Art and Devotion at a Buddhist Temple in the Indian Himalaya

by Melissa R. Kerin

Overview

Sixteenth-century wall paintings in a Buddhist temple in the Tibetan cultural zone of northwest India are the focus of this innovative and richly illustrated study. Initially shaped by one set of religious beliefs, the paintings have since been reinterpreted and retraced by a later Buddhist community, subsumed within its religious framework and communal memory. Melissa Kerin traces the devotional, political, and artistic histories that have influenced the paintings' production and reception over the centuries of their use. Her interdisciplinary approach combines art historical methods with inscriptional translation, ethnographic documentation, and theoretical inquiry to understand religious images in context.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780253013064
Publisher:	Indiana University Press
Publication date:	07/06/2015
Series:	Contemporary Indian Studies Series
Pages:	264
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 10.40(h) x 0.90(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Melissa R. Kerin is Assistant Professor of Art History at Washington and Lee University.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Technical Notes

Introduction
1. Nako's Socio-Political History and Artistic Heritage
2. Forgetting to Remember: Gyapagpa Temple's Shifting Identity
3. Mapping Drigung Activity in Nako and the Western Himalaya
4. Gyapagpa's Painting Style and its Antecendents
5. Origin and Meaning of a Renascent Painting Tradition
Conclusion

Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Pika Ghosh

A meticulous and discerning piece of scholarship, one that is skillful in employing multiple methods—visual, linguistic and ethnographic—to create a fuller picture of a region we knew little about. . . . [A] pleasure to read.

Pika Ghosh]]>

A meticulous and discerning piece of scholarship, one that is skillful in employing multiple methods—visual, linguistic and ethnographic—to create a fuller picture of a region we knew little about. . . . [A] pleasure to read.

Editorial Reviews

"A forceful study on the specificity of Gyapagpa's painting."—South Asia Research

"Emphasizing the visual as primary evidence in the study of history, especially religious history, Kerin moves Buddhist art from the arena of museum displays, art markets, and aesthetics to the arena of dynamic interdisciplinary discourse, thus reaffirming the significance of in situ study. . . . Recommended."—Choice

"A meticulous and discerning piece of scholarship, one that is skillful in employing multiple methods—visual, linguistic and ethnographic—to create a fuller picture of a region we knew little about. . . . [A] pleasure to read."—Pika Ghosh, author of Temple to Love: Architecture and Devotion in Seventeenth-Century Bengal

From the Publisher

Emphasizing the visual as primary evidence in the study of history, especially religious history, Kerin moves Buddhist art from the arena of museum displays, art markets, and aesthetics to the arena of dynamic interdisciplinary discourse, thus reaffirming the significance of in situ study. . . . Recommended.

Choice

A forceful study on the specificity of Gyapagpa's painting.

South Asia Research

"Kerin's methodology of sympathetically driven reception theory employed in the field, close observation, and the transcription and translation of on-site inscriptions, reveals striking insights into the motivations of the original builders and contemporary viewers alike.... This work has something to say within an expanding field that needs to hear it. It is the result of many years of challenging fieldwork, daunting linguistic study, a great deal of careful thought, and painstaking writing." —Rob Linrothe, Northwestern University

Rob Linrothe

"A meticulous and discerning piece of scholarship, one that is skillful in employing multiple methods--visual, linguistic and ethnographic--to create a fuller picture of a region we knew little about.... [A] pleasure to read." —Pika Ghosh, University of North Carolina

Pika Ghosh