The Tibet Museum in Gruyères holds one of the most significant collections of Tibetan sacred art in Europe, assembled by Swiss collector Alain Bordier over several decades. The museum occupies a building adjacent to the HR Giger Museum, and the proximity of two such contrasting collections — one drawing on the dark inner cosmos of a Swiss surrealist, the other on the spiritual traditions of the Himalaya — is one of Gruyères' more unusual cultural conjunctions.
The permanent collection includes thangka paintings, religious sculptures, ritual objects, and textiles spanning several centuries of Tibetan Buddhist art. The quality is consistently high, and the curation provides enough context for visitors unfamiliar with Tibetan iconography to understand what they are looking at. It is a relatively quiet museum even in high season, and worth an hour of your time.