If you meet the Buddha downtown, kill him!

August 17, 2006 12:12 PM

Holy Madness!(Flash interface.) The Rubin Museum of Art in New York City has launched a website that allows you to pore over and compare Tibetan Buddhist artwork from their exhibits. Use the "Decode" feature to pick paintings apart and learn about their intricate components.

See also: their ambitious calendar of events.
posted by hermitosis (18 comments total)

I randomly wandered into this museum a while back, and a friendly curator named Juliet spontaneously gave me a guided tour of three floors. Not only is the museum gorgeous, but their free movie nights are a lot of fun: I got to see a screening of My Dinner With Andre that was inconcievably attended by Wallace Shawn himself, who happens to live nearby (though I suspect he was also interested in promoting his revival of "The Threepenny Opera" that had just begun its run on Broadway at Studio 54).
posted by hermitosis at 12:12 PM on August 17, 2006

Nice, thanks hermitosis - bkra shis bde legs!
posted by carter at 12:23 PM on August 17, 2006

Almost FPPed this, but I'll be more modest as not to create two back-to-back Tibet posts:

"The reincarnation of the Panchen Lama has been regulated since the Qing dynasty, that is, since the 17th century."

Der Spiegel interviews the Communist Party Chief of Tibet. [via Political Theory Daily Review]
posted by trinarian at 12:31 PM on August 17, 2006

Nice find. This is a terrific way to explore artwork.
posted by brain_drain at 12:31 PM on August 17, 2006

Thanks trinarian! I added tags to include your material.
posted by hermitosis at 12:38 PM on August 17, 2006

Wow. What a great tool...
posted by WinnipegDragon at 1:08 PM on August 17, 2006

Ooooh, lovely.
posted by moira at 1:20 PM on August 17, 2006

Wonderful site Hermitosis, thanks!
posted by Mister_A at 1:52 PM on August 17, 2006

Ajanta: A Journey Into the Religio-Aesthetic Kingdom of Buddhist Art

(Possibly NSFW.)
posted by homunculus at 3:31 PM on August 17, 2006

Hacking the Himalayas

Reporter's notebook blog
posted by homunculus at 3:45 PM on August 17, 2006

Imagine having this kind of information in your eye while you visit a museum, with some kind of augmented reality gadget. It could be quite cool.
posted by darkripper at 4:20 PM on August 17, 2006

Excellent links. I'll add this to my vacation travels around NYC next week. I've never been to this museum. Thanks!
posted by bim at 4:42 PM on August 17, 2006

...and thanks for the Der Speigel interview too, trinarian. Mr. Zhang sounded like an automaton.
posted by bim at 4:52 PM on August 17, 2006

I wish people would just stop making stuff that requires Flash 8 until there's a plugin for it for Linux.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 5:01 PM on August 17, 2006

This museum is in the former home of Barneys — talk about your karmic chameleon!
posted by rob511 at 9:29 PM on August 17, 2006

Brilliant site. Thanks hermitosis. Can't believe it's in the old Barney's building, which is huge. They must be expecting a lot of visitors.

The amazing Himalayan Art Resource has the Rubin museum's images online too.

And as an additional link, photos of a Tibetan "sky burial" taken from wonderful plep's previous post about Tibetan art.
posted by nickyskye at 1:25 AM on August 18, 2006

Tibetan Wi-Fi Website Attacked
posted by homunculus at 1:17 PM on August 18, 2006

Tibetan Wi-Fi Website Attacked

In Dharmsala, they'll probably get a cyber Mahakala as a firewall.
posted by nickyskye at 1:30 PM on August 18, 2006