VO LU M E 2 2 N O.

3 S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3

the journal of
the asian arts society
of australia

TAASA Review
BUILDING BIG IN ASIA

c o n t en t s
Volume 22 No. 3 September 2013

3 Ed itor ial : B U I LDI N G BI G I N A S I A

TAA S A R E V I E W

Josefa Green, Editor

BUILDING TALL I N SH A NGH AI

THE ASIAN ARTS SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA INC.

Abn 64093697537 Vol. 22 No. 3, September 2013
ISSN 1037.6674

Anne Warr

7 RELIGIO N AN D CU LTU RAL NATIO NALI SM: T H E A KSH ARDH A M C O M PL E X I N D E L H I

Christiane Brosius

10

MUS EUMS IN TH E GU L F STAT ES EXT ER NAL I MAGE OR I N T E R N AL ID E N TIT Y ?

Leone Lorrimer

Registered by Australia Post. Publication No. NBQ 4134

e di torI A L email: editorial@taasa.org.au

General editor, Josefa Green

pub l i c at i ons c ommi t t ee

Josefa Green (convenor) Tina Burge

Melanie Eastburn Sandra Forbes Charlotte Galloway
William Gourlay Marianne Hulsbosch
Jim Masselos Ann Proctor Sabrina Snow
Christina Sumner

14

URBAN LAN DSCA P E A ND CO NT EMP ORAR Y VI SIONS O F N ATUR E :

GARDENS BY TH E BAY I N SI NGA P OR E

Geoffrey Douglas

desi gn/ l ayou t

17

HYBRID MOSQUES : MI XI NG I SLAM A ND CH I NESENESS I N M ALAY S IA A N D I N DON E S IA

p ri n t i ng

Hew Wai-Weng

20

VIETNAM S BAI DINH BU DD H I ST T EMP L E

Ann Proctor

22

TROP HY BUILDI NGS I N BEI J I NGS CH A NGI NG U R BA N LA N D S C A PE

John Courtney with Tina Burge

24 T HREE IN DIAN F IL MS AT T H E 2 0 1 3 SYD NEY F IL M F ESTI VAL

Jim Masselos

Ingo Voss, VossDesign

John Fisher Printing

Published by The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc.

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25 TRAVELL ER S C H OICE : R E CO LLE CT I N G PAGA N

No opinion or point of view is to be construed as the opinion of

The Asian Arts Society of Australia Inc., its staff, servants or agents.

Minnie Kent Biggs

26

BOO K REVIEW: BI O GR A PHY O F R A F F LE S

in other material published by it. We reserve the right to alter

Philip Courtenay

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27

HELEAN OR FELT H A M ( 1 9 4 2 2 0 1 3 )

Christina Sumner

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28 R EC ENT TAAS A ACTI VITIES

29 TAASA Membe r s D iar y: S E PT E MBE R 2013 - DE CE MBE R 20 1 3
31

W HAT S ON IN AU STRALIA : S E PT E MBE R 2013 - DE CE MBE R 2 0 1 3

Compiled by Tina Burge

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TAA S A c o mm i t t ee

E DITORIAL : B U I L D I N G B I G I N A S I A

G i ll Gr een President

Josefa Green, Editor

Art historian specialising in Cambodian culture

A NN PROC TOR Vice President

Art historian with a particular interest in Vietnam

To dd Sund er man TR EASUR E R

Former Asian antique dealer, with a particular interest

in Tibetan furniture
Dy Andr eas en SECR ETARY

Has a special interest in Japanese haiku and tanka poetry

Hwei-fe n cheah

Visiting Fellow, School of Cultural Inquiry, Australian

National University.
M at t Cox

Assistant Curator, Asian Art, Art Gallery of NSW

Charlotte Galloway

Lecturer Asian Art History and Curatorial Studies,

Australian National University, with a special interest
in the Buddhist Art of Myanmar
Jo sefa Gr een

General editor of TAASA Review. Collector of Chinese

ceramics, with long-standing interest in East Asian
art as student and traveller
ANN GUILD

Former Director of the Embroiders Guild (UK)

MIN-JUNG KIM

Curator of Asian Arts & Design at the Powerhouse Museum

Yuk ie S ato

Former Vice President of the Oriental Ceramic Society of

the Philippines with wide-ranging interest in Asian art
and culture
SUSAN SC OLLAY

Is an art historian and curator specialising in the arts of

Islam and in historic textiles. She is Fellow of the Royal
Asiatic Society of the UK.
CHRI STIN A SUMN ER

Principal Curator, Design and Society,

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney
M argar et White

Former President and Advisor of the Friends of Museums,

Singapore, with special interest in Southeast Asian art,
ceramics and textiles
s t a t e r ep r esen t a t i ves
Australian Capital Territory
M ela nie Eastbu r n

Curator of Asian Art, National Gallery of Australia

Queensland
Russel l Stor er

Curatorial Manager, Asian and Pacific Art,

Queensland Art Gallery
South Australia
James Bennett

Curator of Asian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia

Victoria
Ca ro l C ains

Curator Asian Art, National Gallery of Victoria International

This issue explores a phenomenon evident

across Asia: the construction in recent decades
of massive building projects, often designed
by international superstar architects,
which are so evidently impacting on its built
environments.
There is the seemingly unstoppable contest to
build the highest a record currently held
by the Burj Khalifa in the UAE. The top 10
tallest buildings in the world have mostly
been built in the last decade and all but one
is to be found in Asia.
However, building big is not just
about height. We are also witnessing the
construction of enormous, truly ambitious
complexes across much of Asia. What is the
motivation behind such constructions? This
issue cannot hope to cover the ground or
tease out all the factors involved, however
our contributors explore these questions in
widely different, sometimes quirky, contexts.
It seems appropriate to start with an article
on tall buildings in Shanghai a city which
currently features 2 of the top 10 highest
buildings in the world. Anne Warr discusses
the technical challenges which had to be faced
in building tall in Shanghai, given the citys
location on the mud deposits of the flood plain
of the Yangtze delta. Reflecting Shanghais
growing economic strength, the Park Hotel,
built in 1934, also epitomised the new world
of modernism in its Art Deco architectural
design by Laszlo Hudec. It remained the
tallest building in Asia until the 1980s.
The intersection of commerce with religion is
one aspect explored by Professor Christiane
Brosius in explaining the construction
of the massive Akshardham Complex in
Delhi. Completed in 2005 and claimed to
be the largest Hindu temple structure in the
world, this 100 acre Complex was build by
a Gujarat based Hindu sect, supported by
international Gujarati business interests. She
sees this Complex as a hyperbuilding, a site
of conspicuous consumption for a growing
wealthy elite. Offering a potent blend of
religious tradition and mythology with state
of the art technology, the Complex can be seen
as a new expression of Hindu based national
confidence, teaming political and economic
growth with religious zeal.
The largest complex of Buddhist temples in
Vietnam, the Bai Dinh temple complex south
of Hanoi, is also a privately funded project, this
time by a wealthy Vietnamese entrepreneur.
Ann Proctor discusses how this new, grand
scale complex has been superimposed
on what was once the area of the western
gateway of the former Royal Citadel of Hoa
Lu. But while the former temples on this

site settled gently within the landscape, this

new complex, covering some 700 hectares,
dominates: its oversize structures and larger
than life monuments honour one of Vietnams
new rich industrialist patrons.
Supported by enormous wealth, cultural
aspirations are driving the current ambitious
program of museum building in the Gulf
States of UAE and Qatar. Leone Lorrimer
worked for 7 years in this region, in part as
design manager for the three museums in
the UAE discussed in her article, planned for
completion in 2017. As with the Museum of
Islamic Art in Doha designed by I.M. Pei, these
museums draw on the power of brand by
engaging starchitects, and by partnering with
world famous museums. She explores the way
in which these projects aim to establish national
identity through culture and education.
Geoffrey Douglas provocative article
demonstrates how the natural environment
can also be appropriated to promote national
aspirations. Aiming to establish the Singapore
brand as a pre-eminent, environmentally
sensitive garden city, the recently completed
Gardens by the Bay urban landscape complex
extends over 100 hectares, combining
spectacular gardens and glass conservatories
to create a better than nature experience.
In an entirely different context, cultural
and political agendas have, in the last few
decades, influenced the building of a series
of mosques currently numbering 10 across
Indonesia and Malaysia which incorporate
the architecture of old Chinese mosques. In
his article, Hew Wai-Weng contends that
in Indonesia, these Chinese style mosques
are symbolic markers for the acceptance of
Chinese culture and the inclusiveness of
Indonesian Islam while in Malaysia, they
offer a clear statement that Islam is not a
religion for ethnic Malay Muslims alone.
The final exploration of our theme takes us
to Beijing, from where urban planner John
Courtney regularly reports on its changing
built environment. Here, we draw on his
reports to cover two spectacular recent
projects which exemplify the current spate of
major iconic building projects by international
superstar architects.
As always, this issue offers a range of shorter
items of interest: Jim Masselos entertaining
review of Indian films in the last Sydney Film
Festival, Philip Courtenays review of a new
biography of Raffles and a charming personal
recollection of Pagan by Minnie Kent Biggs.
We sadly acknowledge the passing of
Heleanor Feltham, whose enormous legacy is
honoured by Christina Sumner in this issue.

B U ILDI N G TALL I N S H A N G H AI
Anne Warr
Union Insurance Company Building, Number Three The Bund, Shanghai
1916, Palmer & Turner Architects, Watermark Press 2007

hanghai lies beside the Huangpu River,

a tributary of the Yangtze River near its
exit into the East China Sea. The Yangtze delta
is a wide alluvial flood plain, and the city
of Shanghai is built on the mud of the flood
plain. The first foreign buildings built along
the British Bund (the Hindi word Bund
meaning embankment) in the 19th century
were of load bearing construction and kept to
a low height to prevent too much subsidence.
By 1900, the rule of thumb was that buildings
couldnt be more than five stories to survive
upright on the muddy riverbank. Banks
employed engineers to stack the gold and
silver in the vaults, to ensure the fragile
stability of the buildings was not endangered.

When the young architect, George Leopold

Tug Wilson (1880 1967), arrived in
Shanghai in 1912 to undertake the first
commission for the Hong Kong architectural
firm of Palmer and Turner, he decided to use
his newly acquired skills and experience with
the engineers Trollop and Colls, to build the
first semi-high rise in the city. Together, Wilson
and the engineers devised a system of deeply
driven timber piles topped with a concrete raft
for the foundations. The concrete raft spread
the weight evenly over the site, while friction
between the piles and the mud decreased
subsidence. A steel-framed, stone-clad,
construction system above ground helped
reduce the overall weight. On completion in
1916, the Union Insurance Company Building
at number Three, The Bund, was the tallest
in Shanghai. The success of this building led
to Palmer and Turner securing a further nine
commissions for buildings along the Bund,
more than any other single architectural
company. These included the HSBC building,
completed in 1923 and the Cathay (now The
Peace) Hotel, completed in 1929.
Even the Bank of China, completed in
1939 to a commission by the Guomingtang

Government,
was
designed in the offices of
Palmer and Turner, albeit
by a Chinese architect,
Lu Qianshou, specially
requested by the Chinese
clients. The story goes that
the Guomingtang insisted
that the Bank of China be
the tallest on the Bund,
while Sir Victor Sassoon,
owner of the next-door
Cathay Hotel, insisted
that his hotel should
remain the tallest. Today,
it is very hard to tell, even
on close inspection, which
building is taller. When
the Peninisula Hotel was
being proposed in 2004,
as the first new building
on the Bund since 1946,
the local governments
measurement for height
control was that it not
be taller than the Bank
of China. Palmer and
Turners and Trollop and
Colls foundation system,
however, did not prevent
some subsidence, and buildings along the
Bund were routinely built one foot higher than
their anticipated final level. The city continued
to sink and by the 1960s Shanghai was sinking
at a rate that, if not controlled, would have left
the city below sea level by 1999.
The Government responded by setting up a
monitoring system of 12 supervision stations
and 379 observation wells which, through a
complicated groundwater pumping system,
reduced the annual subsidence dramatically,
although the Bund has reportedly sunk 400mm
since the 1960s. As Shanghai lies within an area
of cyclone activity and is now only 4 metres

above sea level, there is concern about the

combined physical weight of skyscrapers in
the city coupled with the risk of major flooding
and the effect of global warming.
One of the miracles of present day Shanghai
is that all of the pre-1949 buildings along the
Bund have survived something unlikely to
have occurred in a capitalist driven economy.
The Shanghai government values the historic
treasures along the Bund, giving them all
Municipal protection status and ensuring
that near-by high rise and unsympathetic
additions do not spoil the heritage values of
the area. In 2004, American Architect Michael

Panorama, The Bund, Shanghai 1930s, Propaganda Poster Museum Shanghai

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

The Park Hotel Shanghai, 1934, Laszlo Hudec Architect

Watermark Press 2007

Graves was engaged by client Handel Lee

to upgrade the 1916 insurance building and
add a roof top restaurant. The Municipal
government required that the addition at
Three, The Bund not be visible from the street
and indeed, it is not.
Although the British Bund was synonymous
with the power of the British empire, pre1949, a rival city centre had been developing
since the 1920s located around the Shanghai
race course at the junction of Nanjing and
Tibet Roads. This was the social heart of
Shanghai where businesses closed down for
a week during the racing season and hotels
and clubs jostled for prominence on the roads
encircling the racecourse.
In 1934, Shanghais tallest building to date
was completed on Nanjing Road overlooking
the racecourse. Designed by architect, Laszlo
Hudec for the Joint Saving Society, at 22
stories (83.8 metres) the Park Hotel remained
the tallest building, not only in Shanghai, but
in the whole of Asia until the 1980s. Chinese
American architect, IM Pei, claims it was
the Park Hotel that inspired his passion for
architecture. In 1934, the 16 year-old Pei had
been taken by his uncle to see a movie at
the Grand Theatre. On emerging from the
show, Pei noticed the newly completed hotel
next door and was so captivated that he
immediately took out a pencil to sketch it.
Architect Laszlo Hudec arrived in Shanghai
in 1918 at the age of 25, having escaped from
a Russian gulag at the end of the First World
War, precariously making his way south to
the safe haven of Shanghai. A graduate of the
prestigious Royal Joseph Technical University
in Budapest, he easily procured a job in postwar boomtown Shanghai with the leading
American firm of R. A. Curry, before setting

up his own practice in 1925. He designed a

number of memorable buildings in the Beauxarts style before moving whole-heartedly
into the new world of modernism in the
1930s. As a stateless refugee of the former
Austro-Hungarian Empire, he straddled the
worlds of the British, French and American
establishments, as well as the increasingly
influential world of the wealthy Chinese
entrepreneurs.
Hudecs client for the Park Hotel was the Joint
Saving Society, JSS, an amalgamation of four
Chinese banks that by 1930 had become one
of the 10 largest banks in China. Believing that
Chinas participation in global markets would
be good for business, the overseas-educated
Chinese owners introduced not only western
style banking methods to their clients, but the
benefits of overseas travel by installing travel
agencies in their banks. When it opened, the
Park Hotel included a JSS bank on the lower
two floors as well as a hospitality school, and
boasted all the latest technical innovations
such as the fastest lifts and most advanced
dish washing machines in Shanghai.
The exterior of the first three floors are clad
in polished black granite from Shandong
Province, while the upper floors are finished
with dark brown brick and ceramic face
tiles laid at 45 degrees to make a diamond
pattern. The tapered seven-floor tower at the
top of the building housed apartments for
the Banks directors, while the space behind
the tower accommodated a ballroom which
originally had a retractable roof for dancing
under the stars. The overall form of the
skyscraper alluded to that giant of the New
York skyline the Gothic Art Deco American
Radiator Building (1924, Raymond Hood
architect) which Hudec had visited and
sketched on a trip to America in 1928.

