The sacred
mountain Wutaishan, located in Shanxi Province, China, is believed
to be the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, Manjushri,
and for a thousand years it has been a focus of transnational
pilgrimage for the Chinese, Tibetans, Mongols, and Manchus alike.
This multi-culturalism, endemic of Himalayan art, is reflected
in the objects in the exhibition coming from Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia,
and China, including paintings, sculptures, masks, book covers
and features a six-foot wide woodblock print, a panoramic view
of Mount Wutai filled with temples and miraculous visions. As
Manjushri was seen as the patron deity of China, Wutaishan was
also a focus of imperial attention, and rulers tied their own
legitimacy to this deity and promoted his cult at Mount Wutai,
blurring and intertwining religious, state, ethnic, and even
artistic identity.
Wutaishan:
Pilgrimage to Five Peak Mountain is the first exhibition
of its kind: combining historical and visual materials related
to Wutaishan in a multidisciplinary approach, highlighting the
period when the mountain reached a peak of cultural confluence
in the 18th and 19th centuries. As Wutaishan is located in China,
this exhibition clearly demonstrates that the importance of
Himalayan art extends well outside the traditionally narrow
confines of the geographic Himalayas.
As a unique
feature of the exhibition, an interactive map of Wutaishan charts
pilgrimage sites, and links them to historical explanations,
photographs of the places depicted, as well as related objects
in the exhibition:
Click here to use the interactive map |
