Cleveland Museum of Art Teaches Visitors the Sacred Practice of "Tantric" Sex

THE CLEVELAND PAIN DEALER
By Steve Litt

 "Iconographic Drawing of Tantric Enlightened Beings"
depicts the sexual union of Hevajra and his consort, Nairatmya.

OHIO---A small bronze Buddha statue on view in the Focus Gallery at the Cleveland Museum of Art radiates authority, serenity and an elevated state of being that belies the work’s relatively diminutive scale. This enigmatic device represents a double-headed lightning bolt, and it indicates that the statue, made in Northeastern India in the 800s, embodies the secretive practice of tantra. A rarefied form of Asian worship and contemplation, tantra is the subject of an unusual exhibition at the museum that remains on view through Sunday, Sept. 15. To contemporary Westerners, the adjective “tantric” is most accompanied by the word sex. That association stems primarily from Hindu practices rather than those of Buddhism, which is the principal, er, thrust of the museum’s show. [link]