Meeting
God
Elements of Hindu Devotion
Stephen
Huyler
Forward Author: Thomas Moore
Publisher: Yale University Press
Date: September 1999
Price: $35.00
ISBN: 0-300-07983-4 Cloth, 268 pp, 6 7/8 x 10 200 full color illustrations
Hinduism is the world's third largest religion after Christianity
and Islam. As Hindus become leading proponents of an innovative and
contemporary world, their sense of religion and spirituality is not
diminished. Hinduism is a belief system in complete harmony with change,
modernization, and growth. In the U.S., there are 1.2 million Hindus,
yet most Westerners either know little about Hinduism or misunderstand
its basic beliefs and rituals.
In MEETING GOD, a new book and national touring exhibition, noted
cultural anthropologist, photographer, and art historian Stephen P.
Huyler exposes readers to the breadth and vitality of the reverential
experience in India. Through hundreds of full-color photographs and
evocative commentary, Huyler reveals household and community rituals
and festivals that are the mainstay of Hindu life. MEETING GOD: Elements
of Hindu Devotion published by Yale University Press (September 1999)
is a unique pictorial tour of an India rarely seen by outsiders.
The exhibition MEETING GOD opened at the Houston Museum of Natural
Science on September 29, 1999, and will then continued its tour through
the end of 2001, stopping at the American Museum of Natural History
in New York, the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, and Chicago's Field
Museum.
Since 1971, Stephen Huyler has spent much of his time traveling throughout
India documenting craftsmanship and contemporary traditions. During
the 1990s, his focus on puja, the Hindu practice of daily devotions,
led him to witness many ceremonies and rituals and to share in private
and public devotions - transforming experiences that MEETING GOD now
documents. On one extraordinary visit, Huyler became the first outsider
to a royal family allowed to witness a maharaja's personal devotion.
Huyler looks at worship within the home, the community, the Temple,
during festivals and at sacred processions. Virtually all Hindus,
regardless of age, sex, race, subculture, creed, caste, social standing
or occupation are diligent in their practice of daily devotion. Huyler
describes the wide scope of Hindu beliefs and practices. For example:
· women whose "painted prayers" decorate the walls
of their homes with intricate sacred patterns and designs; ·
a community worshipping at an ancient peepul tree, whose roots wind
around a large upright stone that represents the village's protective
Goddess; and · the famous festival at the sacred city of Puri,
an awesome spectacle viewed by a million people each year, where the
Lord Jaganath (from whose name we get the word "juggernaut"),
is paraded through the streets on an immense 16-wheeled wooden chariot
45 ft. high, pulled by 4,000 men!