Tibetan Rituals
The Secret Visions of the 5th Dalai Lama

        6 November 2002 - 24 February 2003

        An exhibition organised by the Réunion des Musées Nationaux and the Musée des Arts Asiatiques-Guimet and the support of the Crédit Agricole Indosuez. Media partner: FIP, Libération and Paris Première

        The 5th Dalai Lama (1617-1682) was a major political and religious figure in Tibet’s history.

        As the spiritual and temporal leader of the country, which was united under his authority from 1642, he was the real founder of the lamaistic theocracy and the most powerful Dalai Lama of all. An outstanding statesman, great administrator and builder, he was also a highly prolific writer and an outstanding spiritual master.

        He recorded the visions he experienced from the age of six until his death. This confidential text was kept within a narrow circle of readers and never published. The manuscript of the Secret Visions, which was written in the 5th Dalai Lama’s lifetime, is part of a major donation subject to usufruct made by Lionel Fournier to the Musée Guimet in 1989. It is one of several extant manuscript versions of the text and the most remarkable one for its illustrations. Only three of the illustrations were shown during the exhibition dedicated to this donation in 1990. This new exhibition presents them in their entirety for the first time.

        These pictures form the core of the exhibition, which presents a total of 180 works, often unpublished and mainly from private European collections, arranged in three sections:

         – section 1, through sculptures and portable paintings (thang-ka) shows the 5th Dalai Lama and some of the main divinities and religious figures that appeared in his visions, especially the Indian Padmasambhava (8th century), who played a major role in the development of Buddhism in Tibet.

         – section 2, centred on 67 illustrations on a black ground taken from the manuscript, presents a wide array of paintings using the same technique, which developed in the time of the 5th Dalai Lama, although it reached its apogee in the 18th and 19th centuries. These black paintings, still little known and seldom exhibited, are an excellent medium for representing protective deities of an irascible nature. Several of them appear repeatedly in the Secret Visions. Examples from Lionel Fournier’s personal collection are shown in the exhibition, along with a number of sheets from other manuscripts, especially from a later version of the Secret Visions, bought many years ago by Emile Guimet.

         – section 3, which contains the largest number of items, assembles objects similar to the ritual instruments illustrated in the manuscript, which were used in ceremonies related to various esoteric deities. Indeed, ritual objects, which were given only a minor role in the previous exhibitions on Tibetan art, are one of the highlights of this exhibition. It also includes several pieces of liturgical furniture, used in chapels dedicated to guardian divinities and still little known in the West.

Musée des Arts asiatiques-Guimet
6, place d’Iéna
75 116 Paris

Hours
Open daily, except Tuesdays, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Last tickets sold at 5.30 p.m.
Closed on Christmas Day and the first January 2003.

Admission
Exhibition only: full price Euros 5.5, concession and sundays Euros 4.5.
Exhibition and museum: full price Euros 7, concession and sundays Euros 5
and the first Sunday of the month Euros 4.
Free for children under 18.
Advance purchase (over 20 tickets):
fast-track tickets at preferential prices: museecie@rmn.fr

Access
Métro: Iéna, Boissière, RER C: Pont de l’Alma
Bus: 22 - 30 - 32 - 63 - 82