Meeting God
Elements of Hindu Devotion
American Museum of Natural
History
September 8, 2001 through March 31, 2002
At a press preview on September 5 (Laurel)
Kendal (Curator of Asian Anthropology at American Musuem of Natual
History (AMNH) said: "This exhibition focuses on contemorary
Hindu worship, which has roots extending back to one of the world's
oldest civilizations, but is a vital contmeporary practice. Apart
from photographs and shrines, the museum's own collection has yeilded
more than 60 artifacts, including wall hangings, lamps, figurines,
and othe robjects, feature in this vast show, which could also be
equally aptly titled :From Ganga to teh Hudson". A large video
screen displays scenes taped this year of early morning worhsip in
the Ganga in Banaras. Another screen shows a video of a Durga Puja
in 2000 in Queens. ""This exhibit is the most complete representation
of Hinduism presented in the United States since teh "Puja: Expressions
os Hunduism" (Sic) at the Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian
in Wadhington, D.C. , five years ago, also curated by Huyler, who
has been revisitn gIndia annually for the past 30 years. +
"Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion" uses spectacular
objects, images, sound, and color to convey the many ways in which
religion, particularly Hinduism, enriches the daily lives of devout
Hindus. It takes the visitor from the home to the community to the
temple to festivals in the surrounding streets, giving teachers many
discussion points. "It encourages the visitor to understand religious
practices that are sensate~what you see and feel, the gestures your
body makes, the scent of incense~all of which are forms of prayer,"
Laurel explains. This exhibition was a great opportunity to share
some treasures from the Museum's standing collection, only a small
percentage of which is on display. The objects on view, such as dippers
for water and lamps for oil, are all the more precious because they
are worn with use. As an anthropologist who studies religion, "albeit
in a different corner of Asia~Korea," Laurel is aware that Westerners
tend to learn about religion as abstract doctrine presented in a book
or a lecture hall. "They're less comfortable learning about the
acts of devotion that many people perform, such as lighting candles,
dressing votive images, and bringing material objects into the place
of worship, and that's when prejudice creeps in," she observes.
Prejudice against people whose devotional practices seem utterly alien
can be countered by information and by studying the beliefs that underlie
such practices, "but an exhibition such as 'Meeting God,' as
a visual experience, has an even greater potential to convey the spiritual
and aesthetic qualities of non-Western religious practices,"
Laurel comments.
American Museum of Natural History