The British Museum has unveiled plans for a Tantra exhibition – insisting it will be about more than sex and yoga.
Curators said Tantra is associated with sex in the West, with rock star Sting’s comments about seven-hour lovemaking sessions partly to blame.
The Fields Of Gold singer has previously spoken of his penchant for the ancient art of tantric sex.
But Tantra is more than these “salacious stereotypes” – it is a misunderstood “radical philosophy”, according to experts.
Tantra explores “female power, gender fluidity, religious pluralism, mindfulness and well-being,” museum director Hartwig Fischer said. And sexual “freedom and sexual rites” are just “one strand of this rich philosophical tradition”.
Objects on display will include a 9th century temple relief depicting the goddess Chamunda dancing on a corpse, which embodies the human ego.
Many artefacts challenge conventional images of womanhood as passive and docile.
Some of the earliest surviving sacred instructional texts, called Tantras and dating from the 12th century, will be on show.
They often described sexual rites and engagement with intoxicants, and the benefits of engaging in sexual activity with a partner to transcend desire.
Tantra: Enlightenment To Revolution will open its doors after five years of research on the subject.
Curator Imma Ramos said misunderstanding about Tantra, which originated in 6th century India, began in the colonial period.
The exhibition will explore Tantra’s links to the Indian fight for independence.
Objects on show will include the goddess Kali wearing garlands of decapitated heads, which “successfully exploited British fears of the goddess as a bloodthirsty ‘demon mother'”.
Supported by the Bagri Foundation, Tantra: Enlightenment To Revolution is at the British Museum from April 23 to July 26.
