Body & Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings Exhibited At AMNH, Opens 1/25

Body & Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings opens at the Museum on Tuesday, January 25, 2010 at American Museum of Natural History Central Park West at 79th Street

Body and Spirit: Tibetan Medical Paintings, an exhibition of 64 Tibetan medical paintings (also known as tangkas) from the American Museum of Natural History's collection, opens Tuesday, January 25, in the Museum's fourth-floor Audubon Gallery, and will run through July 17, 2011. On view for the first time in a museum exhibition, these hand-painted reproductions of traditional scroll paintings provide a unique and richly illustrated history of early medical knowledge and procedures in Tibet and are believed to be among only a handful of such sets in existence.

Each of the paintings on display was painstakingly reproduced by hand in the late 1990s by Romio Shrestha, a Nepalese artist, and his students, who followed the Tibetan tradition of copying older paintings, basing their work on two published sets of medical tangkas likely painted in the early 1900s that were copies of the original set. The originals were created in the late 1600s to illustrate the Blue Beryl, an important commentary on the classic Tibetan medical text, The Four Tantras.

Also on display in this exhibition is a Buddha statue made of gilded copper alloy, minerals used in medicine, and Tibetan medical instruments from the early 1900s.

The Museum is deeply grateful to Emily H. Fisher and John Alexander, whose vision and generosity supported the acquisition and conservation of this collection of Tibetan Medical Paintings.

Body and Spirit is made possible by a very generous gift from the Estate of Marian O. Naumburg.

ADMISSION: Admission to the exhibition is free with the suggested admission of $16 for adults, $9 for children, and $12 for seniors and students. For tickets, the public should call 212-769-5200 or visit amnh.org.