Dance of Life: Buddhas and Ragas

[Cultural heights: atrium ceiling at the PEM; October 1, 2005]

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Last night I saw Ravi Shankar and his daughter Anoushka, with several other musicians, at Symphony Hall. Wonderful concert. We sat only 15 rows back, close enough to see the musicians’ hands flying on their instruments and see their smiles to each other, clearly delighting in the joyful performance. The first half was led by 24-year-old Anoushka (half sister of Nora Jones, by the way) on sitar, with some 10 artists all seated on rugs on the stage performing Indian violin, folk drums, wind instruments and vocals. It was a very lively set of Indian classical and folk music – at least that’s what the promos said. I know nothing about Indian music, but I found it mesmerizing. The second half of the program brought out Ravi Shankar, looking rather frail at 85 years old – until he began playing, when he seemed to drop 15-20 years. I’d have said more years, but playing opposite his vigorous young daughter counterbalanced that effect some, however fluid his performance. Their set, backed by a tanbura (which supplies a steady background drone) and accompanied by tabla percussion once things got going, was less lively than the opening set, but at times more intense. As in the first set there was a warm rapport between the musicians, more so as father and daughter conversed in their music (see an interview with the two here). [Photo from www.worldmusic.org]

Busy weekend. As I mentioned in my last post, I met up with Lorianne on Saturday at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem to see The Kingdom of Siam exhibit. Wonderful exhibit of art from the kingdom of Ayutthaya, which was founded in 1351 and flourished some 400 years. Viewing so many serene-faced Buddha images, I commented to Lorianne about the stark contrast between them and the Catholic art I saw in Mexico, where the icons were all pierced, bloody and tortured. And I thought Buddhism was about how life means suffering. Besides all the Buddhas, there were woodcarvings, manuscripts, Hindu sculptures, and textiles – much of it reflecting the kingdom’s cultural openness as a trading center with ties to China, Japan, Persia and many parts of Europe. I particularly liked a cabinet decorated with mother-of-pearl inlaid scenes of the natural world, frolicking squirrels, dragonflies, mermaids, lions, birds – as a review of the show described it, "It's a vision of bounteous, harmonious nature teeming with interdependent life forms, real and imaginary, amid the dance of life." The exhibition was created by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, in conjunction with the National Museums of Thailand. Their website has some good photos, a review, and a great introduction. [Photo from Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya, Thailand; copyright Asian Art Museum]

Comments

[Lorianne]

Wonderful. I used to have one of Anoushka Shankar's CDs: she's incredible, and gorgeous! (Yeah, the second part's not related to the first...but the CD liner notes were packed with pictures of her in both traditional Indian dress & contemporary Western clothing, and she's a hottie either way.)

Buddhas, sitars, and margaritas: really, what better weekend could one hope for?

[Dave]

I'm sure it's much different and bigger now, but i remember when i visited the Peabody museum in Salem as a teenager: it was the best museum EVER. All these old cabinets filled with stuff the sea captains brought back from all over the world during the whaling era. No interpretive exhibits that i can recall, just cabinets of curiosites with minimal lables. It rocked.

[leslee]

There are still some old cabinets filled with such stuff in the old East India Marine Hall (I think that's what the room was called), which is lined with ships' figureheads. We didn't have time to visit much of the older part of the museum - you could spend days there.