Buddhist
Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Buddhist Hour Script
337 for Sunday 11 July 2004
This script is entitled:
Preserving the art of Buddhist thangka painting
Thangka painting is one of the great arts of Asia.
To
view a thangka one cannot help but be impressed by the exquisite
materials and consummate skill that went into its creation. (Jackson,
D & J)
Someone examining even a small number of these fine
old scroll paintings will experience what David and Janice Jackson in
Tibetan Thangka Painting noted that thangka’s are rich not only
in their iconography, religious content and stylistic development,
but also in terms of the materials and skills that the painters and
their patrons lavish upon them.
Today we shall attempt to
paint for you with words a picture of the thangka, its origins,
purpose, beauty and preservation.
To address these questions
we draw, in particular, from the paper titled ‘Intent, in Tents
and Intense by Ann Shaftel, MSc, MA, Conservator of Thangkas, Tsondru
Thangka Conservation, and the second is Dharmapala Thangka Centre,
School of Thangka Painting online at
http://www.bremen.de/info/nepal/Icono/raster-0.htm
So what is
the purpose of the thangka, what use was it originally intended for
and what is it that creates its inherent beauty?
The history
of the thangka can be found in countries such as Mongolia, India,
China, Tibet and Nepal.
The thangka is a scroll painting. The
Tibetan word thangka means literally “something that can be
rolled up”.
Meulenbeld notes in ‘Buddhist Symbolism
in Tibetan Thangkas’ that, ‘on annual market days and at
celebrations, in villages and pilgrimage sites, travelling monks and
lamas unrolled thangkas and told stories about saints and deities as
they pointed out elements in the painted tableaux.
For
protection and liturgical reasons, pilgrims and travelers would take
a rolled-up thangka along on their perilous journeys. Both uses are
still in practice, but to a lesser degree than several generations
ago.
He notes the most important function of a thangka is as a
religious aid in ritual actions or as a guideline and help in
meditation.
By seeing the figures depicted, concentrating on
them, and identifying with the central deity or personage, the
believer strives for “liberation through beholding.”
Ann
Shaftel, comments that thangkas are intended to serve as a record of,
and guide for contemplative experience. She notes, for example you
might be instructed by your teacher to imagine yourself as a specific
figure in a specific setting.
Shaftel explains that you could
use a thangka as a reference for the details of posture, attitude,
colour, clothing etc., of a figure located in a field, or in a
palace, possibly surrounded by many other figures of meditation
teachers, your family etc.
In this way, thangkas are intended
to convey iconographic information in a pictorial manner. A text of
the same meditation would supply similar details in written
descriptive form.
Many great thangka painters can still be
found in these ancient countries, where painting and sculpture was
crucial to the religious life as a medium through which the highest
ideals of Buddhism were evoked and brought alive.
In recent
years the thangka has come to light more and more in western
countries such as Australia, increasingly popular among art lovers
and collectors, the thangka abounds in digital representations on
websites created by a host of Buddhist organisations from around the
world.
One such site is the Dharmapala Thangka Centre, located
in Kathmandu, Nepal and found online at www.bremen.de/info/nepal.
The Centre creates authentic thangkas supervised by the lamas
of the Ningma order. The thangkas closely adhere to traditional
Thangka painting under the guidance of chief artist Karsang
Lama.
About the thangka’s physical design Anne Shaftel
writes: it is a complicated, composite three-dimensional object
consisting of: a picture panel which is painted or embroidered, a
textile mounting; and one or more of the following: a silk cover,
leather corners, wooden dowels at the top and bottom and metal or
wooden decorative knobs on the bottom dowel.
A sacred
painting, the thangka was, and still is, a “physical support”
or an embodiment of enlightenment. The Buddha and deities painted in
thangkas are objects of veneration and respect. This is why so much
care is taken in painting a thanka or making a Buddhist
image.
Thangka or scroll paintings were not always inspired by
a joyful or pious urge to produce an object for worship.
Some
of the most common reasons patrons requested a thangka were to help
with sickness and troubles, a death in the family and the need for an
image in connection with a particular religious practice.
The
merit of the thanka could be directed to improve a troublesome
situation or produce a desired wholesome result.
Usually there
was an important connection between the deity designated for
portrayal and the result. Tara, for instance, was effective in
removing obstacles and granting protection, while Amitayus Buddha
bestowed long life. After the creation of the sacred image the patron
was often expected to practice the mantras and prayers appropriate
for that deity.
Many thankas were inspired by the human desire
to avoid suffering, to gain happiness and longevity, and to ensure a
good rebirth.
