Discover the Lukhang Murals at the Rubin Museum of Art

Potola Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Hidden in the Potola Palace is the secret Lukhang Temple. Amazingly preserved, this temple is a unique expression of Tantric Buddhist art historically available only to the Dalai Lama and his retinue for deep meditation and closed off to the public. The current Dalai Lama has lifted the silk curtains so to speak, and in addition to allowing visitors has allowed the detailed wall murals to be photographed. Currently at the Rubin Museum of Art you can see the Lukhang Murals even better than you can in the actual temple thanks to new photographic methods by Thomas Laird and Clint Clemens.

A separate room at the museum displays life size, high resolution pigment prints placed similarly to how they appear in the walls of the temple itself, and handily for me are accompanied by audio recordings that detail at least some of what is going on in these complex scenes. The 18th c. wall paintings illustrate the Dalai Lama's path to enlightenment, and are unusual because these mystical teachings of Tantric Buddhism tend to be passed by whisper rather than openly expressed. 

Detail of East wall showing two Mahasiddha

They are also remarkable for their color and complexity, and the sense of order maintained despite the activity of all the tiny figures. While the recording only touch upon the surface of what is going on in each panel, nonetheless it provides a great and enticing background. With such expressive figures and scenes, I found my imagination going into overdrive as I examined them, and I had to promise myself I would come back for a second look.

While I imagine these setting isn't quite as awe-inspiring as ascending by wooden ladder to this hidden secret in the Dalai Lama's palace in Tibet, it's certainly more accessible. More information here: 
http://hem.bredband.net/ritnyb/lukhang.html
http://www.asianart.com/articles/baker/index.htmll

Body Language: Photographs by Thomas Kelly at the Rubin

Thomas Kelly, Smoking Sadhu (2000)

Body Language: The Yogis of India and Nepal up through July 4  is a fascinating photograph exhibition in the lower level of the Rubin Museum of Art with prints from Thomas Kelly, an American photographer who has lived and worked in Nepal for many years. This collection of images documents wandering Hindu ascetics called Sadhus, and notably these men and woman paint their bodies in striking colors as they emulate their chosen deities. The images of these naked and/or colorfully painted people with matted hair are beautiful, and the Rubin Museum provides context on these remarkable looking people. The exterior appearance is just one way in which the Sadhu takes on the attribute of the deity he is emulating, which becomes the goal and process of his whole life.

Installation View of  Body Language, Rubin Museum of Art

Kelly writes on his website of sadhus in respect to his book Sadhus: The Great Renouncers: 

     In my adopted home of Kathmandu, some sadhus survive primarily off alms made from allowing tourists to photograph them. They are a spectacle and love to play their assigned role in the illusion or drama of society. Their masks are thickly painted on their naked bodies. Sadhus have formally abandoned conventional time; their world is dense with its own complex politics, social hierarchy, taboos and customs, often making access challenging.

     Volatile and unpredictable, spontaneous photography of sadhus can actually be dangerous. You can easily be trampled or attacked if you immerse yourself in a naga baba procession after a mass Khumba Mela bathing. Or, without permission from a Mahant to work inside an Akhara, be accused of being a spy and have to answer to a Sadhu tribunal. There’s no such thing as achieving photographic acceptance within the Sadhu mandala. For me, photographing at ritual time is always the most dynamic and fluid. Once rapport has been established, a camera is tolerated, often with a sense of lila, or maya, play and illusion. It took repeated visits over many seasons and melas, to occasionally reach this level.
     My initial inexplicable attraction to the Sadhu world was mostly visual. As a photographer, I loved how they allowed their bodies to become symbols of the sacred- from walking around naked to remind us of our naked selves, to wearing ash to remind us what are bodies become, to dreadlocks to remind us of our natural wild natures devoid of social convention. Their bodies were texts, which spoke volumes regarding sacred symbolism.
     A sadhu’s body is a map of the Hindu universe, for the body is a microcosm of the cosmos. Like a canvas, the colour and painted symbols aid in purification, inspire, and remind of the timeless divine beyond body and form. The body is used to tell stories. As the sadhus works towards an egoless state, he becomes the very symbols he’s painted whether it be Shiva, Vishnu, or Rama, the colors refer to esoteric inner visions and possible alchemical states of consciousness. The real goal of a Sadhu is to achieve an attitude of non-attachment and transcendence of the physical body.

