbekistan Art and Culture Development Foundation.
Text and images copyrighted to The British Museum
Figure of Padmapani, crowned and ornamented, standing with swirling scarves and sensitively modelled torso. Made of gilded cast bronze. 8th C.
Section of a wall painting from the Palace of Varakhsha, Uzbekistan, about AD 730. Collection of the State Museum of Arts of Uzbekistan. Photo by Andrey Arakelyan.
The Spiritual in Early Western Modern Abstract Art (Part 2)
Crocker Art Museum announces Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group
Used with permission from the Press Material available for the exhibition August 28 to November 20, 2022.
First museum exhibition outside of New Mexico to survey 20th century American modernists
Visionary artists transformed their surroundings into luminous reflections of the human spirit
The Crocker Art Museum is delighted to announce Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group. This landmark museum exhibition-the first exhibition of this important group of American modernists to be shown beyond New Mexico's borders, and the first to be accompanied by a major scholarly publicationis devoted to an often overlooked group of 20th century abstract artists who pursued enlightenment and spiritual illumination.
Organized by independent curator Michael Duncan and the Crocker, this survey of 90 works made by the 11 visionary abstractionists is drawn from a variety of private and public collections including the Crocker's. It aims to provide a broad perspective on the group's work and reposition it within the history of modern painting and 20th century American art.
The ground breaking show will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication by Duncan and other scholars, including the Crocker Art Museum’s Associate Director and Chief Curator Scott A. Shields, who assert the group’s artists as crucial contributors to an alternative through line in modern art history, one with renewed
relevance today. The traveling exhibition opens at the Albuquerque Museum on June 26, 2021, and then travels to four additional venues, including the Crocker, where it will be on view from August 28 to November 20, 2022.
“We are honoured to present this remarkable group’s heightened vision of the American landscape, especially given that their abstractions of colour and light have the capacity to rekindle the spirit and nourish the soul, just as they did in the era the paintings were made,” says Lial A. Jones, the Museum’s Mort and Marcy Friedman Director & CEO.
“These motivated individuals transformed the dramatic natural surroundings of the Southwest into luminous reflections of the human spirit,” says Shields, a leading specialist in the art of California and the American West.“
“This sets their work apart from abstraction made in Europe at the same time-that and the otherworldly beauty and quality of the artwork itself. Well connected, well read, but isolated geographically, the artists sought to connect and communicate with viewers through potently charged symbols and dynamic relationships of colour and form.”
“Despite the quality of their works, this group of Southwest artists have been neglected in most surveys of American art, their paintings rarely exhibited outside of New Mexico,” said
Agnes Pelton (American, born Germany, 1881-1961), Winter, 1933. Oil on canvas, 30 x 28 in. Crocker Art Museum Purchase; Paul LeBaron Thiebaud, George and Bea Gibson Fund, Denise and Donald C. Timmons, Melza and Ted Barr, Sandra Jones, Linda M. Lawrence, Nancy Lawrence and Gordon Klein, Nancy S. and Dennis N. Marks, William L. Snider and Brian Cameron, Stephenson Foundation, Alan Templeton, A.J. and Susana Mollinet Watson, and other donors, 2013.54
Lawren Harris (Canadian, 1885–1970), Abstract Painting, No. 95, 1939. Oil on canvas, 56 x 46 1/2 in. Collection of Georgia and Michael de Havenon, New York.
Agnes Pelton (American, born Germany, 1881–1961), Birthday, 1943. Oil on canvas, 38 x 22 in. Collection of Rick Silver and Robert Hayden III.
Emil Bisttram (American, born Romania, 1895–1976), Creative Forces, 1936. Oil on canvas, 36 x 27 in. Private collection; courtesy of Aaron Payne Fine Art, Santa Fe.
Duncan, who originally planned the exhibition nearly a decade ago. A corresponding editor for Art in America whose writings have focused on maverick artists of the 20th century and West Coast modernism, he asserts that “as we settle into the 21 st century, the ‘spiritual’ seems no longer a complete taboo, and art history is undergoing a vast sea change.”
Background
The Transcendental Painting Group achieved their modernity through potently charged shapes, patterns, and archetypes that they believed dwelled in the "collective unconscious." The artists looked to a wide variety of literary, religious, and philosophical forces, including Zen Buddhism, Theosophy, Agni Yoga, Carl Jung, and Friedrich Nietzsche, and were greatly impacted by the Russian-born artist and theoretician Wassily Kandinsky. Convinced that an art capable of being intuitively understood would have equal validity to representational painting in an era of uncertainty, political divide, and fear, they attempted to promote abstraction that pursued enlightenment and spiritual illumination. Their manifesto stated their purpose: "To carry painting beyond the appearance of the physical world, through new concepts of space, colour, light and design, to imaginative realms that are idealistic and spiritual."
The group was co-founded by New Mexico painters Raymond Jonson [1891-1982), today a vastly underrated figure in the development of abstraction in the United States who generally pursued a rigorous clarity in his art and was the stalwart backbone of the group, and Emil Bisttram [1895-1976), a key Southwest modernist, whose work evidenced a calculated precision that demonstrated his interest in the theory of Dynamic Symmetry and geometry's potential for occult symbolism.
All of the artists in the TPG sought to imbue their art with unforgettable, affecting metaphors, symbols, and visions, employing the freewheeling imagery of Surrealism to depict a
transfigured, spiritually alive America. Agnes Pelton ( 1 881-1961), increasingly appreciated today for her shimmering, celestial forms, was the honorary president of the group and its educational arm, the American Foundation for Transcendental Painting. Lawren Harris [18851970), of Canada, was the group's only nonAmerican member and known primarily for his light-filled, sharply delineated mountain landscapes. Florence Miller Pierce (19182007), the youngest member, created stunning paintings and drawings using geometric and biomorphic forms. Horace Pierce (19161958), who created graph-like and spiralling geometries in space, was also an experimental filmmaker. Robert Gribbroek (1906-1971) was a fine artist, commercial art director, and layout artist for Hollywood animation studios; William Lumpkins ( 1909-2000), the only New Mexico native of the group, produced expressive watercolours that were the most unrefined and expressionistic, his style manifesting his interest in Zen Buddhism and Eastern thought; Stuart Walker’s ( 1904-1940] layered, swooping pastel forms embody transformative movement, growth, and enlightenment (pictured); and Ed Garman ( 1914-2004) was an idealist who took an improvisatory but analytical approach to his abstract compositions. Also included in the survey are paintings by Dane Rudhyar ( l 8951985], a philosopher, composer, artist, poet, novelist, and astrologer. Though not an official TPG member, his writings were critical in the group’s formation and cohesion.
The show includes striking, sublime works such as Oversoul (circa 1941), a warm, lyrical oil by Bisttram; Pelton’s stylized, shimmering Birthday ( 1943), that depicts the hallucinatory aura of the desert sky and landscape; and an ethereal, sensuous 1938 canvas by Walker invoking an idealized landscape of hills and clouds. The exhibition is the sum of an astonishing array of loans and includes works drawn from the Crocker’s permanent collection including Winter (1933}, a radiant, vibrant painting by Pelton, who sometimes incorporated representational elements that she felt could assist on
the path to inner awareness and whose masterful and delicate abstractions have since the 1990s been rediscovered. The Crocker has also contributed two paintings by Jonson, a critical figure in expanding Southwest art beyond landscape painting and regional depictions to incorporate the light, colour, and spirit of New Mexico in rich, metaphorical abstraction. These works, both from the early 1940s, demonstrate his interest in mechanical forms. Jonson, Duncan points out, himself became a strong advocate of Pelton’s work, praising her work for its luminosity.
