Mind and Body Exhibition at Asian Civilazation Museum

 " This is my first time visiting the ACM. " it was my turn to introduce myself to the museum tour group for the Mind and Body exhibition. My remark caused some giggling of amusement among the tourists. 

I have decided to join a tour to see how the tour

•  structure the sequence of viewing 
•  plan the walking route of the exhibition space
  
•  highlight particular key artifacts
  
•  add background historical context 
  

for the visitor to understand and thus appreciate the artifact. 

I told myself  then that I will reflect and evaluate if the speaker narrative was necessary or the accompanying text below the title was already sufficient. Back then that was my initial motivation to observe the tour. 

Unfortunately,  I got distracted from other things in life that only today I remembered that I have forgotten to do so.  Kicking myself for not jotting down notes...

 

One photograph of the Christian-Buddhist cross artifact triggered my first memory of the tour.  

The tour guide explained that the artifact was designed during a time where Christianity was banned in Japan , where the Japanese with Christian faith dupe the authorities by showing the Buddha on the cross.

The Italian who joined the museum tour , remarked that they have a similar artifact in Italy but used for the opposite intention where the Italians with Buddhist faith hid the Buddha behind the cross to dupe authorities they were Roman Catholic in faith. 

The second memory of the tour was the Jains where the picture of the Man and Woman cosmic illustration were not place side by side each other, was that intentional ? implying celibacy ? The Cosmic Man was place in the dark hall while the Cosmic Woman was placed in the brighter hall.

  

The tour ended and I continue exploring the exhibition on my own. The most interesting artifact that I have found was the Rangda ritualistic masks and costumes. I do like the video presentation and the additional information provided.

" There are many forms of dance and theater in Asia that are not perceived as purely artistic pursues where only aesthetic pleasures is derived. Instead these performance serves a deeper ritual purpose...... the physical experience of going through trials and tribulations is meant to be spiritually transformative."

 

Lastly there was a 360 interactive large touchscreen virtual tour of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre building. It felt like a game and had a straightforward user interface (UI).