Tibet House US Presents Transforming Minds: Kyabje Gelek Rimpoche & Friends
Exhibition Celebrates Rimpoche and Allen Ginsberg’s Relationship Through the Lens of Ginsberg’s Camera
Tibet House US is delighted to partner with The Allen Ginsberg Estate and Jewel Heart International on an exhibition of unique images by the celebrated visionary and poet Allen Ginsberg. The special exhibit will be on display at the Tibet House Gallery (22 West 15th Street, New York, NY) from September 21-December 12, 2021 with more details and special events to be announced in the coming weeks.
Allen Ginsberg (1926-1997), best known as one of the most influential poets of the 20th Century, is also recognized for his photography, intimately capturing friendships from the birth of the Beat Generation through the countercultural, cultural, and literary circles he helped inspire. Ginsberg’s lifelong spiritual quest, beginning early on with visionary experiences involving the 19th century English mystic and poet, William Blake, ultimately evolved into a deep commitment to and practice of Tibetan Buddhism in the final decades of his life.
Gelek Rimpoche (1938-2017) was one of the last Tibetan Buddhist lamas educated in Tibet and is considered to be one of the great Tibetan Buddhist teachers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. He fled Tibet in 1959, and in the late 1970s began teaching Westerners in Northern India. By the late 1980s he had moved to the United States, and in 1988 established Jewel Heart here, having already opened Jewel Heart centers in Europe and in Asia. He remains particularly known for his thorough knowledge of English, his familiarity with modern culture, and his effectiveness in teaching Westerners Tibetan Buddhism.
In 1989, Allen Ginsberg’s close friend, Philip Glass, a student of Rimpoche, brought Ginsberg to Michigan to perform a benefit concert for Jewel Heart. From that first meeting and until Ginsberg’s death in 1997, Rimpoche was his Tibetan Buddhist teacher and friend. Ginsberg, was also, in many ways, Rimpoche’s teacher—a consultant in matters involving the English language and the more puzzling facts of Western culture. The two formed an indissoluble bond.
Allen Ginsberg used his friends, peers and teachers as subjects in many of his photographic images highlighting and documenting his life as he did in this exhibit, focusing on his life with Gelek Rimpoche and friends, many of whom they shared. Images in the show include the Dalai Lama, Philip Glass, Patti Smith, Francesco Clemente, Robert Thurman and others, and exemplify the transformational nature of this time in US history.
The exhibition is a partnership between Tibet House U.S., The Allen Ginsberg Estate and Jewel Heart, and was curated by Peter Hale and Ben Paljor Chatag.
Timed entry tickets are available now. Please email sonam@tibethouse.us for reservations. Estate prints and copies will also be available for sale, and the exhibition will be viewable online HERE.
ABOUT TIBET HOUSE US:
Tibet House US is a non-profit educational institution and cultural embassy founded in 1987 at the request of His Holiness the Dalai Lama working to promote and preserve Tibet’s unique cultural and spiritual heritage. Tibet House US serves to expose and share this unique civilization through innovative educational and cultural programs and events for the general public, providing inspiration for others to join the effort to protect these treasured arts, sciences, and ways of living.
