Video: On Loan From Myanmar, a Bronze Bell Propounds the Teachings of Buddha

Nearly 70 artworks from Myanmar and private and public collections around the United States make up Asia Society Museum's new exhibition Buddhist Art of Myanmar. Featuring textiles, paintings, ritual objects, and sculptures made of sandstone, bronze, and lacquered wood, dating from the fifth to the early twentieth century, the exhibition gives viewers an opportunity to encounter many pieces that have never been seen outside Myanmar before.

A bronze bell cast in 1884 using the lost wax process, and on loan from Myanmar's National Museum in Nay Pyi Taw, is one of the ritual objects featured in the exhibition. In the video above, Adriana Proser, John H. Foster Senior Curator for Traditional Asian Art at Asia Society, describes how the inscription on the bell helped identify its origins and points out various unique features of the object and their significance in Buddhism.

Buddhist Art of Myanmar is on view through May 10, 2015, at Asia Society Museum in New York City.