Press Release

Earliest Example of Flying on a Wing and a Prayer in Tibetan Art Exhibit at OUMA

"The Flying Mystics in Tibetan Buddhism" Opens January 25

ATLANTA – Everyone knows that Tibetan masters can levitate and fly. Marco Polo, the first Westerner to formally record an encounter with the Tibetan lamas, reported witnessing the phenomenon over seven hundred years ago. The modern adventurer Madame Alexander David Neil also wrote of her sightings of lamas on the wing.

Traditional Tibetan literature similarly tells of Buddhist mystics who have taken off in joyful flight. Buddha himself is said to have done so on several occasions, as did Indian masters such as Nagarjuna and Padma Sambhava. The legacy was adopted by Tibetan mystics in the eighth century, with the yogini Yeshey Tsogyal as a prime example, and continued over the centuries. The 11th century yogi and poet Milarepa is another famous flyer.

The historical anecdotes in Tibetan literature and oral tradition that speak of mystics with powers of levitation and flight find their way into Tibetan art. This phenomenon is the subject of the new exhibit opening at Oglethorpe University Museum of Art (OUMA) on Jan. 25. Some months ago, Glenn H. Mullin, renowned scholar of Tibetan culture and author of over 21 books on Buddhist topics, developed this exhibit with Jeff Watt, curator and iconographer at the Rubin Museum (RMA). While the flying/levitating deeds of these masters are generally depicted as details in Tibetan paintings rather than as central images, Mullin and Watt decided that this feature added to rather than subtracted from the theme by echoing the actual manner in which such abilities are treated within the tradition. According to Mullin, “Paranormal abilities of this nature are considered secondary to the primary goal of Tantric Buddhism, which is the inner realization of mahamudra. Levitation and flight are an expression of tunmong gi ngo-drup, or ‘common siddhi,’ and are side-effects of the inner realization of mahamudra, the exclusive siddhi of realization (tunmong ma yinpai ngo-drup).”

"The Flying Mystics in Tibetan Buddhism" features approximately 40 works from the Rubin Museum of Art (RMA) and several collectors including Robert M. Baylis, John and Berthe Ford, Dr. Lynne Heckert, Navin Kumar, Shelley and Donald Rubin, and Tom Pritzker. The majority of the works on exhibit originate from collectors Donald Rubin, a 1956 alumnus of Oglethorpe University, and his wife Shelley Rubin.  Their passion to preserve Himalayan art has led them to assemble one of the most extensive collections of Himalayan art in the United States and to create RMA, which will open in New York City later this year.

Events in conjunction with the exhibit include a lecture by curator Glenn H. Mullin on Feb. 19 at 7:30 p.m. and a lecture by Geshe Lobsang Tenzin, the founder and director of Drepung Loseling Institute, on March 4 at 7:30 p.m.

For further information about OUMA events or to schedule a docent tour, call (404) 364-8555 or go to our award-winning website.

"The Flying Mystics in Tibetan Buddhism"
January 25 – August 8, 2004
Museum Hours:
Tuesday through Sunday: noon to 5 p.m.

Closed Mondays and July 4th.

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