American Museum of Natural History Research Library
author: American Museum of Natural History

Tibetan Banners (Exhibition)
birth: 1956 October 10
death: 1956 November 25
Exhibition. Opened October 10, 1956 and closed November 25, 1956. Located in the Grand Gallery at the American Museum of Natural History. "Tibetan Banners" featured 31 Tibetan banner paintings (tang-kas).
Summary
"Tibetan Banners" featured 31 Tibetan banner paintings (tang-kas). Announced by Dr. Harry L. Shapiro, Chairman of the Museum's Department of Anthropology, the exhibition was held in conjunction with UNESCO's International Museums Week. The banners were painted on canvas at the beginning of the eighteenth century by priests of the Narthang Monastery near Lhasa and were used to illustrate sermons and stories about Buddha. The series was based on a famous eleventh-century poem about the former lives of the Buddha Gautama,"The Avadanakalpalata, " The banners were on view in the Seventy-seventh Street Foyer of the American Museum of Natural History from October 10 through November 25, 1956. It may have been extended through April 15, 1957.
Individuals and institutions involved in the creation of the exhibition: UNESCO; AMNH Department of Anthropology.