Buddhists, Reconstructing Sacred Tibetan Murals, Wield Their Brushes in Nepal

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LO MANTHANG, Nepal -- Dozens of painters sat atop scaffolding that soared toward the roof of an ancient monastery. With a swipe of their brushes, colors appeared that gave life to the Buddha. Gold for the skin.

<< A local woman worked on a historic mural at Thubchen Monastery in Lo Manthang, Nepal.

They worked by dim portable electric lights. Dusty statues of Tibetan Buddhist deities gazed on. From openings in the roof, a few shafts of sunlight fell through the 35 wooden pillars in the main chamber of the enormous Thubchen Monastery, the same edifice that had awed Michel Peissel, the explorer of Tibet, when he visited a half-century ago.

“In Nepal, no one knows how to do this, so we have to learn,” said Tashi Gurung, 34, a painter participating in what is one of the most ambitious Tibetan art projects in the Himalayas.

Financed by the American Himalayan Foundation, the project is aimed at restoring to a vibrant state the artwork of two of the three main monasteries and temples in Lo Manthang, the walled capital of the once-forbidden kingdom of Mustang. Bordering Tibet in the remote trans-Himalayan desert, Mustang is an important enclave of Tibetan Buddhist culture.

Tibetan leaders, including the Dalai Lama, say their culture is under assault in the vast Tibetan regions ruled by the Chinese Communist Party, which occupied central Tibet in 1951. That, along with the encroachment of modernity, means that the act of preserving or reviving Tibetan art is arguably more important than at any time since China’s devastating Cultural Revolution.

The project in Lo Manthang has stirred debate. Some scholars of Tibetan art assert that the painters in Lo Manthang are altering important historical murals and jeopardizing scholarship by painting new images atop sections of walls where the original images have been destroyed. Those involved in the project argue that residents want complete artwork in their houses of worship.

The project’s director is Luigi Fieni, 39, an Italian who first came to work here after graduating from an art conservation program in Rome. Mr. Fieni and other Westerners have trained local residents to work on the art, creating a 35-member team that includes 20 women and one monk (though there was initial reluctance from local men to tolerate the women’s participation).

There are three major religious buildings in Lo Manthang. Two of them are monasteries, and one is a temple traditionally used for ceremonies by the royal family. Their thick, red walls rise among alleyways that wind past whitewashed mud-brick homes. An 80-year-old king and his family reside in a palace in the town center. The town was founded in the 14th century, and the oldest religious buildings date to the 15th century.

Much of the Tibetan art here reflects a Newari influence, which comes from the Katmandu Valley. Centuries ago, Newari artisans were welcomed by some Tibetan rulers, especially those who followed the Sakya branch of Tibetan Buddhism, which is common throughout Mustang.

The art project began in 1999 with the cleaning of murals in Thubchen Monastery, after an initial round of architectural reconstruction. Then the painters moved on to Jampa Temple, where the dark main chamber has a towering statue of Maitreya, the future Buddha.

The walls on the first floor are adorned with remarkably detailed mandalas, a form of geometric art considered a representation of the cosmos. Here, Mr. Fieni decided to deviate from the initial approach taken at Thubchen. He wanted his team, rather than do purely restoration, to paint sections of the walls where an original mural had disappeared or been destroyed.

The painters would then try to recreate those pictures based on tradition and on what had been painted elsewhere in the chamber. Mr. Fieni also consulted with monks to ask what pictures they wanted on the walls. In 2010, the team returned to Thubchen to adopt the new approach and paint large sections.

“Call this painting, not restoration or conservation,” Mr. Fieni said. He added that this method helped restore the living nature of the artwork, as opposed to what he called the Western “colonialism” approach of preserving the old above all else.

“When we arrived, we started working following the Westerners’ theories of conservation,” Mr. Fieni said. “Then, while working and living within the community, I changed my point of view, and I decided to follow the needs of the culture I was working for. So I decided to start reconstructing the missing areas.”

Once taught how to paint, local residents decide how they want to decorate the monasteries, Mr. Fieni said.

 “All the other conservation projects I’ve seen are Westerners doing the artwork, locals fetching clay,” he said. “This is the first one where we train the locals.”

