‘Temple’ inside San Diego Museum

NEVADA - San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA) in California (USA) has established a “Temple” within its premises, complete with statues of various Hindu deities.t “marks the culmination of a twenty-year-long effort on the part of the curators and administration”, according to a Museum announcement.

With Ganesha reportedly presiding over the doorway, statues installed in this dark red walled “Temple” include a 6th century sandstone “Shiva as Lord of Music”, bronze “Shri Devi” from circa 1100, copper alloy “Sambandar, Child Saint Devoted to Shiva” from circa 1100, 10-11th century sandstone “Attendants of Vishnu”, Cambodian Hindu ascetic, and other images in bronze, wood, stone and paintings, numbering around 55. It also reportedly displays wood carvings taken from temple chariots.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, commended SDMA for providing opportunity to the world to further explore Hinduism and its concepts.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that art had a long and rich tradition in Hinduism and ancient Sanskrit literature talked about religious paintings of deities on wood or cloth.

Rajan Zed urged major art museums of the world, including Musee du Louvre and Musee d’Orsay of Paris, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, Los Angeles Getty Center, Uffizi Gallery of Florence (Italy), Art Institute of Chicago, Tate Modern of London, Prado Museum of Madrid, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, etc., to acquire more Hindu art in their collections and frequently organize Hindu art focused exhibitions, thus sharing the rich Hindu art heritage with the rest of the world.

The San Diego Museum of Art, whose history goes back to 1926, provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for about 350,000 visitors annually. Its permanent collection includes Spanish and Italian old masters and it regularly features major exhibitions from around the world. It is said to own about 1,500 folios sporting Indian paintings and calligraphy. Tom Gildred is President of Board of Trustees; Roxana Velasquez is Executive Director; while Dr. Sonya Rhie Quintanilla is the Museum’s Curator of Asian Art.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. (ANI)