Traditional Lao-Isaan songs telling the Life of the Buddha
A wonderful collection of videos featuring Angkhanang Khunchai singing traditional Loa-Isaan songs outlining the Life of the Buddha.
Royal Ballet of Cambodia: Khmer Reamker (Ramayana)
Highlights from the Royal Ballet of Cambodia’s perfomance of the Khmer version of the Ramayana, the Ramkear, which was performed in Lyons, France.
Somawati Stupa Vandana led by Kiribathgoda Gnanananda Thero
Recollections of an impressive event in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka in 2004, and a video of a similar occasion from 2009.
Lo Weda Sangarawa – Towards a Better World
Today I am including a recital of Lo Weda Sangarawa by Ven. Dickwelle Upatissa Mahathera. He is accompanied by a harmonium, which provides a very atmospheric backdrop to the verses.
Lanna Orchid Ensemble of Chiang Mai University
Traditional music from Lanna played by the Lanna Orchid Ensemble of Chiang Mai University which I have been using as background music to slideshows of the photographs I made in Chiang Mai.
Sofan Chan: Buddha Paintings
As anyone regularly following this blog will know I like to see old subjects from the Buddhist tradition reinvented and seen in a different light. It seems to me that this shows that the tradition is really alive and that it hasn’t degenerated, at least in places, into a “souvenir art”, with no vitality. I…
Buddha With A Thousand Hands (2008)
Video of the China Disabled Peoples Performance Art Troupe, with their lead dancer, Tai Lihua, performing the famous Buddha with a Thousand Hands dance, recorded for German TV in 2008.
Virginia Peck’s Buddha Head Paintings
Here are some wonderful paintings by Virginia Peck of Buddha Heads. I am always happy to see artists reimagine the forms of the past, which shows that they are still alive and living in someone’s imagination.
Articles on Indian Art by Benoy K. Behl
Links to writings by Benoy K. Behl on all aspects of Indian art, including series on Buddhist art in its earliest and later stages, besides being a sensitive writer he is also a fine photographer also so that all the articles are richly illustrated.
Paintings by Paw Oo Thett
Paw Oo Thett was one of the most famous Burmese painters in modern times, producing vibrant works in both watercolour on paper and oil paintings on canvas.
Gobi by Boerte (Mongolian Music Video)
Imagine a full-scale music video of traditional Mongolian folk artists, beautifully photographed and edited, and that is somewhere near what we have here.
Dalai Lama: The Role of the Feminine
In this extract from a longer talk on Human Rights through Universal Resposibility H.H. The Dalai Lama discusses the evolution of gender roles through history and the need for a more feminine predominance in this day and age.
Ani Choying Drolma – Four Songs
Four wonderful and heartfelt songs sung by the Tibetan Nun Ani Choying Drolma. The first is a music video recorded at the Swayambhunath Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal. The others were recorded live in Germany.
Kashi Vishwanath Gange by Krishna Das
For a number of years I lived in ashrams in India, before eventually retiring to Sri Lanka and ordaining. One of the things I remember most fondly about my time in the ashrams there was the Bhajan and Kirtan singing which generally took place each evening.
The Ganges by Ven. S. Dhammika
A reprint of Bhante Dhammika’s excellent article on the river Ganges from his online Buddhism A-Z, showing how important the river was for the Buddha. Illustrated with some stills from the documentaries.
J.K. Nariman: Aśvaghoṣa and the Buddhacarita
Here is a re-edited short appreciation of the Buddhacarita by Aśvaghoṣa by J.K. Nariman, which can be found in full on my Ancient Buddhist Texts website.
The Beginnings of Buddhist Art by A. Foucher – V
The sculptors of the second century verify our hypothesis not only in what they reproduce and in what they imitate of the works of the past: we may maintain that they do this, also, indirectly, in what they innovate.
The Beginnings of Buddhist Art by A. Foucher – IV
This is a first and certainly very important, but purely material, verification of our hypothesis. There are proofs more subtle than the proof of statistics, which open up deeper views of the development of the ancient Buddhist school.