There were challenges. Painters in higher castes initially did not want artists in lower castes sitting on the scaffolding above them. And there were religious beliefs to accommodate. At the buildings, an abbot used a mirror to absorb the spirits of the gods in the statues and murals before the painting began; after the project is completed, the abbot is expected to release the spirits from the mirror so they can return.

Mr. Fieni’s approach to restoring the temples and monasteries has been contested. Christian Luczanits, a senior curator at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, which displays Himalayan art, said he blanched at what he saw when he traveled to Mustang in 2010 and 2012. Mr. Luczanits said that sufficient scholarship had not been done into the original paintings. Now, because of the new painting, any scholar wanting to study the originals must look at photographs rather than rely on what is present in the temple, he said.

“The temple now after restoration cannot be understood anymore without the previous documentation,” Mr. Luczanits said in an interview.

Last year, he made his opinion known at a contentious meeting at the palace in Lo Manthang. Among those present were Mr. Fieni, an abbot, the prince of Mustang and representatives of the American Himalayan Foundation, which gives financial support to many development projects in Mustang. (The foundation’s president, Erica Stone, said the total being spent on the building renovations in Lo Manthang alone was $2.58 million. An additional $768,000 had been spent for restoring the town wall and constructing drainage.)

There was vigorous debate, and the royal family and the abbot both backed Mr. Fieni. The ceremonial prince, Jigme Singi Palbar Bista, said in an interview that the buildings “are renovated very well.”

Thoroughly painting Thubchen Monastery would take another three to four years, but the project’s budget will run out this year. Mr. Fieni estimated there was a total of about 3,660 square feet of wall space to paint.

He said he was thinking about moving on to restoration projects in India or Myanmar with some of the painters he had trained here. In 2006 and 2007, he took five of them to work with him at a Tibetan monastery in Sichuan Province, in western China, a project that was never completed because the Chinese authorities shut down access to the area after a Tibetan uprising in 2008.

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China shuts down temples on sacred Buddhist site Mount Wutai

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Mt. Wutai, China -- CHINA has shut down two temples on a sacred Buddhist mountain and arrested six people after fake monks reportedly deceived tourists into donating money.

The official Xinhua News Agency said the Mount Wutai Administration Bureau closed two of the mountain's dozens of temples and revoked their business licenses on Friday.

It says the six people were arrested over illegal funding and that the temples had reportedly hired fake monks to con tourists into buying expensive incense and paying unreasonable amounts of money for ceremonies.

Last year, the government's religious affairs office called on local authorities to ban profiteering related to religious activity and told them not to allow religious venues to be run as business ventures.

Mount Wutai is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.

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Recitation of Sacred Buddhist Texts in Ladakh on UN List

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Leh, Ladakh -- The recitation of sacred Buddhist texts in India's Ladakh region has been added to a UN list of "intangible cultural heritage" by the world body's committee tasked with protecting the oral traditions, performing arts and social practices around the world.

The 24-member Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage has added 20 new items to its list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

The new elements represent Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Ecuador, France, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mali, Morocco, Oman and Korea.

These include the traditional weaving of the Ecuadorian toquilla straw hat, the cherry festival in Sefrou, Morocco and the craftsmanship and performance art of the long-necked lute known as the Tar.

Referring to the Buddhist chanting, the committee said Buddhist priests in monasteries and villages of the Ladakh region chant sacred texts representing the spirit, philosophy and teachings of the Buddha.

The monks wear ritual clothing and use hand gestures and various musical instruments while praying for the spiritual and moral well-being of the people, for purification and peace of mind, to appease the wrath of evil spirits or to invoke the blessing of various Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, deities and rinpoches, it said.

Cultural items must comply with a series of criteria, including contributing to spreading the knowledge of intangible cultural heritage and promoting awareness of its importance to be inscribed by the committee.

Intangible cultural heritage encompasses practices and living expressions handed down from one generation to the next.

Only those countries that have ratified the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage can present elements for inscription on the lists.

So far, 146 countries have ratified the convention, which was adopted by UNESCO’s General Conference in 2003.

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Bo Da Pagoda preserves sacred Buddhist treasures

<< Like a prayer: The entrance to Bo Da Pagoda.

