Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images reimagines Tibet by showing how it has been represented historically by outsiders, and how Tibetans themselves now present and talk about Tibet. This exhibition highlights the importance of Tibet’s rich cultural heritage as well as its current political context. Developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists, the exhibition showcases Tibet and Tibetans through their own lenses and voices.

Bio

Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a socio-cultural anthropologist and is the curator of Entangled Territories: Tibet through Images. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies and Curator, Asia at the Museum of Anthropology, the University of British Columbia. Since visiting Dharamsala in India in 1995 and Tibet and Nepal in the 2010s, the Himalayan region has remained one of her research interests. While a graduate student at the University of Oxford, she worked on the “The Tibet Album: British Photography in Central Tibet 1920–1950” project and the Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947 exhibition (2003) at the Pitt Rivers Museum.

ཧྥུ་ཡུ་བྷི་ནཱ་ཁ་མུ་ར་ནི་སྤྱི་ཚོགས་དང་རིག་གཞུང་གི་མི་རྒྱུད་དཔྱད་རིག་ཆེད་མཁས་ཤིག་ཡིན་ལ། དཀའ་རྙོག་ནང་གི་ཡུལ་སྡེ། པར་རིས་ནང་གི་བོད་ཅེས་པའི་གོ་སྒྲིག་པ་རེད། ཁོང་ནི་ཡུ་བྷི་སི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གཉེར་ཁང་གི་ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཞིབ་འཇུག་སྡེ་ཚན་གྱི་ཕྱག་སྦྲེལ་སློབ་དཔོན་དང་མི་རྒྱུད་དཔྱད་རིག་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་གི་ཨེ་ཤ་ཡའི་ཁུར་ལེན་མགོ་འདོན་པ་རེད། ༡༩༩༥ ལོར་རྡ་རམ་ས་ལར་གཟིགས་སྐོར་དང་། དེ་རྗེས་ ༢༠༡༠ ལོར་བོད་དང་བལ་ཡུལ་ ནང་གཟིགས་སྐོར་བྱས་པ་ནས་བཟུང་ཧི་མ་ལ་ཡའི་མངའ་ཁུལ་ནི་ཁོང་གི་ཞིབ་འཇུག་ཁྱབ་ཁོངས་གཙོ་བོ་ཞིག་ཡིན་འདུགཁོང་ཉིད་ཨོ་ཁི་སི་ཧྥོར་ཌི་གཙུག་ལག་སློབ་གྲྭའི་མཐར་ཕྱིན་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་སྟབས། ཁོང་གིས་བོད་ཀྱི་པར་དེབ། ༡༩༢༠ ལོ་ནས་༡༩༥༠ལོའོ་བར་གྱི་དབྱིན་ཇིའི་པར་རིས། ཞེས་པའི་ལས་འཆར་སྐོར་ལ་ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་བ་དང་། ལྷ་ས་མཇལ་བ། ༡༩༣༦ ལོ་ནས་༡༩༤༧ལོའི་བར་དབྱིན་ཇིས་པར་དུ་བླངས་པའི་བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་སའི་པར་རིས། ཞེས་པ་ ༢༠༠༣ ལོར་ཕི་ཊི་གཙང་བོའི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་ཁང་དུ་ཚུགས་པའི་འགྲེམ་སྟོན་སྐབས་ཕྱག་ལས་གནང་ཡོད་པ་རེད།

The panel will feature insight into Tibet and its culture as they respond to the exhibition by reflecting on their respective work as a writer and as an anthropologist.

MOA’s feature exhibition, Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images was developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists. Entangled Territories presents Tibet, its cultures and its communities in a different light. The exhibition also uplifts the efforts of the Tibetan-Canadian community to maintain their culture and history in the face of challenges associated with migration and the loss of their homeland.

Bios

Writer Tsering Yangzom Lama was born and raised in Nepal, and has lived in Toronto, New York City, and Vancouver, where she now resides. Lama holds an MFA in Writing from Columbia University and a BA in Creative Writing and International Relations from the University of British Columbia. Lama’s debut novel We Measure the Earth With Our Bodies (McClelland & Stewart, 2022) won the GLCA New Writers Award as well as the Banff Mountain Book Award for Fiction & Poetry.