Hudecs biggest challenge in the design of

the hotel was how to construct a 22-storey
building that would not sink into Shanghais
muddy sub-soil, a problem he investigated
with the help of engineers at TungChiUniversitat (now Tongji University). On the
buildings opening, Siemens advertised that
the skyscraper consisted of their materials
from head to foot including the Larssen
steel sheet piling system chosen by Hudec to

Advertising Handbook for opening of Park Hotel, 1934, Luca Poncellini Collection

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Jin Mao Building, Shanghai, towering over the Huangpu River and the former British Bund, 2000,
Skidmore Owings & Merrill Architects, Exterior from Cloud Nine Bar, 87th Floor, Watermark Press 2007

prevent subsidence. Steel sheet piles had been

developed in 1902 by Mr Trggve Larssen, State
Chief engineer at the city of Bremen, Germany,
and consisted of a U section with riveted
interlocks, later evolving into corrugated
profiles. The idea of interlocking sheet piles
came about in 1914 and is still used all over the
world as one of the most popular steel sheet
piling systems. Hudecs research into the best
technology for a piling system paid off, as the
Park Hotel, unlike the buildings along the
Bund that used timber piles, did not sink.
The title to tallest building in Shanghai was
claimed by the Jin Mao Tower when it was
completed on the Pudong side of the Huangpu
River in 2000. It was the tallest building in
China and the fifth tallest in the world reaching
a height of 420.6 metres. Designed by the
doyens of tall buildings, Skidmore, Owings
and Merrill (SOM), it consists of office space
on the lower 50 floors and a 555-room hotel on
the top floors with a hotel atrium starting at
the 53rd floor and extending 152 metres to the
87th floor. Advanced structural engineering
protects the building from typhoons and
earthquakes while steel piles prevent it from
sinking. The foundations include over 1,000
steel piles bored over 80 metres into the
subsoil the longest steel piles used in a land
based buildings to that date - beneath a fourmetre-thick concrete base. Impact-absorbing
mechanisms include steel shafts that have
shear joints to cushion lateral forces imposed
by winds and quakes and the weight of the
water in the swimming pool on the 57th floor.
While sipping cocktails at Cloud Nine on the
87th floor, it may be possible to feel the earth
move up to 75cm.
Described as the worlds finest skyscraper
since the Chrysler Building, the Jin Mao
incorporates both a pagoda and an Art Deco
tradition with complex elegance. The Tower
has 13 flaring setbacks and four receding
ones and is crowned with a starburst finial.
The spidery framework of aluminium alloy
pipes that cover the glass facade reflect the
constantly changing skies. Like a mirrored
chandelier, the aluminium framework reflects
the sunlight, making the building shimmer,
even on a dull day. At night the illuminated
crown can be seen floating over Pudongs
surreal landscape.
The Jin Mao did not retain its highest building
status for long. Since its completion in 2000,
it has been out grown by the 492 metre high
World Financial Centre, completed in 2008 to a
design by Kohn Pedersen Fox, and the soon to be
completed Shanghai Tower, designed by Gensler
Architects, which will stand at 632 metres and
121 stories high when it opens in 2014.

Anne Warr is an architect currently undertaking a

PhD at UNSW on Women and the Modern City:
Shanghai 1930s. Anne earned a Master of Arts in

series on Masters of Architecture. Material has

also been drawn from the Laszlo Hudec archival
collection at University of Victoria, Canada.

Heritage Conservation from the University of York, UK

and worked for many years in Sydney in the field of

REFERENCES

heritage conservation.From 2003-2010, Anne Lived

Denison, E & Guang, YR 2006, Building Shanghai, Wiley-Academy,

in Shanghai, where her book, Shanghai Architecture

Chichester, West Sussex, England.

was published in 2007.

Denison, E & Guang, YR 2008, Modernism in China, Wiley-

Much of the information for this article was

obtained by the author when working with the
Hungarian consulate in Shanghai during the Year
of Hudec in Shanghai project in 2008. The author
gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the
research of architect Luca Poncellini whose thesis
on Hudec was published as a book in 2010, coauthored with Julia Csejdy, as part of the Holnap

Hibbard, P 2007, The Bund Shanghai, China Faces West, Odyssey,

Academy, Chichester, West Sussex, England.

Hong Kong.
Pan, L 2008, Shanghai Style. Art and Design Between the Wars,
Joint Publishing Co. Hong Kong.
Warr, A. 2007. Shanghai Architecture, Watermark Press, Sydney.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

R E LI G IO N A N D C U LT U RAL N ATIO N ALI S M : T H E A K S H ARD H A M C O M P L E X I N D E L H I

Christiane Brosius
Akshardam Complex, central temple structure

Akshardham has happened at the dawn

of 21st century with the commitment and
dedication of one million volunteers. What
has happened today at Akshardham inspires
me and gives me the confidence that we can
do it! The realization of developed India
is certainly possible before 2020 with the
millions of ignited minds like you.

his statement by the then President of

India, Abdul Kalam, made at the opening
speech of the Akshardham Complex in 2005
is emblematic for a new urban landscape,
emerging in the context of economic
liberalisation in India. This architectural site
is by no means the first and only spectacular
one on the subcontinent; there is a wave of
initiatives to construct mega-buildings and
sites for residential, commercial, leisure and
religious purposes.
With fewer than 10 million people in 1991, the
urban agglomeration of the Delhi National
Capital Region (NCR) counts more than 21
million people today and is growing at an
increasing pace, creating enormous tensions
in relation to construction activities, and
access to and battles around physical space.
Akshardham Complex epitomises this in a
decade in which India has risen from Third
to approaching First World country status, as
the largest democratic nation with a substantial
aspirational and affluent middle class of more
than 200 million people. Moreover, it is a
fascinating example of a cultural nationalism
in which religion features centrally, entangled
with a capitalist consumer culture.
In November, 2005, the Akshardham (lit.
Heavenly Abode of the Supreme) Complex
opened its gates to the public on the
embankment of the sacred river Yamuna
that flows through Delhi. Built in only five
years, the 100 acre-Complex is the work of
ten thousand volunteers, sadhus and laymen
of the Bochasanwasi Sri Akshar Purushottam
Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), and of
artisans from western India.
Since the opening it is said to have attracted
over 25 million visitors from all over the
world, evoked attention by international
media and researchers and is now an essential
part of official tour guides repertoire. The
Guinness Book of World Records declared
the Complex as the largest Hindu temple

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

structure in the world in 2007, followed by

Readers Digest magazine calling it one of the
Seven Wonders of the 21st Century in 2011
(www.akshardham.com/news/2011).
This
has added to the branding of the Gujaratoriginated sect as the fastest-growing Hindu
sect in the world, with an active and growing
transnational network, particularly in
countries with Gujarati economic activities,
such as the USA, Canada, the UK and East
Africa. It has also contributed to the branding
of Delhi as a global city. This challenges us
to rethink the construction of spectacular, big
architectural projects and hyperbuildings as
not merely the product of corporate capital
in the colonization of urban markets in new
economic hubs like the Emirates, Singapore,
China or India (Ong 2011: 205): we need
also to consider the role of religion in such
transnational urbanization processes.
To see this Complex as a hyperbuilding in
the context of the vast emerging landscapes
of the Asian metropolis makes sense in three
ways. Firstly, there is the pressure for Indian
megacities to gain international and national
visibility and recognition as world class
(Brosius 2010). This is accompanied by the new
middle class search for sites of conspicuous
consumption and status declaration.
Secondly, the Akshardham Complex is part
of a network of spiritual and leisure projects
that manifest themselves in large architectural
initiatives in India and internationally,

pointing to the global flow of financial and

religious capital that underpins a search for
the marriage of tradition with globality.
The Complex in Delhi is a sign of capitalist
iconicity that influences the quality of
experience (ibid: 208), both in Delhi and with
a whole network of new temple constructions.
Furthermore, the Complex must be
understood in the context of the particular
history of Delhi as former capital of both
Mughal and British colonial rule, moving to
a new expression of Hindu-based national
confidence. As a hyperbuilding, it speaks
to the intense growth of urban profiling
and real estate development in India since
the new millennium, and to the tagging of
urban landscapes with physical landmarks of
symbolic meaning that stage (Hindu) Indias
sovereign power and, particularly in this
case, civilisational greatness or superiority.
Political rhetoric and economic growth are
thus teamed up with religious zeal.
The Akshardham Complex is interesting for
its combination of ancient religious traditions
and Hindu heritage with state of the art
technologies and leisure facilities. This way, it
speaks alike to devout pilgrims, foreign and
Indian tourists and families seeking a pleasant
outing away from the stressful city. It hosts a
Monument, also referred to as temple (or
mandir in Hindi) at its centre, standing on 234
ornately carved pillars, rising 43 metres from a
platform and measuring more than 90 metres

Akshardam Complex, lotus shaped sunken garden

diagonally. It further consists of 20,000 statues

of saints (sadhus), devotees, spiritual teachers
(acharyas) and deities (murtis), is covered
with pink stone or marble friezes (pith),
and assembling under its nine cathedrallike domes (mandapam) an inner sanctum
(garbhagrah, or womb) with statues of Lord
Swaminarayan and his successors, as well as
a collection of relics and illustrative paintings
from Swaminarayans life and teaching.
Twice a day, official worship takes place
in the inner sanctum, allowing visitors to
worship The Lord, teachers and deities from
the Hindu pantheon. Placed around the
Monument are step-wells and arcades, several
sites for ritual performance such as taking a
dip in the Sacred Water Lake, and at another
ritual site for paying reverence to the statue of
Lord Swaminarayan as young boy Neelkanth.
The Complex homepage and captions at the
site stress that every aspect is entrenched with
Hindu practice and thought, thus evoking
the notion of each visitor engaging in Hindu
worship. There is a large cinema hall showing
Neelkanth Darshan (worship of young Lord
Swaminarayan), a boat ride through Indias
Glorious Heritage (Sanskruti Vihar; CultureCity) and The Hall of Values, with large
dioramas
featuring
audio-animatronics
depicting Hindu life in the 18th century.
Moreover, a sculpture garden displaying

Great men and women of history, a musical

fountain, a multi-cuisine food court and
a shopping mall allow for less religious
activities at the site.
The Complex is thus a magnificent storyteller of a particular version of Indias past,
predominantly, as a Hindu past. Merging
religious, mythological and national narratives,
it aims at shaping a new form of national
citizenship in the visitor, a kind of cosmopolitan
traditionalism, that frames the temple as a
model of globalised cultural nationhood. This
repositioning is interesting since the religious
temple had been replaced by Indias first Prime
Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who had sought to
project the dams and factories of the young
nation-state of the 1950s as new temples and
sites of national pride (Singh 2011).
At the Complex the recent fascination with
ancient tradition and religious practice is
paired with a remarkable attention to stateof-the art technological progress, order and
hygiene. Visitors of Akshardham Complex
can witness all kinds of machines engaged
in efficiency: moneychangers, lawn mowers,
floor cleaners. And they are embedded in a
rhetoric of security and order: signboards
and guards ask visitors to remain silent in
the Monument and refrain from speaking in
rude language, video-surveillance (CCTV)
allows observation of every movement at

the site, security guards ensure a smooth

unidirectional flow of visiting crowds.
Already at the entrance, a substantial and
highly ritualised amount of space and time is
spent on ordering visitors according to gender,
checking their clothes, asking them to leave
everything but their purse behind, even their
mobile phones, and follow a dress code (no
knee- and shoulder-free dress, no burkhas).
The reasoning is that this makes for the most
attentive and safe visitor. In the age of digital
cameras, the Complex manages to control
even this, thus remarkably keeping control
over its own representation. During one of my
fieldwork visits in 2011, two BAPS-run photo
studios were allowing visitors to have their
photographs taken though only there.
This deserves mentioning because the
pedagogic management of visitors experiences
is a crucial element of this particular space.
Criticism is rarely raised, possibly also because
after several terrorist attacks in the city, the
nation, and worldwide, people have generally
become disciplined to endure security checks,
at airports, in museums, shopping malls,
government buildings. Akshardham Complex
seems to aim at increasing its status as an
iconic site through such measurements. And it
looks like a fortress: watchtowers, a high wall
and a patrolling zone along it surround the
premises.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Guidelines for visitors, signboard at the

entrance of the Complex. Photo: C. Brosius 2010

Having passed the security check, and

succumbed to the order of the Complex, one
can enjoy vast greenery, musical fountains,
reasonably priced, clean food, dioramas,
boat rides, education and entertainment,
contemplation and spectacle, an impressive
sight of trees and flowers framed by flyovers,
the metro station, the Commonwealth Games
Village built in 2010. The Complex is like a
safe haven, set back from the noise and chaos
of Delhis streets, where green and wide
space, clean air and silence often seem to
be a luxury good. Akshardham Complex is
thus a precious space, to be protected, and
almost ritually marked through the fortress
aesthetics. But in this way, following urban
theorist Sharon Zukin (2005), an aesthetic of
fear is created, polarizing a morally clean
community of initiated insiders against an
uncontrolled crowd of outsiders.
The Taj Mahal used to be the undisputed
champion of India architecture, but a new
contender has now stepped into the ring:
Akshardham Temple, writes Readers Digest
(July 2011: 52), a quote strategically placed on
the website of the Complex.
The architectural concept underpinning the
Complex highlights a new era of (Hindu)
heritage buildings as iconic hyperbuildings.
The Complex merges latest construction
techniques with millennium old traditions of
carving, quoting from ancient and medieval
Hindu temple architecture and assembling
canons from sites across India such as Ellora,
Mamallapuram (Mahabalipuram), Konarak.
(Singh 2011: 56). Sompura artisans and architects
from a famous craftsman caste in Gujarat were
commissioned; they have also designed the
temples in Houston and Chicago (ibid: 60). The
key concept, proposes Singh, is that all elements
are pre-Mughal and thus also pre-colonial.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Security measurements surrounding the Complex. Photo: C. Brosius 2009

