Nicholas Roerich

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Guests from Overseas, 1899 (Varangians in Russia)

Nicholas Roerich, (October 9, 1874 - December 13, 1947) also known as Nikolai Konstantinovich Rerikh (Russian: Николай Константинович Рёрих), was a Russian painter and spiritual teacher. He was the father of Tibetologist George Roerich (a.k.a. Yuri Roerich) and artist Svetoslav Roerich. Nicholas and his wife Helena Roerich were co-founders of the theosophical Agni Yoga Society.

Born in pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg, Russia to the family of a well-to-do notary public, he lived around the world until his death in Punjab, India. Trained as an artist and a lawyer, his interests lay in literature, philosophy, archaeology and especially art.

1 Early life
2 America
3 The Roerich American Expedition
4 His cultural work
5 His legacy
6 Roerich's UFO sighting
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

[edit] Early life

In his early life Nicholas Roerich (Ukrainian: Микола Костянтинович Реріх) had close ties to Ukraine and Ukrainian culture. Influenced by such prominent Ukrainian sympathizers of his time as Taras Shevchenko, Nikolai Gogol, and Nikolay Kostomarov, he had prized Kostomarov's influential book of poems Kobzar as one of his favorite books. [1]. Roerich took his first painting classes in the same class with Shevchenko. Between 1903 and 1906 Roerich's drafts for Pokrova were implemented in the Kyiv region, in the 1910 mosaic for Troyicky cathedral in the famous Pechersk Lavra.

Roerich's stage-designs for the premiere of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, given in Paris in 1913, and based on ancient Russian motifs, were highly innovative and influential. They were an important element in the success and the scandal of this epochal musical event.

[edit] America

He first visited New York City in 1920. After touring the United States, he and his wife settled in the city, founding the Master Institute of the United Arts. They also joined various theosophical societies and their activities in these groups dominated their lives.

[edit] The Roerich American Expedition

After leaving New York, the Roerichs - together with their son George and six friends - went on the five-year long 'Roerich American Expedition' that, in Roerich's own words: "started from Sikkim through Punjab, Kashmir, Ladakh, the Karakoram Mountains, Khotan, Kashgar, Qara Shar, Urumchi, Irtysh, the Altai Mountains, the Oryot region of Mongolia, the Central Gobi, Kansu, Tsaidam, and Tibet" with a detour through Siberia to Moscow in 1926. Between the Summer of 1927 and June of 1928 the expedition was thought to be lost, since all contact from them ceased for a year. They had been attacked in Tibet and only the "Superiority of our firearms prevented bloodshed. ... In spite of our having Tibet passports, the expedition was forcibly stopped by Tibetan authorities". The Expedition was detained by the government for five months, and forced to live in tents in sub-zero conditions and to subsist on meagre rations. Five men of the expedition died at this time. In March of 1928 they were allowed to leave Tibet, and trekked south to settle in India, where they founded a research center, the Himalayan Research Institute.

[edit] His cultural work

In 1929 Nicholas Roerich was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by the University of Paris. (He received a second nomination in 1935.) His concern for peace led to his creation of the Pax Cultura, the "Red Cross" of art and culture. His work in this area also led the United States and the twenty other members of the Pan-American Union to sign the Roerich Pact on April 15, 1935 at the White House. The Roerich Pact is an early international instrument protecting cultural property.

Saint Panteleimon the Healer, 1916.

U.S. Vice-President Henry A. Wallace was a frequent correspondent and sometime follower of Roerich's teachings, which caused some controversy when Wallace ran for President in 1948 and portions of the letters were printed by Hearst Newspapers columnist Westbrook Pegler.

[edit] His legacy

Today, the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York City is the artistic center of Roerich's work. Numerous Roerich societies continue to promote his theosophical teachings worldwide. His painting can be seen in several museums including the Roerich Department of the State Museum of Oriental Arts in Moscow; the Roerich Museum at the International Centre of the Roerichs in Moscow; the Russian State Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia; a collection in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow; a collection in the Art Museum in Novosibirsk, Russia; a collection in the Art Museum in Nizhny Novgorod, Russia; the Roerich Hall Estate in Kullu Valley, Himachal-Pradesh (India); in various art museums in India; and a selection featuring several of his larger works in The Latvian National Museum of Art.

A recent source of information about the spiritual journeys of Nicholas and Helena Roerich is a book called "Nicholas & Helena Roerich, The Spiritual Journey of Two Great Artists & Peacemakers" by Ruth Drayer. Also see Jacqueline Decter's biography, "Messenger of Beauty"; Kenneth Archer, "Nicholas Roerich: East and West"; and scholarly articles by John McCannon, as well as his "Searching for Shambhala," in the magazine "Russian Life."

Later developments have shown that Roerich tried to begin a new country made up of parts of Tibet, Mongolia, China and Russia. His wife, Mme. Helena Roerich wrote a book detailing how such a country should be governed by N. Roerich. Called "The Leader," it has been translated from Russian into English by Gleb Drobychev and Gurt Wilson.

[edit] Roerich's UFO sighting

During his travels in northern China, Roerich describes a strange sighting in his travel diary on August 5, 1926:

We were in our camp in the Kukonor district not far from the Humboldt Chain. In the morning about half-past nine some of our caravaneers noticed a remarkably big black eagle flying above us. Seven of us began to watch this unusual bird. At the same moment another of our caravaneers remarked, "There is something far above the bird." And he shouted in his astonishment. We all saw, in a direction from north to south, something big and shiny reflecting the sun like a huge oval moving at great speed. Crossing our camp this thing changed in its direction from south to southwest. And we saw how it dissappeared in the intense blue sky. We even had time to take our field glasses and saw quite distinctly an oval form with a bright surface, one of which was brilliant from the sun^[1]