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Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York, 319 West 107TH Street, New York, NY (2026)

09/02/2026

Message of Shambhala (Arrow-Letter) (1946) brings together two things Roerich knew intimately: the Himalayan landscape and the traditions of Central Asia. During his travels he encountered arrows used to carry written messages, while in his writings he described Shambhala as a symbol of humanity’s future and spoke of its messengers carrying news into the world. The arrow-letter in the painting therefore becomes both a real Central Asian tradition and a powerful symbol of a message arriving from Shambhala.

Though Roerich did not write directly about this painting, his book Shambhala, first published in 1930. In the essay “Shambhala, the Resplendent,” Roerich actually discusses messengers of Shambhala:
“The carriers of the messages of Shambhala are recalling the links between the great traditions of the past and our aspirations of the future.”

The work is dated 1946, just a year before Roerich’s death. At that time he was living at his Himalayan home in Naggar, Kullu Valley, India, where he had been settled since the late 1920s.

08/30/2026

Himalayas. Near Sandakphu - 1936

The Nicholas Roerich Museum collection catalogue records the painting as Himalayas. It is signed with Roerich’s monogram and numbered 87. Interestingly, it has also circulated under the alternative title Young Moon, which makes sense given the delicate crescent moon in the composition.

Sandakphu (Sandakfu) is a high Himalayan summit on the present-day India–Nepal border, in the Darjeeling/Singalila region.

Roerich repeatedly treats unusual atmospheric effects—moonlight, dawn, glowing peaks, clouds and changing mountain colors—not simply as picturesque scenery but as part of the profound psychological and spiritual experience of the Himalayas.

Roerich knew this landscape personally. When the Roerich family first came to India, they spent an important period in Darjeeling and Sikkim in 1924, and Kanchenjunga became one of the recurring mountain subjects of his later work.

08/28/2026

Excerpt from the book “Adamant” by Nicholas Roerich.

Nicholas Roerich’s Adamant belongs to the period when he was living and working in the United States in the early 1920s. It is not a conventional narrative book but a collection of essays and reflections written around 1921–1923.

The central subject is the power of Art, Beauty, Knowledge, and Culture to transform human life. Roerich was writing in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution, at a moment when he believed modern civilization was becoming increasingly materialistic and mechanized. Adamant argues that civilization cannot survive through material progress alone; it also needs the creative and spiritual forces represented by art, knowledge, beauty, and culture.

All essays/ books written by Nicholas Roerich can be purchased in our museum NYC gift shop or find them on our website roerich.org.

08/28/2026

Shambale Daik - Keylang (Kyelang), Lahul, August 24, 1931
Daik” (дайк) means “message, tidings, envoy” in Tibetan/Mongolian. The full title translates as “Message to Shambhala” or “Tidings of Shambhala”.

The painting was created during the 1931 Lahul expedition — the same expedition and season that produced Palden Lhamo. Roerich established a summer camp above Keylang, the capital of Lahul, after crossing the Rohtang Pass from Naggar in July 1931. The expedition is documented in the Journal of Urusvati.
The painting is dated August 24, 1931 —

the same day Roerich wrote one of his most important essays about Shambhala.

“The Universal Eye of Shambhala carries benevolence to mankind. The Universal Eye of Shambhala is like the light upon mankind’s path. The Universal Eye of Shambhala is that Star, which has directed all seekers.”

“For some, Shambhala is the truth; for others Shambhala is an Utopia. For some, the Lord of Shambhala is a Sage; for others the Lord of Shambhala is the manifestation of abundance... But We shall say — the Lord of Shambhala is a Fiery Mover of Life and of the Fire of the Mother of the World. His Breath glows with flame and His Heart burns with the fire of the Silvery Lotus.”

“The Lord of Shambhala lives and breathes in the heart of the Sun! The Lord of Shambhala is the calling one and the called! The Lord of Shambhala is the transmitter of the arrow and the one who accepts all arrows!”

— Nicholas Roerich, “Maitreya,” Fiery Stronghold (roerich.org; NRM Archive PDF)

08/23/2026

Palden Lhamo (Палден Лхамо), 1931
A second version also exists, dated 1932, measuring 81.4 × 127 cm, also in tempera on canvas and also held at the Nicholas Roerich Museum.

Palden Lhamo (Tibetan: དཔལ་ལྡན་ལྷ་མོ།, Sanskrit: Śrīdevī, “Glorious Goddess”) is the principal dharmapala (protector deity) of Tibetan Buddhism — a wrathful goddess who guards the Mahayana teachings and serves as the special protector of Lhasa and the Dalai Lama lineage.
The painting depicts a specific location in Lahul (Lahaul), the high Himalayan region of present-day Himachal Pradesh, India. In July 1931, Roerich led an expedition from the Urusvati Himalayan Research Institute at Naggar across the Rohtang Pass into Lahul, establishing a summer camp above Keylang (Kyelang), the capital of Lahul.
Roerich visited the Palden Lhamo waterfall, where natural rock formations appeared to depict the goddess riding her mule.

Roerich did write about this experience. ““We are going to Lahaul. It is again a continuation of the expedition... After having crossed Tibet and Ladak, one can appreciate Lahaul. The snowy peaks, colorful shrubs, fragrant juniper, and brightly tinted wild roses are not inferior to those of the most fertile plains of Tibet...
The environs are filled with famous names: here are the caves of Milarepa, who hearkened at dawn to the voices of the Devas; here lived also Padma Sambhava. All the great apostles of the teachings were in need of the irreplaceable radiation of the Himalayas. Not far from here is the waterfall, Palden Lhamos upon the rocks; Nature itself has designed the figure of the austere goddess riding on her favorite mules. “See how the mule has raised its head and its right leg. Look how distinctly the head of the goddess is seen.” We see, we see! And we hear the continuous song of the mountain stream.”

