Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Threat to Afghan Buddhas

An interesting article from the New York Times with an excellent video (7:40) that details the destruction of Buddhist art and architecture in Afghanistan so that a copper mine can be created.  The video explains how much of the art is too large to be moved, so instead it will be destroyed, for the sake of profit.  It is so sad that we often value money over our shared cultural heritage.  Afghanistan was an extremely important location on the Silk Road, responsible for the exchange of ideas and the spread of Buddhism from India to other locations in the east and west.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/24/opinion/a-chinese-threat-to-afghan-buddhas.html?smid=pl-share


‘A Chinese Threat to Afghan Buddhas’
In Afghanistan, a Chinese mining company threatens to destroy the remains of an ancient Buddhist city, which archaeologists are now racing to excavate.
by Brent E. Huffman (4/23/2013)


May inspiration and creativity be with you!

Saturday, April 20, 2013

"China's Terracotta Warriors" from PBS

A great and updated film about Shihuangdi's Terracotta Army.  It includes some excellent footage that explains the restoration techniques and fragile state of the paint on the sculptures.  There is also some interesting footage of the scientific properties of Chinese purple and a fully painted reproduction of one of the soldiers, showing you just how brightly painted they really were, which is a little shocking if you are not used to looking at painted sculpture.  It originally aired on PBS 05/04/11 and is also currently available on Netflix, enjoy!
http://video.pbs.org/video/1907176069/



May inspiration and creativity be with you!

Blog Awards

Some awards this blog has received thanks to some nice folks!

One Lovely Blog Award

One Lovely Blog Award
given on 07/24/2009 by Nanny Dee (http://newenglandnanny.blogspot.com/)