“Another World”
“Another World” is accompanied by a lavishly illustrated exhibition catalogue (Delmonico Books, 2021 }. Revelatory, in-depth essays by Duncan; Shields; art historian, author, and independent curator Malin Wilson Powell; Catherine Whitney, a curator with a specialisation in the regional Taos and Santa Fe painters; and Ilene Susan Fort, Curator Emerita at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; comprise the most significant contribution to the study and understanding of the group to date. The texts range from an exploration of the group in light of their international artistic peers, to their involvement with esoteric thought and Theosophy, their sources in the culture and landscape of the American Southwest, and the experience of its two female members. The handsome, colourful volume features standalone essays on each member, an illustrated chronology of the group with archival photography and ephemera, and an extended excerpt from Rudhyar’s polemical unpublished 1938 treatise positioning Transcendental art as a redemptive 20th century movement.
In the opening essay, “Another World: The Transcendental Painting Group,” Duncan asserts the group as contributors to an alternative approach to abstraction and places their art within the history of modern painting and 20th century American art. While Shields, in his “The Transcendental Painting Group and Significant
Abstraction,” argues that while their art very often shares formal resemblances to that of modernist pioneers like Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, and Georgia O’Keeffe, “it was not the lack of an objective stimulus that set their work apart from that of their predecessors but a difference in motivation,” and that the group’s 19th century definition of Transcendentalism “gave way to the idea that art should be focused on the relationship between the maker’s inner self and the divine, rather than nature and the divine.”
Venues
The exhibition opens at the Albuquerque Museum on June 26, 2021. The show then travels to the Philbrook Museum of Art and on to ArtisNaples, The Baker Museum. The exhibition is on view at the Crocker from August 28 to November 20, 2022, and then travels to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This exhibition was made possible with support from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Media Contacts:
Kat Haro, (916) 808-1963 communications@crockerart.org
Sponsors
About the Crocker Art Museum
Through engaging, innovative, and life-changing interactions with art, the Crocker Art Museum provides meaningful opportunities for people of divergent backgrounds to find common ground. Founded as a public/private partnership in 1885, the Crocker features the world’s foremost display of California art and is renowned for its holdings of master drawings and international ceramics, as well as European, Asian, African, and Oceanic art. The Crocker serves as the
Stuart Walker (American, 1904–1940), Composition 55 (Convergence), 1938. Oil on canvas, 44 x 35 in. Courtesy of the Jean Pigozzi Collection.
Robert Gribbroek (American, 1906–1971), Composition #57 / Pattern 29, 1938. Oil on canvas, 36 x 27 in. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The Harriet and Maurice Gregg Collection of American Abstract Art, 2019.42.
Emil Bisttram (American, born Romania, 1895–1976), Oversoul, ca. 1941. Oil on Masonite, 35 1/2 x 26 1/2 in.
Private collection; courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York.
primary regional resource for the study and appreciation of fine art and offers a diverse spectrum of exhibitions, events, and programs to deepen visitor’s understanding of art, including films, concerts, studio classes, lectures, and an array of activities for families and children. More information about exhibits and programs can be found at crockerart. org.
Re-published with permission.
Raymond Jonson (American, 1891–1982), Oil No. 2, 1942. Oil on canvas, 42 x 36 in. Crocker Art Museum Purchase, George and Bea Gibson Fund with contributions from Barbara and William Hyland and Loren G. Lipson, M.D., 2015.25.
Ed Garman (American, 1914–2004), Abstract No. 276, 1942. Oil on Masonite, 30 x 30 in. Collection of Shane Qualls, Cincinnati, Ohio.
William Lumpkins (American, 1909–2000), Untitled, ca. 1940. Watercolour on Simkins,
paper, 14 7/8 x 20 7/8 in. Collection of the McNay
2018.15.
Art Museum, gift of Alice C.
A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang opens at the British Library
A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang (27 September 2024 – 23 February 2025) showcases over 50 manuscripts, printed documents and pictorial works, many from the sealed ‘Library Cave’ in the cave complex of Mogao and on public display for the first time Presents real-life stories from the Silk Roads to offer an intimate glimpse into cultural, religious and civic life in the town of Dunhuang in northwest China, a vital resting place along the trading routes in the first millennium of the Common Era.
Events include guzheng player Wu Fei’s debut UK performance, author Aarathi Prasad, historian William Dalrymple and more.
A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang (27 September 2024 – 23 February 2025) at the British Library features over 50 manuscripts, printed documents and pictorial works, many from the sealed ‘Library Cave’ in the cave complex of
Old Tibetan Annals, ninth–tenth century – IOL Tib J 750 (c) British Library
Mogao and on public display for the first time. The exhibition offers an intimate glimpse into the diverse cultural, religious and civic life in the town of Dunhuang in northwest China during the first millennium of the Common Era (CE).
One of the most important archaeological finds of the 20th century was the discovery of Mogao Cave 17, often known as the ‘Library Cave’, near the oasis town of Dunhuang in present-day Gansu province, China. Sealed for nearly 900 years and containing tens of thousands of manuscripts, paintings, printed documents and objects spanning literature, theology, medicine, politics and art, the contents present an astonishing time capsule detailing life in and around Dunhuang, a vital resting point along the Silk Roads trading routes in the first millennium CE.
A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang follows a cast of characters to reveal the cultural, religious and artistic exchanges that took place along the Silk Roads during the first millennium CE. Cultural and artistic life in the city is explored through the stories of the scribe, the printer and the artist, the intricate and international network of diplomatic and mercantile exchanges along
the trading routes is revealed through stories from the merchant, the diplomat and the fortuneteller and the enduring legacy of Dunhuang as a site of pilgrimage and worship is illustrated through the Buddhist nun and the lay Buddhist.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the International Dunhuang Programme, a global collaboration committed to digitising, preserving and increasing access to the manuscripts from the Eastern Silk Roads, and the exhibition brings together documents and objects from Dunhuang for the very first time in 20 years.
Highlights include:
The Diamond Sutra (868 AD), the world’s earliest complete printed book with a date, and one of the most influential Mahayana sutras in East Asia.
The Dunhuang star chart (649-700), the earliest known manuscript atlas of the night sky from any civilisation.
A rubbing of the Stele of Sulaiman, a carved stone slab that was erected in 1348 at the Mogao Caves, on display for the first time.
A copy of the Diamond Sutra written in the scribe’s own blood, considered an act of powerful sincerity when copying Buddhist scriptures, on display for the first time.
The Old Tibetan Annals (641-761), the earliest surviving historical document in Tibetan.
A manuscript fragment dating from the 9th century about the prophet Zoroaster or Zarathusra, nearly 400 years older than any other surviving Zoroastrian scripture.
