We have noticed a lot of confusion over the geographical terms South Asia and Southeast Asia. India is in South Asia, which also includes Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Cambodia and Thailand are in mainland Southeast Asia, which also includes Burma, Laos, and Vietnam.

Sculpture from India and Southeast Asia

The sculpture included in this unit is primarily from India, with one Ganesa from Cambodia and one Head of Buddha from Thailand. Hindu and Buddhist sculptural styles and attributes (or iconography) were developed in India and then introduced into parts of Southeast Asia over several centuries of trade and political and religious contact. Artists in Cambodia and Thailand gave somewhat different looks to their sculpture while maintaining many attributes by which they were identified. Even on a computer monitor, you can see differences between the delineated features of the face of the Thai Buddha and the more rounded surfaces of the seated Buddha from eastern India.

Divine Images in India

The sculptures were all created originally for viewing in temples or shrines, where they are a focal point for worship of the divine. Visitors to Hindu temples go for darsana, referring to their desire to see and be seen by a deity through the form of an image. In a Hindu temple, the sculpture is not merely a visual representation of the divine; the deity can be invoked, or invited, to inhabit the image. To look and meditate upon the image is an act of worship. Their visible forms are a means for the worshipper to focus on the abstract and communicate with the divine. In temple rituals, religious images are often bathed, adorned, and offered food, candles, flowers, and incense. The rituals of worship are meant to delight the senses of the worshipper as well as honor the deity.