Despite the reference to the Monument

as temple, Kavita Singh speaks of the
marginalisation of its ritual value, thus
being less like a shrine and more attuned
to the logic of the archaeological park or
museum, a Hindu wonderland (ibid: 76).
To be sure, temples have been connected to
secular entertainment and consumption for
hundreds of years, so the presence of a mall
or the foodcourt as such is not surprising.
But there is a sophisticated holistic planning
behind the Complex that has led many to
argue that it is more of a western theme park.
Although the planners of the Complex, mainly
sadhus, were indeed inspired by Disney Land
(USA), Holy Land (Orlando) or Chinese theme
parks, this spectacular themed environment
must also be seen as corresponding to, or even
in competition with, other spectacular religious
architectural sites on the subcontinent, such as
ISKCONs Sri Radha Krishnachandra Temple
or the Vishalakshi Mandap at The Art of Living
Foundations International Centre, both in
Bengaluru (Bangalore) or the vast Chhattarpur
temple complex en route to a Delhi satellite
city Gurgaon. Moreover, monumental sites
and parks have also been built by secular
protagonists, further branding the NCR,
such as the controversial Ambedkar Park,
inaugurated in 2011 by Mayawati, then Chief
Minister of neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, after
cutting down hundreds of trees.

mark a new, globalised Indianness, underlining

the importance of urban centres, management of
crowds, and high-tech entertainment.
Indeed, temples have interestingly become part
of the creative management of global cities,
allowing Delhi in this case to depict the Yamuna
river precinct as a Paris of the East, with real
estate development following suit, resulting
in the risk of gentrification and further land
grabbing for urban planning (including the
eviction of dense squatters settlements along
the river) (Baviskar 2012). The phenomenon of
big buildings and larger architectural sites in
India therefore requires a challenging analysis
of the role of religion, nation and culture in
rapidly developing urban environments in
India and the wider Global South.
Prof. Dr. Christiane Brosius is Cluster Professor of
Visual & Media Anthropology at the Karl Jaspers
Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University,
Germany. Her most recent books, published by
Routledge in 2010 are on Indias Middle Class and
Ritual Matters Dynamic Dimensions in Practice.

REFERENCES
Baviskar, Amita. 2012. Spectacular Events, City Spaces and
Citizenship in Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria and Colin McFarlane
(eds.). Urban Navigations: Politics, Space and the City in South
Asia.: Routledge: 138-161, New Delhi.
Brosius, Christiane. 2010. Indias Middle Class. New Forms of
Urban Leisure, Consumption and Prosperity. Routledge, New Delhi.
Ong, Aihwa. 2011. Hyperbuilding. Spectacle, Speculation, and
the Hyperspace of Sovereignty in Ananya Roy and Aihwa Ong

To Akshardham Complexs role as a means

of city branding, spiritual compensation for
an emerging consumer-society and a national
emblem must be added another important
facet: that of demonstrating a transnational
connectivity and confidence that asserts itself in
large architectural complexes built by the BAPS
global network, be it in Atlanta, London or
Nairobi. Such large temple constructions come to

(eds.). Worlding Cities. Asian Experiments and the Art of Being

Global. Blackwell:205-226, Malden/Oxford.
Singh, Kavita. 2011. Temple of Eternal Return. The Swaminarayan
Akshardham Complex in Delhi Artibus Asiae 70(1): 47-76
Zukin, Sharon. 1995. The Culture of Cities. Wiley, Sussex.
For the Readers Digest: see http://www.akshardham.com/
news/2011/readersdigest/index.htm

M U S E U M S I N T H E G U L F S TAT E S E X T E R N AL I M A G E OR I N T E R N AL ID E N TIT Y ?
Leone Lorrimer
Faade of Museum of Islamic Art (top) and grand staircase seen from main entrance (bottom).
Courtesy of the Museum of Islamic Art

aadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi, low and flat,

edged by white sand, turquoise water
and dark green mangroves, may seem like an
unlikely setting for the ambitious designs and
curatorial programs of some of the greatest
architects and museum bodies in the world.
Having lived in Qatar and the UAE for 7 years,
what may seem like an audacious concept to
outsiders appears perfectly in keeping with
the vision and cultural aspirations of the Gulf
States. The central question is why? And what
do they hope to achieve? Why would the UAE
and Qatar, who only a few decades ago were
simple desert societies, embark on such an
ambitious program of museum building?

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) was formed

in 1971 under the leadership of Sheikh Zayed
bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Whilst the initial focus
for the newly established government was
on the health and education of its citizens,
growing wealth from oil exports, combined
with the increasing levels of education, led to
debate about identity: cultural, religious and
historic. Abu Dhabi draws its wealth primarily
from oil exports (replacing pearling), whilst
Dubai draws its wealth from trade, finance
and tourism. Abu Dhabi, the national capital,
has developed a 2030 plan that identifies
Saadiyat Island as the location for a significant
new cultural district.
The Sydney Opera House and the Guggenheim
in Bilbao have proven the power of a single
building to establish a brand identity for a
place. In Dubai, the image of the Burj Al Arab
7 star hotel has proven the principle closer
to home. On Saadiyat Island, the master
plan draws on the power of brand, with
the engagement of world famous museum
institutions and starchitects to design a
series of iconic buildings, currently planned
for completion by 2017: Frank Gehry and
Guggenheim Foundation for Guggenheim
Abu Dhabi; Jean Nouvel and Agences France
Museums for the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Sir
Norman Foster and the British Museum for
the Zayed National Museum.
The independent State of Qatar was also
established in 1971. With wealth from oil
and gas, high levels of education and health
are a clear national focus. Qatar has also
taken a leading role in foreign affairs, with
a high profile role in the United Nations, as
a regional facilitator and as the home of the
news broadcaster Al Jazeera.

10

Soon after Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani

became Emir in 1995, a number of leading
international universities were invited to
establish campuses in Doha. His wife, Sheikha
Mozah bint Nasser Al Missned engaged
internationally famous architects, including
Arata Isozaki and Legoretta+Legoretta, to
design a series of high-profile buildings
for Education City, the Qatar Science and
Technology Park and the Qatar National
Convention Centre. The quality of the
architecture gives physical expression to
Qatar as a regional knowledge hub.

technology, Qatar Museums Authority, led

by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin
Khalifa Al Thani, the daughter of the Emir
of Qatar, and the prominent collector and
art patron Sheikh Hassan bin Mohammed
Al Thani, plans an ambitious range of
museums and galleries. The Qatar National
Museum, designed by Jean Nouvel, is under
construction, scheduled to open at the end of
2014. Hovering above its prominent corniche
site and drawing its design inspiration from
the desert rose, the museum will strongly
utilise audio visual installations.

Complementing
the
major
education
programs in health, science, journalism and

The Museum of Islamic Art, designed by I.M.

Pei and completed in 2008, draws inspiration

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Louvre, Abu Dhabi (model). Photo: Courtesy Tourism Development & Investment Company

from early Islamic buildings to create a very

simple imposing white building. Its cubic
shapes, which descend from the dome in
changing geometric patterns, create an
interplay between the strong sun and deep
shadows. The museum is located on an
artificial island linked by causeway to the
corniche. Internally, the 65m high atrium is a
cathedral to art, and the galleries and cabinets
are as exquisite as the objects themselves.
The contrast between the simple external
expression and the richness of the interior
experience is extreme. What is its impact both
locally and globally?
Whilst an older generation of Qataris was
educated for extended periods in the USA or
UK, many young people in Qatar have grown
up with the distraction of material wealth and
internet access. As a result, this generations
personal inquisitiveness about culture
and identity was losing focus. Soon after
the Museum opened, school children and
university students were brought through the
museum in great numbers and asked to write
essays on their experience. After the visit to an
extraordinarily rich collection of Islamic art in
all its forms, from silver and precious stones,

to carpets and calligraphy, to jewellery and

body decoration, the essays communicated
how these young people were left awe-struck
and proud of a heritage that they had not
previously appreciated or valued.
On the global scene, the Museum of Islamic
Art is a catalyst for global debate on the history
and craftsmanship of Islamic art. The biennial
Hamad bin Khalifa Symposium on Islamic
Art, for example, first held in 2004, brings
together speakers from a range of disciplines
such as architects, artists and scientists, in
addition to art historians to explore a single
theme in Islamic art and culture. Its 5th
symposium will be held in Palermo, Sicily
from 9 11 November this year.
Many other museums are planned, including
the Orientalist Museum, which will house
Qatars collection of Orientalist Art, one of
the best in the world. This museum is also
planned to be a major centre for education,
not just for Qataris but for students and
specialists from around the globe. The topic of
Orientalism has polarised debate in different
forums so it is highly commendable (and
certainly not surprising with Qatars history

in international affairs) that the Qataris are

taking the lead to investigate and celebrate
the different lenses through which the Orient
is viewed.
In the UAE, the iconic designs of the museums
and the proposed performing arts centre on
Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi have already
achieved global recognition. The museums
are however part of a much deeper education
program that includes a substantial campus
of the New York University and a range of
other initiatives in archaeology, collecting oral
history and establishing collections.
In the years leading up to the opening of
the museums, significant art and cultural
programs are being offered free to its citizens
and residents. These include the construction
of the temporary Manarat Al Saadiyat, where
substantial touring exhibitions from the
Louvre Museum, the British Museum and
Larry Gargosians private art collection have
been staged.
In 2011, the British Museums Splendours of
Mesopotamia Exhibition in Abu Dhabi located
the UAE within a region that was crucial to

Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi, view from south (model). Photo: Courtesy Tourism Development & Investment Company

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

11

North east elevated view of Zayed National Museum by day (model).

Photo: Courtesy Tourism Development & Investment Company

supplemented by patronage, memberships,

corporate events and temporary exhibitions.
The museums of the UAE and Qatar are being
designed and built to provide a physical
forum for ongoing debate, education and
global connection. They engage with the
communities in which they are located,
inviting visits for events, fine or cafe
dining, entertainment, education programs,
workshops and conferences. They present
a powerful identity through hero shot
photography to advertise the power, wealth
and sophistication of the nations that build
them. They are a catalyst through which
these nations determine how they will talk
about their history, what artefacts and stories
to display or keep hidden, what emphasis to
place on different themes and opinions.

the development of human civilisation. The

exhibition was part of a series of exhibitions
in advance of the opening of the Zayed
National Museum.
Each of the three museums has a uniquely
different charter. The Louvre will be a universal
museum, displaying art and artefacts from
ancient to modern times. Jean Nouvels
artistic conception is based on the idea of an
ancient archaeological site, semi-submerged
under the waters of the Gulf. A collection of
buildings is sheltered from the stark sun by
a floating dome that heavily filters the light,
reminiscent of the traditional roofs of local
souks that were woven from palm fronds. The
education programs will offer students access
to objects they would normally be denied
without overseas travel. Ongoing thematic
exhibitions will be held in the Temporary
Exhibition Gallery. An auditorium provides
the stage for performances, presentations and
debates. The edges of the museum blur as
the architectural forms of the various starkly
white buildings engage with the water and
the waterfront park. A restaurant and cafe
provide respite.

with both the public and with corporations. It is

designed to host major events and exhibitions
that may turn the building itself into a canvas.
If the Louvre is ancient and introverted, the
Guggenheim is a celebration of contemporary
creativity. Education programs will occur
in the formal auditorium and throughout
the building. Cafes, viewing terraces and a
restaurant are dispersed through the building.
The Zayed National Museum, designed by
Foster + Partners, will be buried under an
earth mound. Its galleries float, suspended
above the public areas illuminated by blades
of strong light admitted through the cracks in
the architecture above. It is a space designed
to feel at once underground and under water.
The themes in the galleries will align with
aspects of the life of the extraordinary Sheikh
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, founding father
of the UAE, and aim to link todays challenges
with his philosophical ideas. The displays will
be dynamic, even including a falconry gallery,
and there is a significant temporary exhibition
space. One gallery comprises a park that links
the Zayed National Musuem to the waterfront
park and the Louvre Abu Dhabi.

Museums connect with society at a deeply

personal level. The most moving experiences
in museums often come when stories are
revealed and society develops as a result
of recognising its past. One example, in the
Hiroshima museum, is the placement of
brutal personal stories on video of Hiroshima
survivors alongside stark admittance of
Japans responsibility for the events in
Nanjing. The Museum of Innocence, created
by Orhan Pamuk in Istanbul, reveals a story
of Istanbul told through personal objects
that are embedded within Pamuks novel of
the same name. Such responses suggest that
small museums will continue to play a highly
significant role in society or perhaps we will
see smaller, more personal galleries within
larger museums.
Iconic, large scale museums such as those
currently planned or built in the UAE and Qatar,
however, provide an immediately recognisable
physical identity. What is more important is the
role that they play in establishing a national
identity: in recognising how history plays a
role in establishing culture and how education
enables societies to interpret the past to provide
a vision for the future.
Between 2005 and 2011 Leone Lorrimer lived and
worked in Qatar and the UAE; during the latter
period as the design manager for Saadiyat Island
and its three major planned museums. Prior to 2007,
Leone was the Director of a major international
architecture practice for 19 years, culminating with
the oversight of the construction of the iconic Qatar

The Guggenheim is designed as an iconic

modern art museum projecting out on a
promontory at the end of the waterfront
park. Frank Gehrys architecture presents an
assemblage of containers as galleries, with
enormous glass and timber cones covering
central spaces. The Guggenheim will engage

12

The role of a museum in the modern world

is not static and no government can afford
to keep large buildings frozen in time.
Museums today must be relevant and
earn their keep. Permanent galleries are
supplemented by restaurants, cafes and stores
selling merchandise and income is further

Science and Technology Park. On her return to

Australia, she was appointed CEO of dwp|suters,
part of the international network of the Design
Worldwide Partnership.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

U R B A N LA N D S C A P E A N D C O N T E M P ORAR Y V I S IO N S O F N AT U R E :
G ARD E N S B Y T H E B A Y I N S I N G A P OR E
Geoffrey Douglas
GLASS CONSERVATORIES WITHIN THE BAY SOUTH GARDENS. PHOTO: CRAIG SHEPPARD

uring the late 20th and early 21st

centuries many Southeast Asian cities
have developed large urban centres with
towering buildings, urban spaces, parks and
gardens. These impressive cities are often
comparable to, or exceed established western
cities in terms of size, scale and wow factor. A
bustling urban centre of glass and steel says
to the world weve made it, like nothing
else. National identity and pride is frequently
bound up in decisions to create a world class
city - and any city wanting to claim its place
on the world stage today cannot do so without
having in its arsenal some visionary public
spaces including public parks and gardens.

