Abstract
This talk will discuss why certain types of East Asian religious images have been accepted, propagated, worshipped, and eventually enshrined within Western museums (and museums of the imagination), while other types of images have been proscribed, actively destroyed, and ignored by scholars and museums. Certain sacred images and icons, especially those with materials (manuscripts, relics, materia medica) put inside of them at the time of consecration, inspire extreme forms of devotion, while others have presented problems for priests, politicians, philosophers, and academics who for various reasons have throughout history found them distasteful, attacked their validity and power, and have tried to hide them away or destroy them. Yet, even in the face of critique and destruction they have proliferated.
Prof. James Robson | Site
Harvard University
10/05/2023 - WED 16:30- Room 5318
