These publications include traditional Tibetan woodblock prints as well as photographic reprints in western-style bound volumes from the University of Virginia's extensive Tibetan holdings, one of the largest collections of Tibetan literary materials outside Tibet. Many of the publications are unique in the U.S., while others are available at only 3 or 4 universities. The texts related to death and dying are a central component of Tibetan ritual and meditation systems. Tibetan artwork and ritual implements are also an integral part of such systems. This in turn allows them to engage actual death as an opportunity for personal development and liberation from the cycle of suffering, transforming these events into enlightened states.
Physical gestures support such visualization practices and employ numerous ritual implements.
Tibetan scroll paintings, statues, and ritual instruments accompany the texts in the exhibition, framing the larger cultural context and employment of the texts. This ritual artwork includes examples from the holdings of the Bayly Art Museum of the University of Virginia and the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, as well as from private collections. A typical Tibetan altar provides further context for the literary, ritual, and contemplative systems that derive from the texts. There are several translations into western languages, as well as western appropriations of Tibetan material such as the manual for psychedelic experience published in 1964 by hippy gurus Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert. In conjunction with the exhibition, there will be several lectures.