The Asian Culture Museum’s special exhibition, “The Sanctum of South Asian Dance: Liminal Space,” was prepared to look at the traditional dance of South Asia through the dance ruins of Hindu temples.

A Hindu temple is called a mandir in Hindi, a place where gods reside during their stay in the human world. It is the seat of the gods and symbolizes their bodies. The temple served as the center of religion, philosophy, economy, and art of the time. Hindu temples have a mandapa, a pillared hall, where people worship and seek unity with the gods. This also served as a performance hall. In Hindu culture, dance is the highest form of offering to the gods, to the extent that there is a separate space called Nata Mandir dedicated to presenting dance performances.

This exhibition examines Hindu temples, which are sanctums of South Asian dance. It also introduces “Shiva,” revered as the god of dance in Hindu culture, and “Natya Shastra,” the scripture that forms the basis of South Asian traditional dance. We hope you will experience the profound world of South Asian traditional dance in this sanctum that crosses the boundaries between the human and the divine, the sacred and the secular.