Tibetan Buddhist Thangka Paintings
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Tibetan Buddhist Thangka Painting is a traditional holistic art form that has been practiced for thousands of years. These images originated as the visions of enlightened masters. Constructed upon a framework of sacred geometry and profound symbolic meaning, they are vehicles for practitioners of meditation, or anyone seeking to go deeper in understanding the essence of existence.
The paintings frequently take the form of: mandalas featuring repetitions of sacred mantras, and images of buddhas and bodhisattvas as representations of awakened consciousness and energy.
Each painting in our collection is a unique, one-of-a-kind, hand-painted original made entirely without the aid of machines. It has been created through a meticulous meditative process, by the steady hand and compassionate heart of a Tibetan Buddhist Master Artist, Surya Lama, who is also our dear friend.
The artist formally studied Thangka Painting while he was a Buddhist monk living in monastery. He now continues this practice as an authentic art that provides the primary livelihood for his family. He teaches Thangka Painting in Dharamsala, and has also been a guest lecturer at the Norbulingka Institute for Tibetan Arts & Culture.
Since 2015 we have traveled multiple times to Dharamsala, to carefully review and hand-select - with an artist's eye - paintings that demonstrate finest quality workmanship and energetic presence. On behalf of our close relationship with the artist and his family, we are able to bring you the best paintings available at any given time. It is also possible that you can request through us a specific Thangka, and the artist can produce it for you as a special order.
Our goal with this project is to help Tibetan Buddhist Refugee Artists and their families to run successful international businesses on their own behalf. The current effort is our first step to introduce their healing artwork to international customers.
A great quality Thangka painting of medium size takes a master about 6-8 weeks - many hours of meditative concentration - to complete.
A slideshow from our recent travels in India, documenting the practice of Buddhist Thangka Painting at the Norbulingka Institute of Tibetan Arts & Culture in Dharamsala, India.
According to the Norbulingka Institute website:
"...thangka paintings are usually depictions of visions that appeared to great spiritual masters at moments of realization, which were then recorded and incorporated into Buddhist scripture. The proportions are considered sacred as not only are they exact representations of Buddhist deities, but also the visual expression of spiritual realizations that occurred at the time of a vision. Thangka painting is thus a two-dimensional medium illustrating a multi-dimensional spiritual reality. Practitioners use thangkas as a sort of road map to guide them to the original insight of the master. This map must be accurate and it is the responsibility of the artist to make sure it is so in order for a thangka to be considered genuine, or to be useful as a support for Buddhist practice, guiding one to the proper place.
Because thangkas are not the product of an artist’s imagination, but are as carefully executed as a blueprint drawing, the role of the artist is somewhat different than the inventor we know him to be in the West. The role of the artist becomes one of a medium or channel, who rises above his own mundane consciousness to bring a higher truth into this world. In order to ensure that this truth remains intact, he must diligently adhere to all the correct guidelines."