From Ancestral Worship to Pursuit of Immortality: Bronze Age to Pre-Buddhist Chinese Art
This presentation uses artefacts from the New Orleans Museum of Art and the exhibition Buddha and Shiva, Lotus and Dragon: Masterworks from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection at Asia Society and visual materials from recent archaeological discoveries to discuss the changing ideas and attitudes toward life, death, and afterlife in pre-Buddhist China. From the Early Bronze Age to the first Empires, religious centers moved from family lineage temples to individual tombs, reflecting profound socio-political transitions in the declining of a hierarchical genealogical structure and the rising importance of one’s achievements through personal efforts. Read More