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Puja Exhibition to Travel Across America

A P Kamath

A photographic exhibition of devotional objects, rituals, temples and shrines featured in Stephen P Huyler's new book, Meeting God: Elements of Hindu Devotion, opens at Houston Museum of Natural History this week. It will travel to several American cities before reaching the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 2001.

In addition to accompanying the new exhibition, the book, published by Yale University Press, also complements the show, Puja: Expressions of Hindu Devotion, which Huyler created for the Smithsonian's Arthur M Sackler Gallery. This exhibition, which opened in May 1996, has been recognized as their most popular show ever, and can be seen through 2001.

Huyler is an art historian, cultural anthropologist, photographer, and author. He has worked across India for nearly three decades. His previous books include Painted Prayers: Women's Art in Village India (1994), which documents women's ritual wall and floor decoration. In addition to numerous museum shows of Painted Prayers, he has had many exhibitions of his photographs, including a one-man show sponsored by Kodak in 1992.

During the past decade, he has been studying and recording the daily and special pujas and festivals. The book has been in the making for over five years.

The Houston Museum of Natural Science is one of the major museums in the United States. It is located at: One Hermann Circle Drive, Houston, Texas 77030; (713) 639-4600.

If you would like to post any information about forthcoming events or community happenings, please email the details to bettypais@aol.com

Information and photographs can also be mailed to Betty Pais at 87-52 108th Street, 2nd Floor, Richmond Hill, NY 11418-2229, USA.

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