'D'efine These Asian Art Terms Quiz

Answer: Duck

The Chinese word for duck is 'ya' (first tone). You may wonder why a duck may represent fidelity, well haven't you noticed that ducks are monogamous? That's what the Chinese believe!

Answer: All of these

'Dagoba' is simply the Sinhalese (Sri Lanka) version for a Buddhist religious shrine, often containing relics such as a tooth of Buddha, wood from the Bodhi tree, etc. 'Zaydi' is the Burmese term, 'chorten' the Tibetan term and the very familiar 'pagoda', a more a universal term originally derived from Sanskit or Tamil, is the term we use in English most frequently.

Answer: Da zhuan

The 'great seal' is called the 'da zhuan' while the 'small seal' is known as the 'xiao zhuan' - it may not be a surprise to discover that 'da' equals 'big' and 'xiao' is the word for 'small' in Chinese! The 'da zhuan' characters tend to be more rounded than the small seal, and as the name implies the small seal script consolidated the size of some of the more complex characters a bit.

Answer: Dragon

The dragon also symbolizes masculinity (or the 'yang' of yin-yang) and power in Chinese art. Add to the fact that the dragon is a huge presence in Chinese myth and you can understand why these creatures appear so often within the Chinese aesthetic arena.

Answer: Karma

Kanoko (Japanese) and Ikat (pan-Austronesian) are both types of tie-dyeing, while Batik is a dyeing technique found in Indonesia which employs wax. Karma is a Buddhist term which is popularly translated into English as 'what comes around, goes around'!

Answer: Dainichi

Dainichi-Nyorai is the Buddha worshipped by the Japanese Shingon sect...the great sun Buddha.

Answer: Dougong

The 'dougong' is, in turn, supported by a column (zhu). Sections of the dougong include the 'dou', something like a capital in a classical Greek column, the 'gong', U-shaped brackets and plates, the 'liang', a crossbeam, and the 'ang', which are diagonal arms. Placed on top of the dougong are the rafters (chuan) and, off the edge of the rafters, the flying rafters (feichuan).

Answer: Devas

From the Indo-European root 'div' meaning 'to shine', the term 'devas' is a fairly general term related to 'god' in Hindu myth. One of the most fascinating depictions of devas I have seen is in a bas-relief found at Angkor Wat wherein the devas and the asuras (demons) are depicted in a holy tug-of-war with the Vasuki (cosmic serpent) serving as the 'rope'. All of this is the process of churning the cosmic Sea of Milk, creating the 'butter' that is the universe! By the way, if the term devas seems strangely similar to the words 'divine', 'deus' (Greek for God) and 'Devil' (a word for Satan, but also the word for God in the Gypsy language), that's no coincidence. All of these words have the same origin in the ancient Indo-European tongue.

Answer: Vietnam

The Dong Son was a bronze working culture that preceded the arrival of the Chinese (2nd century BC). This is considered the golden age of Vietnamese culture by some romantics.

Answer: Puppeteer

The 'dalang wayang' is the puppeteer for the famous 'wayang kulit' shadow puppet plays that are performed in Java and Bali, among other places, in Indonesia. The Ramayana and the Mahabarata are two of the stories performed during these shadow plays. Thank you for playing this quiz and please keep an eye out for my E-F combined quiz.