Thangka Paintings and Norbulingka

12/5 Art lives!

The Group After the Workshop

Today was an amazing day! We left in the morning for Norbulingka and what a place! To start with some background on Thangka painting that I left out from the weekend experience at Thangde Gatsel. There are 6 types of Thangka paintings. I should step back even further. The Thangka painting is a Tibetan art tradition that dates back thousands of years .There are six types of Thangkas: gold, red, black, appliqué (stitched rather than painted), and silver; however, the method of making silver Thangkas was lost for hundreds of years and just recently have a few masters begun to make them again. They have a few made and if they last in proper condition then they will know that they succeeded, otherwise they will know they have the wrong method. The most impressive part of all of the artwork was how long these pieces of art will last. According to our instructor, Sarika, the exact blend of minerals and glue could make the Thangka’s color last for hundreds of years! Also, she mentioned a dilemma she faced when trying to start her own school in Thangde Gatsel because it would be easy to not follow the ancient dimensions precisely and teach Thangka making that would be almost perfect, but in doing this the art loses so much. I am happy to say they chose to keep the art in its original form. The training to even begin work on real Thangkas is 10 years. The first step is 3 years of sketching, beginning with the head of a Buddha, which is what we got to experience on Sunday. In this experience I saw how the art has stayed so pure; it is all done by proportions. From the head, the students start moving forward to the body and then onto other people and creatures akin to Tibetan culture. All of this is done without color and without knowing the mixing proportions of glue and minerals. After the training is done it takes 20 years to be considered a master. 30 years of work, and that is why the art is perfect every time and beautiful. This preservation of art and the dedication involved makes me incredibly happy to see. In the modern American society of materialism and globalization I amazed and humbled to see a true human skill being preserved and cherished. I was introduced to the idea when I was young, but it always seems to hit home when I think about art like this. America doesn’t make much of anything. There seems to be a great pride in the skills of business and selling goods, but nobody actually wants to make the goods. I am stuck in my thoughts on this subject because I don’t know enough, but in my purchases I am always much happier to buy a handmade imperfect product or an expensive perfect product of human skill, over the factory line cookie cutter perfect object. Now onto Norbulingka itself; we met Sarika again and she showed us around. Norbulingka serves as both a school and a museum of sorts to preserve Tibetan art and culture. They offer schools of Tibetan philosophy, Thangka painting, and gold and wood working. Sarika is a graduate of Norbulingka in Thangka painting and is actually and untouchable (the lowest Indian class), and was allowed into a Tibetan school with the help of the Dalai Lama. She finished the 10 year curriculum in 6 years. What a women! She has since started Thangde Gatsel, a school open to anyone wanting to learn the art of Thangka painting that offers courses ranging from one-day intros, to the full 30 years of training to become a master. Going through Norbulingka was incredible and almost beyond words. The structure of all the buildings is fashioned after a Buddha in Thangka paintings, if seen from above, and is named for the winter home of the Dalai Lama in Tibet. There are gardens and a guest house at one end signifying the feet of a Buddha, with schools and museums as you move “up” the Buddha. The temple that resides at the top signifying the head is used also as the home of His Holiness the Dalai Lama whenever her wishes to stay there. The statue inside was glorious and the paintings all around were immaculate. To me, it was beyond words and it felt wrong to take pictures (don’t worry, everyone else did). I had this feeling inside that I needed to experience it myself and taking a picture would have distracted my mind from being in the moment and experiencing what was around me. I do apologize to anyone looking for pictures from me. I am discovering my picture taking style is not there to serve as a reminder of what I saw or felt; it is to create a new feeling in someone else. I am fine at capturing pictures that remind me of what I saw, but I want to take pictures that can speak for themselves. I will make sure to take pictures like this, and I will also be borrowing some pictures from others to help you see and experience the parts of the trip when I put my camera down and was in the moment. 

Norbulingka

Photography Fun at Norbulingka