Posts by peter linenthal

Kushan art inspired ‘Jaya’s Golden Necklace’. I love what the Dalai Lama said about the the art of Gandhara, the art of the Kushans:  “One of the distinguishing features of the Gandharan school of art that emerged in the north-west of India is that it has been clearly influenced by the naturalism of the classical…

 BAYCAT, a nonprofit social enterprise tackling the lack of diversity in technology and digital media, visited my studio last week to film me talking about the inspiration behind ‘Jaya’s Golden Necklace’. I can’t wait to see their video which I’ll post here. More about BAYCAT at https://baycat.org. 

King Kanishka is a character in ‘Jaya’s Golden Necklace’ and a historic figure, credited with calling an important council where Buddhist scriptures were collected and building an amazing Buddhist stupa about 13 stories high, the tallest building in that part of the world for hundreds of years, much like this stupa in the Taxila Museum, but…

Umpqua Bank Potrero Hill and Christopher’s Books hosted a bookmaking workshop for parents & children on Jan. 21. Peter Linenthal showed how to make origami books, books-from-one-piece-of-paper, pop-up books and more. Christopher’s Books sold ‘Jaya’ and other books by Peter. It was so much fun we’re thinking about an adult bookmaking workshop with wine & cheese. 

Fremont has large Afghan, Pakistani, Indian and other Asian communities; it was great to read ‘Jaya’ at their big, busy library December 10. Two Indian parents at the reading had heard of the Kushans, a first for me.

Brent Huffman, director of Saving Mes Aynak, a documentary about a Kushan era city discovered in Afghanistan now threatened by copper mining, sent a nice blurb about ‘Jaya’:  “Jaya’s Golden Necklace is a wonderful introduction to the Silk Road for children and adults alike, with gorgeous illustrations and a beautifully told story. I highly recommend it as…

Gandhara Connections was just launched, a new website, a project of the Classical Art Resource Center of Oxford University designed “to stimulate & support the study of ancient Gandharan art and its links to the classical world of Greece & Rome, thousands of kilometers to the west.” A wealth of links; public events, workshops & more…

Yesterday Mary and Elizabeth made their own golden necklaces at Linden Tree, the wonderful, bigchildren’s book store in Los Altos. They’ll bring their necklaces and copy of Jaya’s Golden Necklace with them when they move to South Korea soon.

An important film about a Kushan-era Buddhist city is now available on DVD. Saving Mes Aynak tells the story of the site’s discovery and the effort to save it from being destroyed by mining the copper which lies beneath. A recent review is at:  http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/2183370-film-review-saving-mes-aynak/

Thanks to The New School of San Francisco (Hi Nala!) for inviting me to come today and read Jaya’s Golden Necklace today. I found out kids there collect fancy rocks, shells, things for making stuff, pokemons, snow globes, spices, and coins, the collection which inspired Jaya.