Tibetan Art Exhibit

A Tibetan Art Exhibit
featuring personal sacred objects of H.H. the Dalai Lama

Sponsored by Richard Gere Productions, N.Y., and Drepung Loseling Institute, Atlanta.
Co-sponsored by Oglethorpe University Museum, Atlanta.

Ritual objects of H.H. the Dalai Lama

For over thirteen hundred years the monasteries of Tibet have been the repositories of some of the greatest art of Asia. Out of respect for the Tibetans Genghis Khan spared it from his pillaging hordes; his grandson Kublai Khan patronized it; and Marco Polo brought word of it for the first time to the West.

The Mystical Arts of Tibet Exhibit brings together three elements of that art world: thirty personal objects of H.H. the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 and is the revered leader of the Tibetan people; fifty-four ancient and sacred pieces from Drepung Loseling, Tibet's largest monastery; and twenty-four contemporary pieces made in India and Nepal, to demonstrate the continuation of the tradition in exile. In addition, it is supplemented by a photo exhibit of twenty-one framed color images (courtesy of Tibet Image Bank, London) by some of the world's best photographers, to depict the environment in which Tibetan art was born and fostered.


	Eleventh-fifteenth century bronzes, seventeenth century watercolor paintings, ancient ritual objects and altar pieces, and eighteenth century manuscripts hand-copied in ink made from pure gold: In these and other ways the exhibit brings the rich world of Tibet's spiritual vision into form. The accompanying Mystical Arts of Tibet Catalog, in 176 pages with 90 color illustrations, tells the story of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhist art.All of these pieces are being shown in the West for the first time. The exhibit opened in Atlanta in July 1996 at Oglethorpe University Museum in honor of the Olympics, where it was used by CNN television as the shooting location for their "Travel Guide Magazine" in a piece they did on great museum showings in the USA. CNN also did a feature on it on "Headline News," and it was reviewed by the Atlanta Journal/Constitution on the Olympic Opening day. Since then (at the time of writing) it has been hosted by museums in Miami, Fl.; Anchorage,Ak.; and Buria College, Ky. At all four locations it broke all attendance records.