South Asian History through Art at 'The Art Institute of California' in San Fraancisco city

While in San Francisco area, we planned to walk around the downtown and when we were crossing through the City Hall we noticed an art exhibition about south Asia. That sounded pretty interesting so we thought of taking a quick tour of the exhibition with artworks from various asian countries like Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Burma, India , China etc.

Above photograph shows the building which houses The Art Institute of California in San Francisco City. There is this beautiful water fountain setup where you see all these birds roaming around and people stop by to feed these wild wings.

As we entered into the art gallery, this Ganesha statute was placed on the main door with visitors sitting around the open area. In India, good things are started by saying 'Shri Ganesha' or worshipping lord Ganesha.

Here is a closer shot of water fountain outside The Art Institute of California with these beautiful birds flying around.

The Indian cultural area was separated from other cultural areas by formidable natural barriers. Oceans surrounded southern India. To the north and northeast the Himalayas and other mountain ranges, as well as great deserts, made overland travel to and from China exceedingly arduous. The northwest too was blocked by mountains and deserts, but these were less difficult to cross, so invaders typically entered from this direction.

What are often thought of as Indian art and culture spread not only throughout the modern nation of India but also through Pakistan and Bangladesh. This huge area was never politically unified except under British colonial rule.

Earlier, various kingdoms and principalities controlled large or small areas, and occasionally a conqueror created a vast empire.

As we moved inside the gallery there were plenty of art-pieces from different countries of Asia. Above photograph shows one of the statues of Budhha.

Although Buddhism had at one time spread over much of ancient India, by the year 800 it flourished mainly in the northeast. This area ruled by the kings of the Pala Dynasty included the sacred sites where the Buddha had lived and preached.

The most important site of all was Bodh Gaya in India. Gaya was the place where Buddha had attained Enlightenment, marked by the famous Mahabodhi Temple. Pilgrim from Tibet, China, Sri Lanka, Burma, and Indonesia undertook long, difficult voyages to pay homage to Mahabodhi. So they took back lot of influence & the text to their countries & that's how it propagated to the world.

Above photograph shows one of the lobbies inside The Art Institute of California in San Francisco city.

The art present in the gallery had some unique sculptures and art-pieces from different states of India. The one you see in above photograph is pair of sections from doorframes which belonged to Madhya Pradesh state of India.