The Museum's galleries of Asian Art feature art and architecture from all parts of the continent--East, South, Southeast, West, and Central--and highlight the region’s diversity and richness. You may find paintings and sculptures from China, Japan, India, and Tibet; furniture and decorative arts (including major collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean ceramics); and a large and distinguished group of Persian and Turkish carpets.
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Highlights from the Collections |
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The arts of China, Japan, and Korea join extensive holdings from India and the Himalayan regions
The Portable Garden: Carpets from Iran and South Asia
William P. Wood Gallery of Indian Art (227), second floor
In the royal courts of South Asia and Iran, fine carpets adorned with colorful, flowering vines and plants have long represented the epitome of craftsmanship and taste. Some of the most luxurious and intricate rugs of wool, silk, and even cashmere were made for and collected by Persian and Indian rulers during the sixteenth through nineteenth centuries. Celebrated examples even appeared in European and Japanese collections during this time, so famed were the imperial workshops of Tabriz, Herat, Lahore, Agra, and the Deccan.
A Taste for Tea in Japan
Galleries 241-243, second floor
The objects in this installation have been grouped to approximate the sequence of activities during a tea ceremony: host and guest preparation; a light meal; sweet cakes and sake; a serving of “thick” tea; more sweets; and finally, a round of “thin” tea. Additionally, the video in gallery 244 provides an overview of a tea gathering.
Heavenly Bliss: Korean Art for the Afterlife
Gallery 237 and Baldeck Gallery 238
Heavenly Bliss explores the ways in which Korean societies have responded to death, loss, and ideas about life after death through art and craft spanning over 1,500 years. Focusing on works that relate to the wish for a good afterlife, it features religious pieces--including Buddhist paintings and sculptures--as well as secular burial objects.
Chinese Snuff Bottles from the Collection
Gallery 236, second floor
The 137 snuff bottles on view in this gallery encompass many decorative designs, including floral, figural, and landscape motifs, auspicious symbols, and poetry. Made from glass, porcelain, gourds, seeds, semiprecious stones, and hard stones, these bottles represent the versatility and expertise of the artisans who produced them and show the richness of the Museum's holdings.
Reception Hall from a Nobleman's Palace
Gallery 226, second floor
The only interior of its type in an American museum, this reception hall recreates a majestic space where a high-ranking nobleman, seated on his raised lacquer couch, would receive visitors—who in turn would undoubtedly be most impressed by the ceiling.
Ceremonial Teahouse: Sunkaraku
Gallery 244, second floor
One of the Museum’s most popular settings is Sunkaraku, a classic Japanese teahouse and bamboo garden offering visitors a temporary refuge from the complexities of daily life. Japanese architect Ōgi Rodō built the teahouse about 1917, using elements from an 18th-century teahouse and natural materials to create a marvel of aesthetic pleasure.
Temple Hall
Gallery 224, second floor
This evocative space, which now exists at the heart of the Museum’s rich collections of Indian art, is made up of elements acquired by a Philadelphia family traveling in India in the early years of this century.
