Faith and Empire: Art and Politics in Tibetan Buddhism, a new exhibition at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, explores the dynamic historical intersection of politics, religion, and art as reflected through Tibetan Buddhism. The exhibition underscores how Tibetan Buddhism presented a model of universal sacral kingship, whereby consecrated rulers were empowered to expand their realm, aided by the employment of ritual magic between the 8th to the 19th centuries CE. While the force of religion to claim political power is a global phenomenon, Faith and Empire reveals how Tibetan Buddhism once offered such divine means to power and legitimacy to rulers in East Asia. In this exclusive interview, James Blake Wiener of Ancient History Encyclopedia (AHE) speaks to the Rubin Museum's Karl Debreczeny about Tibet's dual role as a source of artistic production and political power within East Asia.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original interview at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1352/rubin-museums-faith-and-empire-tibetan-buddhist-ar/.
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