Rajneeshpuram, a communal city in central Oregon, was founded in July of 1981 by devotees of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (“Osho”), the Indian master who blended Eastern mysticism with Western therapies. Rajneesh lived at Rajneeshpuram until October 1984, when he left the United States to escape charges of perjury and conspiracy. By fall of 1985 the community folded, after more than four years of intense conflict both within the community and with local residents. Rajneesh died in India in January 1990. A small but thriving international movement continues in the old Shree Rajneesh Ashram near Poona (now Pune), India, and the Osho Commune International remains the movement’s spiritual center. The Rajneesh Artifacts and Ephemera Collection focuses primarily on artifacts and documents from Rajneeshpuram and the City of Rajneesh in the state of Oregon through the 1980s. It secondarily focuses on the Rajneeshees after they left Oregon. These items refer to “Osho,” as his devotees later called Rajneesh.
