Tibet and India: Buddhist Traditions and Transformations examines how esoteric imagery, texts, and Vajrayana ritual practices coming out of the great monasteries of north India contributed to reshaping the complex religious landscape of Tibet. The exhibition includes some twenty-three masterpieces of Buddhist art produced in Tibet and North India during the 11th and 12th centuries, including stone and bronze sculptures, illuminated manuscripts and book covers, and some of the earliest thangkas to survive from the Tibetan tradition.

Also presented is a work by Tenzing Rigdol (b. 1982), one of only two Tibetan artists to be included in the exhibition. The inclusion of contemporary Tibetan art aims to demonstrate how Tibet's longstanding tradition is today being presented to a new international audience. His work, Pin Drop Silence - Eleven-Headed Avalokitesvara (2013), has also been acquired by the museum as part of its permanent collection.

The educational programmes accompanying the exhibition includes a presentation entitled Reimagining the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist traditions: A Conversation, featuring Tenzing Rigdol as a guest speaker, will also take place on the 7th March 2014.

-Rossi & Rossi

Image: © Tenzing Rigdol
Pin Drop Silence - Eleven-headed Avalokitesvara
2013
Ink, pencil, acylic, and pastel on paper
232.5 x 125 cm