The longest surviving manuscript text in the Old Turkic script, a Turkic omen text known as the Irk Bitig or Book of Omens (930 or 942).
A paper stencil (800-1000) believed to create the thousand-Buddha motif featured on the ceilings
Stencil of a Buddha statue, ninth–tenth century. IOL Tib J 1361
The Diamond Sutra, the earliest dated printed document in the world and perhaps the most famous of Stein's finds from the Library Cave at Dunhuang. The British Library, Or.8210/P.2 (detail)
of many Mogao Caves.
One of the most important and complete manuscripts among the Old Uyghur Manichaean texts, the Xuastuanift, a confessional book of Manichaean Uyghurs, on display for the first time
A recently conserved 9th-10th century painting depicting the 11-headed manifestation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, on display for the first time.
A Silk Road Oasis: Life in Ancient Dunhuang also features an immersive soundscape recreating the sounds of the ancient Silk Road based on recordings from the British Library’s sound archive and the China Database for Traditional Music, coordinated by Dr. Xiaoshi Wei. The
soundscape blends contemporary material from artists across historic Silk Road nations, such as Iran and Kazakhstan, and includes newly commissioned works by Tibetan folk artist Ngawang Lodup, Uyghur virtuoso Shorhet Nur and Chinese musician Wu Fei.
Mélodie Doumy, lead curator of Chinese collections at the British Library, said:
“We are incredibly excited to provide a glimpse into the lives of the ordinary people who were the heart and soul of the Dunhuang oasis, making it such a fascinating melting-pot of languages, cultures and religions. We hope to show how these stories from the first millennium still resonate in our contemporary world, particularly in a cosmopolitan hub like London, which a number of diverse communities call home.”
The Dunhuang Star Chart is in the British Library Dunhuang collection. Dating from the second half of the seventh century AD. The coloured star-map of Qian Lezhi, is the oldest extant manuscript star-chart
The exhibition is accompanied by a book written by Mélodie Doumy and supported by Sir Percival David Foundation Academic and Research Fund and William Zachs.
Old Uyghur Manichaean texts, the Xuastuanift, a confessional book of Manichaean Uyghurs. The British Library.
Birth of a poem
Hark!
Busy work of Hands, (cooking and cleaning) leaves my mind free to embroider a tapestry of thoughts and emotions, to breed words into a patterned piece. A Title is Born. (but me, weird Night-Owl, needs Nightfall to weave the Babe in electric Wool)
Rebecca Haque is Professor, Department of English, University of Dhaka.
Rise and Grind Espresso Specialty Coffee, is located in the Vanich Legacy Art Gallery and Museum Building (named after a prominent Phuket family known for their contributions to local art), at 48 Phuket Road, Talat Yai Subdistrict, Phuket, Thailand.
That aromatic establishment has a self proclaimed “7 days of caffeine bliss, chai lattes, and all the sweet, rotating cake goodness you can handle”, and is located in Phuket Old town, where I just happened to stumble upon it while mooching around during my brief stay on Phuket island.
What was even more surprising than the amiability of the staff, the ambience, the exquisiteness of the coffee and the deliciousness of the baked items including (my favourite) Cinnamon Bun, Matcha Brownie, Orange Cake, Dark Chocolate Cookies and Vegan Japanese Pumpkin Bread, as well as Banana Muffins, Butter Cookies and Pandan and Cashew Cookies, was the examples of art lining the walls at the rear of the cafe, and up the intriguing stairs too.
To be fair, Phuket Old Town is not exactly bereft of coffee houses. In fact it’s remarkably difficult to find an eatery which isn’t one in that tourist beleaguered place. Phuket Old Town has not so much a coffee culture but a caffeine overindulgence, which was why the addition of an art gallery in the coffee shop intrigued me.
Sumrith Petkong, Story of Life
Sumrith Petkong, way of Life
Harendra Narayan Das
The Indian Master Printmaker, Harendra Narayan Das (also known as Haren Das), was born in Dinajpur (now a district in the Rangpur Division of northern Bangladesh, but then was part of Bengal) in February 1921. At the time of his birth there was continuing unrest in India as an ongoing British colony. Das died in Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta), India, in 1993, aged 71.
Haren Das had undertook a diploma in fine art, specialising in graphic arts, from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Calcutta, (the capital of British India and the hub of printing and publishing in colonial times). Das graduated in 1938. After graduation, Das enrolled in a two-year teacher-training course, where he studied graphic art, woodcuts, lithography, and etchings studied under Ramendranath Chakravorty and, later, after joining the college as a teacher in 1947, he introduced printing into the college’s curriculum. In 1950, a book of Das’s engravings, titled `Bengal Village in Wood Engraving’, was published, and in 1951 Das became a lecturer at the Government College of Art & Craft in Calcutta.
During his lifetime as a master print maker, Das was to create empathic, romanticised, pastoral images from his beloved Dinajpur, time and time again. Das’s memories became inspiration for his wood engraving, etching, dry point and linocut printmaking, whether in black and white or in colour.
Woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut
Etching
Etching
Etching
Woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut
Litho
The Concept of Parallel Universes in
Concept in Hindu Vedic Religion
The Concept of Parallel Universes in Hindu Vedic Religion
Vasini Shyama Charan Jha
The concept of parallel universes, or multiple realms of existence, is deeply embedded within Hindu Vedic Sanatan philosophy. Unlike Western theories that posit alternate dimensions or mirror realities, Vedic texts describe realms beyond physical perception, each shaped by unique cosmic laws and spiritual hierarchies. Through the Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, and epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana, we uncover a universe as complex and vast as consciousness itself. These realms serve as metaphysical explorations of the boundless reality created by the Supreme, an interconnected matrix of worlds where divinity and the soul's journey unfold infinitely.
The Concept of Parallel Universes in Vedic Philosophy and Scientific Perspectives
Hugh Everett III introduced the Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) in 1957, suggesting that all possible outcomes of quantum measurements occur in separate, branching universes. Widely discussed among physicists, this theory explains quantum phenomena where particles exist in multiple states at once. Each branch represents a parallel universe, akin to the Hindu concept of
countless Lokas within a divine cosmic order.
String theory posits particles as one-dimensional strings vibrating at different frequencies, giving rise to various particles. Some versions of this theory support a multiverse of universes, each with unique physical properties. Scientists like Edward Witten, Leonard Susskind, and Brian Greene have contributed to multiverse discussions, with Greene envisioning the universe as a bubble in a “cosmic foam.”
The cyclic or “Big Bounce” model suggests an eternal cycle of Big Bangs and Big Crunches, expanding and contracting endlessly. This idea resonates with the Hindu belief in the cyclical creation and destruction of the universe, similar to Brahma’s cosmic breathing cycle. Prominent advocates like Paul Steinhardt and Neil Turok propose this cyclic nature.
Nick Bostrom’s Simulation Hypothesis suggests our universe could be a simulation created by advanced civilizations. Elon Musk and Neil deGrasse Tyson have discussed its potential, though it remains largely theoretical.