Contemporary Tibetan Artists Transform Tradition

Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond makes a strong case for the awesomeness of the Ruben Museum and the vibrancy of Himalayan art. Nine contemporary artists from Tibet created works who handle the Tibetan art traditions passed down to them with a knowledge, use, and comment on the West. The differences between the Western world where these artists practice and their Tibetan roots is a mjor theme, as one can see in one of Gonkar Gyatso's self portraits above. All the artists showed some very strong work, both in its own right and in conjunction with the rest of the Rubin museum, which provides such a great background on the tradition that these artists have inherited.

 Losang Gyatso has some beautiful work up, including my favorite, above. His latest digitally-manipulated prints glow with bright, unfocused colors. This image was inspired by a traditional piece in the permanent collection.

 Tsherin Sherpa, Untitled, 2010

Sherpa's work, above, reminded me strongly of the recent Takashi Murakami exhibition at Gagosian. Murakami also includes a plethora of brightly colored skulls in this large scale painting that references Japanese Bhuddist tradition (detail left). It is not uncommon to see dancing and smiling
skulls in traditional Tibetan Bhuddist art, although perhaps not in neon hues. While in Sherpa's work, each tiny skull is painted, Gonkar Gyatsu often uses skull stickers and others to create images based on traditional presentations of the Bhudda.


If you haven't made it to the Rubin Museum yet, try to check it out while Tradition Transformed is still on view through October 18.

Remember That You Will Die: Death Across Cultures

Remember that you will die: Death across Cultures is probably one of the nicest exhibitions I've seen in a while, combing East and West, art and craft, history and culture as it does in a small but rich way. The Rubin Museum of Art is creating a top notch space for the art of the Himalayas in a way that draws connections and entices the viewer to learn more. Top skull and left skull pocket watch of European origin. Right, Lord of the Charnal Grounds mask used by dancers and below image of hellfires of Eastern origin. The different memento mori are rather more similar across cultures than one might think. All present death in terrifying aspect. The image below only solidifies the horror-- o the horror!

However, as the museum notes, "Yes, you will die. But at least you can write about it." And thus they offer a very fun essay contest that will let you take a stab at death, if only with a pen. I'm planning on entering myself. 

Mandalas and Computers

I was drawn to the Rubin Museum because of the special Red Book exhibition (more details of Jung's work here), but what I enjoyed the most was the museum's Mandala: The Perfect Circle exhibition. Mandalas from the 8th C. onward are displayed in a variety of styles and mediums and for different purposes. They often show a circle bound in a square. Within the circle, like in the Kalachakra (Wheel of Time) mandala above, the circle contains a four sided structure that radiates out from a central point.


Mandalas are created as aids to spiritual visualization, especially in diety yoga in which Tibetan buddhists imagine themselves as ideal beings in the form of a buddha. The one above is devoted to Yamantaka, symbolized by the blue thunderbolt at the center. The archectonic form within the circle is his palace. It soars upward at each level, and he is housed at the very center and the very top. The circle around is actually circles, representing different places that must be crossed before entering the palace of the god and ascending. The outermost circle is a ring of fire, followed by a ring of charnal grounds, followed by a ring of lotus blossoms. A monk would use a mandala to cross these circles and enter the palace, then to walk down the hallway, up the stairs, around the next level, etcetera all in his minds eye. The mandala is a 2 dimensional representation, like a map, to aid in the visualization of a 3 dimensional reality. It is difficult--especially for someone like me-- to look at a mandala and truly understand the visualization involved.

Enter, computers! The Rubin Museum has computers displaying virtual mandalas, in which computer graphic designers turn the 2D image into a 3D environment. The point of view of one is of a person dwarfed by the gorgeous and elaborate palace he/she is ascending. I gained such a better understanding of how mandalas were used and what a monk might see. The virtual mandalas are brilliant. Seriously, the coolest thing I have seen in eons. I didn't have time for the rest of the collection, so I hope to go back soon. Not to mention, the museum is gorgeous, not at all overcrowded, and has a lovely cafeteria with samosas and white wine.