Shaftel writes: “Only rarely do thangkas
express the personal vision or creativity of the painter, and for
that reason thangka painters have generally remained anonymous as
have the tailors who made their mountings. This anonymity can be
found in many other cultures. There are, however, exceptions to this
anonymity. Rarely, eminent teachers will create a thangka to express
their own insight and experience. This type of thangka comes from a
traditionally trained meditation master and artist who creates a new
arrangement of forms to convey his insight so that his students may
benefit from it. Shaftel writes, other exceptions exist where master
painters have signed their work somewhere in the composition. The
vast majority of anonymously created thangkas, however, have taken
shape as a scientific arrangement of content, colour and proportion,
all of which follow a prescribed set of rules. These rules, however,
differ by denomination, geographical region and style.
The
Conservator is left with the responsibility of caring for religious
objects that usually carry neither the names of the artists, nor
information about their technique, date or provenance. But we do know
that the intent of the artist was to convey iconographic information.
Shaftel notes that there is a vast amount of iconographic information
provided in thangkas, some of it literally spelled out for you. If
you look closely, many thangkas spell identification of figures and
scenes in formal and delicately rendered scripts. In damaged sections
of thangkas where paint layers are missing, letters that indicate the
master painter’s choice of colour are sometimes visible.
These
letters were not intended to be part of the final composition and
should not be confused with the former. But given the breadth and
variety of the iconography of Indian and Tibetan Buddhism, it is
virtually impossible to extrapolate the information that would be
required to fill in figures that are missing or to complete the
sacred objects that the figures hold in their hands. Where in
painting is required, the definition and clarification of artistic
intent is a complex issue. Since even indigenous Tibetan scholars
trained in the iconographic details of Buddhist deities generally
would not presume to know the iconography associated with every
deity, it is unlikely that most Conservators could guess the identity
and details of unfamiliar figures. In this case, speculation as to
the artist's intent tends to be a particularly unrewarding strategy.
Sometimes water damage (yak-hide glue is susceptible to water damage)
washes away several fine layers of pigment on final paint layers or
shading layers. This damage exposes either underdrawing or flat
colours that the artist never wanted you to see. Although some
details may be present, unless the artist has also left a notation as
to the specific colour (sometimes revealed by paint loss), an error
would be made if the Conservator were to reconstruct something in an
inappropriate colour. Often, a combination of water-damage, greasy
butter lamp soot and smoky incense grit permanently alters the
original colours. Evidence of this is often seen at the edges where a
mounting has protected the original colours. Ann Shaftel now poses
the question; How has tradition contributed to damage of the scroll
painting? The author notes that damage was particularly likely given
the tendency of Tibetans to travel long distances in harsh
conditions. Thangkas were important articles of the tent culture of
nomadic monastic groups in medieval Tibet. It was not unusual for a
group of scholars, yogins and priests to travel by yak to distant
regions, set up tents, unroll the thangkas and serve the local people
by teaching before moving on to another area. This was good for the
people but intense for the thangkas! Rolling and unrolling was, and
still is, unavoidably damaging for thangkas. Rough handling and damp
walls damaged both the paintings and their mountings, in medieval
Tibet and today as well.
According to religious holidays of
the lunar cycle, specific thangkas are removed from storage,
unrolled, hung up in damp and smoky shrine halls, and then taken
down, stacked for re-rolling and placed back in storage. Storage
consisted of airless tin trunks designed to protect thangkas from
rodents. The trunks smelled of bacteriological activity. The monks in
the monastery value their thangkas. But rolling and unrolling
combined with rough handling and poor storage constantly damages
their treasured thangkas. Shaftel next asks: if you are feeling that
the subtleties of colour and iconography are overwhelming, we can
continue on to style and technique! If you feel that the original
artists were working by a set of rules to which you have little
access, let us reinforce that tense feeling by looking at the range
of traditional styles and painting techniques which the original
artists were guided by. Then we will continue on to discuss the
mountings which were made by tailors who worked by a completely
different set of guidelines. Firstly the paintings.
