Five reasons why you need to see Tantra: Enlightenment to Revolution

So if it’s not about sex, what is it? Well, this groundbreaking exhibition will show you how the Tantric worldview sees material reality as something that’s animated by unlimited, divine feminine power. You’ll see how and why it inspired a dramatic rise in goddess worship, how it gave its followers a new framework for understanding the world and how engaging with its rituals affirm all aspects of existence as sacred. Sounds pretty good to be fair.

This landmark exhibition charts Tantra’s emergence in India (around 500 AD) and explores its early medieval transformation of Hinduism and Buddhism, its links to the Indian fight for independence and the rise of 1960s counterculture in the West, including all that ‘free love’ stuff. (Also, fun fact! The iconic Rolling Stones’ lips’ logo was inspired by the mouth of the Tantric goddess Kali. So, not Mick Jagger’s voluptuous pout after all.) The exhibition will also look at how this movement still has radical potential today: from feminism to society, politics and gender, this is a philosophy that has an enduring potential for opening up new ways of seeing – and changing – the world.

This is the first major exhibition in the UK looking at the history of Tantra, as well as how it has impacted and influenced the world as we know it today. The British Museum houses one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of Tantric material in the world but this is the first time it will explore the subject in an exhibition.

And because the British Museum has such a large collection, you’ll get to see all of those in an exhibition that features more than 100 extraordinary objects from India, Nepal, Tibet, Japan and the UK, all the way from the seventh century AD right up to the present day. But the best bit? You’ll be treated to some bonafide masterpieces of sculpture, painting, print and ritual objects – some of which are made out of human remains, including a drum made out of a skull and another instrument created out of a thigh bone. Fascinating, if gruesome, stuff.

It’s hardly a surprise, given its radical, revolutionary spirit, that Tantra questioned gender stereotypes, too. The philosophy brings femininity to the fore and has a historic and ongoing tradition of confronting established gender roles. This exhibition looks at this idea in detail, showcasing goddesses and female Tantric practitioners all the way from a ninth-century representation of the ferocious goddess Chamunda dancing on a corpse (!) to contemporary pieces by female artists, such as the work depicting a housewife as a fearsome weapon-bearing goddess. Each piece will help highlight how this philosophy has an ongoing relevance in a modern world that is itself questioning traditional notions of gender perhaps like never before.