Tree & Serpent: New Exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum

Buddhist art largely began in the south. That's the thesis of a show on now through mid-November, 2023 at the Metropolitan Museum in NY. I visited the show recently and will discuss some highlights of the exhibit as well as what they tell us about early Buddhism. 📙 Check out my new book, A Handbook of Early Buddhist Wisdom, with a Foreword by Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi: https://books2read.com/buddhisthandbook 🧡 If you find this material useful, check out my Patreon page and get fun benefits like exclusive videos, audio-only versions, and extensive show notes:   / dougsseculardharma   🧡 You can also make donations through: https://paypal.me/dougsdharma ☸️ Free mini-course at the Online Dharma Institute: onlinedharma.org. 🎙Check out my podcast with Jon Aaron, Diggin' the Dharma: https://digginthedharma.com/ ✅ Video: Have We Found the Buddha's Bones? Two New York Exhibitions --    • Have We Found the Buddha's Bones? Two New ...   ✅ Link to the exhibit webpage and a couple of writeups in the NYTimes: https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions... https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/21/ar... https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/25/ar... ✅ Relevant essay from the exhibition catalogue: John Guy, “Early Buddhist Landscape of Southern India.” In John Guy, Tree and Serpent, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2023. https://amzn.to/48yNZcg Webpage: https://www.dougsdharma.com/ Facebook:   / onlinedharmainstitute   Mastodon: https://mindly.social/@dougsdharma Twitter:   / dougsdharma   ❤️ Thanks to Patreon Patrons: Anonymous (2) John Oborne DunJing Scarlett Farrow Jimmy Maa Debbie Mattison Fine Art Steve H. Ron Peat Matthew Smith Shantha Wengappuli Karma_CAC Jorge Seguel Christopher Apostolof GailJM Brett Merritt David Bell T Pham VCR Upayadhi Andi and Erik ATGuerrero686 Michael Scherrer khobe schofield Alex Perdomo Benji Forsyth Blaze Way Sonny Flink Steve Marlor Joy L Lee Andrew Tom Anthony Tucker Karlee R Ethan M Billy in Singapore Olivia Otter Carl Lennartson xiao mao Jeff Harvey Andrew Ingrouille Kenneth Grandchamp Doug Fonner Rene Gariepy Russell Needham Smoggyrob Mac Roja Bernardo Clémence Ortega Douville Kwan Alex Scott Johnston Richard J Beninger Nathanael O. Arnquist SaturnianMandala Trin P Letesa Isler Dorien Izel Robert Paterson Jake Tobiason Louvenia Ortega Steve S. Richard Rappuhn Sarah Kress John Aaron Paul Niklewski Kong Ing Kai Dave Gorman rhys reed James Ravencroft Osanda Wijeratne Billy 00:00 Intro 01:03 Some nice news for the channel 01:59 The Met exhibit’s focus 03:36 Earliest art: stupas 05:06 Nature deities 08:35 Reasons behind the art 11:07 Aniconism: representing absence 16:00 Cross-cultural influences 17:37 Representing the Buddha figure Note: as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Amazon links are affiliate links where I will earn a very small commission on purchases you make, at no additional cost to you. This goes a tiny way towards defraying the costs of making these videos. Thank you!