The pagoda, also known as Quan Am (Goddess of Mercy) or Bo Pagoda for short, lies at the foot of a pine-covered hill, surrounded by earthen walls with mountains and rivers in the distance.

Legend has it that the Goddess of Mercy helped a poor childless couple there. One day, the husband was cutting pine trees at the top of the mountain when 32 gold coins suddenly burst from a tree. An enlightened monk told him that it was a miraculous appearance of the Goddess. The woodcutter entreated the goddess to give him a son, saying that if she did so he would build a pagoda to worship her. The woodcutter's wish was fulfilled, and he built a pagoda just as he had promised. Many other people have also gotten their wishes fulfilled by praying to the Goddess in this pagoda, so it is named Quan Am Pagoda.

The pagoda was built in the 11th century under the Ly dynasty, the golden age of Buddhism in Viet Nam, but was badly damaged during wars in subsequent centuries. It was not until the revival of the Le dynasty under King Le Du Tong (1705-28) that the pagoda was reconstructed and more or less retains the shape it has today.

Bo Da is a centre of Lam Te Buddhism and has a major role in the promotion and development of Buddhism in Viet Nam. Every year, the pagoda attracts many monks and believers from across the country who come here to meditate and learn this faith.

Compared to other pagodas in the North, Bo Da is unique for its architecture: while it appears to be a closed complex from the outside, on the inside the pagoda has hundreds of compartments that all open into one another. The pagoda provides visitors with a sacred, secluded refuge from the outside world.
The pagoda's walls and gates are made from packed earth – 0.8m thick and 2-3m high. This is an ancient building technique which distinguishes this pagoda from many others.

The walls, tiles, big water jars, and decorative pots in Bo Da all have a distinct brown soil colour.

The pagoda is also home to many documents, objects and antiques which have great value in terms of culture, history, architecture and fine arts. These include a bronze bell, a stone stele, a horisontal lacquered board engraved with Chinese characters, and a pair of wood panels on which are inscribed parallel sentences.

Special woodblock

Because of the great influence of Lam Te Buddhism, most of the pagoda's famous carved woodblocks bear the Sutras of Zen Buddhism.

In the 18th century, the monks at the pagoda carved Buddhist Sutras on wood to preserve the texts so they could be used for the teaching of Buddhism. Over 2,000 Sutra woodblocks are arranged on eight bookcases.

Large blocks are laid on the tables so that visitors can see them easily. The woodblocks are 44cm long, 22cm wide and 2.5cm thick.

Some of them are larger, measuring 150cm long, 30cm wide and 2.5cm thick. If all the Sutra woodblocks were laid side by side, they would cover an area of 250sq.m.
All the blocks were carved on thi wood (decandrous perssimmom) that is both light and pliable – perfect for carving and moving – and durable. To this day, hardly any have rotted.

Unique towers

"For us, the most interesting part of the pagoda was the field of old tombs along the hill, which are said to belong to the chief monks of the pagoda and some others," said visitor Nguyen Thanh Hoa.

Outside Bo Da Pagoda is an 8,000sq.m Tower Garden encircled by an old brick wall.

"The towers here are made of stone and solid brick, coated with lime, molasses and wood-pulp and arranged layer upon layer," Hoa added.

Most of the towers are 3-5m high and have three or four storeys. Inside 97 towers is the bone-ash of more than 1,000 monks of Lam Te Buddhism. These towers, inscribed with the days of birth and death of the monks, are a valuable source for researchers of Lam Te Buddhism.

With its many tower tombs, Bo Da's Tower Garden is considered the biggest and most beautiful in Viet Nam.

Hoa said he was lucky enough to participate in the Bo Da Festival, which is held annually on February 16-17 of the lunar calendar. The festival attracts thousands of monks and visitors nationwide and involves both prayer and sightseeing.
"Besides going sightseeing, I had the chance to enjoy famous folk music and songs performed by local artists," said Hoa.

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Monks fear Tawang projects will defile sacred Buddhist spots

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GUWAHATI, India -- Buddhist monks of Arunachal Pradesh have asked Union power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to scrap the hydroelectric power projects proposed to be constructed in Tawang as they would desecrate many sacred Buddhist spots in the district.

