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The idea put forward in this article that the nudity of the figure was a subject of embarrassment is an anachronism, based entirely on contemporary (and subjective) feeling about the Victorians. There is no evidence yet discovered about how the sculpture was seen in the 1830s, when it was acquired. As with most ahistorical reactions, the modern one tells us more about the views of the people in the present (those who made a TV programme in this case) than it does about British people in the Regency. This section therefore needs some edits. Shirazibustan ( talk) 08:20, 25 July 2014 (UTC)shirazibutan
Above in the box it says: that the Statue of Tara from Sri Lanka (partly pictured) was kept hidden for 30 years in the British Museum because it was considered too erotic. This is simply incorrect: there is no evidence. What 30 years are we talking about exactly? The Museum Secretum at the British Museum was created by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks and objects in it given an "M" number. The Tārā never had an "M" number. In addition the people who appeared in the television programme expressed their subjective views. The UK is a free country, so they are welcome to do so, but dinner party chatter, however stimulating, is not historical research. The footage even showed the 1847 copy of the letter, but they missed the original! It is in a volume called G&R Letters on Antiquities (1757-1834), kept in the Greek and Roman Department at the British Museum. They also missed the only near contemporary commentary on the sculpture, a coloured drawing from the 1840s: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/j/james_stephanoff_watercolour.aspx Right under their noses. Shirazibustan ( talk) 15:32, 25 July 2014 (UTC)shirazibustan
This is an old chestnut. The Bodhisattva Tara notion is based on Tibetan Buddhism, particularly some of the iconographic guide books written in the 1930s. I wonder if it applies outside the Tibetan context, and if indeed it has any application there. Shirazibustan ( talk) 08:22, 25 July 2014 (UTC)shirazibustan
I was not clear, sorry! It is Tārā, but looking further today, I find that in Tibet, Tārā is not a bodhisattva, but a fully enlightened Buddha appearing in the form of a 16 year old woman. This is because, when a bodhisattva in previous aeons, she vowed to always reappear in female form. She is widely practiced as a yidam (iṣṭadevatā). The British Museum tradition of identification as a "Bodhisattva" does not rest on any published research but rather, near as I can tell, on Antoinette Gordon's 1939 Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism. That was a landmark book and still a hugely useful source, but Buddhist studies has moved ahead. So I suspect the entry will need some editing in due course. Shirazibustan ( talk) 15:16, 25 July 2014 (UTC)Shirazibustan.
By the way, I should add that in Tibet she is famous as the protector from the Eight Fears, which if I recall are this-worldly things like tigers, fires, drowning, illness, poverty, cruel tyrants, etc. And she develops compassion and purifies evil karma and grants wisdom etc. However, in the south Asian context there seems to be less known, and I'll do some research on that so we can have appropriate WP : RS as noted above. Thanks. Shirazibustan ( talk) 07:51, 26 July 2014 (UTC)Shirazibustan
This statue is stolen without proper consent by King of Sri Lanka. this could be Anula of Anuradhapura who ruled in 47 BC–42 BC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eeriyaka ( talk • contribs) 09:35, 10 December 2017 (UTC)
A fact from Statue of Tara appeared on Wikipedia's
Main Page in the
Did you know column on 11 December 2013 (
check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
|
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The idea put forward in this article that the nudity of the figure was a subject of embarrassment is an anachronism, based entirely on contemporary (and subjective) feeling about the Victorians. There is no evidence yet discovered about how the sculpture was seen in the 1830s, when it was acquired. As with most ahistorical reactions, the modern one tells us more about the views of the people in the present (those who made a TV programme in this case) than it does about British people in the Regency. This section therefore needs some edits. Shirazibustan ( talk) 08:20, 25 July 2014 (UTC)shirazibutan
Above in the box it says: that the Statue of Tara from Sri Lanka (partly pictured) was kept hidden for 30 years in the British Museum because it was considered too erotic. This is simply incorrect: there is no evidence. What 30 years are we talking about exactly? The Museum Secretum at the British Museum was created by Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks and objects in it given an "M" number. The Tārā never had an "M" number. In addition the people who appeared in the television programme expressed their subjective views. The UK is a free country, so they are welcome to do so, but dinner party chatter, however stimulating, is not historical research. The footage even showed the 1847 copy of the letter, but they missed the original! It is in a volume called G&R Letters on Antiquities (1757-1834), kept in the Greek and Roman Department at the British Museum. They also missed the only near contemporary commentary on the sculpture, a coloured drawing from the 1840s: http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/j/james_stephanoff_watercolour.aspx Right under their noses. Shirazibustan ( talk) 15:32, 25 July 2014 (UTC)shirazibustan
This is an old chestnut. The Bodhisattva Tara notion is based on Tibetan Buddhism, particularly some of the iconographic guide books written in the 1930s. I wonder if it applies outside the Tibetan context, and if indeed it has any application there. Shirazibustan ( talk) 08:22, 25 July 2014 (UTC)shirazibustan
I was not clear, sorry! It is Tārā, but looking further today, I find that in Tibet, Tārā is not a bodhisattva, but a fully enlightened Buddha appearing in the form of a 16 year old woman. This is because, when a bodhisattva in previous aeons, she vowed to always reappear in female form. She is widely practiced as a yidam (iṣṭadevatā). The British Museum tradition of identification as a "Bodhisattva" does not rest on any published research but rather, near as I can tell, on Antoinette Gordon's 1939 Iconography of Tibetan Lamaism. That was a landmark book and still a hugely useful source, but Buddhist studies has moved ahead. So I suspect the entry will need some editing in due course. Shirazibustan ( talk) 15:16, 25 July 2014 (UTC)Shirazibustan.
By the way, I should add that in Tibet she is famous as the protector from the Eight Fears, which if I recall are this-worldly things like tigers, fires, drowning, illness, poverty, cruel tyrants, etc. And she develops compassion and purifies evil karma and grants wisdom etc. However, in the south Asian context there seems to be less known, and I'll do some research on that so we can have appropriate WP : RS as noted above. Thanks. Shirazibustan ( talk) 07:51, 26 July 2014 (UTC)Shirazibustan
This statue is stolen without proper consent by King of Sri Lanka. this could be Anula of Anuradhapura who ruled in 47 BC–42 BC. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Eeriyaka ( talk • contribs) 09:35, 10 December 2017 (UTC)