Presumably, 2.000 years ago yogis didn’t wear OM-t-shirts, and probably they weren’t unrolling sticky mats in their Himalayan caves. But still, there are quite a few other preconceived ideas I had about ancient yoga practitioners that are a far cry from the truth. Examples? Here you go:
Yogis weren’t peaceful. Watercolours such as ‘The Battle at Thaneshwar‘, dating from the Mughal dynasty, depict bands of armed yogis battling over bathing rights at a sacred river. Holy water…
The archetype of a yogi was probably more looking like this:
Female yogis (“yoginis”) were agents of otherworldly powers who could help win battles. Or at least this is what the Indo-Islamic rulers of Bijapur thought in the 17th century.
The exhibition Yoga: The Art of Transformation aims at exposing as myth some of the commonly agreed on ‘truths’ about yoga.
It started at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery in Washington, went next to the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco and is now on display at the Cleveland Museum of Art (June 22–September 7, 2014). But the best thing:
The Cleveland Museum of Art has put together an extensive podcast, talking you in detail through various stunning pieces of art, and overall allowing you to “visit” the exhibition, room by room – without actually going there. Kudos to the guys at this museum! I’m in Australia and would have otherwise never been able to check out these artefacts.
I was particularly intrigued by “Tantra and Yoginis” (podcast #6), “Islam in India” (#7), and most of all “From ascetic to athletic: Yoga’s modern transformations” (#10).
Here’s the link to the audio podcast (by Sonya Rhie Quintanilla, ‘Curator of Indian/Southeast Asian Art’ at Cleveland’s Museum of Art).
Has anyone been to this exhibition? What’s your impression? I’d love to hear your thoughts!
~ Andrea
All images featured in the exhibition.
Categories: Controversial, Eye Candy, Inspiration, Yoga
Yoga & Joyful Living 
Wow! The Gay Games 9 are taking place in Cleveland this week also and hopefully I can check out the exhibit with the ceremonies!
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Nice post, Andrea! I went to this exhibit when I was in San Francisco a few months – I wrote a short review of my experience, too (http://percolateyoga.com/2014/03/27/a-yoga-exhibit/). It was a really exciting exhibit for me, even though I only get to spend about 1/4 of the time I wanted to spend. I hadn’t known about the podcasts, though; I’ll have to check those out. Thanks for the heads up!
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Reblogged this on peakmemory and commented:
I saw this in May when I was in San Francisco and hope to see it again in Cleveland.
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I went to the exhibit here in San Francisco. I liked it, but it was much smaller than one I had seen in Seattle 2006? which had much more art about the Siddhis and Naths.
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Oh thanks for pointing that out! Do you know if parts of this Seattle exhibition are still accessible online?
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I have no idea. It was about 8 years ago, but it was at the Seattle Asian Art Museum, so I guess see if their website has archives.
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I’m glad to hear that a team of people have put together an exhibit like this. Wish it were showing in my corner of the world. Thanks for sharing this information on your blog.
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Thank you for the podcast link, Andrea! So totally going to check this out. xo
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Yogis of ancient times didn’t wear OM t-shirts? Tsk. Why ever not lol 🙂 What a wonderful thing, that they’ve put the exhibition online. Awesome!
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