RMA BhutanA friend and I visited the Rubin Museum of Art here in New York yesterday and finally saw the exhibition The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan. We were shown around by the lovely and thoughtful Louise Brooks (not the silent film star of yore) who pointed me to the blog of a visiting Bhutanese monk, Lopen Sonam. (Two monks are “in residence” at the RMA and perform twice-daily ceremonies in part of the museum. There is also a sand mandala being constructed — I missed both these things.) It’s a great blog  full of unexpected observations. Of New York’s recent snowfall, quite rare these days for December, he writes:

Bhutan, landlocked Himalayan country, it remain frozen throughout year. As I was born in the Southern foothills I find hard to bear cold, yet thinking make so. It was beyond my hope and expectation that in New York it will be snowing. As I peep through window, a beautiful foam drops continuously wherein a lovely street light add a brilliant shining on it. When morning broke, I saw a white thick foam covered in every walking side and it bring joy to my heart. I started to walk in but my shoe was not good as it slip time and again. I walk in caution, my eyes focusing to back and forth for the rushing cars too.

The Dragon’s Gift is full of beautiful thangkas and sculptures — lots of Padmasambhava and Tantric consorts in the throes of um, meditation. It’s well worth a visit if you’re in New York and costs $10 for us grown-up non-senior and non-students. I also spent some time in the Nepal exhibit (“From the Land of the Gods: Art of the Kathmandu Valley”) and the exhibition on embroidery from India and Pakistan. Somewhere, I can’t remember where, we were shushed by a fellow museum guest. Her shushing was much louder than our talking. Ah well. Tea and samosas in the cafe afterward was very nice too.

Thank you for subscribing to Tricycle! As a nonprofit, to keep Buddhist teachings and practices widely available.

This article is only for Subscribers!

Subscribe now to read this article and get immediate access to everything else.

Subscribe Now

Already a subscriber? .