HONOLULU: Assistant curator John Johnston scaled steep cliffs for seven hours to reach a bronze sculpture of a Buddha at a small Himalayan monastery 13,000 feet (3,962 meters) above sea level. And where there was no trail, he and two companions grabbed trees to pull themselves up the mountain.

The gilt bronze figure is now one of the key pieces in “The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan,” a rare display of centuries-old sculptures and paintings that have never before left the remote, mountainous kingdom.

Even in Bhutan, the public rarely gets to see the rich collection of work now showing at the Honolulu Academy of Arts. The exhibit is due to travel to New York, San Francisco, Europe and possibly Singapore over the next two years.

Almost all the art is normally kept in active temples, monasteries and dzong — fortresslike buildings home to both monasteries and government offices. About a quarter of the items were gathered from far-flung monasteries and temples reachable only by hiking several hours from the nearest road.

“This is a compilation of the best Bhutan has,” said Eddie Jose, the Academy’s chief conservator for Asian paintings.

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The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, one of the most highly anticipated exhibitions on Buddhist art in recent years, opens at the Honolulu Academy of Arts on February 26, 2008. More than 100 sacred items will be on view. All of the items are on loan from Bhutan, the vast majority are from active temples and monasteries. Monks accompany the exhibition and perform ceremonies to maintain the consecrated status of these sacred items. The Dragon’s Gift is an exceptionally rare opportunity to introduce some of the most sacred and beloved Buddhist objects in Bhutan to international audiences.

Visual expressions of Buddhism from Bhutan on view in the exhibition include painted and textile thangkas, sculptures, and ritual items. Works of art date from the 8th century to the 20th century, with especially strong examples of painting and sculpture from the 17th through the 19th centuries, a golden age in the Buddhist art of Bhutan. Works in The Dragon’s Gift were selected for outstanding aesthetic accomplishment and wide iconographic scope. Nearly all of the items in the exhibition required conservation. The Academy-led conservation program has already restored hundreds of works of art and is training a new generation of conservators, primarily monks charged with the responsibility of caring for sacred objects.

Buddhist ritual dances, or cham, are an important part of the exhibition and will be illustrated by works of art with dance content as well as video presented on high-resolution screens. An entire gallery within the exhibition explores the rich sacred dance traditions in Bhutan. The dance team has spent several years in Bhutan creating a digital archive that documents many hitherto unknown Buddhist dances. As with visual art, dance is both a spiritual practice in itself and a means of communicating Buddhist teachings.

Working together with the Department of Culture of the Royal Government of Bhutan and the Central Monastic Authority, the Honolulu Academy of Arts has been given unprecedented access to the sacred arts and dances of the country during an extensive five-year research program. We are honored and humbled to present the results of this work through the The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan.

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