Rubin Senior Curator Dr. Karl Debreczeny and Dr. Beth Harris of Smarthistory chart a 19th-century pilgrimage map of Mt. Wutai—a sacred mountain located in Shanxi Province, China, which is believed to be the earthly abode of the Bodhisattva of Wisdom Manjushri.
The Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art has teamed up with Smarthistory to bring you an ‘up-close’ look at select objects from the Rubin’s preeminent collection of Himalayan art. Featuring conversations with senior curators and close-looking at art, this video series is an accessible introduction to the art and material culture of the Tibetan, Himalayan, and Inner Asian regions. Learn about the living traditions and art-making practices of the Himalayas from the past to today.
Learn more about Mt. Wutai:
This video was produced in partnership with Smarthistory.
Lhundrup; Panoramic Map of Mount Wutai; Cifu Temple (慈福寺), Wutaishan, Shanxi Province, China; 1846; Woodblock print on linen, hand colored; Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art; C2004.29.1
Karl Debreczeny is senior curator, collections and research, at the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. His research focuses on artistic, religious, and political exchanges between the Tibetan and Chinese traditions. His publications include The Black Hat Eccentric: Artistic Visions of the Tenth Karmapa (2012) and the coedited The Tenth Karmapa and Tibet’s Turbulent Seventeenth Century (2016). More →
Dr. Beth Harris is cofounder and executive director of Smarthistory. Previously, she was dean of art and history at Khan Academy and director of digital learning at The Museum of Modern Art. Before joining MoMA, Beth was Associate Professor of art history and director of distance learning at the Fashion Institute of Technology where she taught both online and in the classroom. She has co-authored, with Dr. Steven Zucker, numerous articles on the future of education and the future of museums, and is the editor of Famine and Fashion: Needlewomen in the Nineteenth Century (2005). She received her Master’s degree from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, and her doctorate in Art History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
People across the Himalayan regions interacted with their surroundings driven by various motivations or purposes, developing diverse architectural styles.
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