Thursday & Friday in Chengdu - Art, Art & More Art

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Thursday was a little rushed with preparation for class and then going to a friend's house for lunch - a momo party - before going to the University at 2:00. Luckily the weather was good and there has been no return of the rain. It can be difficult, as it is everywhere, to get a taxi in the rain, Chengdu is no different.

The Thursday night class was better attended than the first night. It seemed to be a little over 40 students with most understanding a fair amount of English. The topics were Arhat Appearance in Tibetan art, King Appearance and the introduction to the subject of people such as monks and lay teachers. The introduction was about hats - the general religious hats that differentiate the various religious schools and some very specific hats that are only used by a particular individual or incarnation line. I concluded a little early, 8:30, to allow for more questions. We officially ended after 9:00 but there were many students hanging about waiting for an opportunity to ask even more questions. After the seemingly long lecture I adjourned to a tea shop to relax prior to heading back to the apartment.

I have definitely re-evaluated my thinking and approach to the Iconography Curriculum, not drastically, after the experience of the first two classes. The figurative subjects in iconography certainly must be understood individually, but their association with groups and understanding group context is also important. I now think they should be taught at the same time. An example of this is the subject of Arhat Appearance. What an arhat looks like is important but also to know that they essentially only exist within the context of Shakyamuni Buddha and the Sixteen Arhats. That is of equal importance and these two subjects need to be taught together. At first I was trying to separate subject appearance from context so that the student didn't get too confused with abstractions. I now know that they can be taught together.

Friday was an early day, up and out by nine, to meet a collector and look at art. A number of students from the University were also invited to attend the viewing. In reality it ended up being a small intense seminar discussing in detail what was learned at the lecture the previous night. More than three hours were spent looking at all of the paintings, only a few of which I had seen before. I was very impressed by some of the paintings and took endless photos. That was followed by lunch and in all the the morning and early afternoon lasted over five hours. Some class preparation work was accomplished in the afternoon before adjourning to a tea shop with friends.

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