Welcome

Module Schedule [updated on 12 June 2025]

Zoom link for seminars

Announcements

Useful Links

Analysing and Exploring the Arts moodle page

SOAS-Alphawood Asian Art moodle page

SOAS Library homepage

Zoom link for tutorial (Melissa)

Zoom link for tutorials (Phyllis)

Practical Tips & Support

SOAS Student Learning Centre

Signing in to Zoom using your SOAS account

Scheduling and Sharing Meetings on Zoom using your SOAS account

Citations, References and Bibliographies

Managing your reading

Welcome Materials

Introduction to Moodle

Introduction to Panopto

Library Resources Induction - Mr Burzine Waghmar

SOAS Code of Conduct

Pre-Course Reading

Pre-Course Reading List

1. Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities, Ch1 Introduction

2. Anderson, Benedict, Imagined Communities, Ch10 Census, Map, Museum

3. Chatterjee, Partha Whose Imagined Community

4. Guy, John. Introduction Lost Kingdoms

5. Revire, Nicolas. 2018. “Facts and Fiction The Myth of Suvaṇṇabhūmi Through the Thai and Burmese Looking Glass.”

Welcome Session Recordings

Week 1

Week 1 Tutorials

Week 1 Discussion Forum

Weekly Introduction

Introduction to Week One Dr Melissa Carlson

Seminar Reading

Week 1 Seminar Prompts

Emmerson, Donald. “Southeast Asia: What’s in a Name?” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 15, no. 1 March 1984, pp. 1-21.

Flores, Patrick. “Southeast Asia: Art History, Art Today,” Guggenheim – UBS MAP Blogs

O’Connor, Stanley J. “Art Critics, Connoisseurs, and Collectors in the Southeast Asian Rain Forest: A Study in Cross-Cultural Art Theory,” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 14, no. 2 (1983): 400–8.

Further Reading

Isaacson, Harunaga, et.al. 2015. “Tantric Literature: Overview South Asia.” In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Volume 1: Literature and Languages, edited by Jonathan A. Silk, Oskar von Hinüber, and Vincent Eltschinger, pp. 307–19. Leiden: Brill.

Green, Alexandra. ‘From India to Independence: The Formation of the Burma Collections at the British Museum.’ Journal of the History of Collections, vol. 27, issue 3, November 2016, pp. 449-463.

Mitchell, W.T.J. ‘Introduction.’ Landscape and Power, Second Edition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002.

James, Soumya. ‘The ’37 Heaves and 32 Hells,’ Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, 55, 2021, pp. 203-229.

Seminar Recordings

Lecture 1

Curating Southeast Asia at the British Museum​ Dr Alexandra Green

Lecture 2

Tantric Buddhist Iconography and Southeast Asia Dr Christian Luczanits

Lecture 3

Week 2

Week 2 Tutorials

Week 2 Discussion Forum

Weekly Introduction

Manifestations of Power Introduction - Dr Phyllis Lau-Casson

Seminar Reading

Seminar reading prompts

Lavy, Paul A. (2003) “As in Heaven, so on Earth: The Politics of Viṣṇu, Śiva and Harihara Images in Preangkorian Khmer Civilisation”. Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 21–39.

Feneley, Marnie. 2013. “Chapter 11: The Context of the West Mebon Viṣṇu.” In Materializing Southeast Asia's Past, edited by Véronique Degroot and Marijke J. Klokke, 2: 140–55.

Skilling, Peter. 2014. “Precious Deposits: Buddhism Seen through Inscriptions in Early Southeast Asia”. In Guy, John ed. Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist and Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, pp. 59–60.

Zephir, Thierry. 2014. “Cakra: Quintessential Symbol of the Buddha’s Law”. In Guy, John ed. Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist and Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia, pp.192–193.

Further Reading

Guy, John. 2014. Cat. Nos. 122–13. Lost Kingdoms: Hindu-Buddhist and Sculpture of Early Southeast Asia.

Lavy, Paul A. 2014. “Conch-on-hip Images in Peninsular Thailand and Early Vaiṣṇava Sculpture in Southeast Asia”. In Revire, Nicolas and Stephen A Murphy, eds, Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology, pp. 153–173.

Revire, Nicolas. 2014. “Glimpses of Buddhist Practices and Rituals in Dvāravatī and Its Neighbouring Cultures.” In Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology, edited by Nicolas Revire and Stephen A. Murphy, 240–71. Bangkok: River Books &amp; Siam Society.

Seminar Recordings

Lecture 1

Lecture 2

Dharmacakra (Wheel of the Law) - Dr Nicolas Revire

Additional Reading - The Wheel of the Law

Lecture 3

Week 3

Week 3 Tutorials

Week 3 Discussion Forum

Weekly Introduction

Campā A Brief Survey of Archaeology and Art Introduction Dr Phyllis Lau-Casson

Seminar Reading

Seminar Reading Prompts

Giang, Do Truong. 2016. Diplomacy, Trade and Networks: Champa in the Asian Commercial Context (7th–10th Centuries). Moussins 27: 59-82.

Illustrated London News. 1935. “An unknown Form of Far Eastern Art Discovered in Annan”, 9 March, 361, 374–76.

Curating Southeast Asia at the British Museum Dr Alexandra Green

Revire, Nicolas. 2014. “Glimpses of Buddhist Practices and Rituals in Dvāravatī and Its Neighbouring Cultures.” In Before Siam: Essays in Art and Archaeology, edited by Nicolas Revire and Stephen A. Murphy, 240–71. Bangkok: River Books & Siam Society.

Giang, Do Truong. 2016. Diplomacy, Trade and Networks: Champa in the Asian Commercial Context (7th–10th Centuries). Moussins 27: 59-82.

Tan, Heidi (2015) 'Art, Power, and Merit. The Veneration of Buddha Images in Myanmar Museums.' In: Fraser-Lu, Sylvia and Stadtner, Donald Martin, (eds.), Buddhist Art of Myanmar, pp. 81-87.