Module 10 Blog Posting

I chose Buddhism because that religion has always been of interest to me and I also chose to watch Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace Museum because it sounded like an informative video on Chinese Art.  In Buddhism, it talks about how Buddhism came to be from developing from questions, rituals, prayer and the thought of a more personal God. This religion embraced all of these. The monuments they create they are truly a heaven on earth. Also it explains how around the Great Stupa there is a walkway surrounded by Buddhist art and every step can lead to new discoveries. There is many evidence of how Buddhism spread to different areas. The Chuang Yen Monastery in New York State and the Borobudur Temple in Indonesia are just a couple examples. This video relates to the book because the book talks about how Buddhism developed and some of it’s structures such as the Nanchan Temple. I think this video did well demonstrating important fact from Buddhist culture and how the architecture and art still remains important today. In Chinese Art: Treasures of the National Palace this video took it’s audience through several pieces of art work over 5,000 years old. This film also talked about the tea bowls they created from the Zhou dynasty, which was used often during this time period. This related to the book because they explained tea bowls created in the late 16^th century. Calligraphy, also mentioned several times in the book was mentioned in this video explaining an artist’s depiction of calligraphy and it’s effect on their idealized world. This video was also very informative of the rare works of art that are rarely viewable by the public such as “Under Glaze Blue” fine porcelain and ancient Ink Stones that resemble the shape of a tongue.