The Sanskrit work prajnaparamita means transcendental wisdom, and is also the title of an important Buddhist scripture. To millions of Indonesians, though, Prajnaparamita signifies an exquisitely carved stone sculpture of a queen. Seated in the lotus position, a smile as inscrutable as the Mona Lisa's playing across her lovely features, she is both seductive and implacable. This fourteenth century Goddess of Transcendental Wisdom is one of the great classics of Indonesian stone sculpture and a centerpiece of The Sculpture of Indonesia, opening this month at the National Gallery.
The largest exhibition of Indonesian art ever mounted in this country, the show is a splendid prelude to the many events and exhibitions of the nation wide Festival of Indonesia, commencing next fall. Dating from the Bronze Age to the fifteenth century, this current show's 142 objects range from monumental stone sculptures and reliefs to tiny devotional figures in precious metals, from slit drums to bronze lamps that cast fantastic shadows, and from temple bells to chastity plaques. They come from collections on three continents.
But the Prajnaparamita is special; over the years this proud goddess has become a symbol of Indonesian unity and independence. The National Gallery is lucky indeed to have negotiated such a significant loan. Legend has it that the sculpture is a posthumous portrait of Ken Dedes, matriarch of the Majapahits, the fourteenth-century dynasty that first united the islands of Indonesia into a single empire.
The legends that swirl around Ken Dedes mix history with myth. According to a chronicle written near the end of the fifteenth century, Dedes, the lovely daughter of a Buddhist priest, was abducted by a local governor, who married her. Shortly afterward she was seen by one of the governor's lackeys, Ken Angrok, supposedly the son of a god and a farmer's wife. Inflamed by her beauty, Ken Angrok assassinated Dedes' husband, married her, and went on to become a king. But there is a twist to this story. Dedes was already pregnant when Ken Angrok married her. He was in turn assassinated by his stepson, from whom the Majapahits are descended.
Brilliantly Subtle
Bolt upright in posture, with slim hips and bare breasts, the Prajnaparamita does indeed have the fragile figure of a Javanese beauty. And the brilliantly subtle carving of that strange half smile gives her a cruel expression fitting for a queen with such a bloody history.
But does the figure really portray Ken Dedes? "We have no confirmation," says the show's organizer, Jan Fontein, who is also the Matsutaro Shoriki curator for research at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and a World-renowned expert in Asian art. Although ancient Indonesians believed kings and queens to be reincarnated deities and temple sculptures sometimes portray royalty as gods and goddesses, there is no hard evidence linking Dedes with the Prajnaparamita. In fact, the queen is linked instead with a Hindu goddess.
Most likely it is the Prajnaparamita's power as a work of Argentina that has led Indonesians to identify it as the queen mother of their country. In the distant past, Indonesia was a cultural satellite of India (although never its colony). The most important Indonesian Islands
...
Read Full Article
|
