7th December 2008
Again San Francisco Downtown !!! I went there this time with a friend. I drove in the downtown summarizing my previous day's saga of driving on Bay St. As always, she agreed to some of my complaints, justified few others and laughed at many other complaints. Anyways, our destination for the day in San Francisco was Asian Art Museum on Larkin St. First Sunday of the month admission is free, thanks to Target. But, it was so crowded that I was pushed around a bit :) I have been here before, but this visit was particularly to see the changing exhibition on "Hidden Treasures form Afghanistan". The artifacts were from National Museum, Kabul.
The gold ornaments excavated from 5 tombs at Tallya Tepe were on exhibit and the gallery was packed with people. It was nice to know the story of how did the archeologists find this treasure and how did the ornaments look like on the remains of a namadic woman (of course a picture). Most of the jewelry was made of fine gold and in few of the artifacts there was inlaid turquoise. I wondered how did those Afghani Nomads wear so much gold, while (now) we get scared to be get mugged even for fake jewelry :):) I remembered an ad saying "Diamonds are forever" ... here I saw "Gold is forever too" :)
There was another gallery which displayed the Sundials and few other artifacts from Afghanistan. Most of the artifacts showed the signs of Indian and Greek influence. It was nice to witness what we had studied in our high school history classes ... Alexander the Great ... Kanishka, the great Emporer of Kushans who ruled his empire from Kashmir to Bactria ... Asoka the Great, the great Emperor of Mauryan dynasty ... etc ... who might have influenced the art and culture ... Unforunately photography is not allowed in changing exhibitions :) Below is the picture of an artifact displayed in South Asian gallery ...
It was worth a visit ...
4 comments:
It is very obvious that the geographical location of Afghanistan makes it so special for both good and bad reasons. Since it forms the cross roads between east and the west, most of the traders were using this route. This attributes to a variety of rare collections all over the country. If at all there is one thing I am annoyed with this country is the damage caused to Bamyan Buddha...
Thank you Mohan for stopping by. Yes, Bamiyan Buddha incident was unfortunate and the loss is irreversible.
So this was your latest stop? Sounds like an interesting place.
Mridula, Oh well, museums are always interesting places. Sometimes, the changing exhibitions are rare experiences. You seem to have gone around India recently.
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