Asian Civilisations Museum

The temple remains of the Cham kingdoms of central and southern coastal Vietnam are the legacy of the eastern most region of Southeast Asia. The lecture will cover the various aspects of Cham ritual arts by examining the different temple remains and the objects found at the temple sites. The speaker will trace the history of these remains, from the Vat Chao stone stele inscription of the late 4th to 5th centuries to the material remains of stone and brick temples from around the 8th to 10th centuries. Find out more about the practice of Cham ritual arts through these remains and in turn discover what they reveal about the Cham civilisations.

John Guy is Curator of South and Southeast Asian Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, with research interests in the area of Hindu-Buddhist-Jain sculpture and maritime Southeast Asia. He was elected a Fellow of the London Society of Antiquaries in 2003 and has served as an advisor to UNESCO on historical sites in Southeast Asia. He has published widely, his latest book being Indian Temple Sculpture (2007), and has curated a number of international exhibitions, most recently, Indian Sculpture: The Art of Devotion (Barcelona, 2007).