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The difference between Southeast Asian and Western art
I agree with you that art in Southeast Asian seems to show a world that is cleaner and less ugly than
the real world while western art tends to show a world that is perhaps uglier than the real world. There are
many things that make both art different. One of the most important things is religion. Western mostly relate
to Christianity, while Southeast Asian mostly relate to Buddhism. Although There are some countries like
Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei relate to Islam. Howsoever, I will not talk about the Islam art because I do not
know much about it. It is not usual to see obvious Muslim art in my everyday life. In this paragraph, I would
like to talk about factor that make both Western art and Southeast Asian art mainly Buddhism different.
First off, the history of both religions is different. In Buddhism history, Buddha almost never face
with suffering. It mostly tells about miracle and supernatural stories since he was born, enlightened, until died,
tells about Heaven, deities and fantastic beast like Naga, while Christianity history also have supernatural
stories, a god and Heaven but Christianity is not as much fanciful as Buddhism. Christianity history also talk
about suffering that Jesus had faced since he was born until his death, sacrifice of Jesus, wickedness of the
king in that period who order to kill children and crucifixion of Jesus. So, the Christianity story is more real
and similar to people real life that have both happiness and suffering. Let’s talk about the art, the paintings in
both religions is very different especially in substance. The Buddhism painting is all about Buddha, Heaven,
supernatural story, Naga and deities. Everybody can see all of these things obviously in paintings, in Buddhist
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architecture. You can see Naga at the stairs in every temple. The good example of this art that I think it is very
clear that Buddhist try to build temple to be like heaven is The White Temple or Wat Rong Khun in Chiang
Rai designed and constructed by Thai artist named Chalermchai Kositpipat, his works mainly related to
Buddhism. The temple is very beautiful and clean like you are in heaven. In Christianity, although many
paintings are also about god but there are still many paintings which I see is about Jesus and group of people
doing something such as dinner in The Last Supper by da Vinci, Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio, helping
other people in Christ Healing the Blind by El Greco, The Lamentation, and etc. As you see that the painting
has a dramatic story and look more real than Buddhism. That is the reason why Southeast Asian paintings
especially Buddhism look cleaner and less ugly than the real world and western art tends to show a world that
is perhaps uglier and dramatic. I think the concept of building architectures in Christianity is try not to build
like the heaven. There is various style of architectures depend on each era. For example, the Romanesque
church which has a bit ancient look while the Gothic church which has more elegant look by decoration large
stain glass windows. I heard that in Gothic style, people try to build an extremely high tower and pointed arch
as high as possible, they believe that the more they high, the more they close to god. In Baroque era, Catholic
churches are richly ornamented that look extremely luxurious but Protestant churches are so simple. So, you
see that Christianity still has both simple and luxurious architecture unlike Buddhism that I always see only
beautiful architecture in every temple.
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In conclusion, the most important factor that make these both art look different is religion.
Christianity art obviously look more real and dramatic, relate to people action and their daily life while
Buddhism art look more fanciful and the point of art is mainly about Buddha and his supernatural.