7. “Sacred Spaces” at the Rubin Museum

“Sacred Spaces” will open at the Rubin Museum on October 23. This exhibit will include an expanded Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room, with flickering butter lamps, incense and the sounds of monks chanting – an invitation for the viewer to have an experience of being inside a shrine room of a traditional Himalayan home. The hope is that viewers will use their time within the exhibit to fully immerse in the practice of offering, devotion, prayer and contemplation.

As part of the installation, a panoramic photograph taken in the province of Mustang, northern Nepal, by photographer Jaroslav Poncar, will be on view, showing the landscape in which Tibetan Buddhism flourishes today. A video of an Indian ritual created by Deidi von Schaewen will showcase a Jain communal ritual in which we will see devotees pouring offerings over a stone sculpture – a tradition in which this figure is anointed every twelve years over the course of four days.

Opening on October 23, it will be on view through March 27, 2017 at the Rubin Museum located at 150 West 17th Street.