Quantum mechanics hints that consciousness may shape reality. Theories of quantum consciousness, proposed by Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, explore how consciousness could influence quantum events and parallel dimensions.
Vedic texts like the Rigveda and Upanishads describe numerous Lokas governed by unique laws, a vision similar to the Many-Worlds theory. The concept of “Ananta” (endlessness) in Vedic philosophy suggests an infinite array of worlds, or Lokas, each with distinct cosmic principles. In Hindu cosmology, Brahma’s lifespan sees countless universes created and dissolved, like Vishnu’s exhalations and inhalations, akin to the cyclical models of modern science.
The Hindu idea of Maya (illusion) parallels the Simulation Hypothesis, with texts like the Bhagavad Gita viewing the material world as an illusion, designed by the Supreme for souls to experience and grow. The Katha Upanishad describes transcending sensory limits to reach higher states, aligning with scientific views of consciousness as a gateway to alternate realities beyond the ordinary.
The Vedic Perspective on the Cosmos
In Hinduism, the cosmos is viewed as an eternal
and cyclic entity. The Vedas and Upanishads describe a universe that undergoes endless cycles of creation and destruction. According to these texts, the universe operates on a grand scale where time is cyclical rather than linear.
• Cyclic Time and Creation: The concept of Kalachakra (the Wheel of Time) illustrates this cyclical nature. Each cycle lasts for billions of years, with periods of creation (Srishti), preservation (Sthiti), and dissolution (Pralaya) repeating endlessly.
• Infinite Universes: The Bhagavata Purana states, "There are innumerable universes besides this one... each containing its Brahma, its Vishnu, its Shiva" (Bhagavata Purana 6.16.37).
These infinite universes, are like countless grains of sand, each unique in its design. Every universe has its own Brahma, Vishnu, and
Shiva, all functioning under the ultimate cosmic order. This reflects the belief that every universe operates under its own set of laws governed by different deities.
Time and Space in Vedic Cosmology
The Surya Siddhanta, an ancient astronomical treatise, provides mathematical calculations for the age and size of different universes. It describes time scales that align remarkably with modern cosmological calculations:
• 1 Kalpa = 4.32 billion years
• 1 Day of Brahma = 1000 Mahayugas
• 1 Mahayuga = 4.32 million years
Scriptural References to Parallel Universes
The notion of multiple realms or Lokas is prevalent throughout Hindu scriptures:
• Puranas: Texts like the Brahma Vaivarta Purana emphasize that there are countless universes, each with its own creator god (Brahma). The Puranas describe various Lokas such as Swarga (heaven), Prithvi (earth), and Patala (underworld), each inhabited by different beings and governed by distinct cosmic laws14.
• Mahabharata: In a divine conversation between Lord Krishna and Arjuna during the Kurukshetra War, Krishna reveals his universal form, showing Arjuna countless universes within himself. This moment underscores the interconnectedness of all
The Brahmanda Concept
The term "Brahmanda" (ब्रह्माण्ड), literally meaning "Brahma's egg," refers to our universe. The Bhagavata Purana (3.11.41) states: Yasyaikaniśvasitakālamathāvalambya Jīvanti lomavilajā jagadaṇḍanāthāḥ.
Translation: "The Brahmas and other lords of the mundane worlds exist for the duration of a breath of Maha-Vishnu."
This verse reveals that countless universes emerge from the pores of Maha-Vishnu's body with each breath, establishing the concept of multiple universes millennia before modern physics proposed the multiverse theory.
The Multi-Layered Structure of Reality in the Vedas
The Vedas offer profound insights into the layered structure of the universe. The Rigveda, for instance, introduces the concept of “Lokas” or worlds. The structure of these Lokas is hierarchical, with each realm governed by its own rules, deities, and forms of existence.
Translation: "The Purusha (Universal Being) has a thousand heads, a thousand eyes, and a thousand feet. Encompassing all the worlds, He extends beyond by ten fingers' breadth."
In this, the Vedas signify that the universe (Purusha) encompasses countless realms, suggesting endless worlds within worlds—a parallel existence beyond our limited perception. The "ten fingers' breadth" symbolizes dimensions beyond our comprehension, the realm of the divine extending into infinity.
The Bhagavata Purana: Realms of the Universe
The Bhagavata Purana, one of the most revered Puranas, describes the cosmos as a collection of “Bhuvanas” (spheres of existence). Each sphere operates under divine principles, with some aligned to karma and dharma while others transcend dualities entirely.
Divine Conversation: Vishnu and Brahma
In a significant conversation between Lord Vishnu and Lord Brahma, Brahma seeks guidance on the vastness of creation. Lord Vishnu explains:
There are infinite universes, like countless grains of sand, each unique in its design. Every universe has its own Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva, all functioning under the ultimate cosmic order.
This dialogue implies a multiplicity of realms, each mirroring divine principles. The Purana tells us of an eternal cosmic play where Brahmas in different universes often meet and are astounded by the scale of creation beyond their own worlds.
Upanishadic Wisdom on the Soul’s Journey across Universes
The Upanishads delve into the concept of individual souls traveling across different planes, driven by karma and the pursuit of moksha (liberation). The **Katha Upanishad** introduces Yama, the Lord of Death, revealing to the young seeker Nachiketa that the soul journeys across realms, traversing both physical and metaphysical worlds.
Shloka from Katha Upanishad (2.2.7): Indriyebhyaḥ parā hy artha arthyebhyaś ca paraṃ manaḥ | Manasas tu parā buddhir buddher ātmā mahān paraḥ
Translation: Beyond the senses are the objects; beyond the objects is the mind; beyond the mind is the intellect; beyond the intellect is the Great Self.
The Upanishad describes the path of selfrealization as transcending physical existence.
This transcendent journey reveals that the soul's destination isn't confined to a single universe but spans endless planes, each symbolizing stages of spiritual enlightenment and karmic purification.
The Mahabharata’s Perspective on Multiverses
The epic Mahabharata, specifically in the “Swargarohanika Parva,” touches on the existence of multiple universes, particularly through the story of Arjuna. Upon visiting Svarga (Heaven), Arjuna witnesses realms vastly different from Earth, each governed by their respective cosmic laws.
In one passage, Lord Krishna reveals to Arjuna the endless nature of creation, describing it as a cosmic web woven with countless strands:
Many are the worlds, many the destinies of the soul, and each life is but a note in the eternal symphony.
Here, Krishna suggests that each soul experiences its unique universe, and yet, these experiences resonate in harmony with the Supreme's cosmic symphony.
The Mundaka Upanishad and the Realms of the Inner Universe
The Mundaka Upanishad illustrates the universe as not just an external structure but also an inner realm of consciousness that connects with divine wisdom. The Upanishad presents the universe as a dual reality—external and internal. Through meditation, practitioners are encouraged to experience this inner universe.
Shloka from Mundaka Upanishad (2.2.11): Dva suparna sayuja sakhaya samanam vriksham parishasvajate | Tayor anyah pippalam svadvatty anasnann anyo abhichakashiti
Translation: Two birds, bound in friendship, reside on the same tree. One eats the sweet fruit, while the other watches in silence.