Singapores Gardens by the Bay is a large

contemporary urban landscape project fringing
three sides of Marina Reservoir, a water body
adjacent to downtown Singapore. The project
was built over four years and at a cost of over
one billion Singapore dollars. It extends over
100 hectares and comprises three separate
sites, namely Bay East, Bay Central and Bay
South. The largest and most significant of these
is the 54 hectare Bay South gardens, opened
with royal fanfare by the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge in September 2012.
There is no question that the overall impact
of the Gardens by the Bay is spectacular. The
lead design consultant for the Bay South
landscape was well-regarded UK landscape
architect Grant Associates. They have received
international plaudits including awards for
sustainability and master-planning for this
work. As an aside it is interesting that in
June 2013 they were appointed to prepare
a new master plan for the Royal Botanic
Gardens, Sydney, along with Cox Richardson
Architects, Godden Mackay Logan heritage
consultants and others.
The two glass conservatories within the
Bay South gardens were designed by
Wilkinson Eyre Architects, also from the UK.
Significantly, these were awarded the Royal
British Institute of Architects International
Prize for 2013 - a coveted award.
The design for Bay South has it roots in the 19th
century public park tradition, employing a
design language of glass conservatories, exotic
gardens, paths and lakes. However Singapores
new garden has a significant twist through the
inclusion of so called Super Trees. Eighteen
tree-like structures are located in the centre of

14

the gardens, varying in height from 25 to 50

metres. These are a sculptural interpretation
of real trees, while actually functioning as
uniquely designed vertical gardens.
In a nod to sustainability the Super Trees
have tree-like functions such as collecting
and filtering rainwater, exchanging heat
with the atmosphere (from conservatory air
conditioning) and capturing the suns energy
for use on site. At night, lighting throughout
the tree structure turns the gardens into an
almost Disneyland fantasy and the effect is
somewhat like stepping into Pandora, the
beautiful fictional world created for James
Camerons popular film Avatar.
It has to be said that their design has one
eye on the tourist market and serves the
promotional concept of a clean / green
brand Singapore. Observers may question
the real contribution such structures make to
the cause of bio-diversity and sustainability,
which they purport to represent. Nonetheless
Singapores National Parks Board argues that
they contribute by way of Edutainment,
thus communicating and passing on ideas of
sustainability and bio-diversity to visitors.
Bay Souths layout includes a series of
horticultural gardens, namely the Heritage
Gardens and the World of Plants amongst
wandering pathways, lakes and artworks.
The Heritage Gardens include Malay, Indian,
Chinese and Colonial gardens, which present
a historical and horticultural perspective, but

perhaps more importantly, allude to or even

contribute to Singapores national identity.
The garden presents the idea of a hybrid panAsian community springing from harmonious
ethnic diversity. In this regard it should be
noted that the national flower on which the
plan of the entire Bay South gardens is based
is also a hybrid found only in Singapore the
Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid: the first
registered plant hybrid from Singapore.
(Wright). Here the flower also seems to be a
metaphor for Singapores national identity - a
hybrid of cultures, uniquely home grown.
The World of Plants is a collection of gardens
structured around themes including tropical
palms, forest understorey zones and fruit
and flowers. These showcase the relationship
between plants and people, with a particular
emphasis on bio-diversity.
The centrepiece of Bay South gardens is the two
extraordinary glass conservatories or biomes.
Located adjacent to the Super Tree grove and
beside Marina Reservoir, these are architectural
icons in their own right and properly take
their place in the broad sweep of glasshouse
history: cold frames, orangeries, greenhouses
and conservatories. Architecturally, they
appear as two giant bug eyes, especially seen
from above. Claimed to be the worlds largest
column-less greenhouses, they respectively
replicate the cool-dry Mediterranean climate
and the cool-moist Tropical Montane climate
zones of high altitude equatorial regions, the
latter considered an endangered ecological
community.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

VIEW OF GARDENS BY THE BAY, SINGAPORE. PHOTO: DARREN CHIN

The biomes work on many levels as

conservation environments for threatened
species and ecological communities, places of
wonder and pleasure for visitors, and to provide
Edutainment. Reaching a height of 34 and 54
metres respectively they create an inspiring
effect with gracious sweeping lines. They are
worthy winners of the Royal Institute of British
Architects (RIBA) International Award - 2013.
It is hard to avoid interpreting the Gardens as
performing a deliberate and significant role
in promoting Singapore as clean, green and
environmentally sensitive. This is an image
it wants to send to the world (its customers),
and to its citizens. In this context, it is
interesting to note one government ministers
view that Gardens by the Bay: will boost
the international standing of Singapore as a
premier garden city. It will set us apart and
keep us ahead of emerging garden cities
(Tan, M. 2006). The people of this city state
have only to look across Marina Bay to know
that Singapore cares about the environment.
The splendid edifice of the Gardens by the
Bay becomes part of the national mythology
of who they think they are.

necessary transformation to attract investors

Today the sight of tree lined highways,
manicured lawns and smartly pruned hedges
convey to visitors and potential investors, the
message that Singapore is a place where things
are done efficiently, where attention is focused
on the details, and where investments would
be well taken care of. (MND 2009). The article
observed: One of Singapores most revered
brand assets is cleanliness, there is no litter. The
other is natural plants, flowers, grass and trees
perfectly manicured like you would never see
in another country, all year round.
The concept behind Gardens by the Bay raises a
wider question about humanitys relationship
with the natural world in which we live and

on which we depend. In his dissertation on

botanic gardens, Cohen asks: If we could
invent a means to be independent of nature,
if we could really master it to the point of
creating another nature more convenient and
more pliable, what will happen to what is
called biodiversity, the richness of the plant
kingdom and the stability of the biosphere.
Is our conception of gardens now drifting
toward an idea of an alternative or
replacement nature that we can go to visit on
a Sunday afternoon? A visual sound bite in a
world of 24-hour TV and mobile phone apps
for the time-poor? Does this vision of nature
as a theme park or as green entertainment
provide us with a superficial love for nature

In a recent interview with the New York Times,

Singapores first Prime Minister Lee Kuan
Yew said he set out to make Singapore a firstworld oasis in a third-world region. (Reed
2012). The Ministry of National Development
summarised his 1960s vision: [he was] the
driving force behind Singapores development
as a Garden City which allowed Singapore
to distinguish itself from its neighbours a
INTERIOR OF GLASS CONSERVATORY IN BAY SOUTH GARDENS. PHOTO: CRAIG SHEPPARD

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

15

SUPER TREES LOCATED IN THE CENTRE OF THE GARDENS. PHOTO: CRAIG SHEPPARD

while our very lives of high consumption

and expanding urbanisation (over 50% of the
world now live in cities) replace and destroy
real natural bio-diversity that is now gone in
many areas? Will botanical and edutainment
gardens be the go to natural experience
of the future, in the way that zoos are now
often repositories for remaining fragments
of the animal kingdom? Is it appropriate
for governments to promote their green
credentials as an aspect of national commerce
and marketability? Are we as global citizens
creating a type of nature-speak that appears
to promote a sanitised and highly artificial
natural environment while simultaneously
our actions allow its destruction?
It would be unfair to single out the Gardens
by the Bay or Singapore in this regard. The
majority of Singapores natural environment
was razed in colonial times for cash crops,
especially rubber trees. A second wave in the
form of national Housing Development Board
(HDB) flats occurred when the city state under
Lee Kuan Yew was established in the 1960s.
Most countries have experienced significant
alteration to their natural environments as
human settlements have expanded wherever
they are. This is a problem faced by all of us.
Sir Ebenezer Howard (1850-1928) was the
founder of the English garden city movement,
which influenced early 20th century urban

16

planning throughout the world. In his book

The Garden City of Tomorrow, published at
the turn of the 20th century, he imagined
a harmonious relationship between the
natural and built environment. In a recent
paper on modern garden cities, Johnson sees
global cities as being in a competition to out
green each other and hijacking Howards
ideas of a balance between built and natural
environments. Johnson observes: The intent
of these landscapes is not to make the urban
environment more habitable, but [to create]
landscapes of marketing and branding.
(2008)

Geoffrey Douglas works as a project manager in

Sydney and has an interest in Asian art and culture.
He holds an honours degree in Architecture. Geoffrey
lived in Indonesia and Malaysia for a number of
years, working on construction projects including the
KLCC Main Park a 50 ha public garden at the foot
of Kuala Lumpurs famous Twin Towers.
Authority for reproduction of all photographs received
from Grant Associates architects with thanks.

REFERENCES
Cohen, M., (undated), BGCI - Botanical Gardens Conservation
International, Botanic Gardens: A Tribute to the Role of Beauty
in Conservation of our Plant Heritage, http://www.bgci.org/
education/1677/ (accessed: 17 June 2012)

The environmental debate has moved on since

Howard. Now we have a greater focus on
seeking a sustainable balance between us and
the world around us. This drama continues
to play out in the rapidly urbanising cities of
Southeast Asia and elsewhere. The Gardens
by the Bay, Singapore is a beautiful place and
worthy of comparison with some of historys
great gardens. Singaporeans should feel
justifiably proud of this new development.
However the international visitor and
Singapore citizens alike should be aware of the
promotional green wash and nation building
spin that come with projects like this. For a
real appreciation of our interdependence with
the natural environment in which we live, we
must think and act independently and that
isnt just a walk in the park.

Johnson, C., (2008), Proceedings of the ISOCARP Congress 2008,

Green Modernism: The Irony of Modern Cities in South East Asia,
http://www.isocarp.net/data/case_studies/1364.pdf (accessed 19
June 2013)
MND (2009): [Ministry of National Development], Singapore: City
in a Garden Celebrating a century of botanical success, http//
www.mndlink.sg/2009/2009_May/NParks_article.html (accessed:
4 June 2013)
Reed, C., (2012),Lee Kuan Yew, the worlds first country marketing
director, built the Singapore country brand, Singapore Business
Times (6 August 2012) quoting an undated report in The New York
Times. (accessed online: 3 July 2013)
Tan, M.. (2006), Minister of National Development
Speech at launch of the Gardens by the Bay design competition 20 January 2006, (accessed online: 20 June 2013)
Wright, N., The Origins of Vanda Miss Joaquim, http://www.
amassia.com.au/debate1.htm#The Origins of Vanda Miss
Joaquim. (accessed: 3 July 2013)

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

H Y B RID M O S Q U E S : M I X I N G I S LA M A N D C H I N E S E N E S S I N M ALAY S IA A N D I N DO N E S IA
Hew Wai-Weng
CHINESE-STYLE ROOFS OF THE KELANTAN BEIJING MOSQUE. PHOTO: HEW WAI-WENG

n the last few decades, rising modernist

and puritan Islam, as well as the funding
from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia,
has led to the flourish of pan-Islamic model
mosques in both Malaysia and Indonesia.
Instead of traditional Nusantara-type with
tiered roofs, many of the recent mosques are
inspired by the architectural design of Middle
Eastern mosques, always equipped with
domes and minarets (Dijk 2009). However,
while Middle-Eastern mosque architecture is
prevalent, other competing mosque designs
are not absent. One of the contrasting forms
is Chinese-style mosques. Since 2000, at least
ten Chinese-style mosques have been built in
both Malaysia and Indonesia.

Most of these newly-completed mosques have

adopted the architecture of old mosques in
mainland China, yet they are reconfigured
within local contexts. By discussing the Surabaya
Cheng Hoo Mosque in Indonesia, as well as the
Kelantan Beijing Mosque and the Seremban
Al-Saadah Mosque Complex in Malaysia,
this article examines how and under what
conditions, such mosques play a crucial role in
manifesting Chinese Muslim cultural identity,
upholding the universality of Islamic principles,
as well as promoting religious tourism. The
architectural designs of these mosques are
forms of intentional hybridity (Werbner 1997),
where elements of Islam and Chineseness are
strategically combined to declare that there can
be a Chinese way of being Muslim, as well as to
uphold inclusive Islam.
The Surabaya Cheng Hoo Mosque is the first
Chinese-style mosque built in post-Suharto
Indonesia. Completed in 2002, this mosque
was established by East Javas Indonesian
Chinese Muslim Association (Persatuan
Islam Tionghoa Indonesia, PITI). The mosque
architecture was inspired by the Niu Jie (Ox
Street) Mosque in Beijing, which has more
than a thousand years of history. It is named
after the famous Chinese admiral during the
Ming Dynasty, Zheng He (best known as
Cheng Hoo in Indonesia), who many Chinese
Muslims believe played an important role in
spreading Islam in Indonesia.
Different from Chinese temples, the roof of
this pagoda-like mosque is carved with the
word Allah. Decorations, such as animal-like
ornaments, were omitted because they might
be seen as un-Islamic by many Muslims. The
main hall of the mosque is 11x9 metres and

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

has an eight-sided roof (pat-kwa). The length

of 11 metres symbolises the measurement of
kabah (cubicle shrine within the Al-Haram
Mosque Complex in Mecca), demonstrating
the commitment to Islamic faith. The width
of 9 metres represents the number of wali
songo (the nine Muslim saints that, according
to local belief, Islamised Java), showing an
appreciation of local Javanese traditions.
Meanwhile, the design of eight-sided roof
(pat-kwa) characterises the philosophy of luck
and prosperity shared by the ethnic Chinese.
By installing a bedug (a drum for summoning
to prayer) and a minbar (a pulpit used by an
imam or preacher to deliver a sermon) in the
mosque, Chinese Muslim leaders appropriate
both the elements of Nahdlatul Ulama and
Muhammadiyah (the two largest Muslim
organisations in Indonesia) to show that
the mosque is a prayer hall for all Muslims
regardless of their religious affiliations.
Indeed, the Cheng Hoo mosque, a mixing of
Chinese, Islamic and Javanese cultures, is a
clear statement showing that these identities
are compatible. Yet the strategic design of
this mosque does not represent an existing
ethno-religious reality, but rather seeks
to bring a new reality into being. Chinese
Muslim identities in Indonesia are fluid and
different individuals have different attitudes
towards their religious practice and cultural
orientation (Hew 2011). Therefore, the

materiality and tangibility of the mosque is

important to make Chinese Muslim cultural
identity unequivocally real and to act as
unifying force for Chinese Muslims from
different backgrounds.
As a Chinese Muslim leader said: The
population of Chinese Muslims is small,
diverse and scattered. As happened in the
past, our identity will easily disappear or be
assimilated into the Muslim majority. Thus,
we need a physical space a mosque that
can manifest our identity. The structure of
mosque could stand for long time, and sustain
our uniqueness over a few generations.
Converting to Islam does not mean giving up
our Chinese cultural identity. There can be a
Chinese way of being Muslim. (Interview,
Bambang Sujanto, 27 November 2008)
The intentional mixing of religious
and cultural elements expressed by the
architectural design, are also reflected in the
activities of the mosque. The Cheng Hoo
mosque is an inclusive place where Chinese
and non-Chinese, Muslims and non-Muslims
get together; as well as, a space where religious
and social activities co-exist. For example,
during a Ramadan night in 2008, while
Muslims (both Chinese and non-Chinese)
were performing their evening teraweh prayers
(non-obligatory evening prayers which take
place during the fasting month) inside the

