A group of 104 sculptures on long-term loan to the Rubin Museum of Art will be exhibited together for the first time in the United States. A selection of the works was previously exhibited at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, in the United Kingdom, in 1999. The collection is known as the Nyingjei Lam Collection, which means "path of compassion."
The anonymous owner, who describes himself as a Roman Catholic of Irish-American origin and who has spent most of his life living in China has said he was compelled to begin collecting Buddhist art because of "the compassionate smiles that radiated from the faces of the many statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, saints, and lamas."
The sculptures include rare and important Indian and Nepalese bronze sculptures of the 7th-12th century showing the neighboring regional traditions which influenced early Tibetan art, as well as many remarkable images from Tibet itself dating from the 10th-17th century. These included figures in copper, bronze, stone, and other materials, depicting the Buddha, Bodhisattvas and esoteric Tantric deities. Many are masterful displays of miniature metalwork and include inlays in silver, copper, and precious stones and have fine details including inscriptions.
The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog, The Sculptural Heritage of Tibet: Buddhist Art in the Nyingjei Lam Collection, by David Weldon and Jane Casey Singer. It was published in 1999 by Laurence King Publishing, an imprint of Calmann & King Ltd.