Tibet - Landscape of myths and legends: Photographs by Jaroslav Poncar

Tibet – Landscape of Myths and Legends: Photographs by Jaroslav Poncar

(18. 5. – 30. 6. 2011)

The DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague-Holešovice presents Jaroslav Poncar’s panoramic photographs from western Tibet. The exhibition accompanies a series of workshops and lectures by Tibetan monks from the monastery in exile at Menri.

Jaroslav Poncar’s panoramic photographs take the viewer to the very heart of the remote and wild landscape of western Tibet, to places around the sacred mountain of Kailash, an area inhabited by nomadic shepherds and their herds as well as wild animals and invisible beings from the parallel worlds of gods, spirits and demons. Bon, the original Tibetan religion before the arrival of Buddhism in Tibet, was born here. The realm of Zhang Zhung once spread through winding river canyons as well as over open plateaus. Although it ceased to exist as an entity in the 8th century AD and Bon struggled for survival in competition with Buddhism, the Bon masters managed to protect their teaching and knowledge and passed it on, from teacher to pupil, thus preserving its tradition to this day.

The exhibition at the DOX Centre for Contemporary Art accompanies a series of workshops and lectures entitled Bon – the Earliest Source of Tibetan Culture with Tibetan monks who have come to the Czech Republic especially to give them. 

A group of Tibetan monks from the monastery in exile at Menri, India, a centre of the Bon tradition will introduce, together with Czech experts, the history and teachings of Bon, a school of thought deeply embedded in Tibetan culture, in a series of workshops and talks. Participants will experience the rituals of cham masked dances and the production and use of ritual objects, as well as learning about the most important figures in Bon, their iconography and many other aspects of this tradition. 

The proceeds will be used to finance the construction of a polyclinic in the Dölpo region, Nepal.

The exhibition comprises an installation of the traditional lungt prayer flags made of recycled glass. The installation of recycled bottle glass, entitled Recycle for Tibet, was created by Dagmar Štrosová. It echoes a core tenet of Tibetan Buddhism, the ephemerality and changeability of things. Original lungt prayer flags contain holy writings and mantras and are hung by Buddhists in sacred places, in order to have their message spread by the blowing of the lung wind.

Jaroslav Poncar was born 1945 in Prague. He has lived in Cologne since 1973 where he has been teaching at Fachhochschule Köln.His photographic projects took him to Africa, Arabia and to Asia, especially to the Himalayas, Tibet, India and Cambodia. In 1976 he took for the first time the antique Russian FT-2 - panoramatic camera - to the Western Himalayas and since that time he specialized on panoramic photography.

 

Accompanying programme:

Series of lectures and workshops Bon: the Earliest Source of Tibetan Culture

May 18, 6 pm / What is Bon and where it comes from

May 19, 6 pm / Teaching of the Bon tradition, its sacred sites and pilgrimages 

May 20, 6 pm / Tibetan medicine and astrology according to the Bon tradition

May 21, 10 am – 12 am / 1 pm – 4 pm / A day-long workshop providing insight into life in the Menri monastery 

May 22, 10 am – 12 am / 1 pm – 4 pm / A day-long workshop devoted to cham masked dances and ritual costumes 

May 23, 6 pm / Work with the mind and its influence on the mental and physical health and harmonious life of the individual and society

May 25, 6 pm / Gala closing – Festival ritual of the monks of the Menri monastery

The programme will be held in English with simultaneous translation to Czech.

Lectures in Czech:

May 26, 6 pm / Lecture by Daniel Berounský: The Relationship between Bon and Buddhism in Tibetan Culture

May 30, 6 pm / Lecture by Zuzana Ondomišiová: The Bon Realm of Zhang Zhung – Imprints in the Sacred Tibetan Landscape

June 6, 6 pm / Lecture by Ľubomír Sklenka: The Menri monastery – centre of Bon in India 

June 13, 6 pm / Lecture by Zuzana Ondomišiová: The sacred Mountain of Kailash – centre of the world and universe 

June 16, 6 pm / Tibet in film – the possibilities and ways of documentary and fiction to show and interpret Tibet, its culture and history

 

More information at www.dox.cz

Reservations at tereza@dox.cz

The exhibition and workshops are organized by:

Potala, o. s., Bezejmenná čajovna, centrum DOX

Exhibition Partners:

City of Prague, Maitrea, a. s., Emeldi Software Services, s.r.o., Nadace Forum 2000, Divadlo Archa, o. p. s., JIŠA s. r. o., CK Livingstone, s. r. o.