In India, Snake Charmers Are Losing Their Sway : NPR

Snake charmers used to be a fixture at Indian markets and festivals, beguiling crowds with their ability to control some of the world's most venomous reptiles.

But one of India's iconic folk arts is fading away — and animal-rights activists say it can't happen soon enough. They say it's an art based on cruelty.

These days, it's not easy to find a snake charmer, even on Nag Panchami, the yearly religious festival in honor of the king cobra, which fell on Aug. 4 this year.

It took a full day of searching in New Delhi to find Buddhanath, a thin man with a long, white beard who was sitting cross-legged on the pavement behind a round, flat container that looked a bit like a tortilla basket.

Buddhanath wore a loosely wrapped orange turban and a sweet, joyous expression as he tapped the basket.

"I have a king cobra," Buddhanath said. "He is Lord Shiva's cobra, and we worship him."

The blue-skinned Hindu god is usually portrayed wearing a king cobra around his neck.

The charmer flipped the lid off the basket, and the cobra popped up like a jack-in-the-box, scanning around with its hood fully extended.

It fixed its gaze on the tip of Buddhanath's gourd flute. The cobra's black scales glistened as it swayed, following the movement of the flute's tip.

Art Transcends Politics for Asia Society's New Pakistani Exhibit - DNAinfo.com

UPPER EAST SIDE — Only three months after U.S. armed forces killed Osama bin Laden in the countryside of Pakistan, and almost 10 years after the al Qaeda attack on 9/11, the Upper East Side's Asia Society wants to challenge New Yorkers to see Pakistan's history in an entirely new light.

When Asia Society's new exhibit "The Buddhist Heritage of Pakistan: Art of Gandhara" opens on Tuesday, museum-goers will have a chance to see Buddhist sculptures, architecture and other art works made from gold and bronze from the ancient area of Pakistan that have never been on view in the United States.

The exhibit is the first of its kind in nearly 50 years, according to a musuem spokeswoman.

It was significant that the art was made available to an American museum in light of the the recently strained alliance between the two countries after bin Laden's assassination, Asia Society Museum Director Melissa Chiu said.

“Against a backdrop of political turmoil and tensions in the U.S.-Pakistan relationship, securing these loans has been an extraordinary achievement,” says Chiu, who is also vice president of the Global Art Programs.

The exhibit is separated into three sections: "Classical Connections," "Narratives and Architectural Context" and “Buddhas and Bodhisattvas." It shows the influence of Greco-Roman culture on the area's artwork, scenes of Buddha's life and the multi-faceted nature of the religious figure as he was represented in Pakistan.

Chiu hopes that these 70 works that have been so carefully preserved might give New Yorkers more insight into Pakistani culture.

“Despite images of Pakistan as a place of violent extremism, the region has an ancient tradition of tolerance and pluralism as evidenced by the survival of these spectacular examples of Gandharan art," she said.

The majority of the works are on loan from Pakistan's National Museum in Karachi and the Lahore Museum in Lahore. At its height, Gandhara encompassed areas in Afghanistan and northwest India.

"Through this exhibition, Asia Society aims to provide new contexts for looking at the arts and culture of Pakistan today, in keeping with our long history of programming about and engagement with the region," Chiu added.