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An enamel pin of a Lotus Flower that I put on my lanyard. I’m trying to collect a pin a week. I should be able to, until my wallet (or more likely my Dad) complains.
HELLO!
It’s been one week! Of Interning! At the Metropolitan Museum of Art! And I have never wanted to go to work as badly as I do these days. I’m a little upset I can’t just go in tomorrow and hack out some more reading…
I can’t believe I’m actually excited to wake up at 6:15am to catch a crowded express train to Penn Station. If you told me I’d be doing this a year ago I’d have laughed at you.
Let’s get into this week’s activities and discoveries!
One of life’s little-known pleasures is getting to see the Temple of Dendur first thing in the morning before they let in the public.
Ahh…. so peaceful…. so quiet….
There’s a Free-For-All table in the department and I managed to snag this stupendous Korean paper fan.
My bag of snacks! Currently filled with one (1) black and white cookie and two (2) bags of Sun Chips
THE WEEKLY SCOOP
Truth be told, I am quite literally having the time of my life just perusing the library and reading all of these texts and books on South Asian art. I can physically feel myself regaining all the brain cells I lost during college when I read one (1) book per year.
My project has sort of shifted since Monday (which is to be expected seeing as it’s only week one) and while I’m still doing research on Ancient Buddhist sites in Andhra Pradesh, I am also working on making a map of these sites to more accurately locate the spread of Buddhism in Ancient South India. This week I mainly spent researching and compiling notes on specific sites that were assigned to me, and I’m learning a lot about the symbols and structures that were prevalent during that time.
But! That’s not the only thing I’m apparently going to be able to work on, according to my supervisor. There is also another research project in the works on early Hindu lithograph prints that I am very excited to sink my teeth into! I feel bad because I kind of want to quickly finish this current assignment so I can get into these prints as soon as I can!
Also today we had our Intern Orientation, where I was able to meet a lot of really cool other interns, who are dispersed throughout the museum doing different jobs for different departments. I’m really excited to learn more about my new friends’ departments and roles, which span from Social Media to Education to Modern and Contemporary Art to European Sculpture and Decorative Arts.
I also got an introduction to the Watson Library, which has literally a million books that I am FREE TO READ DURING MY DURATION AT THE MET! I cannot believe I have access to this much information. If I wasn’t in a group I may have cried.
Hmm… I’m wondering… Should I share some of the information I’ve been gathering in my research? It would be nice to have some kind of log of all the interesting things I’m reading, and all the books I’ve been able to get my hands on have some REALLY amazing info….
Who am I kidding…I’m literally bursting at the seams at how much I want to share the research I’m doing. So! I'm going to be writing some little blurbs (hopefully) over the weekend about some of the Buddhist sites I’ve been looking into! Hopefully you guys will find it as stimulating as I do. Once I have some concrete facts to present I’ll be sure to post them!
HIGHLIGHT OF THE WEEK
An interesting existing exhibit I was able to hear more about this week was one on these incredible Vajrayana Buddhist Ritual Crowns from Nepal that my supervisor, John Guy, curated. You can read more about it in more HERE (mainly because I can’t remember all of the little details and do not wish to lead you astray).
Vajracharya priest's crown, ca. 13th-Early 14th century, Early Malla Period, Nepal. Gilt-copper alloy inlaid with semi-precious stones, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. 12 x 9 x 8 1/4 in. Nepal. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Barbara and David Kipper, 2016 (2016.408)
Vajracharya priest's crown, ca. 15th–16th century. Nepal. Copper, gold, turquoise, semi-precious stones, silver foil. 13 1/2 x 8 5/8 x 9 1/8 in. Nepal. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1948 (48.128)
The basic gist of it is that these five crowns, dating from the 13th to the 18th century, were once worn by Bodhisattvas, a figure in Buddhism who has the ability to achieve nirvana but chooses to remain on Earth to help others achieve enlightenment. They were worn by the five representatives, known as Vajracharyas, each color-coded for specific incarnations, who would then perform divine rituals (also known as a puja) for constituents seeking blessings and spiritual guidance through tantric rituals. The three-dimensional mandala features the core elements of the Buddhist cosmology, including the five Transcendent Buddhas. One of the points of the talk that was really amusing to me (and also highlighted the interconnectivity of the museum) was that initially, they had only acquired one crown, which had been donated from a patron after much discussion and debate, only to find out that they had several others incorrectly stored in the Arms and Armor department, as the curators from that department had understandably identified them as Himalayan military helmets!
WELL!
I think that’s a substantial amount of information for today! I’m gonna hit the hay and sleep in, but leave a comment below (if you figure out how, not even sure if commenting is a thing here) if you want to hear about specifics or you’re open to me continuing to just blabber like this! And by all means, go and see this amazing exhibit! It’s up until December 16th, 2018.
Here’s hoping I’ll have some more cool new art history knowledge to share with you all soon!!!
Thank you for reading!
See you soon,
Mallika