Basic
painting technique differs with regional style, training of the
artist and the funding available to purchase gold, expensive pigments
and so on. Also with the number of students or assistants the master
painter employed. Did the artist contour areas of iconographic and
non-iconographic detail (such as sky or grass) with wet shading, dry
shading or a combination of the two techniques? The Conservator would
have to study thangka painting technique to understand. A good way to
recognise these techniques is by learning to paint thangkas or by
studying incomplete thangka paintings. Did the artist apply many fine
layers of paint one upon the other, or one heavy layer? Regional
styles differ in the technique of paint application. If the paint
layers are lost and damaged, can the Conservator judge the artist's
intent from the surrounding areas? Should the Conservator tone in
lost areas of non-iconographic detail? Private collectors and
dealers, for example, often request a Conservator to in-paint all
damaged areas. Although some of these questions are standard
conservation issues, they are further complicated when religious and
iconographic messages must be respected and maintained. The writer
now asks what about the mountings? Thangkas are not only paintings.
Their textile mountings are very important. When dealing with the
mountings, a new set of questions arises. Did the artist of the
painting have any control over the style and proportions of the
mountings that surround the painting? Was the original choice of
mountings that of the patron or that of the tailor? Is the tailor to
be considered in a discussion of artist's intent? Was the painting
created in one part of Tibet and framed in another part of Tibet,
China or Northern India? Did the silk come from China or the Middle
East along active trade routes? Is the mounting done in a different
style, technique and aesthetic from those of the painting? Is the
silk brocade mounting currently part of this thangka in fact the
original mounting for this picture panel, or could it be the third or
fourth replacement? The answer to this last question can often be
found on the edges of the support where several rows of stitch holes
can indicate that the mounting has been changed. Does the mounting
obscure significant sections of the painting? Tailors have been known
to sew mountings with a window so small that it covers important
iconographic and aesthetically relevant sections of the painting
composition. The form of the mounting therefore may alter the
artist's intent by obscuring details significant to the iconography
and aesthetics of the painting. The conservation treatment of a
thangka is a complex process that reflects the complexity of the
original composite object. All of the issues raised here must be
evaluated in deciding on the appropriate treatment for a specific
thangka.
In summarising Shaftel writes, a Conservator must
look carefully for any exposed colour notations and not confuse them
with iconographic lettering on the final paint layers. A Conservator
must evaluate what regional and stylistic techniques were used in
producing the painting and mounting and also look for damage from
past handling.
And finally, the Conservator must examine the
current mounting to determine its relation to the painting and
document whether it covers significant sections of the painting.
Thangkas are complicated composite objects that are designed to
communicate iconographic ideas in a beautiful and practical form. A
thangka in your laboratory or collection may be the production of
many painters and tailors with differing intents, and differing
skills and training. The textile mounting may have a completely
different style, date and region of origin from those of the
painting. Pure, single artistic intent is lost through a combination
of iconographic specifications, regional and doctrinal differences in
style, changes in form subsequent to the original creation and many
years of harsh treatment.
The Dhammapala Thangka Centre
provides the following details for creating a thangka.
To sketch
the figures in a Thangka, by freehand, the artist must be an expert
in the measurements and proportions of Buddhas, Boddhisattvas and
deities, as outlined in Buddhist iconography.
There are thousands
of different deities in Buddhism. The artist will have to rely on a
grid of exactly positioned lines to sketch the deities. The basic
system of these coordinates is one vertical and two diagonal lines.
The intersection of these three lines defines the centre of any
Thangka. In Thangkas having more than one figure, there will be
additional circles and connecting lines, to contrast the main icon
with the background figure.
The grid system divides the
painting into different parts with fixed proportions. If the artist
wants to have a Thangka twice the original size, he has to double the
dimensions or distances between all the lines.
Finally,
to function as a sacred object of worship the painting had to be
mounted in a cloth frame, often done with Chinese silks, and then
backed with a thicker fabric.
Some of the more well known
deities painted in thangkas are:
Padmasambhava the lotus-born
Guru, is a very prominent historical figure worshiped as a deity in
Tibetan Buddhism. In the middle of the eighth century AD, the Tibetan
king Thi-Sron Detsan sent to India inviting the learned guru
Padmashambhava to come to Tibet.
Padmasambhava was renowned
for his knowledge of dharani [mystical sentences] and of their
efficacious application, and was warmly welcomed. He remained fifty
years in the country, founding monasteries, and teaching the
Tantra-Yogacarya doctrine. He is said to have subdued all the
malignant gods in Tibet, sparing only those that became converted to
Buddhism and that promised to enroll them in the Mahayana Pantheon
and to see that they were properly worshiped. He claimed to have
received from the dakini the books from which he acquired his
miraculous power.
At the end of fifty years, Padmashambhava
disappeared miraculously, and is said to have entered the body of
Yaksha king, where he has reined supreme 'over all the Yakshas up
till the present day, and in perpetual youth is preaching doctrine of
Lamaism in a paradise which rivals that of Amitabha's western heaven
of Sukhavati'.
