Hi, A chance Advt in the local Tv channel led us to go to the Asian civilisations museum in singpore. Its located just off raffles MRT across the singapore river.
Entrance fees were not steep ( sgd 8 for adults and 4 for children) - check more of this here
We were greated at the entrance itself by a cut out of a chola bronze - an 11th C Uma Parameshwari. There were a couple of other chola bronzes ..incl one of Sambandar. There was also a beautiful stone sculpture of Subramaniar.
Unfortunately the piece de resistance - the Uma paramershwari idol was a special exhibit and the guards wouldnt allow us to take pictures of this one alone...the beauty of this piece was breathtaking - more than the aura of seeing the handiwork of a gifted artist over 1000 years ago - the sheer mastery of craftsmanship left us spell bound. statue was at best 2 feet in height, but the detailing was exqusite...the grace and calm of her face and love in the smile, the lovely locks of her hair falling into rolling tresses over her sholders..the intricate ornaments on his neck, the grace of her poise - the gentle sway acccentuating the narrow waist, the beautiful and elaborate work on his lower garments..her hands and fingers bring life to the figurine...
after that there were a few interesting exhibits on the chettair community of singapore - complete with their account books ( clear written in tamil - amazing that these paper/ink slips are intact - we could clearly see the words - silavu and thunai on the top. this plus some items like their mejai petti and pettagam etc.
After this we moved to the Java side - there were a couple of beautiful stone statues on loan from Leiden museum london (??)...one a beautiful seated ganesha....Unique aspects being he has both his feet pressed together, typical of java ( Dr JB has written about this style in depth in Agathiar). he ahs four hands, one holding the broken tooth, a rudraksha malai , an axe and a bowl of sweets in which he is dipping his trunk into. another feature is that he has got a skull on his crown and also a crescent.
The next item on loan again was an interesting display was a fine Agastya carved out of Volcanic rock - also from java 11th C. he carries a kamandalam and a rudraksha mala in his hands. The exhbit says he is worshiped as Batara Guru or divine teacher in indon. He is specially venerated in Javanese shaivaite temples and is usually placed in the south niche ( place denoted for Dakshinamurthy in ours)
There were an amazing collection of buddha from across south east asia. An interesting exhibit was a huge bronze buddapada of thailand. All the toes were depicted of having the same length and the entire foot had lots of markings incl the Cakaram in the centre. There was also an interesting bust of buddha in an emaciated condition ( due to his fast) - the face was almost bare to the skull and the ribs were all showing - never seen this before.
Another interesting exhibit was a torso of a king - the head, hands and legs have been broken off, but the proud chest and the broad sholders with all the ornaments - if only he was in a single piece, he would have looked like any of our princes.
Another interesting exhibit concerned with the occult was a pustaka ( bark book from north sumatra) - the foot note, says it contains magic formula,medicinal recipies and instructions for peforming magic rituals and producing various magic cures. The language used was an archaic form of toba bateck dialect ( which is no longer used). It is believed that contents of the book can be divided into three - art of preserving life, destroying life and fortune telling.
This is becoming too long, so will break and post as three articles...will try to upload the pictures later.