Lord and Lady of the Cemetery (Citipati)The Skeleton dance is a sacred Tibetan ritual found in Himalayan Buddhist lineages. The skeletons depicted are Chitipati (or Citipati), a pair of lovers known as the Lord and Lady of the charnel ground whose dance represents the eternal dance of death, as well as the attainment of perfect consciousness.

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“The fact of [death] is nothing to do with seeing it happen—[…] that isn’t what makes it death. It’s just a man failing to reappear, that’s all—now you see him, now you don’t, that’s the only thing that’s real: here one minute and gone the next and never coming back—an exit, unobtrusive and unannounced, a disappearance gathering weight as it goes on, until, finally, it is heavy with death.”

— Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

Sgra-Snyan. Carved wood, skin, gesso, and gilding (Tibet, 14th–16th century) Along the ancient Silk Road, Central Asian trade hubs fused diverse cultural and musical practices together. This traditional lute, an example of East-West musical exchange, echoes the design of instruments played by angels in seventh-century Buddhist cave murals.