Freer+Sackler Realm of the Buddha Program Listings

The Smithsonian’s Freer and Sack­ler gal­leries will offer a series of pub­lic events for In the Realm of the Bud­dha, a cel­e­bra­tion of the arts of Tibetan Bud­dhism, on view March 13 through July 18.

“The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kan­dell Col­lec­tion” invites vis­i­tors to step inside a mag­nif­i­cent Tibetan shrine room, pre­sented to the pub­lic for the first time. A sec­ond exhi­bi­tion, “Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen,” offers a rare look at the life and legacy of an 18th-century Tibetan painter.

Pro­grams are sched­uled as follows:

CONVERSATIONS

My Family’s Shrine, My Family’s Culture

Sat­ur­day, April 17, May 1 and 22, June 5 and 19, July 10, 2 pm
Monks and mem­bers of the Tibetan com­mu­nity dis­cuss the fam­ily shrines on dis­play in the Sack­ler Gallery’s edu­ca­tion class­room. See how con­tem­po­rary Tibetans arrange paint­ings, sculp­tures, pho­tographs, and offer­ings in fam­ily altars. Learn why par­tic­u­lar items are placed in the shrines.

Con­ver­sa­tion and Book Signing

In Dia­logue: Robert Thur­man and Mar­i­lyn Rhie on the Tibetan Shrine
Sat­ur­day, July 10, 2 pm
Freer Gallery, Meyer Audi­to­rium
Mod­er­ated by Debra Dia­mond, asso­ciate cura­tor of South and South­east Asian art, with book sign­ing to fol­low. Free tick­ets are avail­able through Tick­et­mas­ter begin­ning at 10 am on June 28 or at the door.

The authors of A Shrine for Tibet: The Alice S. Kan­dell Col­lec­tion dis­cuss the cul­tural and artis­tic sig­nif­i­cance of objects on view in Kandell’s shrine and sign copies of the book. Rhie is the Jessie Wells Post Pro­fes­sor of Art and East Asian Stud­ies at Smith Col­lege. Thur­man is the Jey Tsong Khapa Pro­fes­sor of Indo-Tibetan Bud­dhist Stud­ies at Colum­bia Uni­ver­sity.

AFTER-HOURS

Asia After Dark: Tibetan Twi­light
Thurs­day, April 29, 6:30–10:30 pm
Arthur M. Sack­ler Gallery
Come immerse your­self In the Realm of the Bud­dha. Groove to Asian beats by DJ Chris Linux, use tra­di­tional wood­blocks to print Bud­dhist images, get cre­ative with renowned con­tem­po­rary artist Gonkar Gyatso, and observe a tra­di­tional Tibetan dance per­for­mance. Sug­gested attire: Blue, red, white, green, and yellow-significant col­ors in Tibetan Bud­dhist culture

Tick­ets include one com­pli­men­tary drink and can be pur­chased for $18 at www.asia.si.edu/asiaafterdark begin­ning March 29 or at the door for $20 (lim­ited num­ber; cash only). Must be 21 with valid ID to attend.

GALLERY TALK

The Great Situ Panchen,
Wednes­day, March 31, 12 pm
Sack­ler Gallery, Sub­level 1
Cura­tor Karl Debreczeny of the Rubin Museum of Art presents the artis­tic legacy of the remark­able scholar-painter Situ Panchen. Learn how this extra­or­di­nary fig­ure fos­tered the revival of the Encamp­ment style (Gardri) dur­ing the eigh­teenth century.

IN THE REALM OF THE BUDDHA GALLERY TALK SERIES

Sack­ler Gallery, Sub­level 1

Learn about Tibetan Bud­dhism with teach­ers from the Tibetan Med­i­ta­tion Cen­ter in Fred­er­ick, Mary­land, and gain insight into the exhi­bi­tions In the Realm of the Buddha.

A Place for Tran­scen­dence
Sun­day, May 2, 2 pm
Spir­i­tual direc­tor Drupon Ningpo talks about the sculp­tures, deities, and rit­ual objects seen in Alice S. Kandell’s Tibetan Bud­dhist shrine.

Spot­light on Thangka Paint­ing
Sun­day, May 16, 2 pm
Bhik­shu Kon­chog Nge­don dis­cusses the process of cre­at­ing thangka paint­ings and their many motifs and symbols.

Ori­gins and His­tory of Tibetan Bud­dhism
Sun­day, June 6, 2 pm
Prac­ti­tioner Mike Camp­bell relays leg­endary and his­tor­i­cal accounts of the devel­op­ment of Tibetan Buddhism.

Awak­en­ing the Mind
Sun­day, June 13, 2 pm
Khenchen Rin­poché, founder of the Tibetan Med­i­ta­tion Cen­ter in Fred­er­ick, Mary­land, dis­cusses the process of men­tal purifi­ca­tion through Tantric meditation.