<< Tawang

Lamas under the banner of Save Mon Region Federation (SMRF) met Shinde recently in New Delhi and raised their concern over 13 hydroelectric projects planned in Tawang, the birthplace of the VIth Dalai Lama.

The 400-year old Tawang monastery, highly revered in the Mahayana sect of Buddhism, is among the many sacred Buddhist spots in the district. The monastery, founded by Merak Lama Lodre Gyatso in 1680-1681AD on the wish of fifth Dalai Lama, stands on the spur of a hill about 10,000 feet above sea level. Tawang is also strategically important location for its proximity to Mac Mahon Line and China frequently claiming the area as southern Tibet.

"The spiritual and cultural heritage of Tawang is of great concern to the Mon community. This is the birthplace of the VIth Dalai Lama and is believed to have been visited by saint Padmasambhava. Besides, there are a number of holy sites associated with our saints along the Tawang Chu and Nyamjangs Chu river basin. These holy mountains and sacred landscapes will be affected by the proposed dams. We are against such desecration of our sacred land," SMRF general secretary Lobsang Gyatso said.

Pointing out that Centre had scrapped proposals for three dams on the Ganga due to religious sentiments, Gyatso said: "Similar steps should be taken to ensure that our sacred sites in Tawang and elsewhere in Arunachal Pradesh are not defiled. He added that the 1750MW Demwe hydroelectric project was also planned close to the holy site Parshuram Kund in Arunachal Pradesh.

SMRF said that discontent and anger of the people of Tawang against large number of hydroelectric projects would only benefit China, which claims the place as part of its territory. "People of Tawang have faith in the Union of India, but situations like these are instilling discontent and dissatisfaction among citizens. This is perhaps exactly the kind of sentiment China is banking on when it claims Tawang time and again," Gyatso said. He said that apart from environmental degradation and desecration of sacred places, the hydel projects would not help the people of Tawang as the electricity generated would be channelled outside.

SMRF was also concerned that these projects could jeopardize the area's "cultural dynamics" and the influx of migrant labourers would undermine the rights of indigenous people. "Tawang's population is barely 49, 950 and the 13 projects are set to bring in a peak labour force of over 100,000 people. This will ruin the cultural dynamics of the area where the rights of indigenous people have been constitutionally safeguarded," SMRF said.

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Emory's Carlos Museum finds its center with 'Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism'

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Atlanta, GA (USA) -- Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum, an often-overlooked gem for local art and culture, is exhibiting Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism through April 15. Mandala brings to Atlanta many rare and beautiful Buddhist thangkas, or paintings, along with other objects intended for initiation and meditation.

<< Kimbell Art Museum
Four Mandalas of the Vajravali Series, c. 1429—56, Central Tibet, Tsang (Ngor Monastery), Sakya order, Thangka, gouache on cotton, KKimbell Art Museumimbell Art Museum

Mandalas are a kind of technology for meditation, meant to work with personal practice to achieve spiritual insight and liberation. The most common mandalas in Tibetan Buddhist art place a deity at the center of a palace filled with other deities and iconography. This palace is an individual and a cosmological map that lines up with a highly proscribed set of meditational practices so that an individual may see him or herself as the central deity. In fact, Buddhist philosophy describes individual and deity as one and the same.

Mandalas act as visual tools for meditators. The basics of mandala practice are fairly easy to imagine - think about a golfer on the green visualizing Arnold Palmer putting in order to perfect his own stroke.

Although intended for monks, religious art in Tibet touched nearly every aspect of society. For many centuries, Tibet was at the center of a vast Empire, trading with Nepal, India, Persia, China, and Central Asia. In addition to bringing technology and high-level artisans, this trade delivered to Tibet a fantastic range of artistic styles. The painted mandalas on display at the Carlos Museum are fantastically detailed, including myriad deities, monks, and symbols. Their arrangement in circular forms adheres to iconographic conventions, from the colors used to the placement of elements.

A mandala from Dallas' Kimbell Museum is so meticulously painted that even on closest inspection it’s difficult to discern irregularities; It looks as thought it was printed using modern technology, rather than being created by hand 600 years ago.

