Flames of Devotion: Oil Lamps from South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayas [Paperback]

Sean Anderson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2006

Fire and light have long symbolized the relationship of human beings to the universe and its creators. In South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayas, the lamp, as a bearer of light, came to be perceived as a vehicle through which the divine could be accessed. The design, construction, and use of the lamp in these regions have been synonymous with the faith of the devotee since ancient times. Today, the lamp continues to play a pivotal role in Hindu and Buddhist religious contexts, allowing the faithful to concentrate on the image or nature of the deity. The 76 remarkable metal lamps and incense burners illustrated in "Flames of Devotion" form the heart of a collection assembled by the preeminent scholar of Indian and Himalayan art Pratapaditya Pal and his wife, Chitralekha. They are noteworthy for their ingenious design and diverse crafting, as well as their iconographic richness. They represent fourteen states in India, a majority coming from Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west, the tribal areas in central Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, and the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. In addition, stunning examples of lamps from Nepal and Tibet showcase the skill with which precious metals were employed during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and a small selection of early incense burners and lamps from Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam show the role these objects played in the ancient imagination. In an engaging and highly informative text, architect and art historian Sean Anderson investigates why lamps have endured and remain omnipresent in Hindu and Buddhist practice. While examining the historical importance of the lamp, Anderson emphasizes that as altar and tool, icon and fine sculpture, it is an evocative reminder of an undying devotion forged with the most common yet enigmatic of materials: metal and fire. He considers as well the liminal space the lamp occupies between the secular and the sacred in societies where it is often used to mark every event of significance from birth to death.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 111 pages
• Publisher: University of California Los Angeles, Fowler (July 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974872938
• ISBN-13: 978-0974872933
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,635,898 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding, unique museum collection of ritual Asian oil lamps, February 15, 2007

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Henry Berry "Henry Berry" (Southport, CT) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Flames of Devotion: Oil Lamps from South and Southeast Asia and the Himalayas (Paperback)

The 77 pictured lamps and burners out of a total of over 100 donated by a collector to the Fowler Museum "offer a glimpse into the complexities of the symbolic and ritual systems that dominate daily life in South Asia." Most of the lamps are from India, with the next largest group from Nepal and Tibet, and a few from the Southeast Asia countries of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia. The oldest ones comes from these latter countries. The large majority of the lamps and burners are from the 19th and 20th centuries. There is not a marked difference between older and later Hindu and Buddhist ritual objects as to spiritual figures depicted, shapes, and design details. The objects don't change as in the Western concept of "art styles" or "historical period styles" for instance. What differences there are are that the later ones, of the 20th century, have somewhat more complexity, or sophistication, in their detail presumably from advanced tools and the use of advanced, more modern, machinery in the making of them. The author Anderson with a background in architecture and design discusses the cultural background, use, and production of the Asian lamps and burners. Besides the age of the particular objects, photo captions concisely identify figures in them, what is distinctive as applicable, and how they would be used. The knowledge of the Indian collector of the numerous objects making for the exceptional, broad collection makes the work, though limited in subject matter, especially useful as an introduction and guide to the lamps and burners.