17

IDULFITRI PRAYER AT THE SURABAYA CHENG HOO MOSQUE. PHOTO: HEW WAI-WENG

mosque, non-Muslims (mostly Chinese)

were practising qigong (Chinese breathing
exercise) at the corridor of PITIs office in
the mosque compound. Various activities
such as performances of traditional Chinese
music, conversion ceremonies, wedding
functions and charity events have also been
held in the mosque. Also parts of the mosque
compound are a few multipurpose rooms, a
kindergarten, a canteen, an acupuncture clinic
and badminton courts.
This mosque would not be a success without
support from both Indonesian Muslims and
non-Muslim Chinese Indonesians. Many
Indonesian Muslim leaders lend their support
towards the Cheng Hoo mosque and see it as a
form of dakwah (Islamic preaching). Meanwhile,
most of its donors are non-Muslim Chinese
businessmen, as they think the mosque could
help to improve the relationship between
ethnic Chinese and Muslims in Surabaya. Since
its establishment, this mosque is welcomed by
many Indonesians as a symbolic marker of
the acceptance of Chinese culture, as well as a
clear statement of the inclusivity of Indonesian
Islam. Along with recently built pan-Islamicdesign Al-Akbar Great Mosque and historical
Nusantara-style Sunan Ampel Mosque, the
Cheng Hoo Mosque has been promoted as
one of the religious tourist destinations (wisata
religi) by the Surabaya Tourism Board (2010).
Following the success of the Surabaya
Cheng Hoo Mosque, Chinese Muslims have
built similar mosques in other Indonesian
cities, such as Palembang (South Sumatra),
Purbalingga (Central Java) and Makassar

18

(South Sulawesi). Remarkably, not only

Chinese Muslims, but also non-Chinese
Muslims have contributed to the building
of Chinese mosques. In Pandaan, the local
government has built a Chinese-style mosque
to promote social harmony and religious
tourism. In Malang, the latest mosque inside
the campus of the Muhammadiyah University,
a university run by a Muslim organization,
also adopted Chinese architectural design, in
order to build a better business relationship
with mainland China.
In Malaysia, the combination of a state controlled
Islamic bureaucracy and an ethnicised Islam
that equates being Malay with being Muslim
has discouraged the establishment of Chinese
style mosques, and even rejected it in some
cases. However, recently, there are positive
developments, witnessed by the establishment
of the Beijing Mosque in Kelantan and the AlSaadah Complex in Seremban. Interestingly,
these two recently-built mosques were not
initiated by Chinese Muslims, but proposed and
sponsored by the PAS (Pan-Malaysian Islamic
Party)-led Kelantan State Government and
the state-controlled Islamic Council of Negeri
Sembilan (Majlis Agama Islam Negeri Sembilan,
MAINS) respectively. Meanwhile, two other
Chinese-style mosques are under construction
with the support of the Malaysian Chinese
Muslim Association (MACMA), respectively in
Malacca and Ipoh. In addition, working together
with the Islamic Office of Federal Territories
(Jabatan Agama Wilayah Persekutuan, JAWI),
MACMA is planning to build a grand mosque,
as part of the newly-developed Islamic business
district in Kuala Lumpur.

The Jubli Perak Sultan Ismail Petra Mosque,

or best known by the locals as the Beijing
Mosque, completed in 2009, is arguably
the first Chinese-style mosque in postindependent Malaysia. Like the Surabaya
Cheng Hoo Mosque, the architectural design
of this mosque is inspired by the Niu Jie (Ox
Street) Mosque in Beijing. Its prayer hall
is decorated with Uzbekistan-influenced
Islamic geometries. The former Chief Minister
of Kelantan and the spiritual leader of PAS,
Tok Guru Nik Abdul Aziz is the key figure
behind the establishment of this Mosque. He
told me: Conversion to Islam does not mean
we have to abandon our culture. The Chinese
Mosque shows that Islam is a religion for
all ethnic groups and is not believed by
the Malays only. (Interview, Nik Aziz, 18
September 2011). This mosque is also a vivid
manifestation of the Islamist party to uphold
its cultural inclusivity, preach the universality
of Islam and promote religious tourism.
Certainly, the Beijing Mosque is a significant
and clear statement showing that Islam is not
only the religion for Malay Muslims, thus it
helps to deracialise Islam in the context of
Malaysia. It is worthwhile to note that many
Malay Muslims in Kelantan have contributed,
both financially and physically, to the
construction of this mosque. During my visit
in the mosque, a young male Malay Muslim
told me: There is nothing wrong to build a
Chinese mosque. Instead, we should build
more similar mosques in Malaysia, to show
that Islam is a religion for all. (Fieldnote, 17
September 2011). The recognition and support
towards Chinese-style mosques, to a certain

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

THE SEREMBAN AL-SAADAH MOSQUE COMPLEX. PHOTO: HEW WAI-WENG

non-Chinese, Muslims and non-Muslims

intermingle, where both religious and social
activities concur. Whilst it is important to note
that such cosmopolitan practices are not new,
and can be traced back to the interactions
between Islam, Chinese traditions and local
cultures in Southeast Asia centuries ago, the
construction of these Chinese-style mosques
marks a new development in the articulation
of Chinese identity within transnational and
inter-ethnic Muslim communities.
Hew Wai-Weng is research fellow at the Zentrum
Moderner Orient, Berlin. He is currently working on
a research project, Sites of Inclusion/Exclusion: New
Muslim Spaces in Malaysia and Indonesia.

REFERENCES
Dijk, C. van. 2009. National Pride and Foreign Influences:
The Shape of Mosques in Southeast Asia, Off the Edge, August
2009: 24-27.
Hew, W. W. 2011. Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity: Chinese
Muslim Identities in Post-New Order Indonesia, PhD thesis, The
Australian National University, Canberra.
Surabaya Tourism Board. 2010. Cheng Hoo Mosque: Islam,
Java and Chinese Architecture, Surabaya Tourism Website, Online,

extent, shows that many Malay Muslims are

beginning to accept that being a Muslim is not
exclusive to being Malay in Malaysia.
Operated since 2011, the Seremban AlSaadah Complex is another newly-completed
Chinese-style mosque in Malaysia. This
mosque complex was initiated, funded and
run by the Islamic Council of Negeri Sembilan
(Majlis Agama Islam Negeri Sembilan,
MAINS), as a means to preach Islam to nonMuslim Chinese and to show that Islam is a
universal religion. The architectural design
of this mosque was inspired by another
ancient mosque, the Great Mosque of Xian
in mainland China. Various Chinese features
dominate both the exterior and interior design
of the mosque complex, such as the Chinesedesigned entrance gate, the Chinese courtyard
and pavilion, the red pagoda-shaped minaret,
red lanterns and Chinese calligraphy. The
mosque complex is divided into three areas
public, semi-public and private. The public
spaces comprise courtyards and multipurpose
rooms, including offices of Negeri Sembilans
MACMA and Darul Saadah Association (a
convert organisation). The semi-public space
is a prayer hall which can accommodate 300
people, while the private spaces consist of
accommodation for Imams, staff, converts
and travellers.
This mosque complex has hosted various
activities, such as religious talks, Mandarin
classes, conversion ceremonies and Chinese
New Year dinners. Remarkably, during the
Idul Adha celebrations in 2011 and 2012,
Chinese Muslim religious teachers presented

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

their sermons in Mandarin (with translation in

Malay on LCD screen) inside the prayer hall.
The mosque committee has recently invited a
Hui Muslim from mainland China to act as an
Imam. It also proposes to hold regular Friday
sermons in Mandarin, beginning from the
mid of 2013. If this plan comes true, the AlSaadah Complex will be the first mosque in
contemporary Malaysia that conducts Friday
sermons in Mandarin.
As Moors (2012) suggested, in the analysis
of the tangible forms in which Islam appears
in public, we should take into account the
cultural politics of nation-states and Islamic
movements, as well as the growing force of
consumer capitalism. Indeed, the emerging
trend of building Chinese-style mosques is
an outcome of several interrelated processes,
such as Chinas growing economic power; the
recognition of Chinese culture after the fall of
the Indonesian New Order regime, the rise of
urban Muslim middle class, the diversification
of Muslim consumer markets - as well as the
quest of Muslim activists to preach Islam to
non-Muslim Chinese.
Various actors - state agencies and civil
society, religious and secular publics have
engaged with the construction of Chinesestyle mosques in contemporary Malaysia and
Indonesia, for different reasons, be it religious,
political and/or economic. Indeed, Chinesestyle mosques are sites of interaction, where
translocal flows and local dynamics, as well
as Chinese ethnicity and Islamic religiosity,
are converged and negotiated. They are also
inclusive places where both Chinese and

Available from www.eastjava.com/tourism/surabaya/chenghoomosque.html (accessed August 2010).

Werbner, P. 1997. Introduction: The Dialectics of Cultural
Hybridity, in Werbner, P. and Madood, T. (eds) Debating Cultural
Hybridity: Multi-Cultural Identities and thePolitics of Anti-Racism,
Zed Books, London, pp. 1-28.
Moors, A. 2012. Popularizing Islam: Muslims and Materiality Introduction, Material Religion: The Journal of Objects, Art and
Belief, 8(3): 272-279.

ISAN: THAILANDS ANCIENT

KHMER CONNECTION
25 January - 13 February 2014
Isan is the least visited part of Thailand. But this
north-eastern region has a distinctive identity and, in
many ways, is the Kingdoms heartland. Here older
Thai customs remain more intact and sites of historical
and archaeological significance abound. Expatriate
museologist, author, Siem Reap resident and TAASA
contributor Darryl Collins and Gill Green, President
of TAASA, art historian and author specialising in
Cambodian culture have assembled and co-host
this new journey which includes spectacular Khmer
temples such as Prasat Phimai, Phanom Rung
(reputed to be the blueprint for Angkor Wat) and
Prasat Meung Tam. We cross the mighty Mekong into
southern Laos to explore the UNESCO World Heritage
Listed Wat Phu Champasak before concluding in
Vientiane and the magical UNESCO World Heritage
Listed town of Luang Prabang.
Contact us now for your brochure.

H E R I TA G E D E S T I N AT I O N S
N AT U R E B U I L D I N G S P E O P L E T R AV E L L E R S

PO Box U237
University of Wollongong NSW 2500 Australia
p: +61 2 4228 3887 m: 0409 927 129
e: heritagedest@bigpond.com
ABN 21 071 079 859 Lic No TAG1747

19

V I E T N A M S B AI DI N H B U DD H I S T T E M P L E
Ann Proctor
TAM THE HALL, 2009, H. 34 M L. 59 M., WOOD, BRICKS AND REINFORCED CONCRETE. PHOTO: ANN PROCTOR

he quintessential Vietnamese Buddhist

temple is thoroughly integrated with the
natural environment. Buildings nestle into a
quiet location and are generally associated
with a village. Steep tiled roofs are supported
by an intricate system of wooden pillars and
beams. They swoop near to the ground and
then sweep upwards, anchoring the building
to the earth as well as minimizing the impact
of typhoon winds. Closeness to the earth is
also emphasized by the strong horizontality
of most structures within a temple complex.
Even in urban environments, Vietnamese
Buddhist temples tend to be unassuming,
providing a quiet retreat from the busy street.

In stark contrast is the Bai Dinh temple.

Situated about 95 kilometres south of Ha Noi
in Ninh Binh province, it is remarkable on
many fronts, not the least of which is that it is
now the largest complex of Buddhist temples
in Vietnam. Privately funded by an extremely
wealthy Vietnamese entrepreneur, Nguyen
Xuan Truong, who made his initial fortune with
a trucking business, planning and construction
began in 2003 and at the time of my visit in
2011, it was still a work in progress. Nguyen
Xuan Truong was able to gather support for
the venture at local as well as national level,
specifically from the then Prime Minister.
The architect in charge was Professor Hoang
Dao Kinh, born in 1941. He lived in the
USSR for 20 years, graduating with a PhD in
architectural heritage and restoration from
the Moscow Architectural Institute in 1967.
He was the former director of the Institute for
the Conservation of Monuments in Vietnam
and is deputy chairman of the Association of
Vietnamese Architects.
This new grand scale complex is built in the
area of the western gateway of the former
Royal Citadel of Hoa Lu and includes a small
ancient temple of the same name. Hoa Lu was
selected as the Royal Citadel site by the Dinh
(968-980) and Early Le (980-1009) Dynasties
because of its beauty and ease of defence,
amongst other reasons. The early dynasties
of Dai Co Viet adopted Buddhism as the State
religion, as did the following Ly (1009-1226)
and Tran (1226-1400) dynasties when the
capital moved to Thang Long, the site present
day Ha Noi. Original access to the citadel
between the limestone karsts and along water
ways was extremely difficult. Fittingly for
a transportation mogul, an amazing road

20

network and huge parking lot now provides

access for the countless pilgrims who come by
the car and bus load.
Buddhism was introduced to Vietnam in the
first centuries of the common era and an oft
remarked characteristic is the synthesis of this
introduced religion with indigenous animist
beliefs, particularly worship of goddesses,
and with Daoist elements. By the 10th century,
under greater influence from Indian monks
rather than Chinese, Buddhism had become
a mixture of Chan, Tantrism and popular
beliefs (Ngo Van Doanh 2001:33). The traces of
temples and buildings from the 10th and 11th
centuries at Hoa Lu include octagonal stone
sutra pillars, some of which contain Tantric
inscriptions (Ha Van Tan et al 1993:100).
Generally speaking, the Buddhism practised
today at Bai Dinh is Mahayana. The temple
is registered under the Vietnam Buddhist
Association which appoints the senior monk
in residence.
While the former temples settled gently within
this picturesque landscape, the new complex
required extensive excavation of the mountain
side. Typically, geomantic considerations were
taken into account: mountains to the rear of
the temple and water at the front are common
prerequisites. Laid out like many Vietnamese
Buddhist temples, the main sanctuary is at
the top, with buildings aligned along an axis
and the site enclosed by circumambulation
corridors or stairways.