The exhibit features rare forms of the mandala: The 18th-century Mahakala (Tibet’s protector diety) is unusual for its large central triangle and absence of central deity. Instead, objects symbolic of deities and practice are present, placed with unusual, lotus-shaped palaces. The mandala’s minimalistic design includes some gruesome imagery: flayed human skin, skulls, and intestines, all designed to remind the viewer how transient and unsustainable human life is.

A mandala beautifully decorated with flowers also elides deities, showing instead empty thrones to connote the “thus gone” aspect of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni and his 16 Arhats (acolytes). Tucked away amid the blossoms are wish-fulfilling jewels and ducks in ponds, while deer, traditional symbols for Shakyamuni adorn the four gates.

In addition to painted mandalas, the exhibition includes cosmological paintings, sculptures, and a fantastic, one-of-a-kind three-dimensional wooden carved model of the Guhyasamaja Mandala.

In association with this exhibition, Oglethorpe's Museum of Art has another kind of mandala on display: images created by patients of the psychoanalyst C.G. Jung. Jung used art as therapy, instructing his patients to create images as a means of expressing the conscious and unconscious, and clarifying mental obstacles.

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Mandala: Sacred Circle in Tibetan Buddhism runs through April 15 at Emory's the Carlos Museum. The Sacred Round: Mandalas by the Patients of C.G. Jung runs through May 6 at Oglethorpe.

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Millions of Sri Lankan devotees pay homage to sacred Buddhist relics

These sacred relics were sent by the Government of Pakistan on the special request of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, during the visit of President Asif Ali Zardari to Sri Lanka. In addition to the millions of devotees the President, the Prime Minister, Speaker of Sri Lankan Parliament, several Parliamentarians and other prominent personalities paid homage to the sacred relics of Lord Buddha during the exposition.

The sacred relics brought from Pakistan to Sri Lanka were taken back to Pakistan on Monday after the conclusion of the exposition of these sacred relics in Sri Lanka, according to a message received here from Colombo.

These relics included the sacred relics of the Lord Buddha, Kanishka Relic Casket from Shah-Ji-Ki-Deheri, stone reliquary in Stupa shape and a Golden Casket.

The exposition of the sacred relics was declared open by the President of Sri Lanka on June 4 at Maligakanda temple in Colombo where these sacred relics stayed for a period of four days from June 5 to 9, 2011 and over 300,000 people paid homage to these relics every day at the Maligakanda temple.

These relics were then taken to the Gangaramaya temple Hunupitiya where they stayed for public exposition for three days from June 10 to 12, during which over 350,000 devotees visited these relics every day.

On June 13, the sacred relics were taken to Tissamaharama temple in Hambantota to mark celebration of Poson Poya day on June 15. The sacred relics remained at Tissamaharama temple for a period of three days where they were visited by over a million devotees.

On June 17, the sacred relics were brought back to Colombo at Mahamewna Asapuwa Malabe from June 16 to 19, where they were kept in the inner chamber of the newly constructed stupa for sanctifying and conferring the blessing of the said sacred relics on the stupa and as a lasting testimony to this blessed event, this stupa was named as ?Siri Gauthama Dharmarajika Stupa?.

There after the sacred relics were exhibited at Mahamewuna Asapuwa, Malabe until June 19.

The exhibition of the sacred relics in Sri Lanka has further strengthened the already existing deep rooted cultural relations between the two friendly nations as it has marked the 2600th Year of the attainment of Enlightenment of Lord Buddha. Buddhism left a monumental and rich legacy of art and architecture in Pakistan.

Despite the vagaries of centuries, the Gandhara region preserved a lot of the heritage in craft and art. Much of this legacy is visible even today in Pakistan.

The Gandhara civilization was not only the centre of spiritual influence but also the cradle of the world famous Gandhara culture, art and learning. It was from these centers that a unique art of sculpture originated which is known as Gandhara Art all over the world.

Today the Gandhara sculptures occupy a prominent place in the museums of England, France, Germany, USA, Japan, Korea, China, India and Afghanistan, together with many private collections world over, as well as a vast collection in the museums of Pakistan.

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