Stunning new reasons to plan a visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan include Encountering Vishnu: The Lion Avatar in Indian Temple Drama (through June 5). This visual exploration of southern India’s Hindu festivals includes five extremely rare wood sculptural masks from little-recorded late medieval Indian devotional art. The masks tell the story of a universal battle between Vishnu as his lion-like avatar Narasimha and a malicious king bent on destroying all of existence. A Gallery Talk will be held March 11 from 10:30–11:30 a.m., and a late afternoon lecture is offered April 1.

Also on through June 19: Chinese Textiles: Ten Centuries of Masterpieces from the Met Collection, highlighting the role of silk in Chinese culture with additional unusual textiles from the museum’s own collection; A Passion for Jade: The Heber Bishop Collection, with more than 1,000 pieces of carved jades from Heber R. Bishop’s collection; and Chinese Lacquer: Treasures from the Irving Collection, 12th–18th Century, which examines the master techniques employed in the creation of intricately detailed landscapes, animal figures and scenes from history, myth and literature.