This imagery suggests dual existence: the soul engrossed in worldly experiences (the bird eating the fruit) and the divine Self observing (the silent bird). The "tree" is symbolic of the cosmic order that encompasses all worlds, reminding us of the layered nature of reality where parallel experiences unfold within each soul.
Divine Expressions in the Padma Purana and Vishnu’s Infinite Forms
The Padma Purana elaborates on the divine manifestation of Lord Vishnu in multiple realms, where each form takes on distinct duties across various universes. The story of the Chaturvimsati Murtis (24 forms of Vishnu) illustrates how the Lord embodies diverse aspects, adapting to each realm’s cosmic structure.
In one narrative, Lord Vishnu explains the cyclical creation of universes:
As one breathes, so does the universe. With each exhale, worlds emerge, and with each inhale, they return. Infinite are these breaths, and infinite the universes.
The cyclical nature of creation in Hindu cosmology aligns with the idea of parallel universes, where each “breath” of Vishnu gives rise to countless existences, only to be reabsorbed and recreated.
In the Padma Purana, sage Pulastya describes to Bhishma:
Translation: The Supreme Goddess is the mother of infinite crores of universes, she is the support of all, she is all-pervading, she is the Supreme Controller.
This concept of "Ananta Koti Brahmanda" (infinite universes) aligns remarkably with modern quantum physics theories of the multiverse.
Divine Conversations and Insights from Sages
The teachings of ancient sages provide further insight into the concept of parallel universes:
• Lord Krishna's Revelation: During his discourse with Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains that he manifests in various forms across different realms and times. This suggests that every action and event may be replicated across multiple dimensions2.
• Sage Vyasa's Vision: Vyasa, revered as one of the greatest sages in Hindu tradition, articulated the idea that reality is layered and complex. He described how souls traverse different Lokas based on their karma, implying a journey through various universes influenced by one's actions in previous lives.
• In the Yoga Vasishtha, sage Vasishtha explains to Lord Rama: Brahmāṇḍāni anantāni sūkṣma-sthūla-svarūpataḥ Paramāṇu-samānī syuḥ kecit-kecin mahānti ca
Translation: There are infinite universes, some subtle and some gross in nature. Some are as small as an atom while others are enormous.
Philosophical Implications
The concept of parallel universes in Hinduism has significant philosophical implications:
• Karma and Rebirth: The belief in multiple universes reinforces the principles of karma and rebirth. Actions in one universe can influence existence in another, emphasizing moral responsibility across dimensions.
• Interconnectedness: The idea that all beings are interconnected through various planes fosters a sense of unity among diverse life forms, encouraging respect for all living entities. Mantric Connection
The following ancient mantra from the Rigveda (10.129) acknowledges the infinite nature of existence: Pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṃ pūrṇāt pūrṇamudacyate Pūrṇasya pūrṇamādāya pūrṇamevāvaśiṣyate
Translation: That is whole, this is whole. From
wholeness comes wholeness. Taking wholeness from wholeness, wholeness remains.
Praising Hindu Culture Through the Lens of Cosmology
Hindu Sanatan Dharma’s cosmology reflects not only the depth of spiritual knowledge but also an unparalleled understanding of reality. These scriptures inspire awe and humility, urging humans to live in harmony with the divine order. They teach that each soul is part of a greater cosmic plan, traversing realms in its pursuit of unity with the Divine. This cultural heritage is a testament to the infinite scope of the Hindu worldview—a vision that embraces not just one world but countless dimensions, urging humanity to look beyond material existence.
The Concept of Maya
One of the most fundamental concepts in Hindu philosophy is Maya, the illusory nature of the material world. Maya is often described as a veil that obscures the true nature of reality. It is through the lens of Maya that we perceive the world as separate and distinct. However, the Upanishads, the philosophical texts of
Hinduism, reveal that the ultimate reality is one and indivisible.
The concept of Maya can be interpreted as a reference to the multiple dimensions of existence. The world we perceive is just one layer of reality, a manifestation of Maya. Beneath this veil, there are countless other dimensions, each with its own unique qualities and inhabitants.
Conclusion: A Universe Beyond Boundaries
The Vedic, Upanishadic, and Puranic scriptures offer a vast, profound vision of parallel universes, where each world is a reflection of divine creativity and cosmic law. In exploring these realms, Hindu philosophy presents a universe that is boundless, an eternal dance of creation and dissolution that extends beyond the limitations of the physical world. The concept of parallel universes in Hindu cosmology thus elevates our understanding of existence, reminding us that reality is not restricted to what is visible but is a multidimensional phenomenon celebrated in Hindu culture.
This article barely scratches the surface of Hindu cosmology, yet it reveals an intricate, aweinspiring reality. Each verse, conversation, and story from the scriptures weaves a beautiful tapestry that celebrates Hindu Indian culture’s depth, encouraging us to cherish this profound legacy. Through these sacred texts, Hinduism reminds us of our role in the grand scheme, where every soul's journey holds a unique purpose within an infinite universe of possibilities.
MASAMI TERAOKA & JAPANESE UKIYO-E PRINTS
The National Gallery of Australia
Masami Teraoka, Catfish Envy
From the early 1970s Japanese-American artist Masami Teraoka adopted the traditional visual vocabulary of 17th–19th century Japanese ukiyo-e woodblock prints to comment on the world around him. These included reflections on contemporary themes such as globalisation, collisions between Asian and western cultures, and the AIDS crisis. Inspired notably by kabuki theatre prints and the ukiyo-e genres of bijinga [beautiful women], yūrei-zu [supernatural beings], and shunga [erotic prints], Teraoka created dramatic compositions rich in symbolism.
The National Gallery will present key examples of Teraoka’s ukiyo-e style works alongside historic ukiyo-e prints, delving into their visual, strategic and thematic connections. Leading ukiyo-e artists featured include Utagawa Kunisada, Katsushika Hokusai, Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Toyohara Kunichika and Tsukioka Yoshitoshi.
Forming part of the National Gallery’s Kenneth E. Tyler Collection exhibition series, this display will focus on Teraoka’s Hawaii Snorkel Series, published by Tyler Graphics in 1992–93. Related trial proofs and archival materials will showcase the hybrid techniques and innovative approaches Tyler employed to help Teraoka realise his vision.
This exhibition will coincide with the 30th anniversary of the National Gallery’s seminal exhibition Don’t Leave Me This Way: Art in the Age of AIDS, in which Teraoka featured and includes ephemera relating to the exhibition and associated activists’ works. The occasion will also be marked through the display of Teraoka's major folding screen AIDS Series/Makiki Heights Disaster 1988, which was recently acquired and has never been presented in Australia.
Masami Teraoka and Japanese Ukiyo-e Prints is a Kenneth E. Tyler Collection exhibition.
Curators: Beatrice Thompson, Associate Curator, Asian and Pacific Art Kira Godoroja-Prieckaerts, Kenneth E. Tyler Assistant Curator, International Prints and Drawings.
Text and images copyright to The National Gallery, Australia.
Masami Teraoka, View from here to eternity
Masami Teraoka, Longing Samurai
Masami Teraoka, Kunisada eclipsed
I am An Apostate
Of the invisible Malay cult of the Malay woman's womb
Sarah Joan Moktar
I am a Malaysian Malay Woman:
My Womb is Not Your Cult-Follower Factory.