Many temples in Vietnam have staircases

leading up to the main sanctuary- for example,
the 300 steps leading to the original Bai Dinh
temple - but none are on such an enormous
scale as the two covered walk ways ascending
to the main sanctuary at the new Bai Dinh
temple. These stairs extend for approximately
one kilometre each and are lined with 500
stone sculptures of arhats. Most Vietnamese
Buddhist temples have only eight or 16 or,
perhaps, 18 representations of arhats.
The present complex covers 700 hectares
and contains the conventional components
of a Vietnamese Buddhist temple: albeit in a
totally unconventional size and with frequent
use of unconventional materials. These
include the gate, which in important temples
is a triple gate entrance symbolic of the three
concepts of Buddhism: nothingness, apparent
existence and the state of half nothingness and
half existence (Nguyen Ba Dang et al 2004:37).
There is also a bell tower, a front temple, main
temple and stupa, plus ancillary buildings for
worship and accommodation. The bell tower
is claimed to contain the largest bronze bell in
Vietnam, weighing 36 tons, and the Phap Chu
sanctum contains the heaviest bronze Buddha
image in the country, weighing 100 tonnes.
The topmost building, the Tam The Hall, rises
to 34 metres at its roof ridge and measures over
59 metres in length. It is constructed of wood,
bricks and tiles and, unusually, reinforced
concrete due to the increased dimensions. The

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

BUDDHAS OF THE THREE WORLDS IN THE TAM THE HALL,

ORIGINAL BAI DINH TEMPLE, C. 1136. PHOTO: ANN PROCTOR

EACH GILDED BRONZE, 7.2 M HIGH. PHOTO: ANN PROCTOR

IRON WOOD RAFTERS UNDER ASSEMBLY. PHOTO: ANN PROCTOR

three tiered roof is unusual, as most temples

only have two, however the decorative
elements such as the screen on the ridge line
and the finials that terminate the sweeping
roofs resonate with earlier iconography.

however, there is such a shrine in the ancient

temple.

Lam. Textiles, lacquer and ceramics are the

historic temple arts in Vietnam.

On a knoll to the right of the main hall is a giant

bronze statue of the Buddha of the future, as
the big bellied Happy Buddha, said to be
the largest in Southeast Asia. A tall, multistoried stupa was under construction in front
of this statue at the time of my visit. Formerly,
sculptures of ancestors or deities were kept
inside, decorated with coloured glazes or
gilded and actively attended in worship. With
the exception of some guardian figures, they
were not larger than life size. In the case of the
majority Kinh people, such sculptures were
certainly not kept out in the open, although
some tribal minorities placed sculptures
outdoors around funeral areas. However,
in the modern era with the construction of
Christian shrines and churches under French
Colonial rule and then with the introduction
of a socialist realist monument style, there
was a change in placement, size and aesthetic.
The new monuments are of much larger
than life size figures, placed outdoors in
conspicuous public places and typically made
in unadorned bronze, stone or clay.

Since the introduction of a free market regime

in the 1980s, Buddhism has flourished as part
of a return to traditional institutions, practices
and ceremonies, in stark contrast to the secular
nationalism of the early years of Communist
party rule. Since the late 1980s a large number of
Buddhist sites have been renovated or rebuilt in
keeping with their historical form. The Bai Dinh
temple, however is part of a paradigm shift in
the size of buildings in Vietnam as well as in the
role of the patron of such structures. Whereas
formerly at this site the ruler and aristocracy
were the patrons, the rich industrialist now
stands in their stead. While the 11th century
buildings used some rare and costly materials
they were at one with nature. The present patron
has dominated the landscape with his complex,
while at the same time creating a site not only
for his own merit but for the spiritual benefit of
visiting pilgrims and the economic and religious
benefit of the local populace.

This project has been of great benefit to

artisanal villages of the region and the local
populace who cater to the thousands of
visitors with, amongst other things, delicious
local wild goat dishes. Ceramics, including
tiles and bricks as well as offertory vessels
were sourced from Bat Trang, wood and stone
have been locally sourced from Ninh Binh
province. The project employed carpenters
from Phu Loc, and stone carvers from Ninh
Van, while lacquer products were sourced
from Cat Dang and embroideries from Van

REFERENCES

The weight of the roofs and their decorative

elements produce a horizontal effect despite
the overall height of the building. As with
traditional architecture, the building is divided
into an uneven number of bays, in this case
seven. However, the wide three part staircase
leading up to the main floor of the temple,
flanked by sinuous stone dragon balustrades,
is more characteristic of a Royal Palace than
a Buddhist temple. The regal connection is
emphasized by the sculpted stone ramp in the
middle, which in a Royal palace is the space
over which the Emperor would be carried.
Such features in this Buddhist building,
constructed in the environs of a former
Royal Citadel, by a modern business mogul
operating in a Communist state, carry various
mixed messages.
The main hall houses three gigantic gilded
bronze statues of the Buddhas of the three
worlds (Tam The), from left to right, the
Buddhas of the past, present and future.
They are just over seven metres in height.
Thousands of niches line the walls of the
main temple, many of which contain donated
Buddha images, including one donated by
the Prime Minister. An unusual feature is
the inclusion of a large marble model of the
Bodhgaya Temple to the left of the main
hall entrance. In the syncretic form that
Vietnamese Buddhism takes, most temples
contain a sanctuary to the mother goddesses.
At present there is none in the new complex,

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Ann Proctor is an art historian with a particular

interest in Vietnam.

Ha Van Tan et al, 1993. Vietnam Buddhist Temples, Social Sciences

Publishing House, Hanoi.
Minh Chi et al, 1999. Buddhism in Vietnam, The Gioi,Vietnam.
Ngo Van Doanh, India Kinh Bac and Vietnamese Buddhism,
Vietnamese Studies, no. 3, 2001 (141) The Gioi, Hanoi.
Nguyen Ba Dang et al, 2004.Traditional Vietnamese Architecture,
The Gioi,Vietnam.
Nguyen-Long, K. 2013. Arts of Vietnam 1009-1945, The Gioi
Publishers, Ha Noi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A1i_%C4%90%C3%ADnh_Temple
http://www.vietnam-beauty.com/top-destinations/destination-inthe-north/196-bai-dinh-the-biggest-pagoda-in-asean.html

21

 TRO P H Y B U ILDI N G S I N B E I J I N G S C H A N G I N G U R B A N LA N D S C A P E
John Courtney with Tina Burge

ohn Courtney is an Australian urban

planning adviser at the Peking University
PlanningInstitute, living in Beijing since 2005,
who is attempting to tell the China story
primarily through, in his words, the camera
lens of an urban planner. One aspect of the
story is the impact ofmajor iconic building
projects by international superstar architects
on the changing landscape of the city.

In his online report titled Urban Observations

from The Center of The Middle Kingdom, John
Courtney comments that to the foreigner,

heritage conservationis obvious. To the

Beijinger, modernisation and improved living
conditions takes priority, resulting in clearance
and denser development that offsets the costs
of large areas of low income housing on prime
land. While he believes that a better balance of
heritage and modernisation is emerging today,
he also notes that much of Beijings current
modernisation is of questionable value:
several of the modern architectural icons
by foreign architects highlight the confused
agenda and prioritiesin Beijing which
hasproduced a challenging and confused

built environment that requires rationalizing

and structuring with significantly improved
urban amenity.
Here is an edited version of John Courtneys
reports on two recent and outstanding
architectural projects in Beijing, one civic
and one commercial: the National Centre
for Performing Arts (NCPA) and the Galaxy
SOHO complex in Chaoyangmen. Our thanks
to John for giving his permission to use his
reports, together with some of his spectacular
images of these developments.

NATIONAL CENTR E FOR P E R FORMI NG ART S (N C PA ) , B E I J I N G

The NCPA, referred to as The Egg by

Beijingers, is an iconic building in much the
same way as the Sydney Opera House is
in Sydney. It was designed by the French
architect Paul Andreu who was previously
known for his design of Pudong International
Airport. Andreu was selected in an
international competition to create a grand
architectural statement for Beijing and the
NGT has certainly brought a special quality
and identity to the city with its striking design.

22

The NGT is located immediately to the west

of The Great Hall of the People on Changan
Avenue, the symbolic east-west axis of the
new Beijing. The design comprises a grand
metallic and glass sphere floating above
the water in a large pond. The sphere is 213
meters by 144 meters and 46 meters high (to
match the dimensions of the Great Hall).
Patrons enter the NGT by a tunnel under
the pond and with light filtering through
a glass ceiling it creates a special ambient

experience. Within the sphere there are

three theatres for music, opera and drama
connected by a grand flowing space, again
with light filtering in through the great
glass windows. The experience within
is uplifting and the arrival through the
Changan entrance is superlative.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

GALAXY SOHO, BE I J I NG

SOHO Beijing, one of the leading innovative

real estate developers in China, has added
another major iconic architectural work to
its portfolio - Galaxy SOHO. Designed by
Zaha Hadid Architects for SOHO China Ltd,
the largest domestic prime office real estate
developer has continued its reputation for
building cutting edge modern architecture.
Zaha Hadid is the winner of the prestigious
Pritzker Prize and is known for her grand
and expensive architectural statements,
including Galaxy SOHO.
Galaxy SOHO is purely commercial
with the basement and first three levels
accommodating retail and entertainment
space and office space occupying the top
floors. The building includes 333,000 square
meters of space and is 67 meters high.
Galaxys cost of construction was 40% higher
than comparable commercial structures and
it is a LEEDS certified building.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

It is situated at a key location on the second

ring road inside the historic city at the
intersection of two important metro lines
(2&6). Recently opened, Line 6 is the fastest
in the Beijing system that connects east
and west across the inner city area. Galaxy
SOHOs location is in a prime development
hub with important major government
complexes nearby (Ministry of Foreign
Affairs) and SOHO Corporate Offices.
As for integrating into the old hutong
neighbourhood located on the southern
side of the site, this seems unlikely and
the shadow of Galaxy will overwhelm
the
neighbourhood
and
encourage
redevelopment with the community
relocated to remote areas of Beijing.

23

T H R E E I N DIA N F IL M S AT T H E 2 0 1 3 S Y D N E Y F IL M F E S TI V AL
Jim Masselos
SHIP OF THESEUS, STILL FROM FILM. COURTESY: SYDNEY FILM FESTIVAL

he Sydney Film Festival gets larger every

year so it is impossible to see even most
of the films. I did however make up a minifestival of my own of the Indian offerings.
The choice looked promising: a film version
of Salman Rushdies magic realist novel,
Midnights Children; a competition entry
Monsoon Shootout from a producer of Gangs of
Wasseypur, last years full on crime epic, and a
third paradoxical film - Ship of Theseus.

Midnights Children is an established classic.

It won the Booker Prize in 1981, and scored
again both in 1993 and in 2008 with the Best
of the Booker prizes. On paper it seemed
likely its complexity and brilliance would be
recreated on film. Its Indo-Canadian director,
Deepa Mehta has a formidable reputation for
her trilogy, Earth, Fire, Water serious films
that explore lesbian attraction, communal
massacres and the subordination of Hindu
widows. Rushdie was responsible with
Mehta for turning the 446-page novel into
a film script and he provides the voice over
narration. What is in the film should be all
that Rushdie values in his novel.
The book is a political satire about India, an
allegory for the failure of vision, for dreams
unfulfilled and their destruction by evil, the
world of politics. It spans modern India to the
late 1970s and climaxes with Mrs Gandhis
imposition of a dictatorial Emergency. The
narrative line hangs around children born
on 15 August 1947 around the midnight hour
when India assumed independence. These
children have the magic potency to realise
the expectations of the times. In the telling,
the children fall by the wayside, lose unity
and are mostly destroyed during Emergency.
With them, and through the hero, Saleem, we
follow the choices between good and evil and
the consequences. Despite the overarching
story line, neither the book nor the film are at
all full of gloom and doom and much is funny,
indeed even rumbustious.
Both open with Saleems grandfather, a
doctor in Kashmir, treating a Muslim girl.
He never sees her as a whole but diagnoses
her numerous ailments through a succession
of strategically placed holes in a sheet. Partby-part, bit-by-bit he falls in love with a
disaggregated woman. The film proceeds
with gusto, and gives us quirky surreal
images, the doctor riding a bicycle in front of
the Taj Mahal in Agra among them. The mood

24

changes later, with military dictatorships in

Pakistan, wars, and the intense moments of
slum demolition and enforced sterilisation.
The film is true to the diversity of the novel
but does not quite capture its overflowing
racy inventiveness. It is more a truncated
guide rather than the unstoppable sweep of
epic events and the breathtaking cinema it
might have been.
In contrast Monsoon Shootout, a first film from
Amit Kumar, proved a tight exploration of
the underworld of Mumbai crime and of the
police who try to control it. Like Suketu Mehta
in Maximum City Kumar views deep-seated
criminality as characteristic of the city. The
film works well as an action story told through
the fortunes of Adi, a raw young police officer
confronted on his first assignment with the
problems of enforcement and the deviousness
of corruption. There is insight here and the
film is a worthy addition to Mumbai film noir.
Monsoon Shootout goes further in exploring
the nature of action and its consequences. The
critical moment is when in a standoff with
an escaping criminal Adi has to make a split
second decision as to whether to shoot or not.
The film takes us through three possible stories
of what might have resulted from Adis choice.
There is a hint of Rashomon in the presentation
of multiple narratives - and a statement about
choice and the nature of inevitability.

and multiple stories. The title comes from

Plutarchs paradox about whether Theseuss
ship when its planks were totally replaced
over time remained the same or became a new
ship. Three stories take up the point in a story
line somewhat reminiscent of Jesus of Montreal.
The first looks at a blind photographer who
gets new eyes, in the second a monk gets a new
liver and in the third a business man a kidney.
The three stories are treated extensively, shot
against different backgrounds and locales
according to the particular narrative. Some
images are haunting - the publicity still in the
festival program of a group of monks looking
at sunset from Bandra across to the Sealink
being one. This is powerful cinema and the
final windup with the tracking of illicit body
part dealers and a beneficiary in Scandinavia
provides another narrative and a conclusion
that questions the morality of obtaining
transplants but accepts their need.
The last two films are part of the growing
number coming from a new generation of
filmmakers in India. They have deep morality
and humanist concern but they also have a
love of cinema as a medium and play skilfully
with its possibilities. They are self confident in
their story telling and in the ideas they convey.
Hopefully we will see much more from them.
Jim Masselos is an Honorary Reader in History at the
University of Sydney.

Another debut film, Anand Gandhis Ship of

Theseus, also plays with fractured narratives

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

TRA V E LL E R S C H OI C E : R E C O L L E C T I N G P A G A N
Minnie Kent Biggs
THATBYINNYU TEMPLE, PAGAN. PHOTO: MINNIE KENT BIGGS

or all the reading, all the photographs, for

all the mental and spiritual preparation, I
was not ready for Pagan. The temples dot the
plain, stud the fields almost like a forest that
has been selectively cut. My head swivels.
There is no one single view.

