Lapis lazuli, or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color. Originating from the Persian word for the gem, lāžward, lapis lazuli is a rock composed primarily of the minerals lazurite, pyrite and calcite. As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, in Shortugai, and in other mines in Badakhshan province in modern northeast Afghanistan. Lapis lazuli artifacts, dated to 7570 BC, have been found at Bhirrana, which is the oldest site of Indus Valley civilisation. Lapis was highly valued by the Indus Valley Civilisation. Lapis beads have been found at Neolithic burials in Mehrgarh, the Caucasus, and as far away as Mauritania. It was used in the funeral mask of Tutankhamun.
The culture of Indonesia has been shaped by long interaction between original indigenous customs and multiple foreign influences. Indonesia is centrally-located along ancient trading routes between the Far East, South Asia and the Middle East, resulting in many cultural practices being strongly influenced by a multitude of religions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, and Islam, all strong in the major trading cities. The result is a complex cultural mixture, often different from the original indigenous cultures.
Michael Clark Rockefeller was a member of the Rockefeller family. He was the son of New York Governor and later U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, a grandson of American financier John D. Rockefeller Jr. and a great-grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller Sr.
Tobias Schneebaum was an American artist, anthropologist, and AIDS activist. He is best known for his experiences living and traveling among the Harakmbut people of Peru, and the Asmat people of Papua, Indonesia.
A Bisj, Mbis or Bis pole is a ritual artifact created and used by the Asmat people of South-western New Guinea, Indonesia. They are also common in New Zealand, Vanuatu.
The Asmat are an ethnic group of New Guinea, residing in the province of South Papua, Indonesia. The Asmat inhabit a region on the island's southwestern coast bordering the Arafura Sea, with lands totaling approximately 18,000 km2 (7,336 mi2) and consisting of mangrove, tidal swamp, freshwater swamp, and lowland rainforest.
Carl Hoffman is an American journalist and the author of five books of narrative non-fiction.
Balinese art is an art of Hindu-Javanese origin that grew from the work of artisans of the Majapahit Kingdom, with their expansion to Bali in the late 14th century. From the sixteenth until the twentieth centuries, the village of Kamasan, Klungkung, was the centre of classical Balinese art. During the first part of the twentieth century, new varieties of Balinese art developed. Since the late twentieth century, Ubud and its neighboring villages established a reputation as the center of Balinese art.
The Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress is located in the city of Agats in South Papua, Indonesia. It was conceived by the Catholic Crosier missionary Frank Trenkenschuh in 1969 as a way to preserve traditional Asmat art as well as provide economic outlets to the Asmat people. It was built by the Catholic Crosier Diocese of Agats-Asmat, which also owns the museum, and supported by Crosier Fathers and Brothers Bishop Alphonse Sowada, originally from Elmdale, Minnesota, US.
Palestinian handicrafts are handicrafts produced by Palestinian people. A wide variety of handicrafts, many of which have been produced by Arabs in Palestine for hundreds of years, continue to be produced today. Palestinian handicrafts include embroidery work, pottery-making, soap-making, glass-making, weaving, and olive-wood and Mother of Pearl carvings, among others. Some Palestinian cities in the West Bank, particularly Bethlehem, Hebron and Nablus have gained renown for specializing in the production of a particular handicraft, with the sale and export of such items forming a key part of each cities' economy.
Olive wood carving is an ancient tradition in Palestine that continues to the present day. It involves the skillful chiseling of olive wood and is most common in the Bethlehem region.
John W. Rhoden was an American sculptor from Birmingham, Alabama. Rhoden moved to New York in 1938, where he began studying with Richmond Barthé. Rhoden worked in wood and bronze, and created a number of commissioned works including Untitled (Family) at Harlem Hospital Center; Mitochondria at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan; Curved Wal at the African American Museum in Philadelphia; Zodiacal Structure at the Sheraton Hotel in Philadelphia; and a sculpture of Frederick Douglass at Lincoln University.
Kundu is a pidgin name in Papua New Guinea for an hourglass drum used to accompany formal occasions, religious ceremonies and for celebrations. This drum is emblematic of Papua New Guinea and it appears on the country's coat of arms.
Alphonsus Augustus Sowada was an American Roman Catholic bishop, cultural anthropologist, and first Bishop of Agats in Indonesia. A longtime collector and preserver of Asmat cultural artifacts, he helped found both the Asmat Museum of Culture and Progress in Agats, and the American Museum of Asmat Art in his home state of Minnesota.
Agats is a town in Asmat Regency, South Papua, Indonesia. An elevated settlement on a tidal plain, a Dutch outpost was set up in Agats in 1938 and the town became notable for the cultural practices of the Asmat people. Following the formation of Asmat Regency in 2002, the town became its administrative seat.
It is quite difficult to define Indonesian art, since the country is immensely diverse. The sprawling archipelago nation consists of 17.000 islands. Around 922 of those permanently inhabited, by over 1,300 ethnic groups, which speak more than 700 living languages.
The American Museum of Asmat Art is a gallery exhibiting the art and culture of the Asmat people of southwestern Papua, Indonesia, housed at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. Featuring more than 2,200 objects, it is one of the largest of its kind in the United States. Asmat art is widely collected in major Western museums despite the difficulty in visiting the remote region to collect work; the "exceptionally expressive" art "caused a sensation in art-collecting circles" which led to large-scale collecting expeditions in the post-WWII era, according to art scholar and ethnology Dirk A.M. Smidt. The gallery includes a permanent display of Asmat works such as ancestor poles (bis) and canoes, and a rotating exhibition highlighting aspects of Asmat art and culture. Much of the collection is accessible through the museum's online database.
The Brazza River is a river in Papua province, Indonesia. The Brazza River has its source at over 3000 meters of elevation in the Jayawijaya or Maoke Mountains of central Papua in Yahukimo Regency and flows south to the lowland rainforests of Asmat Regency before meeting the Pulau River, which flows southeast to the Arafura Sea.
Pisuwe is a dagger from the island of New Guinea. Ndam pisuwe or Ndam emak pisuwe are those that are made with human femur bone and Pi pisuwe are for those that are made with Cassowary bone. Prior to the colonization of the Dutch in the 1950s, these daggers are carried by the Asmat people and they are used only in ritual killings. These daggers are usually embellished with Cassowary feathers at the pommel and decorated with carved in artworks depicting humans and animals. Asmat men would wear this dagger as part of their traditional attire during customary ceremonies by girding it on the side of their waist.
Indonesia 
