Himalayan gallery, Oriental Art Museum in Turin

On the third floor is the Himalayan Gallery which houses precious and rare specimens of Tibetan thang-ka and bronze sculptures; worthy of note is the part dedicated to the display of manuscripts with precious wooden covers.

In this suggestive collection you can grasp the mystical side of Buddhism, which involves the art of Himalayan regions (Bhutan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and Tibet) in all its forms: from sculpture to painting, from writing to architecture. In this section you will find wood and metal sculptures, ritual instruments, tempera paintings (thangka) and some wooden covers of sacred texts, carved and painted.

The art of the Himalayan regions (Ladakh, Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan) shares a common Tantric version of Buddhism from which emerges a worldview that influences architecture, statues, painting, books and ritual instruments. The Himalayan Gallery displays notable collections of wood and metal sculptures, ritual instruments, tempera paintings dating from between the twelfth to the eighteenth century, and a series of carved and painted wooden sacred texts covers.

Highlights works
On the third floor, showcase statues, thang-ka and ritual objects from Himalayan collection.

Vajrasattva and sattvavajri, 18th-19th century
Yama dharmapala, 19th century
Fragment of decorative plate, 15th century
Tibetan astrological calenda, 18th century
Akshobhya the buddha of the oriental direction, 19th century
Shakyamuni buddha figures in samadhimudra, 14th century
Dharmatala with vaishravana and virupaksha, 18th-19th century
Avalokiteshvara with 11 heads and 1000 arms, 19th century
Prajñaparamita, shakyamuni and bhaihajyaguru, 14 th century
Acala and the pañcaraksha, 13th century
The buddha with disciples and arhats, 18th century
Ñi-ma’od-zer, 18th-19th century
Vajravarahi, 19th century
Sitatara, 18th century
Mgon-po-po-dkar-phyag-drug, 18th-19th century
Shyamatara, 18th-19th century
Akshobhya, 14th century
Rnam-sras rta-snon-can (vaishravana from the blue horse) , 18th century
Prajnaparamita between vairocana and shakyamuni, 14th century
Dharmadhatuvagishvara mañjushri, 19th century
The vairocana buddha, 18th century
Gter-ston, 18th century
Ushnishavijaya, 18th-19th century, second half of the 16th century
Manuscript of pajnaparamira with double cover, early 15th century
Mahakala, 17th century
Bhaishajyaguru, 19th century
Hayagriva, 18th century
Vajrapani, 19th century
Blade of ge-lugs-pa, 17th century
Vajradhara (rdo-rje-chan) , 15th-16th century
Mahavajrabhairava, 17th-18th century
Amitayus (tshe-dpag-med) , 17th century
The manifestations of the guru rin-po-che, 19th century
Prajñaparamita with the buddhas of the 10 directions, 12th century
Lozenges variously decorated, 13th-14th century
Shakyamuni, padmapani, vajrasattva (?), 15th century
Shakyamuni on the throne of the lions, 15th century
Shadbhuja jñana mahakala, 18th century
Stupa bka’-gdams-pa, 13th-14th century
The buddhas of past ages, 14th century
Lama rñing-ma-pa, 17th century
Vadisimha mañjughosha, 18th century
Amitayus, 18th century
Stupa with cosmic buddha, second half of the 17th century
Angry form of vajrapani, 18th century
Vaishravana, northern guardian and god of wealth, 17th century
Shakyamuni and disciples, 19th century
Sitatara, the savior, 16th century
Two peacocks with a braided neck, 14th century
Gesar of gling, 19th century
Vajrapani, 18th century
Guru rin-po-che, 18th-19th century
Two sa-skya-pa masters, 15th century
Fragment of prabhamandala, 15th century
The eight buddhas of medicine, 15th century
Fragment of prabhamandala with manidhara, 15th century
Wooden cover decorated with stars and lozenges, 13th century
Dmag-zor-rgyal-mo, 18th century
Ekadashamukha avalokiteshvara, 15th century
Ekadashamukha sahasrabhuja avalokiteshvara, 18th century
Bsod-nams-rgya-mtsho (third dalai lama) , 18th century

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Oriental Art Museum in Turin
The Museum of Oriental Art (Italian: Museo d’Arte Orientale, also known by the acronym MAO) is a museum contains one of the most important collections of Asian art in Italy. The collection works represents cultural and artistic traditions from across the Asian continent.

MAO, the Museum of Oriental Art, is located in the historic 18th-century seat of Palazzo Mazzonis. The museum’s heritage encompasses some 1500 works, in part from the pre6thous collections amassed by various city institutions, in part acquired in the past few years. The Museum’s exhibition layout is di6thded into f4the cultural areas: South Asia, China, Japan, the Himalayan Region and Islamic countries. This layout corresponds naturally with the building’s physical structure which is di6thded into the same number of interlinked but structurally separate exhibition spaces used to house the various sections.

The museum opened on December 5, 2008, with the merger of the Asian collection of the Turin City Museum of Ancient Art at the Palazzo Madama and contributions from Turin City Hall, the Region of Piedmont, the Fondazione Giovanni Agnelli and Compagnia di San Paolo. Architect Andrea Bruno oversaw the restoration of the Palazzo Mazzonis to house the newly formed museum.

The exhibits now housed in the new Oriental Art Museum in Turin are mostly works already present in the city’s Ci6thc Art Museum. Others, however, were donated to the museum by the Piedmont Region, as well as by the Agnelli Foundation and the Compagnia di San Paolo.

The museum‘s exhibition space, which has been designed to host f4the different thematic areas, such as the entrance hall where you can observe typical Japanese Zen gardens. Each area, from this point on, enjoys a different characterization of the space and the works on display. On the ground floor you can admire artifacts from South Asia, most of which are very ancient, and from South-East Asia. On the first floor there are Chinese-made artifacts, including bronze and terracotta works dating back to 3,000 BC, and in the appropriate rooms, it is possible to admire numerous artifacts of Japanese art. But that is not all. In fact, on the third floor of the Oriental Art Museum of Turin there is also a collection of objects from the Himalayan region, while the top floor is entirely dedicated to Islamic art.

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