My Womb is Not Your Economic-Political Voting Base.
My Womb is Not Your Baby-Making machine.
I am a Malaysian Malay Woman: Your Cult and Political Dreams
Your WEALTH and STATUS
Were founded on Your Deliberate Colonisation of My Womb.
The Life, Lives, that come through ME. My womb, My nurturing, My education. My devotion. My love.
Not your cum, cash and control.
I am a Malaysian Malay Woman, My Body, My future Children are Not YOURS.
I am a Malaysian Malay Woman.
I Revolt against Your Exploitation Of My Womb.
Without which You are Powerless
Frustrated and Alone.
And You Know It.
I Take My Womb and Power Back.
I Rip it Away From Your Lies.
I am a Malaysian Malay woman.
I am ignited with a rage From within my Womb.
I rage for the Exploitation Of Malay women and Children.
I rage for the Abuse of our sisters and children.
I rage for the RAPE Of our sisters and children.
I rage for the illusional "protections" provided To our sisters and children
I rage for the Indoctrination Of our sisters and children. Give us our FREEDOM.
Our wombs are OURS. Our minds are OURS. Our bodies are OURS. Our lives are OURS.
Our devotions , our loves Our FREEDOM, is OURS.
We, Malaysian Malay Women
We are FREE.
We do not BELONG to any cult.
Do not BELONG to any politicians.
Do not BELONG
To men who twist Religion to justify their cruelty and feel ownership and power over us.
We, Malay women in Malaysia, We, the mothers
We, the daughters
We the sisters:
We cannot remain silent.
Because:
Cults want to use OUR wombs.
Politicians want to use OUR wombs.
Businesses want to use OUR wombs.
Dictators want to use OUR wombs.
Even the most ignorant and uneducated, Want to use and abuse OUR wombs.
OUR wombs are their factories.
OUR wombs are where they build armies to play their power games. They Breed Greed, not Growth.
OUR Wombs Are Where Cruel Men Play Chess.
OUR Children their factory-bred Chess Pieces .
We, Malay Malaysian Women Fight a battle to liberate
OUR MINDS and WOMBS. This is life and death.
We fight a battle for our children, for ourselves, our future children.
A fight For The children we Once Were.
Children who kicked and bit And fought back.
Who were shamed and punished, often
By Other Angry, Weak Women and Men Lost Children
This time, The Child Will emerge Victorious
We, Malay Malaysian Women:
We are not Blind. We can See. We see You, Abusers. Regardless of gender.
We see your Jealousies. You Smug, Entitled, Exploiters.
You Invisible Cultists. You Invisible Occupiers.
We see you hiding behind your warped religious justification.
We see your violations.
We see your mental illnesses, Masked.
Your desecration of the sanctity of childhood and womanhood.
We see you turn sacred spaces Our homes, our bedrooms Our childhoods, into dens of horror.
We see you use religion and race as a shield for your depravity, Your shadows.
You use our beautiful hijabs, Sometimes forcing us into uglier hijabs.
To be YOUR hijab
To be a symbol of YOUR virtue to cover YOUR sins.
Your stupidity and depravity.
And You. Quietly observing.
Thinking this isn't about You.
We see you, The Silent Ones Who See, and Say Nothing.
We see your complicity.
Religious Sensitivity? God?
SPEAK NOT OF GOD!!! Who are YOU to speak of God?
You do not represent any God, Fellow flawed mortal.
You heathens! Cultivating Religiosity, You have most obviously, made yourselves Gods.
Gods over Our Freedom of Speech Our Freedom to Express Our Freedom to Resist.
Gods Over Our Wombs and Bodies
Zionists of our Zygotes who crave more and more Babies, followers, voters.
Who RAPE in OUR Temples.
You feel yourselves Gods. You powerless nitwits.
You shameless,
dangerous perverts. You seek to control OUR Wombs and children
You seek to subjugate OUR Wombs and children
You seek to exploit OUR Wombs and children
As If They Were YOUR Own
We, Malay Malaysian Women
With Blessings From Our Ancestors.
All Women, Past, Present & Beyond.
We Spit on Your Faces.
We Spit on your defining us.
We Spit on your dividing us, Splitting us women Into liberals, devil's, angels into saints and whores
While your saintly behaviour Creates whores of children.
We Spit on you, Who deter us from our rights Obstructing fights for freedom.
We Spit on the scandals.
We Spit at the Malay malaise You continue to uphold in our society.
I am a Malaysian Malay Woman.
My Womb belongs to NO KING.
My Womb belongs to NO CULTS.
My Womb belongs to NO CONSTITUTION.
The Liberation of MY MALAY WOMB...
...Is the CASTRATION of Malaysia’s Most Male-violent MALAISE.
The Screams and Grief You hear from those who Oppose us, Who Resist us, Is how you will Recognise... ....the Castrated Ones. You will Know them. By their cries of "being attacked".
For being Apostates Of THEIR Cult For fighting to De-Colonise Our OWN Minds and Wombs. Listen. Listen carefully.
Know your Enemies. Know the Cultists. Know The Invaders. Know The Infiltrators.
Know The Colonisers who want YOUR womb.
We are the Apostates
the Apostates Of This Cult.
This cult of The Malaysian Malay Womb.
Who Care Not for YOU But for you to NOT Own The Freedom They Steal from you.
Of Your Stolen Power.
Of Your Stolen Progeny.
Of Your Stolen Potentiality.
Of Your Stolen Dreams.
Apostates, Have faith in Your Power.
Apostates, Wake up!
Jolly @
Jolly @ 83
Jolly @ 83 is exactly what it says on the tin - an exhibition of recent artworks by Jolly Koh, and celebrating his eighty-third birthday, at the two halves of KEN Gallery, Menara KEN TTDI, and organised by Henry Butcher Art Auctioneers.
Dr Jolly Koh (Jolly Koh Cheng Whatt) is a notable Malaysian Chinese semi-abstract artist. He was born in Singapore (1941), grew up in Malaya’s (later Malaysia’s) Malacca and is living back in Malaysia after a living and absorbing the world exterior to his home.
After a successful exhibition in Singapore (at the Hollywood Room, Odeon Theatre), 1959, Jolly Koh studied for the National Diploma in Design at Hornsey School of Arts (London). That esteemed establishment had been created in 1882 by Charles Swinstead, an artist and teacher who had lived in Crouch End, Hornsey. The budding Singaporean artist Choy Weng Yang had been Koh’s contemporary at Hornsey School of Arts (graduating in 1962) while, soon after, Malaysian student artists Suleiman Esa and Redza Piyadasa, later to be standard-bearers off Malaysian contemporary art, too had met and studied at Hornsey School of Arts (19621968). Incidentally, among Hornsey School of Arts’ alumni are some other prominent names in art, including the artists Allen Jones and Anish Kapoor as well as the English graphic designer, typographer and art director Neville Brody.