Dr. Kabir Mansingh Heimsath is a socio-cultural anthropologist working on urban space, landscape and contemporary art in Tibet and the Himalayan region. He lived and worked between Kathmandu and Lhasa for fifteen years as a researcher, faculty and director for international academic programs. He teaches in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon, where he is currently the Director of Asian Studies.

Presented by the Museum of Anthropology, the Himalaya Program and the Department of Asian Studies, the University of British Columbia.

Supported in part by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Art Club at MOA is a new monthly evening series for adults who are curious about using craft as a way to connect—both with the Museum’s collections and exhibitions, and with one another. Part creative workshop, part social gathering, Art Club offers a relaxed space to slow down, experiment, and make meaning through art.

Each Art Club is inspired by an ongoing exhibition at MOA, inviting participants to explore its themes through hands-on artistic practice.

Art Club sessions are free and located in the Cedar Café at MOA (does not include admission into the museum).

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

Schedule

Monthly, on select Thursday evenings.

January 15: Trouble in Paradise
February 12: Everyone Says I Look Like My Mother
March 26: Tupananchiskama

The March session is a tribute to our new feature exhibition Tupananchiskama: Ancient Andean Cosmovision (opening March 19). As the exhibit focuses on ceramic works, this month we will be working with air-dry clay to create figures inspired by the Andean Cosmology at the heart of Tupananchiskama.

Art Club at MOA is a new monthly evening series for adult visitors who are curious about using craft as a way to connect—both with the Museum’s collections and exhibitions, and with one another. Part creative workshop, part social gathering, Art Club offers a relaxed space to slow down, experiment, and make meaning through art. See the full schedule.

Art Club sessions are free and located in the Cedar Café at MOA (does not include admission into the museum).

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

Learn more about the exhibition and the process behind it, and take one final look at this thought-provoking show before it closes.

Entangled Territories: Tibet Through Images reimagines Tibet by examining how it has been represented historically by outsiders and how Tibetans today represent and speak about their own histories and identities. Developed in collaboration with Tibetan Canadian community members and artists, the exhibition highlights both Tibet’s rich cultural heritage and its contemporary political context, centering Tibetan voices and perspectives throughout.

Bio

Dr. Fuyubi Nakamura (中村冬日) is a socio-cultural anthropologist and is the curator of Entangled Territories: Tibet through Images. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Asian Studies and Curator, Asia at the Museum of Anthropology, the University of British Columbia. Since visiting Dharamsala in India in 1995 and Tibet and Nepal in the 2010s, the Himalayan region has remained one of her research interests. While a graduate student at the University of Oxford, she worked on the “The Tibet Album: British Photography in Central Tibet 1920–1950” project and the Seeing Lhasa: British Depictions of the Tibetan Capital 1936-1947 exhibition (2003) at the Pitt Rivers Museum at the University of Oxford.

To mark the start of spring, join us to chase away the dark winter months and celebrate the return of the sun. Create handmade kites with your family to play with outdoors, and design suncatchers to welcome the warmth of the sun into your own home. All-ages storybooks and colouring sheets will also be available.

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

About Culture Club at MOA

Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! Drop in and enjoy engaging art-making activities designed for families. This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions. See the full schedule.

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

About Culture Club at MOA

Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! Drop in and enjoy engaging art-making activities designed for families. This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions. See the full schedule.

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning

Limited supplies; first come, first served.

About Culture Club at MOA

Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! Drop in and enjoy engaging art-making activities designed for families. This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions. See the full schedule.

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning

Looking for fun, enriching experiences for the whole family? Join MOA on the last Sunday of each month for Culture Club! This series offers young visitors artful learning opportunities, allowing families to get creative and connect with MOA’s diverse collections and exhibitions.

Culture Club sessions are free with museum admission.

