The exhibition:

The exhibition displays the cultural and spiritual heritage of eastern Buddhism. We have managed to put together a rich collection of materials for this event, which is a rarity even in Europe. Tibetan culture carries universal human values, which are some of the most important ones among the spiritual and cultural treasures of mankind. The material of the exhibition, which comes from numerous countries, brings this closed and endangered world closer to the visitors. The objects on display – Tibetan meditation paintings (thangkas) and statues – are wonderfully manufactured pieces of art, which possess a rich system of symbols.

The pictures, roll paintings and statues depicting Buddhas, are the meditation tools of Buddha’s highest teachings, the Diamond Way, and they are used to unfold the possibilities inherent in everybody. According to Buddha’s highest teachings, everybody is a Buddha in fact. If we understand the way things really are, fearless wisdom, spontaneous joy and active and limitless compassion – which are our essential characteristics – unfold in a spontaneous way. The forms that can bee seen in the thangkas and Buddha statues activate exactly these qualities in us during meditation.

These different forms were given by the Buddha 2550 years ago. They display his experience of unconditioned joy. They help us with discovering that we do not need any outer circumstances to be happy. The Buddha forms which can be seen in the roll paintings and are displayed by statues connect us directly to the experiences of a Buddha, which anybody can achieve.


Some of the artworks on display:

Gandhara Buddha

One of the extraordinary rarities of the exhibition is the so-called Gandhara Buddha, a Buddha statute made from a 2,000-year-old stone in the 1st century AD. It is named after the Gandhara Empire in India and after the period referred to by the same name, as it originates from that era. For a long time, it was preserved in the territory of today’s Iraq by a Muslim family, who believed that it is endowed with wish-fulfilling power and worshipped it secretly. The statue was purchased and brought to Europe by a Danish tourist in the fifties, and it has been the “honorary guest” of numerous exhibitions since then. Despite its being 2,000 years old, the folds of Buddha’s robe or the meditation gesture can still be clearly seen. A specialty of the statue expressing the perfection of mind is that, following the trends of the time, Buddha is depicted with a moustache.

Thangkas of the Dhyani Buddhas

The most spectacular part of the exhibition is the five monumental 5-metre pictures (thangkas) of the Dhyani Buddhas, which arrived here from a Spanish retreat centre. Following the views of tantric Buddhism, the five Buddhas represent the five perfections of the mind, which transform the disturbing emotions, responsible for people’s suffering, into wisdoms. The symbolism of the five Buddhas seated at the four gates and in the middle of the traditional mandala includes most of the Buddhist teachings: the five main disturbing emotions, the five Buddha wisdoms (emerging as transformed emotions), the five elements of the universe or the five aggregates (skandhas) playing a part in the functioning of mind.