Several regions sit at the foot of the Himalayas—Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, and northern India. All became spiritual poles of Asia, where Buddhism surged from the 11th century onward, igniting an artistic explosion. Portable scroll paintings, known as thangkas, depicted reclining bodhisattvas, while sculptures, mandalas, and murals multiplied. By the 15th century, the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism tightened artistic order, enforcing rigid hierarchies and near-mathematical symmetry. In recent years, artists have wrestled with tradition and innovation, their work shaped by exile and upheaval. This exhibition traces the artistic traditions that have risen—and fractured—between the world’s highest peaks. —Elena Clavarino