8.3 Interactions Within and Across Cultures in South, East, and Southeast Asian Art

Asian art was always global. Camel caravans on the Silk Road crossed Central Asia between China, India and the Mediterranean, and ships timed their voyages to the seasonal monsoon winds to sail between Africa, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia and south China. Monks and merchants carried Buddhism along both kinds of routes. It reached Japan from Korea and China in the 500s–700s, and it took hold there because emperors and nobles backed it.

Exchange went both ways. Greco-Roman ideas shaped Gandharan Buddhist art, and early Buddha figures wear toga-like robes. Islamic sultanates from the 1100s and 1200s brought new forms such as paper manuscripts, and later European contact added naturalism and perspective. Chinese porcelain and silk, and Indian cotton, were prized in West Asia and Europe.

Longmen caves (Luoyang, China; Tang Dynasty; 493–1127 CE; limestone). Buddhist patrons spent over 600 years carving more than 2,000 caves and niches into limestone cliffs along the Yi River, following Indian and Central Asian cave temples. The highlight, finished in the 670s under the Tang, is a seated Vairocana Buddha about 17 meters tall, flanked by disciples, bodhisattvas and fierce guardians in order of rank. Empress Wu Zetian helped pay for it. Its full, rounded forms show the confident Tang style.

Borobudur Temple (Central Java, Indonesia; Sailendra Dynasty; c. 750–842 CE; volcanic-stone masonry). Built over a hill, Borobudur is a stepped stone mountain shaped like a mandala, a diagram of the cosmos. Pilgrims climb clockwise past 2,672 relief panels on square terraces about desire, karma, the Buddha's life and the quest for enlightenment. At the top, three round terraces hold 72 perforated stupas, each with a seated Buddha, around a large central stupa: open space for the formless realm of enlightenment. It mixes Indian Mahayana Buddhism with a local tradition of terraced mountain shrines.

Angkor, the temple of Angkor Wat, and the city of Angkor Thom, Cambodia (Hindu, Angkor Dynasty; c. 800–1400 CE; stone masonry, sandstone). The Khmer king Suryavarman II built Angkor Wat in the 1100s for Vishnu, and perhaps as his own tomb, since it faces west. A wide moat stands for the cosmic ocean, and five towers for the peaks of Mount Meru. Reliefs show the Churning of the Ocean of Milk, gods and demons pulling a serpent to make the elixir of immortality. Later, Jayavarman VII, a Buddhist, built the walled city of Angkor Thom, with the Bayon temple's many giant faces, and a statue shows him as a meditating Buddha. Angkor Wat itself later became Buddhist.

Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings (Bichitr; c. 1620 CE; watercolor, gold, and ink on paper). The Mughals were Muslim rulers of India of Central Asian descent. Emperor Jahangir sits on an hourglass throne, a huge halo of sun and moon behind him, handing a book to a Sufi shaikh (a Muslim mystic) while ignoring an Ottoman sultan and King James I of England, copied from an English portrait. Below, Bichitr paints himself holding a small painting. European cherubs write a wish that Jahangir live a thousand years. The flat patterned carpet is Persian; the modeled faces, cherubs and halo come from European art. Message: the emperor values spiritual over worldly power.

Taj Mahal (Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India; masons, marble workers, mosaicists, and decorators working under the supervision of Ustad Ahmad Lahori, architect of the emperor; 1632–1653 CE; stone masonry and marble with inlay of precious and semiprecious stones; gardens). Shah Jahan built this tomb for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, who died in 1631. Its Persian features include iwan-like arches, a double dome and an eight-part plan; its Indian elements include white marble and small domed kiosks. Flowers are inlaid in stone (pietra dura), a technique also known in Italy. Qur'an inscriptions get larger as they rise, so they look even from below. The tomb stands at the end of a charbagh, a four-part garden recalling the gardens of paradise, beside the Yamuna River.