Ruth A. Drayer (Wheaton, IL: Quest Books, 2006, 355pp.)

"Only the bridge of Beauty will be strong enough for crossing from the bank of darkness to the side of Light"

Nicholas Roerich (1874 -1947), the Russian painter, explorer and cultural activist, stressed thoughout his life the role of beauty and culture in bringing humanity together in unity.  "True art is  the expression of the radiant spirit."

His inspiration is still at work today in many efforts to preserve the art of the past and to create an art of the future which speaks to ther highest aspiration of the person.  "The ways of beauty are countless, clear, straight ways, persuasive in the impressions they make."

Roerich gained recognition at a young age in the St. Petersburg artist circles.  His paintings of early Russian life, inspired in part by his archaeological excavations of tumuli - a reminder of the Vikings in Russia -were popular among those who were looking for inspiration in the Russian past.

There were some among the Slavophiles of the early 1900s who felt that Russia had a unique culture and thus a special role to play in the salvation of Humanity.  They rejected anything coming from Western Europe.  However, Roerich, while close to some of the Slavophiles, especially Princess Maria Tenisheva and her efforts at the experimental village Talashkino, was never hostile to artistic creation from non-Russian cultures.  As he said "The chief significance of an artistic education lies in opening up wide horizons to the pupils and in inculcating the conception of art as something infinite."  Roerich believed that one had to preserve and develop what was best in local culture as a contribution to a world culture in which the best of local cultures would be preserved.  "Culture is a constant becoming, a dynamic evolution of a living world."

Probably the most influential aspect of Roerich's Russian period was his cooperation with Igor Stravinsky for the theme and the music of the Sacre du Printemps and with Serge Diaghilev for the ballet, costumes and scenery of the Sacre in Paris in 1913, a music and dance wxhich revolutionized ballet at the time.  As Roerich wrote of Le Sacre " The eternal novelty of the Sacre is because spring is eternal, and love is eternal and sacrifice is eternal.  Then in this new conception, Stravinsky touches the eternal in music.  He was modern because he evoked the future; it is the great serpent ring touching the great past."

In 1901, Nicholas Roerich married Elena Ivanovona who shared his interest in art, music, and the philosophy of China, Tibet, and India.  Later, in the West she wrote her name as Helena and also published under the pen name Josephine Saint-Hilaire On Eastern Crossroads (1930).  The Russian composer Moussorgsky was her uncle.  The young couple cooperated with the Buriat Lama Dorzhiev in building a Tibetan Buddhist Temple in St. Petersburg.

Dorzhiev saw the possibility of an alliance of the Buriats, Kalmyk and other Buddhist tribes living in the eastern part of Russia with the thirteenth Dalai Lama, who was the most politically aware of the Dalai Lamas, and the Panchen Lama.  This alliance was to be headed by the Tsar Nicholas II and would have been a counter weight to English and Chinese influence in Tibet.

From Dorzhiev, the Roerichs learned of the idea of Shambhala, of the coming of a new historical-astrological cycle - the New Age - and of the coming Buddha, Maitreya.  Nicholas II, however, was not to become "the Bodhisattva Tsar", he was soon caught up by the 1917 Russian Revolution.  By 1918, the Roerichs left Russia forseeing the Soviet policy of controlling all art forms for narrow political purposes.

After 1918 began the wanderings which gives the title and the themes of the book.  After a short stay in Western Europe, the Roerichs moved to the United States where his paintings had already been shown.  With American friends, he created the Master School of the United Arts in 1922 in New York City, where music, art and philosophy were taught.  In 1923, Helena began receiving telepathic transmissions from one considered to be Master Morya.  Some of the guidance was for the Roerichs privately; other advice became the Agni Yoga series of books.  In the spirit of the first book of the series  Leaves of Morya's Garden students were advised to "Look forward, forget the past, think of the service of the future.  Exalt others in spirit and look ahead."

In 1924, the Roerichs left for India and travelled especially in the Himalayan areas.  For  Roerich, mountains represented a path to the spiritual life.  "Mountains, what magnetic forces are concealed within you!  What a symbol of quietude is revealed in every  sparkling peak.  The Highest knowledge, the most inspired songs, the most superb sounds and colors, are created on the mountains.  On the highest mountains there is the Supreme.  The Highest mountains stand as witnesses of the Great Reality."  (The photo at right is of a wall hanging in the Auditorium at the headquarters, Theosophical Society in America.  The picture is one of Roerich's famous paintings.)

The Roerichs undertook a number of expeditions to Central Asia along with their son George, who became a specialist of Tibetan culture and language.  George Roerich's Trails to Inmost Asia  (Yale University Press, 1931) is a good and unsentimental account of these trios, George being assigned the hard work of running the operations.  Ruth Drayer draws upon George's writings to present a year by year account of the travels and the creation of the Urusvasti Himalayan Research Institute where George and Nicholas Roerich wrote up their findings.  Nicholas Roerich always remained convinced of the need to preserve local culture.  He put an emphasis on collecting folk tales and traditional practices of medicine, especially the use of herbs.  "In every encampment of Asia, I tried to unveil what memories were cherished in the folk memory.  Through these guarded and preserved tales, you may recognize the reality of the past.  In every spark of folklore, there is a drop of the great Truth adorned or distorted."

After the death of Nicholas and the death of Stalin, George went to Nikita Khrushchev's USSR and continued his work on Tibetan culture at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow.  A multi-volume dictionary of Tibetan, English and Russian was published after his death.

Today, the need to bring beauty to as many people as possible is the prime task of developing a culture of peace.  Ruth Drayer's account of the lives of Nicholas and Helena Roerich joins Jacqueline Decter's Nicholas Roerich (Rochester VT: Inner Traditions, 1989) in presenting the life and art of Nicholas Roerich to the English-speaking world, reminding us, in Nicholas Roerich's words that "The most gratifying and uplifting way to serve the coming evolution is by spreading the seeds of beauty.  If we are to have a beautiful life and some happiness it must be created with joy and enthusiasm for service to art and beauty."

René Wadlow

For those interested in Nicholas Roerich, the Roerich Museum in New York has a rich website http://www.roerich.org with a chronological listing of his paintings, on line texts of his published writings and photos.