The Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne

Of Cologne's many museums The Museum of East Asian Art is one of the city's jewels, founded in 1913 it was the first museum of its kind in Germany. The museum houses Chinese, Korean and Japanese art with the core of its permanent collection being the Japanese section that the founder of the museum Adolf Fischer and his wife Frieda Bartdorff put together.  One side of the museum faces the traffic clogged, exhaust polluted Universitätstrasse and is only worth looking at when the beautiful cherry trees blossom in Spring.  The back part of the museum sits on the Aachenerweiher and offers a wonderful view across the water from the outside terrace. The museum building was designed by Kunio Maekawa. Its severe, transparently structured cubes take up old Japanese traditions and at the same time develop a new and modern iconography. From the 21st February you can see the exhibition "Bhutan - Sacred art from the Himalaya". A team of American experts under the direction of the Honolulu Academy of Arts spent five years preparing the exhibition in cooperation with the ministries of culture and home affairs and the leaders of the monastic community of the kingdom of Bhutan. Wedged between the major powers of India and China, Bhutan is the only country in the world where Tantric Buddhism is the official religion. Two monks from Bhutan will accompany the exhibition and offer visitors the rare opportunity to experience the ritual practices of Tantric Buddhism at first hand in cleansing ceremonies, which will be conducted twice daily. The ritual Cham dances, another important aspect of religious life in Bhutan, will be brought to life in impressive video displays.
www.museenkoeln.de