The relation between baseball and Asian philosophies has often been noted. Casey Stengel said, “There comes a time in every man’s life and I’ve had many of them,” while Yogi Berra observed that “Baseball is 90% mental. The other half is physical.” Koans such as these keep us mindful of the endless cycles of life and base running, and of the fact that  — to again quote Berra — “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

This photo shows our beloved visitors from Bhutan, the monks Lopen Netem and Lopen Gyem, at a San Francisco Giants baseball game.

Only six days remain in the run of our exhibition The Dragon’s Gift: The Sacred Arts of Bhutan, and I think everyone at the museum will be sorry to see it go. The visiting Bhutanese monks, Lopen Neten Dorji and Lopen Gyem Dorji, have been wonderful. Visitors can observe them performing daily purification rituals and prayers (puja) for sacred objects in the exhibition at 11:00 and 3:00 on most days. They have also created two beautiful sand mandalas. A detail from one is shown above. Remarkably, the monk spreads the sand for the mandalas using only his fingers.

To see more, visit our Bhutan Flickr set.