class="right" />After five years of research and conservation (and two concentrated months of whirlwind construction, signmaking, writing, planning) the Honolulu Academy of Arts’ landmark exhibition The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan opened with a special weekend of members-only events on Feb. 23 and 24.Visitors such as Robert Y.C. Ho, of the Hong Kong-based Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation (the exhibition’s lead donor), sat in Central Court to hear HRH Ashi Sonam Dechen Wangchuck of Bhutan (the king’s half-sister) eloquently talk about her country’s mission to preserve its traditional culture. (The 26-year-old has a masters in constitutional law from Harvard.) You could feel a collective exhalation among staff—the event was the culmination of so much work by so many people in Bhutan and Honolulu, and the result was finally on view.

Cynthia Wornham, director of external affairs for the Sundance Institute, and Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin were at the Feb. 23 opening ceremony for Society of Academy Friends in Central Court.

Academy director Stephen Little led HRH Ashi Sonam Dechen Wangchuck on a tour of the museum’s collections.

HRH Ashi Sonam Dechen Wangchuck with Robert Y.C. Ho, whose father founded the Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation (the exhibition’s lead donor). Ho, who lives in London, represented the foundation, whose twin missions are to promote Chinese arts and culture and to foster a deeper understanding of Buddhist philosophy and apply its insights to the practice of creativity.

John Johnston, who as assistant curator of The Dragon’s Gift is the guy who ferreted out most of the exhibition’s artwork in monasteries and temples, with HRH Ashi Sonam Dechen Wangchuck.

At 5 p.m. hundreds gathered in Thomas Square to watch visiting monks and dancers perform Buddhist ritual dance, called cham.

The princess and high-ranking monks and officials were there too.

Phallus-wielding atsaras, similar to jesters (and they aren’t monks), warmed the crowd up with their antics. Lewd, crude and hilarious—they had aunties laughing out loud.

Hundreds of years old, the Black Hat Drum dance echoes Twyla Tharp’s contemporary choreography. Plus ça change. Their fluid, flowing moves, a form of danced yoga, mesmerized the crowd. In Bhutan, art and dance are inextricable, with each informing the other. The visual presentation of this relationship in The Dragon’s Gift is a first for museums.

—LesaG, 03/08/08