Seven years ago, the Asian Art Museum hit the jackpot in the world of Southeast Asian Art, when their holdings were greatly enhanced by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. In 2002, museum-grade pieces from Duke's vast collection of nearly 2,000 artworks, which were stored in a coach barn that once housed an indoor shooting gallery at her New Jersey estate, were split between the Asian and the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore. Each institution chose approximately 190 objects, a selection process Dr. Forrest McGill, the Asian's Chief Curator, likens to "picking members of your kickball team in school." What this windfall meant in real terms is that the Asian now owns one of the largest and most important collections of rare 18th and 19th century Thai and Burmese material outside of Thailand; and perhaps, the largest, most esteemed collection of Thai paintings anywhere, including their country of origin.

Over two-thirds of the artworks from that haul comprise Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam & Burma, 1775-1950, a glittering exhibition of some 140 objects, many of which once adorned the homes of aristocrats and were commissioned by wealthy patrons. The Asian spent five years and over 7,500 hours cleaning, repairing and conserving the items prior to their public debut last month. The show, which runs through January 10, 2010, is divided into three sections along geographical lines: Central Burma, Central Thailand and the Highland Regions.

Aside from the brilliant green walls of the galleries, the emeralds advertised in the show's poetic title are metaphoric rather than literal. In addition to its references to the Emerald Buddha enshrined in the temple adjacent to the royal palace in Bangkok, and the 19th-century capitals of Burma which were all called "cities of jewels," the curators hoped the show and its somewhat misleading title would call up a

Headdress for the hero Rama in a dance-drama, approx. 1950-1960, Thailand.

Although this exhibition doesn't have the bling quotient of the gleaming, gold-laden Afghanistan show of last year, the exotic treasures here – rare sculptures, fragile illustrated manuscripts, elaborate court costumes, gilded statues and furnishings, narrative paintings and mirrored ritual objects – have, at their best, a serene combination of beauty and myth that might have made Dorothy think twice about returning to Kansas.

Some of the most intriguing pieces are theatrical in design or purpose: a fierce-looking, lacquered papier mache mask of a high-ranking demon, aligned with the demon king Ravana, which was worn in dance dramas; a court costume festooned with embroidery, sequins and glass jewels, donned on formal occasions by Burmese courtiers; a Burmese marionette with a moveable jaw and finger joints, modeled on Ravana's adversary, the hero prince Rama, who, according to legend, was forced to battle armies of demons to rescue his kidnapped wife. A formidable presence, he has a green face, inlaid glass eyes, royal bird's head shoes, a structured, jeweled costume and genitals carved on his wooden frame.

In Thailand, body-sized "action" or "fighting" puppets provided a popular entertainment of the day: puppet theatre as contact sport. Fabricated from the hide of a cow and resembling filigree body shields, the puppets, which showed two characters charging into combat, were held with two sticks by dancing puppeteers during performances in front of a huge screen, while a male narrator, accompanied by a Siamese orchestra, recounted the story. It must have been quite a production.

Byzantine stories of the Buddha, a prevailing theme in Thai decorative art and painting, were a source of inexhaustible inspiration. Despite sustaining considerable damage, "Scenes from the life of the Buddha," two tall, vertical works on cloth, done with paint and gold and most likely part of a set, lay out these scenes, but not in chronological order. 

"The Buddha overcomes the demon Mara and his forces, and the earth goddess creates a flood," the largest Thai painting outside of Thailand, chronicles in horizontal, mural-like form an epic cosmic struggle representing the path to enlightenment and the achievement of Buddhahood. With its complex narrative and cast of elephants, monkeys, serpent beings and legions of soldiers, it depicts the purging of the Prince's inner demons and his elevation to deity status.

A pair of mythic bird-men, legendary forest creatures used in Thai royal coronations, is the exhibit's piece de resistance. It's impossible to overstate their grace; meticulously detailed, made of wood, remnants of lacquer, gilding and mirror inlay, they have carved feet, palms pressed together as if in prayer, wings flaring out like a bustle at their hips, and a cluster of sculpted feathers arching skyward at the back. Their upper bodies are pitched slightly forward as if they're about to take flight. Only a few are known to have survived.

"They have the qualities of superb elegance and real tenderness that characterize the greatest works in the show," says McGill. "Artists set out to evoke the transcendent glamour of the higher realms of myth; and, in the most wonderful art objects, one finds a combination of both gorgeousness and spirituality."

Emerald Cities: Arts of Siam & Burma, 1775-1950, at the Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., SF, through Jan. 10, 2010.

For information: 415-581-3500 or www.asianart.org.