“OM MA NI PAD ME HUM”
This Thangka Mandala Painting was painted by a beautiful and humble
monk who lived in the highest mountains in the west of Bhutan. As is
often customary, the monk will not sign his name to the artwork
because he said it wasn’t relevant that he put his name to it because
the act of painting itself is one of reverence and meditation. Money is
never expected in return for his painting; (but if one wishes; a donation
to the monastery will be accepted for all the monks); and is often gifted
to someone whom the monk is guided to gift it to – and that was
myself; who in turn I have gifted it to Faris.
The mandala is painted as a process of reverence and meditation for
the monk personally; and is then offered to those who view it as his
own act of compassion for all sentient beings to be free from suffering,
and also used by the viewer in their own meditation in their pursuit of
attaining their own enlightenment and freedom. It is also left for the
viewer to connect with ALL the Cosmological dimensions and energy
that is encapsulated in the mandala painting.
The artist lives with six other monks in retreat for much of the year; and
this mandala was painted whilst he was separate from the other five
and in silent retreat for approximately three months.
The artist has trained formally as an artist that takes at least seven
years; and the first year of training was only allowed to sketch the
shape of Buddha. He has learned the art of making coloured paint
from minerals from the earth and even using ground gold dust and
gold leaf to form gold paint; however due to language difficulties I am
not certain whether this gold paint here is made using those methods.
The artist makes his own brushes using the combed hair of his cat,
and bound the hairs on a finely carved piece of thin twig from a pine
tree to use as his brush. The canvas is hand woven from silk and is
woven locally and this is a unique style of canvas only made in this
area of Bhutan.
The monk said through a translator that he is in a state of trance when
he paints the words of the “OM MA NI PAD ME HUM” mantra; but
because the ink has to dry for each round of letters it took him a long
time to complete.
It has been framed using acid free materials to respect and preserve
the painting. The glass is the highest Museum quality UV protection
glass; so that UV from daylight will not penetrate the glass and
degrade the paint or silk.
“OM MA NI PAD ME HUM”
OM (AUM) Represents body, mind speech
MANI Jewel, altruism
PADME Wisdom
HUM Combination of altruism and wisdom to transform the
impure body, mind, speech to ‘pure’; to one of freedom
from suffering and to reach a state of enlightenment.
Short notes on Buddhism in Bhutan.
The form of Buddhism most commonly practiced is the Mahayana
Buddhism in its tantric form. It focuses on compassion toward others
and the liberation of all sentient beings through the practice of the six
perfections; generosity; moral discipline; patience; effort; concentrations
and wisdom.
The word Tantra comes from the name of a body of texts left to a
select few of Buddha’s early disciples. Tantra involves identifying with a
guardian deity through deep meditation and the recitation of mantra.
The most well known mantra is ‘om mani padme hum.’
Tantric Buddhism is based on the same beliefs as other forms of
Buddhism: that all the consequences of your actions in this life,
or karma, forces reincarnation. Humans should aim to become
enlightened which means a release from the cycle of incarnations into
the state of Nirvana – a state free from suffering.
Tantric Buddhism recognises many symbolic deities
and bodhisattvas – ‘Buddha’s-to-be’ that have achieved enlightenment
but decline Nirvana in order to be reincarnated into the world of
humans to help others.
Bodhisattvas are in practice treated more as deities than as
enlightened human beings and occupy the centre of a world of many
gods: subordinate deities; opposing, converted, and reformed demons;
wandering ghosts; and saintly humans reflecting the shamanistic folk
religion of the regions into which Buddhism expanded, an example of
the accommodating nature of Buddhism.
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