Schedule

Culture Club at MOA takes place on the last Sunday of the month

Upcoming

March 29: Sunshine Seekers
April 26: Street Smart Street Art
May 31: Puppet-Palooza

Past Events

September 28: Imprints for Truth and Reconciliation
October 26: Lighting Our Path Together
November 30: Harvest Centrepieces
January 25: Making Memories for the New Year
February 22: Familiar Ephemera

Culture Club at MOA is made possible by the generous support of UBC Campus + Community Planning

Spend some creative time at MOA during our Open Art Studio, a relaxed, drop-in art space hosted by Cultural Interpreter Joshua Rolland (Kwakwaka’wakw).

Located in MOA’s Multiversity Galleries, this informal studio invites visitors of all ages to slow down, observe, and respond to the artworks around them through hands-on making. Joshua facilitates drawing activities and simple craft explorations inspired by the objects, stories, and themes in the galleries. No experience is needed — just curiosity and a willingness to experiment.

Drop in, stay for a few minutes or a little longer, and enjoy a creative pause during your museum visit.

Open Art Studio Schedule

January 8 – April 25, 2026

Thursday | 6 – 8 pm
Friday | 2:30 – 4:30 pm
Saturday | 2:30 – 4:30 pm

Please note: there will be no open art studio on February 12, March 19 and 26.

Schedule subject to change. Please note: this is not a guided workshop or tour.

Open to all ages and abilities.

The Cultural Interpreters Program is made possible by the generous support of the Campbell Family Trust.

Tupananchiskama: Ancient Andean Cosmovision explores the enduring worldviews of ancient Andean civilizations through nearly 100 exquisite pre-Columbian ceramic, textile, bone and wood works, some dating back more than 2,500 years.

These works were collected by former UBC Professor Alan R. Sawyer and donated to MOA. This exhibition highlights Andean cosmovision—a holistic and spiritual understanding of the universe grounded in reciprocity, balance, and the recognition of nature as a living being. Far more than artistic objects, the belongings on display embody relationships between humans, ancestors, and sacred forces.

These 45-minute Not Your Average Tours invite visitors to encounter Tupananchiskama through the perspectives of specialists in ceramics, Andean cosmology, and collecting history, offering layered insights into the objects, their meanings, and the complex journeys that brought them to the museum.

Capacity of 25 people per tour; first come, first served.

Schedule
Select Thursdays | 7 pm

April 30: Carol Sawyer (visual artist and daughter of Alan Reed Sawyer and Erika H Sawyer whose donated collection form the basis of the exhibition)

May 28: Dr. Alexandra M. Peck (inaugural Audain Chair in Historical Indigenous Art & Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Art History, Visual Art, & Theory)

June 25: Pao Noriega (Indigenous Andean Ñusta Paqo, Mesa Carrier, Original Peoples Advocate, conscious coach, and knowledge keeper)

September 24: Dr. Aleksa Alaica (Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Anthropology).

Bios

Carol Sawyer (she/her) is a visual artist and singer working with photography, installation, video, and improvised music. Since the early 1990’s her visual art work has investigated the connections between photography and fiction, performance, memory, and history. Collection donations from her parents, Alan Reed Sawyer and Erika H Sawyer, form the basis of the exhibition.

Dr. Alexandra M. Peck serves as the inaugural Audain Chair in Historical Indigenous Art & Assistant Professor at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Art History, Visual Art, & Theory. She is an anthropologist and material culture specialist with a research focus on Pacific Northwest Native art, archaeology, and geography.

Pao Noriega is an Indigenous Andean Ñusta Paqo, Mesa Carrier, Original Peoples Advocate, conscious coach, and knowledge keeper born in Peru and initiated into the sacred Q’ero lineage. She carries the Quechua, Aymara, and Amazonian roots of her ancestors and shares their teachings with integrity and devotion. Her work bridges ancestral Earth based technology with modern science for healing and transformation.

Aleksa K. Alaica is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia. She is an anthropological archaeologist interested in the interactions between humans and animals in the Andes. She investigates the way different animal species influenced and shaped past cultures, with much of her work examining Moche material culture, animal bone remains, and their rich iconographic record.