Museum Exhibitions Worldwide

Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art Examines the visual manifestations and devotional contexts of handprints and footprints in Buddhist art and culture, primarily Tibetan. Dates: October 17, 2004 – January 9, 2005 Venue: Katonah Museum of Art, Route 22 at Jay Street Katonah, New York, USA To travel: Honolulu Academy of Art, Hawaii February to June 2005 Rubin Museum of Art, New York City June 4, 2005 to September 4, 2005 San Antonio Museum of Art, Texas September to November 2005.

Rubin Museum of Art New York's newest museum, opened October 2, 2004 offers visitors an opportunity to explore the rich artistic heritage of the Himalayas and surrounding regions.
	Female Buddhas: Women of Enlightenment in Himalayan Art As an intrinsic part of life, gender identity is a powerful tool for exploration of the divine in the visual culture of the Himalayas. The pantheons of the major religions of the region—Buddhism, Hinduism, and Bon—abound with Buddhas, goddesses, and meditational deities whose divinity is framed as distinctly feminine. Date: June 4, 2005 - January 15, 2006 Venue: 6th Floor
	Eternal Presence: Handprints and Footprints in Buddhist Art Examines the visual manifestations and devotional contexts of handprints and footprints in Buddhist art and culture, primarily Tibetan. Date: June 11, 2005 - September 4, 2005 Venue: 5th Floor
	Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World Rare treasures, borrowed from three of Tibet's foremost cultural institutions, features woven silk and appliqué textiles, paintings, sculpture, ritual objects, garments and books. Date: February 19 through May 8, 2005 Venue: 5th and 6th Floors
	Methods of Transcendence Imagery embodying the most profound insights of Himalayan thought are graphically symbolized through imaginatively formed human figures and mandalas. Date: October 2, 2004 - January 10, 2005 Venue: 6th Floor
	Portraits of Transmission The transmission of culture, art and the religions of the Himalayas and Tibet are represented through poets, statesmen, doctors, philosophers, religious figures and kings. Date: October 2, 2004 - January 10, 2005 Venue: 5th Floor
	Demonic Divine: Himalayan Art and Beyond These ferocious deities are often benign agents and protectors. The exhibition probes this paradox in Himalayan art: how compassion can often take on a fierce form. Date: October 2, 2004 - Spring 2005 Venue: 4th Floor
	Perfected Beings, Pure Realms A variety of idealized human forms set in lush landscaped surroundings filled with flowers, light, and opulence symbolize the human aspiration for abundance and well-being. Date: October 2, 2004 - Spring 2005 Venue: 3rd Floor
	Sacred History: Portraits and Stories Drawn from times before history, the art of the Himalayas is based on sacred traditions of the Buddhist, Bon and Hindu religions. These are made manifest as idealized portraits and stories of founders and their followers. Date: October 2, 2004 - Spring 2005 Venue: 2nd Floor

Salvation: Images of the Buddhist Deity of Compassion
Explores the widespread importance of the Buddhist deity Avalokiteshvara—also known as Guanyin, Kwanum, and Kannon—across Buddhist Asia. Avalokiteshvara, the primary source of Buddhist salvation, was the subject of extraordinary works of devotional art in various forms across many cultures. Spanning 1,500 years, these works represent the finest creative achievements of India, Central Asia, China, Korea, Japan, and Tibet.

Dates: August 14, 2003 – July 5, 2004

Venue: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 5905 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, California, USA

Seeing Lhasa
Rare photos, early film & previously unseen paintings reveal British perceptions of a pre-Cultural Revolution Tibet.

Dates: September 7, 2003 - November 2004

Venue: Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP, UK

Tibet: Treasures from the Roof of the World
More than 200 examples—all with close associations with the Dalai Lamas and Tibetan nobility—demonstrate the amazing sophistication of art created for the most important leaders of this great world culture.

Dates: October 12, 2003 - May 16 2004

Venue: The Bowers Museum of Cultural Art, 2002 North Main Street, Santa Ana, California, USA

To travel:
The Houston Museum of Natural Science in Houston, Texas
October 16, 2004 - January 8, 2005

The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City
February 8, 2005 - May 8, 2005

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco
June 12, 2005 - September 11, 2005

Other cities may be added to the tour.

Himalayas: An Aesthetic Adventure
Based on an exhibition first seen at the Art Institute of Chicago—features 163 Buddhist, Hindu and Bon paintings and sculptures created between the 7th and the 19th centuries.

Dates: October 18, 2003 - January 11, 2004

Venue: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA

Masterworks of Newar Art
Features some of the finest Nepalese Buddhist paintings of the 20th century from the collection of Robert Beer.

Dates: November 21, 2003 - March 2004

Venue: Tibet House, 22 West 15th Street New York, New York, USA

Guardians of the Laws: Chinese Luohan Paintings
Originating in India, the concept of "Luohan"—enlightened beings exempted by the great Buddha from the cycle of rebirth in order to act as guardians of the law—became a part of Buddhist cultic worship in China, where a small number of monks who were considered to have realized enlightenment, were selected to be luohans.

Arranged in chronological order, this exhibition presents 22, late 12th to 18th century works as well as an 8th century T'ang ewer and describes major trends in the evolution of luohan paintings as executed by both regional or court professionals and followers of literati traditions. The exhibition also includes a discussion of current scholarship about the Eighteen Luohans. Four related album leaves and three works of calligraphy are on view in the adjacent East Corridor.

Dates: December 2, 2003 — May 23, 2004

Venue: Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington D.C., U.S.A.

The Flying Mystics of Tibetan Buddhism
This truly unique exhibition features Tibetan art which depicts the literary and oral legacy of levitation and flight among Tibetan mystics.

Dates: January 25, 2004 - August 8, 2004

Venue: Oglethorpe University Museum of Art
4484 Peachtree Road, N.E. , Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The Circle of Bliss: Buddhist Meditational Art
Showcases 150 masterworks from public and private collections from around the world, including 40 museums.

Dates: Feb 6, 2004 – May 9, 2004

Venue: Columbus Museum of Art, The Ohio State University, 304 Mershon Auditorium, 1871 North High Street, Columbus, Ohio, USA

Visual Prayers
Sacred Tibetan Buddhist Tangka Paintings

Dates: February 26, 2004 - April 3, 2004

Venue: St. Lawrence University, Canton, New York, USA

A Wrathful Deity
Examines the ferocious appearance of the great wrathful and semi-wrathful deities, their symbolic gestures and implements, displaying their power to tame destructive forces.

Dates: March 22, 2004 – August 22, 2004

Venue: Asia Society and Museum, 725 Park Avenue at 70th Street New York, New York, USA

Works of Siberian Sculptor Dashi Namdakov
Unique and exotic sculptures of horsemen, warriors, shamans and Buddhist lamas reflecting ancient Siberian and Central Asian cultures -- but with traces of Indian, Iranian, African and American influences.

Dates: Opening in April 2004

Venue: TIBET HOUSE U.S. 22 West 15th Street New York, New York, USA

Paradise and Plumage: Chinese Connections in Tibetan Arhat Painting.
Beginning in the 14th century, there were regular exchanges between China and Tibet of painting traditions and motifs. The exhibit illustrates this artistic interchange by juxtaposing paintings and objects from China and Tibet of the fourteenth through eighteenth century.

Dates: September, 2004 - December, 2004

Venue: The Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery, at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY

To travel:
The Rubin Museum of Art
150 West 17th Street, New York, New York, USA
January 2005