Dragon canopy silk-and-gold tapestry (central detail, approx. 14 inches square) Southern Sung dynasty (late 12th century) [just prior to the Mongol conquest] The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund (1995.1)   A curious aspect of the exhibition, politically correct, politically incorrect, (depending upon one's view and interests) is the labeling of objects. The Mongols once controlled Tibet. They also controlled China. They lost control of both. However, the Chinese, in an inscrutable manner, use this domination of themselves by the Mongols to say, in retrospect, that Tibet belongs to them, historically speaking. This would be harmless, except that the Han Chinese have used it as the basis for conquering Tibet. Even these facts would be out of place here but for a peculiarity of the labels in the exhibition. Objects were made in Tibet when it was free. The labels are written to please the contemporary Chinese conquerors. That is, they read as if during any dynasty Tibet was China, and so the pieces are identified as Chinese not Tibetan. It is as if one were to label pre-Colombian works as Spanish. I regret having to say this. I understand the museum's needs, but it could have been done in a better way.       Luckily, it is not necessary to know history to appreciate these works. An eighth century child's coat from Sogdiana thrills us. A huge thangka from Tibet startles us in its immediacy and the weight of its esoteric imagery. This would even have been the case when it was new. Images of Buddhas or dragons or bodhisattvas glimmer at us more brilliantly than paint could possibly shine; silk mandalas are more shimmering than a sand mandala could strike our eyes. They are equivalents of meditational images of the inner eye. Of course, this is not say that all the images in the exhibition are religious. Embroidered boots do not belong to Buddhas whoever they were made for, and wherever they were made; as does the rest of the exhibition. They now belong to no one country, but to the world. More images of Silk/Gold.   Right hand insert above: Vighnantaka [Destroyer of Obstacles] silk tapestry thangka (central detail, approx. 31 by 22 inches) From Tibet or the Tangut court [commissioned (early 13th century)] The Cleveland Museum of Art. Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund (1992.72)
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