🎉   Please check out our new website over at books-etc.com.

Seller
Your price
£44.99
Out of Stock

Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past

Sculpture from the Buddhist Stupas of Andhra Pradesh

By (author) Catherine Becker
Format: Paperback / softback
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, New York, United States
Published: 23rd Oct 2014
Dimensions: w 156mm h 234mm d 20mm
Weight: 533g
ISBN-10: 0199359407
ISBN-13: 9780199359400
Barcode No: 9780199359400
Trade or Institutional customer? Contact us about large order quotes.
Synopsis
In this wide-ranging exploration of the creation and use of Buddhist art in Andhra Pradesh, India, Catherine Becker examines how material remains and visual experiences shape and reveal essential human concerns. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past addresses the fundamental Buddhist question of how humanity progresses centuries after the passing of its teacher, the Buddha Sakyamuni. How might the Buddhas distant teachings be made immediate and accessible? Beginning with an analysis of the spectacular relief sculptures that once adorned the stupas of the region during the early centuries of the Common Era, Becker analyzes the creation of scenes of devotion and the representation of narratives. These reliefs reveal the ancient devotees faith, or optimism, in the role of visual imagery to continue the work of the Buddha by advancing the spiritual progress of visitors to Andhras stupas. Over a period of almost two millennia, many of these stupas have fallen into disrepair. While it is tempting to view these monuments as ruins, they are by no means dead. Turning to the 20th and 21st centuries, Becker analyzes examples of new Buddhist imagery, recent state-sponsored tourism campaigns, and new devotional activities at the sites in order to demonstrate that the stupas of Andhra Pradesh and their sculptural adornments continue to engage the human imagination and are even ascribed innate power and agency. Shifting Stones, Shaping the Past reveals intriguing parallels between ancient uses of imagery and the new social, political, and religious functions of these objects and spaces.

New & Used

Seller Information Condition Price
-New
Out of Stock

What Reviewers Are Saying

Submit your review
Newspapers & Magazines
There is much to learn in this fine study focusing on the Buddhist art of Andhra, not the least of which is the importance for Buddhist studies of combining a broad range of material and disciplinary perspectives with good art historical methodology. Eschewing an attempt to reassemble the now scattered remains of this region's most famous monuments, Becker has nonetheless constructed a better sense of how and why they matter than has ever been achieved. * Janice Leoshko, Associate Professor of Asian art, University of Texas at Austin *