Padmasambhava is still worshiped by people of
Lamaist pantheon as divine guru [teacher]. He is represented seated
on a lotus asana [posture] with the legs locked, the right hand
holding the vajra, and the left, lying his lap, the patra [bowl]. He
holds his special symbol, the khatvanga [which is believed he
invented], pressed against his breast with the left arm.
Padmasambhava, who used it in casting spells and exorcising
devils, made the ritual object of vajra, symbol of indestructible
wisdom, popular among the Lamaistic Buddhist pantheon. His garment is
flowing, and, if painted is red, as well as his peaked cap, which
ends in a half vajra. The lappets over the ears are divided and
turned back, thus resembling a lotus-flower, for Padmashambhava is
said to have born out of a red lotus-flower.
Padmasambhava is
credited for his capability of constructing the first Buddhist
monastery called Samye in Tibet and establish esoteric Buddhism in
the country. Later the school that he established was known as
Nying-ma-pa.
Vajrasattva is known as the Buddha of Supreme
Intelligence. His color is white and symbol is the vajra [in English
thunderbolt], ghanta [bell], and his sakti [or consort] is
Ghantapani.
Vajrasattva, the dhyani-bodhisattva or spiritual
son of dhyani-buddha, Akshobhya is also regarded as chief of the five
dhyani-buddhas.
The Svabhavika sect in Nepal identified
Svabhava or Sva [own], bhava [nature] Adi-Buddha with Vajrasattva,
who, according to the Nepalese Buddhist writings, manifested himself
on Mount Sumeru in the following manner. A lotus-flower of precious
jewels appeared on the summit of mountain which is the center of the
universe, and above it arose a moon-crescent upon which,' supremely
exalted', was seated Vajrasattva.
As sixth Dhyani-Buddha,
Vajrasattva presides over the Yidam the protectors and has the same
relation to the Adi-Buddha that the Manushi [human] Buddha has to his
ethereal counterpart or Dhyani-Buddha. The sixth sense is believed to
have emanated from him, as well as the last of the six elements of
which man is composed of the manas, or mind.
Vajrasattva is
usually represented seated on a lotus posture. He wears a crown in
which there is often an image of Akshobhya, and the dress and
ornaments of Dhyani-Buddhisattva. Against his breast, he generally
holds vajra in his right hand; but the vajra may be balanced on its
point in the palm of his hand. With the left, he holds the ghanta on
his hip. If standing, he balances the vajra in his right hand against
his breast, while in the left, hanging pendent, he presses the ghanta
against leg.
Unlike the other Dhyani-Buddhas, he is always
crowned with or without his sakti whom he presses against his breast
in the yab-yum attitude, with the right hand holding vajra, while the
left holds the ghanta on his hip. He holds the kapala [skull-cup] and
vajra. This form is only worshipped in secret.
Mañjushrî,
the Bodhisattva of transcendent Wisdom. The posture of his hands or
Mudra is called dharmacakra [Wheel of doctrine], Symbols are the
khadga [in English sword], the utpala [or lotus], and prajnaparamita
[wisdom book]. His Sakti [or consort] is: Goddess Sarasvati. His body
color is saffron.
Manjushri is the personification of
Transcendent Wisdom, and embodiment of the discriminative awareness
[prajna]. He is also the first among other Bodhisattvas mentioned in
Mahayana Buddhist scriptures. In the Namasangiti [Mahayana scripture]
he is called 'Adi-Buddha', or pre-moral Buddha, while in some of the
text of sutras he is referred to as an historical character.
The
Chinese Buddhist cannon claims that Manjushri was informed by Gautama
Buddha to turn the Wheel of Buddha's Law for the salvation of the
Chinese and the place chosen for the manifestation was Pancasirsha
[mountain of five peaks of five different colors of diamonds,
sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and lapis lazuli].
When the time
came for the manifestation of Manjushri, Gautama Buddha caused a
golden ray to burst from his forehead. It pierced a jambu-tree, which
grew from the foundation of mount Pancasirsha. A lotus sprang from
the tree, and 'from the interior of the flower was born the prince of
sages, Arya Manjushri. His color was yellow; he had one face and two
arms; in the right hand he brandished the sword of Wisdom; in his
left, he carried a book on a lotus utpala; he was endowed with the
superior and inferior marks of beauty; he was covered with many
ornaments and he was resplendent.
