The Iconography of Avalokitesvara contains a life-long study by the author on the concept and configuration of one of the best loved religious figures in Asia. It is based on data extensively acquired from inscriptional and other archaeological evidence. The book offers a deep insight into the religious life of ancient Southeast Asia, which had provided the backdrop to the veneration of Avalokitesvara, the Buddhist personification of Compassion. The visual representations portray him in an amazing variety of forms, reflecting the local adaptations of imported norms, to meet the spiritual obligations and the aesthetic aspirations of each community. Their iconographic details symbolically personify a series of religious ideologies, of human hope, basic needs and of yearning faith.


Icongraphy of Avalokitesvara in Mainland South East Asia, Nandana Chutiwongs, Hardcover, 385 pp., $120.00

Born in Thailand, Dr. Nandana Chuitiwongs receiver her BA in ancient art and archaelogy of South and Southeast Asia, from the Silpakorn University in Bangkok in 1963. She obtained her MA in Indo-Iranian languages and cultures from the Universiy of Amsterdam, and her PhD from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands. She has had a long career as a lecturer and a senior lecturer at the University of Amsterdam.
At present, she is the curator of the Department of South and Mainland Southeast Asia at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, and a regular guest lecturer at the Silpakorn University in Bangkok. She is currently involved in many international research projects, expecially in the fields of Buddhist art and cultural exchanges in China and Sri Landa.