Koh furthered his education with an Art Teacher’s Certificate at London University, and
later in the USA through a Fulbright scholarship and completing a Doctorate in Education at the University of Indiana. Back in Malaysia, Dr Koh had been included in a group exhibition called GRUP (1967), along with some formidable Malaysian artists such as the late Syed Ahmad Jamal, Latiff Mohidin, and the late Ibrahim Hussein, all who have (quite literally) made their distinctive marks on the arts of South East Asia.
I visited the KEN Gallery before the official launch and marvelled at the displays spread over two large gallery rooms. Visiting early gave me the opportunity to stand before the artworks unimpeded by appreciating bodies and become absorbed in the processes, colourations and sheer volume of Dr Koh’s latest creations.
In his expressively large artworks (on show at the at KEN Gallery), Dr Koh all but overwhelms his viewers not just with the size of his paintings but with their exploding hues, astonishing vibrancy and sheer weight of the artist’s energy, revealed within those paintings. To do his works justice, it is important for the critic to physically stand before them and dare to be overwhelmed. While, elsewhere, only projections of artworks exist in immersive experiences, they exist as mere phantoms when compared to the life imbued into Dr Koh’s pieces, and the experience of being before them.
With an earlier painting, ‘Whispering Emotion’ (2005, and not exhibited in the current gallery) the visitor had been drawn into Dr Koh’s semiabstract recalling the fluidity, or liquidity, of
past Surrealisms. ‘Whispering Emotion’’s colouration becomes reminiscent of the browns used in Spanish masterpieces. In that painting there is little doubt of Dr Koh’s expressive sombreness where the ‘emotion’ is whispered from the work’s floating head, reminiscent of René Magritte’s 1928 painting ‘The Lovers IV’ (1928) and the brown hued charcoal piece ‘Guardian Spirit of the Waters’ (1878) by the Symbolist Odilon Redon. Dr Koh’s ‘Whispering Emotion’ seems at odds with the vibrancy of Dr Koh’s later paintings, seen in the KEN Gallery exhibition, but that should come as no surprise from this constant innovator of the arts.
Standing at the Jolly @ 83 exhibition entrance, in the KEN building and unhindered by human traffic, the view before me radiated with a rare aesthetic and transformative beauty. That had been created, on canvas with oil and acrylic paints, by Malaysia’s Dr Jolly Koh. Although it has become the norm now not to refer to beauty in art, for beauty’s denial appears a dominant cultural fixation within an art world mired by the opposite, sometimes an exhibition of works denies temporary fads and fixations to shine by its own light into art’s, and society’s, darknesses.
On page fifteen of the new exhibition’s slimmer (180 page) ‘Jolly @ 83’ catalogue (published by Henry Butcher area auctioneers) art historian Céline Hongyi Yang expresses Dr Koh’s thoughts on his painting as “…there is no knowledge to be gained from my paintings, except for beauty.”
In a review of Dr Koh’s 2004 book (Artistic Imperatives: Selected Writings and Paintings by Jolly Koh, Maya Press. Malaysia. 2004), Ian Findlay (Asian Art News, November/December 2005, p113) reminds us that to Dr Koh colour “ …is centra1 and bringing order to a work is significant”, as well as “Colour is a very important part of life, but in life it is disorganised-chaos! The painter’s task is to re-organise the chaos into a structure, and one objectifies emotion…A good artist is someone with the ability to recognise quality and magic…” These notions become selfevident when basking in the glow of Dr Koh’s
impressive artworks at KEN Gallery.
I confess to having waited, with tingling anticipation, for the official launch of Dr Koh’s KEN Gallery exhibition. I’d experienced some slight anxiety to be within the reverentially auspicious sight of the artist’s work. As it is currently the Indian festival of ‘Deepavali’ (Diwali) as I write in this multi-ethnic country (Malaysia) my mind thought of the Sanskrit reverence of being before (a deity) and acts being called ‘darśana’ (shortened to Darsan), in involving glimpsing or viewing the presence of the holy. I was not only not disappointed by Dr Koh’s show, but totally exhilarated by the energy exuding from the canvases, enabling this writer to get lost in worlds of the artist’s creation.
Earlier I had referred to Dr Koh’s artworks as semi-abstracts. I fell upon that descriptive term as names such as ‘Art Autre’, ‘Art informel’, ’Gestural’, and ’Non-Objective’, seem only to partially explain Dr Koh’s works. What the visitor sees has no defining term, but include various aspects of both Chinese art and the Modern arts of the West. Dr Koh’s images contain elements of those mentioned, plus hints of ‘Abstract Expressionism’ (popular in Malaysia) as well as hints towards a ‘Plastic Surrealism’, grounded by his distinct choice of nomenclature.
Irrespective of what I, or other people say about those works currently at KEN Gallery, Menara KEN TTDI, it is imperative that you, the reader, the viewer, stand face to face with Dr Koh’s works, not judging, but experiencing.
Ed.
Flowers In The Sky
Wild Flowers
Modern Calligraphy
Another side of Phuket Old Town
Another side of Phuket Old Town
First a little Phuket island history…
Wikipedia tells us that the original inhabitants (aboriginal Austronesian people) of the island, now know as Phuket, have been by known by various names, such as Orak Lawoiʼ, Lawta, Chao Tha Le, Chao Nam, Lawoi, and Orang Laut (Sea Gypsies).
The island of Phuket had been part of the Buddhist Sirivijaya Empire (7th to 11th century AD), based in Sumatra. Later it became part of the Thai state during the thirteenth century, when Thai armies from Sukhothai took control of the island.
Phuket had been previously known as Junk Ceylon (thought to be an English corruption of the cape of Jang Si Lang) on European sea charts, and Cape Salang, which is a corruption of the Malay Tanjung Salang. Later that island became known as Thalang, after the name of the main town on the island. The island was not known as Phuket until the administrative centre was moved to a mining town in the centre of the island called, strongly enough, Phuket (from the Malay word bukit or hill).
At about nine in the morning, Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur airport Terminal 2 (KLIA2) ‘Old Town White Coffee’ (first established in Ipoh, Perak, 1999), outlet’s coffee was strong, the toasted bread was too sweet and the day was ever so slightly overcast. Apart from that, everything was fine.
I was waiting at the airport to board yet another flight. This time to Phuket, Thailand. It is an island known for its tremendous scenery, a tenuous link to James Bond, old Portuguese houses and heaps of Chinese ancestry. As is my wont, I was early. It was my third such trip to
Thailand in a few months, mainly due to the fact that Siem Reap (in Cambodia) is no longer as easy to reach as it once had been.
The Airbus A320 emerged from out of a rain moistened sky and landed, at lunchtime, on the tarmac of the tropical island of Phuket, at its International Airport (HKT), and was surrounded by the beautiful Andaman Sea. Upon landing, the plane made for its bay among similar craft from China, Russia, the Middle East etc etc. Lunch, however, was delayed until 5pm. I had to first endure the immigration queue for, maybe, half an hour, then grab a ‘Grab’(e-hailing taxi) to Phuket Old Town, a very long hour away. The ‘Grab’ stand was, not as one might have expected at the ‘Arrivals’ part of the Terminal, but secluded at ‘Departures’. I needed the ‘Grab’ driver to issue directions on how to reach him.
