VIBRANCY IN STONE

Masterpieces of the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture

Description

This catalogue assembles sumptuous photographs of the world’s leading collection of Cham sculpture, along with the most recent insights of Vietnamese and international scholars. The Champa culture thrived in magnificent temples, sculpture, dance and music along the central and southern coast of today’s Vietnam from the 5th to the 15th centuries. A focused exploration here uncovers this brilliant yet almost lost culture to newcomers as well as experts. To mark its centenary, the Đà Nẵng Museum of Cham Sculpture has been expanded and refurbished to appropriately house the world’s leading collection of Cham art. The museum staff, supported by the Southeast Asia art programme of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London University, funded by the Alphawood Foundation, worked in concert with researchers from around the world to present these masterpieces.

‘This volume both summarizes past research on Nagara Champa and introduces new insights into its past and its dynamic relations with surrounding peoples, both within Southeast Asia and beyond, particularly in the twelfth-thirteenth centuries. It beautifully blends art history and history. I am very pleased to be a part of it.’

Professor John K. Whitmore
Center for Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan