Now On View
“Silk Road Pilgrimage” surveys the cultural and commercial relationships between the East and West which have helped to shape our world. The movement of ideas, peoples and technologies, are told through the treasures in the Namkhai Collection, on display to the public for the first time. Spanning millennia, linking worlds and perspectives from across Asia, the exhibition explores the Buddhist principle of Interdependence.
SCOPRI
Now On View
“Silk Road Pilgrimage” surveys the cultural and commercial relationships between the East and West which have helped to shape our world. The movement of ideas, peoples and technologies, are told through the treasures in the Namkhai Collection, on display to the public for the first time. Spanning millennia, linking worlds and perspectives from across Asia, the exhibition explores the Buddhist principle of Interdependence.
SCOPRI
The secret murals of the LUKHANG TEMPLE
Photographs by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Inauguration
SUNDAY, JUNE 23
5:00 p.m.
In 1981 Professor Namkhai Norbu, returning to Lhasa after more than 20 years, made the first photographs of what were then considered the most secret images of Tibet, the 18th-century murals of the Lukhang, a small temple located behind the Potala Palace which contains what has become known as the Sistine Chapel of Tibetan Buddhism. An esoteric Wunderkammer, the images of the Lukhang present a panorama of Tibetan culture in the 1700s and an authentic visual guide to enlightenment.
This exhibition has been made possible by the support of the 8th of December Fund and the Ati Evolution Foundation.
THE NAMKHAI COLLECTION
The MACO was founded by Prof. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with the scope of sharing with a wider public the Namkhai Collection. The Collection, consisting of over 5000 artefacts, includes works of art of inestimable value and profound cultural significance, crafts and costumes, votive objects of considerable historic importance, as well as, a significant collection of manuscripts, directly related to Prof. Namkhai’s research and a media archive documenting many aspects of Tibetan and Central Asian culture.
The Secret Murals
of the
LUKHANG TEMPLE
Photographs by Chögyal Namkhai Norbu
Inauguration
June 23rd
5 PM
In 1981 Professor Namkhai Norbu, returning to Lhasa after more than 20 years, made the first photographs of what were then considered the most secret images of Tibet, the 18th-century murals of the Lukhang, a small temple located behind the Potala Palace which contains what has become known as the Sistine Chapel of Tibetan Buddhism. An esoteric Wunderkammer, the images of the Lukhang present a panorama of Tibetan culture in the 1700s and an authentic visual guide to enlightenment.
This exhibition has been made possible by the support of the 8th of December Fund and the Ati Evolution Foundation.
THE NAMKHAI COLLECTION
The MACO was founded by Prof. Chögyal Namkhai Norbu with the scope of sharing with a wider public the Namkhai Collection. The Collection, consisting of over 5000 artefacts, includes works of art of inestimable value and profound cultural significance, crafts and costumes, votive objects of considerable historic importance, as well as, a significant collection of manuscripts, directly related to Prof. Namkhai’s research and a media archive documenting many aspects of Tibetan and Central Asian culture.
In the Summer of 2017 we inaugurated the Project Space, two large galleries on the second floor of the MACO. Project Space is dedicated to exhibition projects which explore the tangible and intangible cultural heritage of Asia and promote contemporary dialogues between East and West. To date, the Project Space has hosted 3 exhibitions: Lhasa and Beyond (2017), Sky Writing: The Calligraphy of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu (2018) and Meditation in Motion: The World of Tibetan Sacred Dance (2020). We firmly believe that contemporary art represents a universal language, that helps to build bridges towards a deeper understanding and appreciation of our multicultural world heritage.
PROJECT SPACE
RESEARCH SPACE
OUR DIGITAL SPACE
This year, with the support of the Union of Italian Buddhists (UBI) and the Municipality of Arcidosso, MACO began a very fruitful collaboration with the British Museum’s Research Space team, to create a virtual museum. Research Space (RS) is the best software in the world for detecting and mapping the intricate interdependencies of our cultural heritage, adopting the standard for documentation developed by UNESCO, the CIDOC-CRM cultural heritage ontology. Thanks to enhancements to RS that we have funded, they will implement a long-term digital preservation platform and a virtual collaborative environment. This will permit us to store and share digital resources and to build exhibitions, online with our curators, collaborators and institutional partners around the world. RS also will help our visitors, construct connections and reveal relationships within our exhibitions, to construct their own personal tours, enriched by the digital resources contained in our archive.
We are pleased to report that the restoration of the former chancery building in Arcidosso, home of the Namkhai collection, has finished. The project was funded by the European Union, Tuscan Region, FAR Maremma, the Municipality of Arcidosso and the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism (MiBACT), through the PSR 2014/2020 Sub-measure 7.6.2.
NEWS