08/20/2026

The renovation has been completed! Himālaya Gallery is open.
The Himālaya gallery is home to our permanent multisensory installation — Roerich’s Himalayan mountainscapes accompanied by a botanical scent composed from cedars, pine, and juniper gathered high in Himachal Pradesh, and by music. If you have not yet experienced it, we encourage you to plan your visit on our website Roerich.org.

08/12/2026

The 1912 painting is the second and final version of the composition. Roerich first created the idea in 1909, sketching the image in tempera and then finely treating every detail in pastel. The idea remained “deeply entrenched” in his mind, and in 1912 he created a new, larger version — this time concentrating fully on tempera, dispensing with the pastel overlay. The first version was exhibited at the 7th exhibition of the Union of Russian Artists (eve of 1910), where critics praised it unanimously. After being exhibited in Paris in 1910, the first version apparently entered a private collection there.

The concept originated in 1906, when Roerich was working on a painting called The Battle. His original idea juxtaposed a Viking naval battle below with a battle of Valkyries in the sky. But halfway through, he radically changed his mind — replacing the warring female figures with racing clouds against a fiercely glowing sunset. He said to himself: “Let them fight an invisible battle.” This source is Roerich’s own literary heritage (Iz literaturnogo naslediia, Moscow, 1974)

In his 1939 essay “Heavenly Architecture” from the series My Life, Roerich wrote directly about the lifelong fascination with clouds that produced this painting:
“From the very early years I indulged my passion for heavenly architecture.”

He described his earliest childhood memories evoking “decorous clouds” whose “eternal movement, intricate rearrangements and incredible creativity” held his attention. He saw in them “wondrous animals, heroes who fight dragons, white horses with wavy manes, boats with coloured gilded sails, alluring ghostly mountains” — “indefinitely profuse and inexhaustible heavenly pictures”.

08/10/2026

The Himālaya Gallery is temporarily closed for renovation.
We are installing a new floor, and the gallery will reopen in the second week of August.
The Himālaya gallery is home to our permanent multisensory installation — Roerich’s Himalayan mountainscapes accompanied by a botanical scent composed from cedars, pine, and juniper gathered high in Himachal Pradesh, and by music. If you have not yet experienced it, we encourage you to plan your visit for after the reopening — it is worth the wait.
All other galleries remain open during normal hours. Please be aware that visitors may encounter some construction noise during their visit.

08/07/2026

Snegurochka and Lel is Nicholas Roerich’s 1921 costume design for N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden).

The design was made for the Chicago Opera Company’s planned 1922 production. However, the 1922 production was unrealized—so the design was prepared for the commission but apparently not used in a completed Chicago staging.

This was part of Roerich’s long engagement with Snegurochka. He created designs for the work in several contexts and cities between 1908 and 1921, including projects connected with St. Petersburg, London, and Chicago. His 1919 designs had been made for the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; the Chicago commission followed soon after.

Roerich’s connection to Rimsky-Korsakov began through the critic and historian Vladimir Stasov. In 1895, while still a student in Arkhip Kuindzhi’s studio at the Imperial Academy of Arts, Roerich met Stasov, who was Director of the Slavonic Department of the St. Petersburg Public Library. Stasov became a key mentor and introduced the young artist to many of the leading cultural figures of the era — including Rimsky-Korsakov, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, and the basso Fyodor Chaliapin.

The relationship deepened after Roerich graduated from the Academy in 1897. Stasov invited him to travel by overnight train from St. Petersburg to Moscow, sharing a compartment with Rimsky-Korsakov — whom Roerich considered his favorite living composer — and the sculptor Ilya Gintsburg. This trip cemented their personal acquaintance (John McCannon, Nicholas Roerich: The Artist Who Would Be King; Roerich’s own account in The Scholar, 1941

Roerich then began his stage-design career at Savva Mamontov’s Russian Private Opera, where he painted innovative designs for operas by Glinka, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dargomyzhsky, Serov, and Borodin — designs that were integral to the productions rather than merely decorative. Later, through Serge Diaghilev’s Russian Seasons in Paris (1909 onward), Roerich designed sets and costumes for Rimsky-Korsakov’s Ivan the Terrible and Pskovityanka, among other works Including his known work as set and costume designer for The Rite of Spring.

08/06/2026

The Himālaya Gallery is temporarily closed for renovation.
We are installing a new floor, and the gallery will reopen in the second week of August.
The Himālaya gallery is home to our permanent multisensory installation — Roerich’s Himalayan mountainscapes accompanied by a botanical scent composed from cedars, pine, and juniper gathered high in Himachal Pradesh, and by music. If you have not yet experienced it, we encourage you to plan your visit for after the reopening — it is worth the wait.
All other galleries remain open during normal hours. Please be aware that visitors may encounter some construction noise during their visit.
Visit roerich.org for details.

Nicholas Roerich

1931–32 Naggar, India

Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York

09/02/2026

08/30/2026

08/28/2026

08/28/2026

08/23/2026

08/20/2026

08/12/2026

08/10/2026

08/07/2026

08/06/2026

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