Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory Closes MANDALA: SACRED CIRCLE

The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University showcased the sacred art of Tibet in the special exhibition Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism through tonight, April 15, 2012.

For the first time in the Southeast more than 100 masterworks brought to light the intricate, transcendental, and evocative manifestations and functions of the “perfect circle” or mandala used as an aid in meditation and as a tool to obtain enlightenment. The exhibition and accompanying educational programs celebrated the rich religious and artistic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and the spiritual significance of the mandala.

Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning “circle.” Depicting a realm that is both complex and sacred, the mandala is a visualization tool meant to advance practitioners toward a state of enlightenment. The exhibition explores the various manifestations of these objects, simultaneously explaining their symbolism, describing how they fulfill their intended function, and demonstrating their correlation to our physical reality.

Visitors find mandalas conceived as concentric circles, circles within squares, squares within circles, lotus blossoms, six-pronged stars, or inverted, crossed triangles. A deity, sometimes with a partner, is usually situated in the middle of the central disk, surrounded by four, six, eight, ten, twelve, or more assembly deities set in an additional circle. As such, the mandala’s very construct graphically mirrors the Buddhist notion of the cosmos and of the human being. In addition to paintings, reliquaries, and amulets, the exhibition includes tapestries, sculptures, and utensils used in sacred ceremonies and a time-lapse film of a mandala formed in sand. Examples of these complex mandalas include the monumental, intricately carved, three-dimensional mandala of Guhyasamaja from Gyuto Monastery in the Tibetan exile community of Dharamsala, India; the Buddha Akshobhya, the "unshakeable" Buddha, painted in blue and gold focused on stability; a 16th century 8-foot Buddhist cosmological scroll portraying the structural correspondence between the Kalachakra mandala and the human body; and the radial Ngor Kalachakra Mandala, the "wheel of time," with its distinct circular symmetry, understood by the practitioner as the wheel-like interior of the mandala palace where rays, like spokes, stream from the luminous body of the central deity to the walls of the palace structure.

While many of the works in the exhibition are from the collection of the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, the exhibition also includes masterpieces from other museums and private collections from around the world, including the Kimbell Art Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Ethnographic Museum of the University of Zurich, and Namgyal Monastery in Dharamsala, India. Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism was organized by the Rubin Museum of Art, New York. Support for the exhibition in Atlanta has been provided by the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation, the Emory-Tibet Partnership, and Drepung Loseling Monastery, Inc.

Public educational programs in conjunction with the exhibition offered many opportunities for visitors to learn about the complex imagery of these mandalas and their role in the practice of Tibetan Buddhism. Programs draw on the intellectual depth of Emory University’s faculty as well as distinguished scholars from other universities, visiting artists, and members of the Tibetan community in Atlanta. Tours for K-12 students and programs for teachers serve the World Religions curriculum.

For more information visit carlos.emory.edu/mandala.

Emory University’s relationship with Tibetan scholars and institutions has been fostered over the past two decades with scholar and student exchanges as well as research and teaching in Buddhism. It was solidified in 1998 through the creation of the Emory-Tibet Partnership in the presence of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. The focus of the Emory-Tibet Partnership is to bridge western and Tibetan knowledge in the specific areas that His Holiness has designated as most important, such as science education for monastics, secular ethics, research on the cultivation and benefits of compassion, and Tibetan medicine.

The Michael C. Carlos Museum of Emory University collects, preserves, exhibits, and interprets art and artifacts from antiquity to the present in order to provide unique opportunities for education and enrichment in the community, and to promote interdisciplinary teaching and research at Emory University. The Carlos Museum is one of the Southeast's premier museums with collections of art from Greece, Rome, Egypt, Near East, Nubia, the Americas, Africa, and Asia, as well as a collection of works on paper from the Renaissance to the present.

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