Everywhere I looked there was another,

different arrangement of pagodas. A sea
of stones, dull brown brick mounds, rich
red brick structures with sandstone carved
facings, soaring whitewashed brick buildings,
some topped with golden domes: 4,000 built
over 200 years. Only 2,000 remain, many
crumbling, in various stages of collapse,
some completely rebuilt after the earthquake
of 1975. But none the less powerful for their
disrepair. I ran through all my superlatives
and there are no words left to describe the
power and the majesty, the peace and the
silence of this magic place.
In all the wonderment, there was an
unexpected surprise. I had read about the
architecture of the Ananda Temple and the
legend of its building. Eight Indian monks
visited King Kyanzittha and told him of their
imaginary cave temple in the Himalayas. They
were able to make the mythical landscape
appear to the king who, so inspired, decided
to build a replica of the snow covered cave
right there in central Burma.
Ananda is in the shape of a perfect Greek
cross. At the centre of the inner cube stand
four large Buddhas, each set back in a sort of
vestibule, facing the cardinal points. There are
two high vaulted corridors running parallel to
each other along the four sides of the temple.
Two tiers of small windows high along the
thick walls provide dim illumination from
above.
All along the tall walls of the corridors are
innumerable honeycombed niches containing
Buddha images. Ones eye is drawn by the
light at the end of the corridors, led on and
around as in a perfectly symmetrical maze. It
is in this perfect symmetry that a deep sense
of satisfaction lies. Even as ones eyes are
drawn up, or to the end of a corridor, one feels
perfectly serene and centred. Crowded with
Buddhas, there is a feeling of space, indeed
immense space.
Though a completely and profoundly
Buddhist temple, I felt myself in a Gothic

26

cathedral. The glory of Ananda, thoroughly

its own, is also that of Chartres. The golden
age of Pagan commenced in 1044 when
Anawrahta ascended the throne and started
a temple building binge that lasted 200 years,
until the threat of Kublai Khan caused its
final decline. What could the 11 kings who
reigned in this period have known of Gothic
architecture? What sort of coincidence is it
that more than 600 major churches rose in
France in the same time frame, 1170-1270?
Of course, there is no connexion, no
coincidence, and yet there is every connexion
on the spiritual plane. One is always climbing
up to and looking up in Buddhist temples
and pagodas, but Ananda, and several of the
other temples that were inspired by its design,
has a different, lofty, spacious air. Kings and
ordinary people (who can afford to) build
pagodas or repair them in order to gain merit
towards the next life. King Kyanzittha must
have attained instant Nirvana!

Across the plain rumble the ox carts, hauling

water from the river as they have been doing
for thousands of years, the driver dozing
lazily against the water tank, as I saw them
drawing the water early that morning. The
main means of transport around Pagan is the
horse and cart. Biblical images abound. The
tracks are deep dust. Exotic birds are at home
in the scrubby trees, pigs wander loose along
the main road.
When I first visited Pagan in 1988, there
were only a handful of visitors at any given
time, one of the pleasant results of Burmas
self-imposed isolation. Returning in 2013,
there were more hotels, more cars and mini
vans, a few more paved roads, and many
more tourists. But the ox cart driver was still
drawing water. There will always be quiet
corners and more unexplored temples. The
tranquillity and reverence engendered by this
site will survive in the new Burma.
Minnie is a long time member of TAASA. She gardens

I use the words temple and pagoda

interchangeably, but in fact they are different.
A pagoda usually houses a relic of the Buddha
and has a solid centre. A temple is constructed
to house images of the Buddha and is more
a place for meditation. Pagodas often have
temples surrounding them, while many
temples, such as Ananda, are surrounded by
small stupas and pagodas.

in Kurrajong and writes about Asia and Antarctica.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

B OO K R E V I E W: A B I O G R A P H Y O F R A F F L E S
Philip Courtenay

Raffles and the Golden Opportunity

Victoria Glendinning
Profile Books, 2012
RRP AUS$45; hardcover, 349pp

In an early paragraph of the introduction

to her recent biography of Sir Stamford
Raffles (1781-1826), Raffles and the Golden
Opportunity, Victoria Glendinning states that
the book seeks to demythologise him without
diminishing him, adding that he was not a
genius but, like all ambitious visionaries, he
had a streak of genius. Raffles is the subject
of a substantial body of literature, which
commenced with his own The History of Java in
two volumes published in London by Black,
Parbury & Allen and John Murray in 1817.
Glendinnings contribution is the most recent
addition to this literature. These two titles are
separated by seven other noteworthy studies
published between 1897 and 1999 of which
C.E.Wurtzburgs 1984 edition of Raffles of the
Eastern Isles is twice the length of Glendinning.
Glendinning traces Raffless life from his birth
in 1781, aboard a West Indiaman, the Ann, off
Port Morant on the Jamaican coast, to his death
in London in 1826 at the age of 45. He was one
of a family of five, having four sisters, and
attended the Mansion House Boarding School

in London where a number of famous men

were educated. He obtained his first job as an
`extra clerk, a post created in the late 1700s to
help deal with an increased work-load at East
India House. Having studied hard in his spare
time, he was posted to Penang (then known as
Prince of Wales Island) in 1804 where he was
promoted to Assistant Secretary to the islands
Presidency. His mastery over the Malay
language led to his appointment as translator
to the Government of India. He was appointed
Lieutenant Governor of Java in 1811 and, in
1817, was promoted to Governor of Bencoolen,
a British possession in Sumatra based in the
area of what is now Bengkulu City.
Raffless concern with the regional domination
of the India-China trade by the Dutch led
to his belief that the most effective way to
challenge them was by the establishment of a
new British base in the region. He convinced
the then governor of the East India Company
of the necessity and reached an agreement
with the newly recognised Sultan of Johore to
establish a trading post on Singapore Island.
The agreement was ratified with a treaty on
6 February 1819 that formalised the creation
of Singapore city. Raffles moved to Singapore
in 1822 and left to return to England in 1823.
Glendinning describes Raffless role as
Lieutenant Governor of Java, but also draws
attention to his non-political achievements.
These include his The History of Java and
his map of Singapore. In the opinion of The
Edinburgh Review of 1818 and 1819, in two
review articles of The History of Java, the
latter was `the best ever compiled. These
achievements also included the compilation
of a collection of natural history specimens
plants, shells, fishes, birds, small animals
and life-like drawings of fruits and flowers
by a Macau Chinese. Much of this collection

was lost in a fire aboard the ship Fame during

its journey to England. However the animal
survivors of the ship-board fire provided
the initial denizens of the Zoological Society
of London of which Raffles became the first
chairman and president.
Raffles and the Golden Opportunity is
thoroughly referenced by a comprehensive 8
page bibliography, is supported by endnotes
to each of its 15 chapters and a meticulous
index and includes two sections of glossy
colour plates. However, despite its detailed
referencing, a basic geographical error occurs
on page 16 where Penang is described as
lying 250 miles southward of Malacca rather
than vice versa! This error probably accounts
for the statements that on page 45 `on leaving
Penang, he and Olivia sailed up the coast to
Malacca, and on page 49 that Raffles `was
rushed back down the coast to Penang.
To this reviewer a minor irritant is created by
what is undoubtedly a contemporary practice
in publishing layout where lines of print are
justified by the breaking and hyphenation
of last words in a line rather than by a slight
variation of word spacing. Page 38 alone
has 9 examples of awkward end-of-line
hyphenations such as misrepresenta-tion,
tran-scribe, lan-guage and recom-mendation.
Glendinnings particular contribution to the
substantial literature on Raffles is in providing
a concise biography which recounts his career
chronologically. Each of the 15 chapters is
devoted to a short time period commencing
with Raffless birth in 1781 to his death from a
brain haemorrhage in 1826.
Philip Courtenay is a retired academic and occasional
freelance writer, with a special interest in Southeast
Asian ceramics.

TAASA VICTORIA CERAMICS EVENT, 18 June 2013.

A revived program of activity for TAASA in
Victoria was triggered by a successful event
at Mossgreen Gallery in South Yarra on
Tuesday evening, 18 June. About 30 members
and guests attended a private preview of the
extensive ceramics on offer at Mossgreens
Asian sale, conducted the following day.
TAASA member and ceramics collector, Dr
John Yu, travelled from Sydney to introduce
the works on offer while TAASAs President,

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Gillian Green, and a number of Sydney as

well as Melbourne based members of the
TAASA Committee also attended. Asian
art expert Ray Tregaskis kindly remained
throughout the evening to offer interesting
insights into some of the more unusual
pieces on offer and to answer queries from
the group.
JOHN YU (L) AND RAY TREGASKIS WITH TAASA
MEMBERS AT MOSSGREEN GALLERY. PHOTO: GILL GREEN

27

H E L E A N OR F E LT H A M ( 1 9 4 2 2 0 1 3 )
Christina Sumner
HELEANOR FELTHAM. PHOTO: MARINCO KOJDANOVSKI

amily, friends and colleagues gathered in

Newtown, Sydney on 11 July to farewell
Dr Heleanor Feltham, who died peacefully in
Royal Prince Alfred Hospital after combating
myeloma and then suffering complications
from a fall. Heleanor was a great friend and
an exceptional scholar who contributed
substantially to Sydneys intellectual life, in
particular in the area of Asian arts.

increasingly narrow tunnel into specialisation.

This was anathema to her and, looking
around for broader options, Heleanor realised
that there was only one place in Sydney and
possibly in the whole of Australia where her
encyclopaedic knowledge would be put to
good use: the old Museum of Applied Arts
and Sciences with its extraordinarily diverse
collection of cultural icons.

As is well known to our long time members,

Heleanor was one of the four Powerhouse
Museum staff members who dreamed the
original dream of forming a society devoted
to deepening our understanding of and
promoting the arts of Asia. The Asian Arts
Society of Australia was thus born in 1992,
with Heleanor as the inaugural editor of our
journal TAASA Review and me as her assistant.
It is largely thanks to Heleanors initial vision
that the Review so happily marries scholarship
with readability and it has gone from strength
to strength under successive editors. A profile
of Heleanor, based on an in-depth interview
with her, was published in the TAASA Review
of December 1994 and she provided her own
recollections of TAASAs history in the special
gold 20th anniversary issue of December
2011. Her numerous writings for the Review
covered such diverse topics as Sasanian silks,
lion rugs and nomadic jewellery as well as
profiles, editorials and film reviews.

Joining the staff of the Museum as Education

Officer, Heleanor was in her element: I got to
do everything I loved doing... whatever we had
on display, I could produce a one to two hour
program on it. It was a wonderful, glorious
licence to research anything I chose. Heleanors
passionate interest in all aspects of human
culture endured as a central force in her life and
was part of what made her such a remarkably
inventive and valuable museum worker as well
as an endlessly diverting companion.

Heleanor was born in Newcastle, where she

very early on developed a lasting love for cats
and chinoiserie. An unordinary childhood in
Papua New Guinea, where her companions
were more often traders, plantation owners
and anthropologists than children her own
age, helped establish Heleanors abiding
interest in the exotic and eccentric. More
interested in comparative mythology and
Shakespeare than regular childhood pursuits,
Heleanor was an unusual child who was
already writing poetry and was committed
to being a writer. Today many of Heleanors
friends treasure the poems she periodically
sent them.
Working in the University of New South
Wales library and studying part time,
Heleanor gained an honours degree in
English literature in the mid 1960s, by which
time she had married briefly and given birth
to her daughter Madeleine. Moving on to an
MA in post war Australian poetry, Heleanor
however found herself going down an

28

With her prodigious memory and famously

insightful observations she was one of the
intellectual mainstays of the Museum and
its educational programs. Heleanor moved
with enviable ease between the Museums
vastly different but essentially interconnected
disciplines. She thought broadly and deeply
and understood the pivotal role of design and
the interrelationships between the arts and
sciences. She drew freely and effectively on
literary references for science projects, but also
encouraged curatorial staff to consider steam
engines as inspiration for the visual arts and
Wedgwood displays as relevant to science
students.
While equally at home in wildly diverse
disciplines, Heleanor had a particular passion
for textiles and for Asian art and cultures.
Sharing these with her brought us many
opportunities to work together, including three
exhibitions and their associated publications. A
more loyal, stimulating and stalwart colleague
one could not wish for; Heleanor gave
generously of her knowledge, challenged us all
constantly, and was utterly uncompromising
in her advocacy for the visitor. She devised an
astonishingly diverse and entertaining range
of programs, seminars and workshops for
the Museum. Too numerous to list, highlights
must include her own exhibition on trade In
the Eastern manner in 1980, the great Tibetan
mandala that grew stone by stone on the floor
of the Turbine Hall and set an enduring record
for visitor numbers.

On retiring from the Museum in 2003,

Heleanor enrolled almost immediately in
the PhD program in International Studies at
the University of Technology in Ultimo. Not
surprisingly, given her enduring passion for
cats and the Silk Roads, her topic focused on
transformation of meaning in the iconography
of the Asiatic lion. Freedom to exercise her
formidable intellect in charting the course of
these beautiful felines brought Heleanor one
of the happiest periods of her life.
Heleanor Feltham was without doubt one
of a kind, intellectually gifted but down to
earth, loving and loyal, her greatest joys were
always Madeleine and her grandson Patrick.
She was also an avid collector of the rare,
the quirky and the beautiful, especially the
eye-catching jewellery she wore with such
great flair. Heleanors uncanny ability to
find the lurking gem in a pile of otherwise
unremarkable detritus was legendary.
Farewell dear Heleanor and thank you - we
will miss your wit and wisdom very much.
Christina Sumner OAM was formerly Principal
Curator Design & Society, Powerhouse Museum.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

R E C E N T TAA S A A C TI V ITI E S

TAA S A M E M B E R S DIAR Y
SEPTEMBER 2013 - DECEMBER 2013

VISIT TO THE JOHN SPATCHURST

COLLECTION, 27 July 2013
TAASA is very grateful to members who
graciously allow us to view their collections
and enjoy the hosts recollections, expertise and
advice. This was clearly the case with a visit to
John Spatchursts collection. John, the TAASA
Reviews original designer, has an eclectic
collection of objects superbly integrated into
every corner of his living space. Pride of place,
perhaps, is afforded a large 17/18th century
cast brass mukhalinga used as a covering for
a stone lingam. But the collection ranges from
Indian miniature paintings, Burmese lacquer
boxes, village kitchen chapatti rollers and very
interesting examples of beautifully crafted
colonial furniture pieces. A second viewing is
planned for those on an extensive waiting list
please see TAASA Members Diary.
Gill Green
TAASA CERAMICS STUDY GROUP
EVENTS
Josefa Green
KOREAN BUNCHEONG WARE &
THE WORK OF CONTEMPORARY
KOREAN-AUSTRALIAN CERAMIC
ARTIST, WON-SEOK KIM
11 June 2013
Held at COFA in Paddington, this event
provided us with a deeper understanding
of Korean Buncheong ware from both an
historical and contemporary perspective.
Powerhouse Museums Min- Jung Kims
introductory talk focused on the relatively
short period of production - in the first half
of the Joseon dynasty - of this unpretentious
but distinctive ware, later so favoured by the
Japanese for use in tea ceremony.
This brief historical review in turn provided
an excellent introduction to the contemporary
work of our guest ceramic artist, Won-seok
Kim. Conducted in the form of an interview
with Min-Jung, Won-seok gave us a sincere
account of what inspires him and how he
goes about producing his spectacular pots. He
talked about producing work which draws on
strongly developed traditional technical skills,
but which is free to follow where the clay leads
him, inspired by Australian materials and
landscapes. The group was clearly entranced
by the ceramic objects, mainly plates and
bowls, which Won-seok generously brought
for this event. Finally, we were able to handle
a number of pieces of Buncheong ware and

Japanese tea wares inspired by these Korean

prototypes.
ALL FIRED UP: Peter Rushforth, potter
18 July 2013
Members of the TAASA Ceramics Study Group
were privileged to be offered a private tour of
this stunning exhibition held at the National
Trusts S.H. Ervin Gallery: the first major
retrospective of Peter Rushforths work since
1985. We were welcomed by the Director of the
S.H. Ervin Gallery, Jane Watters and then taken
through the main aspects of Peter Rushforths
work by ceramicist Ann-Marie Jackson. Her
talk ably summarised the main influences on
Rushforths work and how this developed over
time; it was particularly helpful in outlining
the different techniques and materials which
Rushforth used to achieve his remarkable pots.
Co-ordinated by the AGNSWs Natalie Wilson,
this major exhibition of over 100 pieces was not
only a sheer pleasure to experience but offered
an overview of a lifetime of work by one of our
most famous ceramic artists.