FILMS

Freer Gallery, Meyer Audi­to­rium
All films listed are part of the series Tibetan Bud­dhism: Films from Around the World, orga­nized in coop­er­a­tion with the Inter­na­tional Bud­dhist Film Fes­ti­val.Visit here for sched­ule updates. Free seat­ing is avail­able on a first-come, first-served basis.

Wheel of Time
Fri­day, March 26, 7 pm
Mas­ter film­maker Werner Her­zog devotes his idio­syn­cratic pas­sion and vast cin­e­matic skill to dis­cov­er­ing Tibetan Bud­dhism for him­self. Her­zog first finds the Dalai Lama at an assem­bly of half a mil­lion pil­grims at the place of Buddha’s enlight­en­ment in India. The direc­tor then films a pil­grim­age to sacred Mt. Kailash before he goes to Aus­tria, where the Dalai Lama pre­sides over an impor­tant rit­ual known as the Kalachakra (wheel of time) ini­ti­a­tion. Herzog’s res­o­nant voice-over enhances this beau­ti­ful explo­ration of Tibetan cul­ture. Ger­many / 2003 / 80 min. / Eng­lish and Tibetan with Eng­lish subtitles

Words of My Per­fect Teacher
Sun­day, March 28, 1 pm
From the World Cup in Ger­many to the remote Bud­dhist king­dom of Bhutan, three stu­dents are on a quest that they hope will lead to wis­dom in this doc­u­men­tary by Les­ley Ann Pat­ten. The catch is their teacher. Soccer-obsessed, charis­matic film­maker and “cit­i­zen of the world” Khyentse Norbu may be one of the most emi­nent Tibetan Bud­dhist teach­ers known, but it is a job descrip­tion he slyly seems to reject at every turn. With music by Sting and an appear­ance by Bernardo Bertolucci. Canada / 2003 / 103 min. / English

Roots of Infin­ity
In Per­son: Shokei, Harada, pro­ducer
Sun­day, March 28, 3:30 pm
Nearly twenty years ago, direc­tor Ken’ichi Oguri spent over a year film­ing this remark­able doc­u­men­tary on loca­tion in a Tibetan vil­lage in Nepal. With indeli­ble images of the full cycle of life in a tra­di­tional Bud­dhist community-birth, mar­riage, liveli­hood, har­vests, reli­gion, and death-this film offers an inti­mate view of a world that no longer exists, as mod­ern­iza­tion and dis­lo­ca­tion take their toll. Con­tains images that may be dis­turb­ing to some view­ers. Japan / 1991 / 85 min. / Eng­lish and Tibetan with Eng­lish sub­ti­tles / 16mm

IMAGINASIA

Fam­ily pro­grams for chil­dren 8–14 with adult companion.

Paint­ings for Med­i­ta­tion
Sun­day, April 18, 2 pm
Observe a Tibetan artist as he paints a thangka, and in the class­room learn a pin-hole tech­nique used to copy details and com­pose reli­gious paintings.

Prayers in the Wind
Sat­ur­day, April 24 and May 1; Sun­day, April 25 and May 2, 2 pm
Use hand-carved wooden print­ing blocks from the great stu­pas at Swayamb­hu­nath and Bod­hi­nath in the Kath­mandu Val­ley of Nepal to print prayer flags and paper prints of Bud­dhist deities and prayers for peace
and pro­tec­tion.

TOURS

Begin­ning March 27, tours of In the Realm of the Bud­dha are offered most days at 1 pm
(except Wednes­days and fed­eral holidays).

“Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen” was orga­nized by the Rubin Museum of Art, New York City. The exhi­bi­tion is part of the Sack­ler Gallery’s Asia in Amer­ica pro­gram, which show­cases the hold­ings of impor­tant Amer­i­can insti­tu­tional col­lec­tions of Asian art.

“The Tibetan Shrine from the Alice S. Kan­dell Col­lec­tion” was orga­nized by the Arthur M. Sack­ler Gallery.

Images for the exhi­bi­tions are avail­able at http://asia.si.edu/press/default.htm.

The Arthur M. Sack­ler Gallery, located at 1050 Inde­pen­dence Avenue S.W., and the adja­cent Freer Gallery of Art, located at 12th Street and Inde­pen­dence Avenue S.W., are on the National Mall in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. every day, except Dec. 25, and admis­sion is free. The gal­leries are located near the Smith­son­ian Metro­rail sta­tion on the Blue and Orange lines. For more infor­ma­tion about the Freer and Sack­ler gal­leries and their exhi­bi­tions, pro­grams and other events, the pub­lic is wel­come to visit www.asia.si.edu. For gen­eral Smith­son­ian infor­ma­tion, the pub­lic may call (202) 633‑1000 or TTY (202) 633‑5285.