Buddha Hopped the A Train
Clearly there is something about the countries that frame the Tibetan Plateau that is not all yoga class and placid thoughts: India’s got nukes, street demonstrators in Katmandu—you get the picture. This summer, self-styled "conscientious" New Yorkers can take advantage of the many opportunities available to assimilate everything about Himalaya Nation that is internecine, disputatious or just plain weird.
From the Upper East Side to Park Slope, we are under siege by the hostile forces of Eastern Mysticism. The shock troops hold the high ground in the Met’s exhibit, Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscoverying the Arms and Armor of Tibet. It’s an equestrian armory to make Xena melt and Pooh Bear enlist. Here you’ll find "Swords of Wisdom" sporting skull motifs and what the catalogue calls "stylized intestines" (to, you know, "flesh out" Tibetan mantras in the 17th-century scrollwork). Look for the Enlightened One wreathed in flame on leather helmets, consorting with dragons. (Now this is the fightin’ monk Kevin Kline was talking about in A Fish Called Wanda.)
Next stop is Chelsea’s newish (2004) Rubin Museum of Art, a stylish and surprisingly expansive gallery currently hosting Holy Madness: Portraits of Tantric Siddhas on two floors. The exhibit, seamlessly blending works from 37 collections from around the world, celebrates enlightened degenerate misfits and outcastes[ostracized for their] unorthodox practices such as wearing little or no clothing, drinking ale and consorting with members of the opposite sex. The payoff? The ability to reach enlightenment in as little as a single lifetime. Sign me up!
The confrontation between East and West is most stark and inviting in the RMA’s K2 Lounge. RMA’s ambitious collaboration with the nascent Jazz Museum of Harlem has been extended through the summer, and makes excellent use of the acoustic- and multimedia-friendly basement spacesort of a tantric Zankel Hall. Upcoming K2 highlights include trumpeter Jack Walrath and Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
And last, hit The Mule Café. It’s on a stretch of Fourth Avenue in Brooklyn that could use a little enlightenment. Past the phalanx of local laptops, you’ll find a baker’s dozen of luscious photographs by David Lefer and Yvonne Lui. A white-sky sunset competes with modern lamps to illuminate, Café Terrace-like, an outdoor market in Lhasa; a wise and solitary warrior commands from the snowy edge of the world.
But who knows whither the path to enlightenment? As the sun sets, spill out of the Met into Central Park and, as Brooklyn-born Mahasiddha Merz advises, start an argument with a hot dog vendor. Fight until he makes you one with everything.
Warriors of the Himalayas. Through July 2. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd St.), 212-535-7710; $15.
Holy Madness. Through Sept. 4. The Rubin Museum of Art, 150 W. 17th (betw. 6th & 7th Aves.), 212-620-5000; $10.
Above the Clouds: Photographs from the Yellow Mountains & Tibet. Through May 15. The Mule Cafe, 67 Fourth Avenue (betw. Bergen & St. Marks Street), B’klyn, 718-398-6700.