Florida Museum to display Tibetan treasures

January 17, 2007

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida Museum of Natural History visitors will have an opportunity to view an exhibit of historical and archival treasures of Tibetan culture when “Tibet: Mountains and Valleys, Castles and Tents” is displayed at the museum Feb. 3 through May 28.

This traveling exhibition from The Newark Museum’s renowned collection, considered the finest in the Western Hemisphere, contains rare photographs along with authentic objects including examples of official regalia, noble jewelry, castle furnishings, horse gear and weapons.

“Tibet, that mountainous land so physically inaccessible and for so long closed to western visitors, is nearly mythical in the Western imagination,” said Darcie MacMahon, Florida Museum associate director for exhibits. “As the invented Shangri-la, it embodied everything exotic, from landscapes to fascinating cultures to a utopia of perfect happiness. The Tibet exhibit grounds our imaginations in the real stuff of Tibet, revealing the fundamental character of its stark landscapes and the real people who live there.”

During the run of the Tibet exhibit, the Florida Museum also will feature photographs from the Dolpa region of northern Nepal by museum lepidopterist Andrei Sourakov. Sourakov trekked through this remote and rugged terrain in search of the many endemic butterfly species that inhabit Dolpa’s isolated Himalayan valleys. The photographs document his two-month journey, including both the butterflies and the ethnic Tibetan peoples who live there.