For immediate release
Smithsonian launching worlds 1st
yoga history exhibit
Yoga:
The Art of Transformation, termed as worlds first exhibition of the visual
history of yoga, will be held at Smithsonian in Washington DC (USA), world's
largest museum and research complex, from October 19 to January 26 next.
Through
over 130 stone and bronze sculptures, devotional icons, illustrated
manuscripts, court paintings, photographs, books, missionary postcards, magic
posters, medical illustrations and films borrowed from 25 museums and
collections worldwide; some as old as 3rd century; it will reportedly
explore over 2,000 years yogas goals, manifestations, meanings, down-to-earth
aspects, central tenets, obscured histories, importance, means of transforming
body and consciousness, profound philosophical foundations, visual culture and varied
roles yogis/yoginis played in society.
Applauding
Smithsonian for exhibition highlighting yoga, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a
statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that although
introduced and nourished by Hinduism, yoga was a world heritage and liberation
powerhouse to be utilized by all.
Zed, who is President of Universal
Society of Hinduism, noted that yoga was referred as
a living fossil whose traces went back to around
2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization. According to Patanjali who codified it
in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control
of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical. Zed added.
Rajan
Zed pointed out that yoga had become a global phenomenon and there were
splendid yoga studios all over the world. About 20-million Americans practice
yoga and about $11-billion goes into yoga gear and classes annually, reports
suggest. According to
National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more
flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress.
This
exhibition will reportedly include stone yogini goddesses from Chola temple, folios
from the first illustrated compilation of asanas from 1602, watercolor Visnu
Vishvarupa, sandstone Yogini on Owl
sculpture, first movie ever produced about India Hindoo Fakir (a Thomas
Edison film, 1906), 12-foot scroll of the chakra body and earliest illustrated Yoga Vasishta. Public programs, symposium,
concerts and family activities will accompany this presentation. It will later
travel to the San Francisco Asian Art Museum and the Cleveland Museum of Art in
2014.
Founded
in 1846, Smithsonian, whose tagline is "seriously amazing", has 19
museums and galleries, the National Zoological Park, nine research centers and over
177 affiliate museums around the world; about 137 million objects; and over 30
million annual visitors. France A. Cordova and G. Wayne Clough are Board Chair and
Secretary respectively, while Debra Diamond is Curator of this exhibition.
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of
the world, has about one billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its
ultimate goal. There are about three-million Hindus in USA.