Embodying Enlightenment: Yoga and Physical Culture in Tibetan Buddhism

Ian Baker draws back the veil that has shrouded Tibetan yoga practices for centuries.

Yogic practices associated with physical movement, expansion of the breath and cultivation of inner vitality were central to the transmission of Vajrayana Buddhism from India to Tibet from the eleventh century onward, yet have been kept largely hidden due to a monastic culture emphasizing ritual and textual recitation. Tibet’s long-hidden yogic practices are vividly portrayed in a series of late seventeenth century murals in a once-secret meditation chamber in Lhasa conceived during the reign of the Fifth Dalai Lama known as the Lukhang murals (which can be seen on the Third floor gallery). This presentation focuses on illustrative details from the murals to bring renewed attention to the yogic practices that underlie Tibet’s Buddhist lineages.