In the Svayambhu-purana, it
is related that Manjusri left Mount Pancasirsha to visit the shrine
of Svayambhu [presently in Kathmandu], which was on a mountain in the
center of Lake Kalihrada. He found the lake filled with aquatic
monsters and the temple inaccessible. He therefore 'opened with his
sword a valley on the southern side of the lake [presently called
CHOVAR], the waters of the lake drained through the opening, leaving
dry land at the bottom, and this was Kathmandu, the capital city of
Nepal. So, he is believed to be founder of civilization in Nepal and
a 'Wanderer' [mendicant Buddhist priest] who propagated Buddhism into
Nepal.
Manjusri belongs to the group of eight
Dhyani-Bodhisattva, and is therefore represented like a prince with
all the Bodhisattva ornaments. He sometimes has a small image of
Dhyani-Buddha Akshobhya in his crown. Manjusri is worshiped in
different forms and name. In one form he is found seated on a lion
known as Manjughosa. These different forms of him are practiced for
different purposes of Buddhist Sadhana. There are two distinctive
types: one with the sword and book, which is his more usual form, and
the other with the utpala or blue lotus.
The sword symbolizes
the cleaving asunder [dissipating] of the clouds of Ignorance; the
book is the prajnaparamita, Treatise on Transcendent Wisdom.
Green
Tara in Sanskrit Shyamatara.
Often in a seated posture on a
lotus-throne Green Tara’s right hand is in varamudra, the
gesture of giving: she is offering believers her help.
The
thumb and forefinger of her left hand are pressed together, the
symbol of wisdom and compassion, while the three raised fingers
represent the triratana: the Buddha, the dharma, and the sangha. She
is holding two blue lotuses.
She is depicted as a 16 year
old, because that is the age at which people were considered to be
the most perfect and the most consumately beautiful.
She is
slender, graceful in her pose, and dressed like a Bodhisattva and
wears the five-leafed crown. These leaves of crown symbolize five
Dhyani-Buddhas.
Her hair is abundant and wavy. Her right hand
is in 'charity' mudra, and her left, which is in 'argument' mudra,
holds the lotus.
Green Tara or Shyamatara offers protection
from all dangers, in particular, the eight great dangers: lions,
snakes, elephants, thieves, fire, water, demons, and prisons or the
government.
She is regarded as mother of all Buddhas and
saviour of all sentient beings from worldly miseries.
During
May of this year some of our Members began a program of weekly
thangka painting classes at our Centre.
May the merit of
these classes preserve the art of thangka painting in this Buddha
sasana.
May thangka paintings continue to help beings to
cultivate the Buddha Dhamma.
May all beings become fully
enlightened.
May all beings be well and happy.
Today's
Buddhist Hour Broadcast script was prepared by Anita M. Hughes,
Julian Bamford, David Igacki, Leila Igracki, Helen Costas, Julie
O'Donnell and Amber Svensson.
References:
1. Ann
Shaftel MSc, MA Conservator of Thangkas, Tsondru Thangka
Conservation. Email: Ann@Tsondru.com
Ann Shaftel is an
Elected Fellow of the American Institute for Conservation and the
International Institute for Conservation. She has published and
lectured on thangkas and served as consultant and conservator for
monastic and museum collections for the past 25 years. She holds an
MSc in Conservation from Winterthur (1978), an MA in Oriental Art
History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (1972), and a BA
from Oberlin College (1969). She also studied at UNESCO-ICCROM. She
apprenticed to Tibetan master painters for 15 years. Acknowledgments.
The Author is indebted to the late Vajracarya, the Venerable Chögyam
Trungpa, Rinpoche, the late H.E. Jamgon Kongtrul, Rinpoche, and to
Khenpo Tsültrim Gyamtso, Rinpoche.
2. Dharmapala Thangka
Cente (P) Ltd., School of Thangka Painting, Kathmandu, Nepal, website
at:
http://www.bremen.de/info/nepal/Icono/raster-0.htm
3.
Jackson. David and Janice. Tibetan Thangka Painting – Methods
and Materials. Serindia Publications London UK. 1998.
4.
Meulenbold, Ben. Buddhist Symbolism in Tibetan Thangkas. The Sort of
Siddhartha and Other Buddhas Interpreted in Modern Nepalese Painting.
Binkey Kok Publications. Havelte Holland. 2001.
5. O’Donnell,
Julie and Hughes John D. A Monograph on a Vajrayogini Thanka. Buddha
Dhyana Dana Review Volume 11 No.2.
www.bddronline.net.au/bddr11no2/thanka.html 2001.
Words:
3890
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