PETER RUSHFORTH EXHIBITION. PHOTO. J.GREEN

TAASA TEXTILE STUDY GROUP EVENTS

Sarong Kebaya Plain Womens Work?
8 May 2013
Marianne Hulsbosch took an enticing view
of the breathtaking patterns and designs,
delicate embroidery and tantalizing colour
of Indonesian sarongs. She explored how
Peranakan woman have used their sewing
needle as a device in search of social, cultural,
economic and political distinction. By

A Sydney private collection viewing of

artefacts, furnishings and ritual objects, mainly
from India - Saturday 21 September
Due to demand, John Spatchurst has kindly
agreed to reopen his house for TAASA members.
Sessions available at 10.30 am or 1.30 pm.
$20 includes refreshments. Numbers limited.
Ruth Hadlow: Unpacking my Library: Textile
Tales from West Timor
Wednesday 9 October, 6-8 pm
College of Fine Arts, Oxford Street, Sydney.
This event is in lieu of the usual October Textile
Study Group meeting. TAASA members only.
$20 includes light refreshments.
TAASA end-of-year party
Wednesday 4 December 6-8 pm
Korean Cultural Centre, Elizabeth Street, Sydney.
For further details on all above events and
to book, contact Ann Guild at annguild@
optusnet.com.au or 02 9460 4579.
TAASA IN VICTORIA
Private Melbourne collection viewing with
a particular focus on the Himalayas and
Mongolia - 3 October, 68pm
Refreshments provided. $20.00 at the door
for members, $25 for guests. Address provided
on RSVP.
From Beginner to Expert Symposium
4 November, 9.30am 12.30pm
Mossgreen Gallery, 926 High Street, Armadale
Following its Sydney success, we will be
running a half day version of this symposium
at Mossgreens new premises. Speakers
include Paul Sumner, Managing Director,
Mossgreen Auctions on state of the market for
Asian artworks and Sydney collector, Todd
Sunderman, on his journey from beginner
collector to expert dealer in antique west Tibetan
furniture. Further details TBA. Contact
Ann Guild at annguild@optusnet.com.au
or 02 9460 4579.
End of year celebration, TBA
To be held at the new premises of the Joshua
McLelland Print Room and Rathdowne
Galleries, 310 Rathdowne Street, North Carlton.
For more information: vic.taasa@gmail.com.
TAASA TEXILE STUDY GROUP
All meetings held at the Curatorial Caf,
Powerhouse Museum, Sydney 6-8pm.
Wednesday 11September - Shared Passions:
Textiles of Central Asia: Following the
enthusiasm shown for Central Asian textiles at
our July meeting, Margaret White will lead a
Show & Tell evening. Members are invited to
bring along their Central Asian textiles to share
or to find out more about them with the group.
November: TBA please check the TAASA
website early October.

ROSS LANGLANDS DISPLAYING A 20TH CENTURY

BATIK HIP WRAPPER. PHOTO: ROSALIE PAINO

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Inner Asia symposium Saturday 7 September, 10am 4.15pm

Powerhouse Museum, Sydney in association
with MAHRS.
Please see full brochure with this issue.

Refreshments provided. $10 members; $15 non

members. Email enquiries to Helen Perry at
helenperry@optushome.com.au.
29

examining the sarong and kebaya ensemble of

the Chinese immigrant and Eurasian women
who lived in the northern Javanese Pasisir
area, Marianne demonstrated how these
women separated themselves visually from
local Indonesian women through their dress.
Removed from Central Java, they were not
constrained by strict Javanese royal traditions
and the batik sarongs they developed were
ground-breaking in their use of modernist
design and distinctive pastel colour palette
examples of which were brought along by TSG
members to study and discuss at the meeting.
Rosalie Paino
A Gecko on my Shoulder
12 June 2013
The TAASA Textiles Study Group had the rare
privilege of hearing a presentation and seeing
the exquisite textiles work of Jessica Watson,
an Australian born artist who completed her
Masters Degree in Textile Art from The School
of Design and Crafts (HDK), Gothenburg
University in Sweden. She graduated in
2000 and since then has exhibited her work
internationally, designed costumes for dance
and taught in several tertiary institutions.
Awarded an artist residency in Rimbun Dahan,
Malaysia in 2001, Jessica explained how she

translated her experiences of Malaysias

melange of Malay, Indian and Chinese cultures
into painted and delicately embroidered
artworks. Jessicas journey, illustrated with
some samples from her final exhibition gave
a most rewarding and informative insight into
the mind of a creative textile artist.
Marianne Hulsbosch
Central Asia Textiles
10 July 2013
Margaret Whites illustrated talk impressed
38 members with its content and depth of
information. Drawing on years of research,
travel and a rich collection of textiles, Margaret
highlighted the relationship between the
Central Asian cultures of Turkmenistan and
Uzbekistan and their relationship to China and
the West via the Silk Road. Her talk focused on
illustrating numerous techniques kesi, nasij,
ikat, embroidery, woodblock printing and
batik employed by rural and urban artisans
on items such as wall hangings, coats, blanket
wrappers and hats. Of particular interest was
a luxurious silk velvet ikat fabric known as
baghmal which employed the double ikat
technique only found in Bali, Japan and India.
Her knowledge on the cultural significance
of motifs and designs was a valuable aspect

of the talk. Many members brought along

exquisite textiles from their private Central
Asian collections to share their experiences
and passions with like-minded enthusiasts.
Rosalie Paino
TAASA CERAMICS STUDY GROUP,
SYDNEY

Simplicity of chance:
Japanese tea ceramics
Saturday 12 October, 10am 12.30pm
COFA, Oxford St, Paddington
This symposium will explore the rich
variety of ceramics associated with the
tea culture that evolved in Japan from
the 16th century. Guest speakers are:
Paul Davies, potter, teacher and ex
Director of the Sturt Pottery, Mittagong,
will relate his experience working with
the Saka family, descendants of the potters
who established Hagi ware in Japan.
Ann Macarthur, Senior Co-ordinator
of Asian Programs, AGNSW, trained in
tea ceremony at Urasenke headquarters,
Kyoto, will talk about the aesthetics of
tea and associated ceramics.
John Freeland, ceramics expert, will
explore how our perceptions of the tea
bowl have been driven as much by past
debates about defining beauty as the
objects themselves.
Participants are invited to bring their
own ceramic pieces.

YUKIE SATO, JILL SUTANTO, SURAYA RAJU WITH SPEAKER

MARGARET WHITE (L) WEARING IKAT TEXTILE AND HOLDING

JESSICA WATSON. PHOTO: SANDY WATSON

TURKMEN ROBE, WITH BRIONI FORREST. PHOTO: ROSALIE PAINO

Morning tea will be provided.

$30 members; $35 non members.
RSVP: Margaret White at Margaret.
artmoves@gmail.com.

TAA S A P RO F IL E
ANN PROCTOR
Landing in Sydney
in the mid 1990s, the
vibrant art scene gave
many opportunities for
someone like me who
is interested in Asian
Art. Having spent the
previous five years
in Washington D.C. where amongst other
things I was a docent at the Freer Gallery and
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, I was more than
happy to immerse myself in programs at the
AGNSW and, of course, join TAASA.
As I had the opportunity to travel to Asia,
initially to accompany my husband with his
work, I started some research in Vietnam,

30

which turned into a long journey with a

PhD completed in 2006. Each year I take the
opportunity to visit Vietnam and have seen
enormous changes there over the past nearly
two decades.
My initial qualifications on leaving university
after school included a Diploma in Education.
Teaching has always been part of my life,
whether as an art teacher in schools in various
parts of the world or for swimming and
horse riding. Since our return to Australia,
I have really enjoyed the opportunity to
teach at various institutions, such as Sydney
University, the Australian National University
and the National Art School. Eight years of
teaching courses on Asian Art at NAS was a
really enjoyable experience. Having handed

that position over to a younger colleague,

I jumped at the opportunity when asked if I
would be able to teach a course in Asian Art in
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The students, who
were from various colleges in the USA, were
a delight and it was great to travel through
Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia with them
seeing those countries through different eyes.
Apart from being a long standing member
of the TAASA Management Committee,
my involvement with TAASA has largely
been on the TAASA Review Publications
Committee in addition to attending as
many of the excellent events that I possibly
can manage. I am grateful for the recent
opportunity to be Vice President as we take
TAASA forward.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

W H AT S O N I N A U S TRALIA : S E P T E M B E R 2 0 1 3 - D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 3
A SELECTIVE ROUNDUP OF EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS
Compiled by Tina Burge
NSW
A Silk Road saga: Yu Hongs sarcophagus
The Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
22 August - 10 November 2013

In 1999 a white marble sarcophagus, unlike

any previous discovery, was excavated in
Taiyuan, capital of Chinas Shanxi province.
It belonged to a Turkic-speaking central
Asian man, Yu Hong, and his wife, interred
in the late 6th century. From afar, it looks like
a model of a Chinese building, but closer
inspection reveals detailed carved or painted
scenes of hunting, entertaining and religious
worship totally foreign to Chinese traditions.
The sarcophagus panels are displayed along
with nearly 20 other sculptures and ceramics
from the tomb or other burials from the same
province and period.

29 October - Zoroastrian art in Sogdian

tombs at Xian and elsewhere by Dr Gunner
Mikkelsen, Senior Lecturer, Department of
Ancient History, Macquarie University.
For more information go to: http: www.
artgallery.nsw.gov.au/calendar/arts-asialecture-series-2013
VisAsia Hingyiu Mok Mandarin language
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Cai Guo-Qiang: Falling Back to Earth

Representations of Central Asians in Chinese

archaeological findings by Professor Zhang
Qingjie, former Director, Shanxi Provincial
Institute of Archaeology; and Archaeological
discoveries of Northern Dynasties in Jinyang
by Professor Qu Chuanfu, Shanxi Museum.

Arts of Asia Lecture Series 2013

Vertical Villages is an artist-led project by

Indonesian artist collective ruangrupa
and Australian artist Keg de Souza which
investigates the experience of international
students living in Sydneys CBD and the
relationship between a communitys daily lives
and their urban and spatial environments. The
exhibition at 4A will be incorporated as part of
the 15th Jakarta Biennale later this year.

10 September - A Western Zhou cemetery in

Shanxi and the ancient Chinese conception
of a good death by Professor Jeffrey Riegel,
Head of the School of Languages and
Cultures, University of Sydney.

Gallery 4A, Sydney

6 September - 24 October 2013

17 September - Sasanians, senmurvs and

silver: Persians along the Silk Road by John
Tidmarsh, Near Eastern archaeologist.

Follow the project blog verticalvillages.

tumblr.com or go to: 4A.com.au

24 September - All that glisters on the Silk

Road: lapis, glass and Syria by Dr Wendy
Reade, Near Eastern archaeologist and
conservator, University of Sydney and
AGNSW.

Towards the Morning Sun

1 October - Connecting the world: Chinese

stoneware storage jars of the maritime Silk
Road by Dr Baoping Li, ARC Future Fellow,
University of Sydney.

TA A S A R E V I E W V O L U M E 2 2 N O. 3

Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA)

23 November 2013 11 May 2014

Spanning the ground floor galleries of GOMA,

this exhibition presents major, large scale
installations by Cai Guo-Qiang. A centrepiece
is a dramatic new commission, Heritage 2013,
which features 99 life-sized animals from
around the world gathered together at a
watering hole. Also featured is Head On 2006,
with its stream of 99 life-sized wolves leaping
through the air and crashing into a glass wall.
Other new works are inspired by the artists
experiences in Australia, drawing upon local
landscape, history and culture.
For more information go to:
www.qagoma.qld.gov.au
SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Realms of Wonder: Jain, Hindu
and Islamic art of India
Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
9 October 2013 - 27 January 2014

Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown

6 September - 21 October 2013

Towards the Morning Sun explores the

practice and process of artists who engage
with Pacific culture. The mediums presented

15 October - Women along the Silk Road:

images from the murals of Dunhuang and
archaeological findings along the Silk Road
by Dr Lily Xiao Hong Lee, Chinese womens
historian, Honorary Associate, University of
Sydney.
22 October - Religions of the Silk Road
and Sogdia by Dr Leyla Rasouli Narimani,
Iranologist and Honorary Associate,
University of Sydney.

QUEENSLAND

25 August 2013

Vertical Villages

September - October 2013, 1-2pm

For more information go to:

www.campbelltown.nsw.gov.au/
CampbelltownArtsCentre

lectures 2013

For further information go to:

http://www.artgallery.nsw.gov.au/
exhibitions/silk-road-saga

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

in the exhibition span performance,

printmaking, installation, photo-media and
video. Many of the works are the result of
artist residences in which artists worked
closely with local community groups of Pacific
heritage around the greater Sydney region.

The first major exhibition exclusively

dedicated to the art of India at AGSA,Realms
of Wonder includes almost 200 paintings,
sculptures, textiles and decorative art objects
dating from the 8th century till the present.
The exhibition features art inspired by the
three great spiritual traditions of India:
Jainism, Hinduism and Islam and is the
first comprehensive survey of Jain art ever
staged in Australia.
For more information go to:
www.artgallery.sa.gov.au

PAN-O-VISION, 2012, SAMUEL TUPOU, SILKSCREEN ON PVC,

40CM ROUND. COURTESY OF THE ARTIST AND MICHAEL REID SYDNEY

31