I was due to stay at the Ming Shou Boutique Hotel, at 34 Krabi, Tambon Talat Nuea, Mueang Phuket District. I’d booked online. The ‘Grab’, with me in it, arrived, then disappeared, leaving me with my big yellow suitcase and yellow hand luggage (yellow is easier to see) standing outside a hotel which to all intents and purpose looked closed for the season. There was yet another wait. This time for someone to be at the reception desk, and someone to hand me the key to my already booked room. It was plainly evident, from the pots of paint, people painting walls, and smell of fresh paint that the purposely quaint hotel was being renovated, and that a receptionist was nowhere to be seen.
I had chosen the older town in Phuket, purposely eschewing the latent allure of beaches and exotic seascapes, in favour of gaining an insight into the history of Phuket island. I’m not really a sand
Kopitiam at Wilia, Green Curry and Roti.
and beach person, and while frozen margaritas or the more astringent gin (Gordon’s or Bombay Sapphire) coupled with a chilly (Schweppes) tonic are a natural delight, I’d prefer mine to be sans sand, if at all possible.
A receptionist arrived. I was handed the key to my room and stood tired and hungry while she explained the intricacies of locking and unlocking the front door, oh and the fact that my room was up two flights of stairs, without a lift.
By this time I was a zombie, barely functioning as a human. I climbed up the two flights of stairs, then down the two flights of stairs to eventually, actively, seek my lunch in Old Town, Phuket. I had been intent upon authentic Thai food. Authentic Thai food was not quite as easy to find as one might have thought. I opted, instead, for a ‘Green Curry’ in the converted old Chinese shoplot now called ‘Kopitiam at Wilia’, accompanied by a ‘roti’ which, to all intents and purposes, was a puffed up, flaky, ‘roti cannai’ (or paratha), and very tasty. Owner Khun Wirot was very happy that I kept returning to sample various items of the menu. I even sampled the locally made fruit craft ales from Full Moon Brewworks (began in 2010) and sold at ‘Kopitiam at Wilia’.
The word ‘Kopitiam’ (kopi is an Indonesian and Malay term for coffee. Tiam is the Hokkien/Hakka term for shop) has its roots in those modest establishments set up by Chinese immigrants catering to the workingclass population, with simple food and, of course, coffee. Now ‘Kopitiam’ seems to mean anything from a coffee shop selling authentic local coffee, to a mini-museum in which is placed a not too expensive restaurant. I had been in the later.
My first whole day began after an interesting hotel breakfast. I’m being polite. The hotel breakfast included cold processed meat rolled, an equally cold, small, processed meat frankfurter, and a hard, and also cold, hard boiled egg. This sparse fare had been accompanied by a slightly blackened banana. The morning coffee was the ubiquitous 3-in-1 and, while not actually distasteful, was not entirely to my taste. Do-
it-yourself toast had been available but with nothing to accompany it, not even that processed plastic called margarine. I passed.
I shuffled out, crossed over ‘Krabi’ and into a passageway wide enough for a car’s passing, but no more. A wall motive of a white cat welcomed me as I began down that lane. I entered and walked around the market, then discovered the place called ‘Breakfast’ (56 Soi Phisai Sapphakit).
I obeyed, and experienced a delicious repast of fish curry, rice, a whole coconut chock-full of its water, and local (Thai) coffee beside the Phuket Old Town Fresh Market. It was, conveniently, only two minutes walking distance from where I was saying at the Ming Shou Boutique Hotel.
The Fresh Market itself boasted ladies selling plastic bags of fish heads, red plastic receptacles
Breakfast of Fish Curry and rice at ‘Breakfast’.
A melange of Asian fruits at the Fresh Market.
of half-skinned frogs, skinned quails, decapitated heads of pigs as well as the king of fruits (Durian), long green peppers and jumbles of long green aubergines, cucumbers, lemongrass and a wealth of other vegetables for sale (in large plastic bags).
My brief stay turned out to be split between finding palatable food and/or coffee, as well as discovering Phuket’s Old Town’s authentic foods and venues. Obviously the fish curry in ‘Breakfast’ at the Fresh Market was one. Another was the fifty year old food court ‘Lock Tien’ at the junction of ‘Dibuk’ and ‘Yaowarat’ roads. In there, one worker displayed her skills in diligently making ‘skins’ for Popiah (Fujianstyle fresh spring rolls).
Fresh frogs at the Fresh Market.
Local and Street Food Market
That food court felt authentic, more real somehow than other places nearby. Speaking of which, the ‘Local and Street Food Market’ isn’t really. It’s a bit of a misnomer. It’s a new venue with, no doubt, good intentions, and open from 8am to 6 pm, but at 8am they are only just opening up, with few stall available to purchase from. The food is okay, but a little touristy, and nothing like either ‘Lock Tien’ or ‘Kopitiam at Wilia’. At least, it wasn’t quite to my taste.
Local and Street Food Market
Coffee is plentiful in Phuket Old Town. That is to say, that if you want American style Western coffee, it’s very easy to spot. In Phuket Old Town there is a wealth of specialist coffees, and places to drink them in. Elsewhere I have mentioned ‘Rise and Grind’, coffee and cake par excellence, with the addition of the Vanich Legacy Art Gallery too. The 5th Element, along Stoon Road Talat Nuea, Muang, makes the claim “We are a coffee roaster that intends to design
the taste by roasting that is unique to the coffee plantations. Including the flavours in the glass that we would like to present”. There, my coffee was ‘Flat White’ which was the best that I’d had for a long, long while, and I was tempted to devour a scrumptious slice of ‘Apple Crumble’ (pie).
Speaking of dessert, just a moment or two from Ming Shou Boutique Hotel (where I was staying) was Prem Dessert
The 5th Element
Cafe “modern Thai dessert with authentic taste” @ 44 Krabi Tambon Talat Nuea, Amphoe Mueang Phuket. I had slipped by it a few times before I realised just what it was. I’m English, and dessert is a must. A small tour group arrived at the same time I did. It was distracting, but my dessert (Young Coconut - Woon Ka Ti, ice-cream) was so fascinating that I hardly had time to acknowledge the group.
All too soon, my fleeting glimpse of Phuket and its Old Town was over.
Phom-ja-klab-ma (I’ll be back).
Ed.
Local ‘fruit’ beer, Phuket
Mixed local fruits at
at Kopitiam at Wilia
‘Young Coconut - Woon Ka Ti’, ice-cream at Prem Dessert Cafe
Martin Bradley is the author of a collection of poetryRemembering Whiteness and Other Poems (2012, Bougainvillea Press); a charity travelogue - A Story of Colours of Cambodia, which he also designed (2012, EverDay and Educare); a collection of his writings for various magazines called Buffalo and Breadfruit (2012, Monsoon Book)s; an art book for the Philippine artist Toro, called Uniquely Toro (2013), which he also designed, also has written a history of pharmacy for Malaysia, The Journey and Beyond (2014, Caring Pharmacy).
Martin has written two books about Modern Chinese Art with Chinese artist Luo Qi, Luo Qi and Calligraphyism and Commentary by Humanists Canada and China (2017 and 2022), and has had his book about Bangladesh artist Farida Zaman For the Love of Country published in Dhaka in December 2019.
Canada 2022
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