ARTS OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

One of the excellent Thames & Hudson World of Art series, a comprehensive and up-to-date introduction to the region's art and culture. The pagodas of Burma, the temples of Angkor, the great Buddhist monument of Borobudur - these achievements of powerful courts and rulers are the more familiar part of a broad artistic culture that includes textiles, sculpture, vernacular architecture and village crafts. Now, local artists are embracing new subjects and media as the area opens up to world travel and communication. Covering Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, Dr Kerlogue examines the roots and development of the arts of this distinctive region, tracing the reflection of indigenous beliefs and world religions - Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Christianity - in artistic expression, arriving at an exploration of the post-colonial period. Gold thread brocade, batik shawls, a Khmer-style prang, a Phra Ram shadow puppet carved from rawhide, a wild boar mask, gold beads found in a burial site, the rooftop of a Chinese temple in Java, decorated in green, yellow and black on a red lacquer background, a tray from Burma, and of course temples and water palaces, carvings and sculptures, murals and paintings and more. With a glossary of names and places, 224 glossy pages in T&H softback.