The museum's
Tibetan art galleries are considered among the best in the world. The collection was purchased from Christian missionaries in the early twentieth century. The Tibetan galleries have an
in-situ Buddhist altar that the
Dalai Lama has consecrated. In 1910,
Albert L. Shelton, a missionary to Tibet, agreed to lend his collection of Tibetan art to Edward N. Crane, a Newark Museum trustee, for a temporary exhibition at the museum. The exhibition, the first dedicated Tibetan art exhibition in the world, ran in 1911 with a success. Crane died in the same year. His wife and brother bought the collection from Shelton and donated it to the museum to create a permanent collection in Crane's memory. The museum also commissioned Shelton to bring back more artifacts to add to its collection between 1913 and 1920. Before the year 1935, the Tibetan art artifacts were presented individually, accompanied by respective descriptions, employing a format consistent with that observed in various art collections. This mode of presentation shared similarities with practices observed in other museums housing Tibetan collections such as the
Victoria and Albert Museum and the
British Museum in London. In 1935, the Newark Museum constructed a temporary
altar to provide a meaningful setting for its collection. The altar was very well received by the visitors and the decision was made to keep as a permanent setting. Subsequently, Tibetan monks and other dignitaries visited the museum and had sanctified the altar space. The museum continued to acquire more objects to its collection until the 1940s, when its collection included more than 5,000 objects including paintings, sculptures, ritual objects, fine textiles and decorative arts. In the mid-1980s, the "Tibet, the Living Tradition" project at the museum involved a renovation and expansion to have the installation of eight permanent galleries. The original altar was de-consecration by the Venerable Ganden Tri Rinpoche in January 1988. It was retained to be enclosed in the cavity of the new altar. The new altar was created by Tibetan artist-in-residence, Phuntsok Dorje, between 1989 and 1990. The new altar was consecrated by the
14th Dalai Lama in 1990. , the museum housed over 5,500 Tibetan art artifacts establishing as the largest and most distinctive collection in the
Western Hemisphere. ==The Ballantine House==