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Dear list members,
The Australian Centre for Asian Art and
Archaeology will host the following seminar on Monday 4th May
5-6.30pm at The Refectory, Main Quadrangle, University of Sydney
(http://db.auth.usyd.edu.au/directories/map/building.stm?ref=D15H22)
We do hope you can attend
AABS Executive
Three Relic Chambers
This illustrated talk examines Buddhist reliquary deposits from
five eras of Burmese history-
It reviews the art treasures of the 7th-8th
century Khin Ba deposit, from Sriksetra, which was excavated in
1920s, looking at the cultural context of the time the deposit
was laid down- and also discusses the conservation and fate of
some of the items found.
Gold and rock-crystal reliquaries were a key feature of a 13th
century relic chamber from Bagan- uncovered by the 1975
earthquake, the relics have since been re-enshrined, and Bob's
photographs of them are the only record of these rare pieces.
A royal endowment of 1763 left more than 7,000 objects to be
excavated at the Shwebawgyun pagoda in Shwebo in 1903. Some of
these can still be located, including a group of brass model
boats and soldiers which are on display at the Defence Services
Museum in Yangon (Rangoon). A few weeks ago the curators of the
museum allowed Bob to photograph these stunning historical
artifacts.
In 2008, villagers at Shwe-yin-mar, 70 kms west of Mandalay,
uncovered a group of bronze statues that date to the around
1800, in the ruins of a small pagoda dedicated to a departed
monk, whose cremated bones were included among the relics. They
are now reverently kept at the village monastery.
And from a group of ruined pagodas at Yazagyo, on the
Burma/India border, comes a collection of bronzes from the late
19th century, sculptural re-tellings of the legends of Buddha's
life..
Bob Hudson
Bob Hudson is an Honorary Associate of the Archaeology
Department, University of Sydney, and a visiting professor at
the Field School of Archaeology, Pyay, Myanmar. His publications
on the archaeology of Burma cover the Iron Age, Early Urban and
Bagan periods, through to examinations of current conservation
and heritage issues. He occasionally conducts educational tours
to Myanmar for the Australian Museum Society
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