The Auditorium of the National Museum of Asian Art is a well-integrated part of the renovated Musée Guimet which now offers a varied and regular programme.

The Auditorium has 280 comfortable seats in a cosy atmosphere.

Its design allows the curators to address objectives of high quality and diversity.

The programme is coherent and established in accordance with the activities of the Museum.

This is why many events such as film seasons, lectures and seminars are organised to complement or enhance temporary exhibitions, donations and purchases.

This well-balanced programme is continuously striving for scientific richness and an educational approach to each event.

The schedule is also coherent in its origins. The ever-present Asia is the common theme of the events organised by the team of curators: acoustic music concerts, dance troops, theatre, puppet shows, shadow shows etc.

Contemporary artistic creation is also very much present, notably with its close relationship with tradition. Some shows have been created in-house.

The Auditorium commits itself to regular film previews.

In spring 2002 the Auditorium started to open more regularly with the first concerts of Afghan and Tadjiks music along with the series of documentaries about Afghanistan.

These more and more regular events continued throughout December 2002 with a term schedule entitled Top of the World (“Toit du Monde”) which was dedicated to Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism as well as the peoples and the Himalayan area.

There are not only many films and seminars about Nepal and Tibet’s high plateaus but also Tibetan singers and dancers such as Tenzin Gönpo and his “legend of the hunter prince”.

However, the Himalayas were not the only feature of this schedule.

The Barhatta Natyam, a sacred carnatic dance from India with the dancer Priyadarshini Govind opened up this cycle of events and was one of the highlights of the season which also included a butô show from the in-house choreographers Misuyo Uesugi and Cécile Loyer.