Week 4 ~ Sep 10th 2006

San Francisco's market street (the financial district) was awash with festoons of the Asian Art Museum when I first arrived here. May be there was something happening there but I wouldn't know then. I had made a mental note to visit there sometime. The oppertunity soon arrived when I woke up late after a tiring visit to Point Reyes. Shunning the urge to take an afternoon nap, I decided to visit the museum. The museum was situated in Civic Center and can be reached by BART. I had a map of San Francisco which suggested that the museum was located in the Larkin street. I was confused when I reached there as all I could see was the huge San Francisco public librart building and a bunch of vagabonds loitering around. I walked all the way around the public library only to reach the farmer's market. I couldn't spot a decent guy to ask my way. I decided to walk back to the public library and ask the guard there when I ran into a guy who was leisurely smoking. He explained to me that there was a huge building parallel to the public library (the building was once a public library but had become the Asian Arts museum since). I thanked him and quickly found my way to the museum. The Asian Arts museum is housed in a huge building with 3 levels. We have to surrender our bags, jackets, water bottles etal... There is a audio set which guides the visitors with history of the artifacts. I decided to take the 3rd floor first as that was the East Indian section. The Asian arts museum is seggregated into various sections viz the Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Indian and Southeast Asian with a new section on Pakistani art. The Indian section was further seggregated into East, North and South Indian art. Much of the North and East Indian sections were devoted to Budhism and artifacts on the growth of Budhism in India. The place was replete with Statues of Buddha and the various Bodhisatvas. The South Indian section had art from the tamil kingdoms to the great vijayanagaram empire. A beautiful statue of Lord Nataraja caught my eye with Nataraja in a dancing pose. There were other splendid statues and I was amazed with the same god in different depictions across the 3 cultures (North, South and East). The statue was that of Lord Vishnu and each culture depicted him in their own splendor with stark contrasts. (I had whipped my camera out to click a few snaps when one of the staff came in and requested me not to use the flash. The museum has many artifacts which are sensitive to light, so I was told)

I took plenty of time reading through the history of Buddhism in India and the role of Bodhisatvas. My next stop was at the chinese section. The chinese are the most ancient civilization in the world and they have plenty to offer from their scrolls (caligraphy) to their pottery (china). The chinese section was amazing with plenty of exhibits which takes one into pre-historic days. I was more intrigued by the printing section with words embossed on clothes. There was a wide range of bone china collection with artisans touch everywhere. The chinese are one of the best when it comes to art on clay. The Japanese and Korean sections were much simillar with religious overtones (Budhism, Taoism).

I had well run out of time by now as I was spending a longer time reading and enjoying the exhibits. We were informed that the museum was about to close. I walked out with my heart still in the museum. I also rued the chance to eat at the cafteria there as it had boasted of all asian delicacies (may be a few indian too)