Guru Padmasambhava in 24 Carat Gold

$275
Item Code: TK38
Specifications:
Tibetan Thangka Painting
Dimensions Size of Painted Surface 12.0" X 17.0"
Size with Brocade 24.0" X 31.5"
Handmade
Handmade
Free delivery
Free delivery
Fully insured
Fully insured
100% Made in India
100% Made in India
Fair trade
Fair trade
This very fine gold thangka portrays Guru Padmasambhava in the center. His figure has been drawn in red with gold background. He was a great yogi and Tantric master, originally from Oddiyan, an ancient country of Northwestern India. He claimed to have received from the dakini the books from which he acquired his miraculous powers. He was well versed in mystic dharani.

He was invited to Tibet by the famous Buddhist acharya, Shantirakshita, and the Tibetan king Trisong Detsen (8th century A.D.). In collaboration with whom, he founded the famous Samye monastery in Tibet. It is said that Padmasambhava tamed many local Bon deities and initiated Tantric Buddhist teachings and practices in Tibet. He is still highly revered in Tibet. The honorific title by which he is generally known is Guru Rinpoche, "Precious Teacher." He is regarded as a major spiritual ancestor of all Tibetan Buddhists in general and father of the Nyingma Order in particular. Tibetans consider him as a second Buddha. He was deified and incarnated into eight forms, one for each of eight important actions he performed during his lifetime. He gave many Tantric teachings in Tibet. He had many followers and disciples in Tibet among them his twenty-five chief disciples are well known. Padmasambhava stressed that followers of Tantric Buddhism should study with a teacher, saying, "A person who only learns from books and not from a lama is like a seagull among duck." It is said that Padmasambhava brought a large number of books with him from India, and he also wrote many sadhanas .

Here Padmasambhava is sitting gracefully on a lotus that sprang up in a lake. He is wrapped in heavy and expensive robes and wears jeweled ornaments, a scholar's hat with a half vajra and a peacock feather on the top. Rinpoche has a vajra in his right hand and kapala with a little jar of amrita flowers in it. A khatvanga (ritual staff) is clamped against his left shoulder. His expression is serious and on his forehead the wrinkles of a frown indicate the hidden wrathfulness that comes to light on exorcising and overpowering demonic forces.

He is flanked by his consorts, the Indian princess Mandarva, who is seated on a lotus to his right, and Yeshe Tsogyal, who seats to his left, the two favorite and tantrically most gifted of his five wives. The upper center is finely rendered with Adi-Buddha Samantabhadra Father-Mother with rainbow streams on the back. The bottom center is filled with auspicious offerings. The aureole behind Padmasambhava is encircled with flowers and leaves. The lower middle ground and foreground are filled with mountainous landscape, rocks, lakes and natural vegetation etc. This is a splendid, rare gold thangka of Guru Rinpoche. The painting is very much suitable for sadhana and ritual.

Select Bibliography

A. Getty, The Gods of Northern Buddhism, Tokyo, 1962

Ben Meulenbeld, Buddhist Symbolism in Tibetan Thangka, Holland, 2001

Marylin M. Rhie & Robert A.F. Thurman, Worlds of Transformation: Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, New York, 1999

L.A. Waddell, Buddhism & Lamaism of Tibet, 1895, Delhi, 1979 (reprint) P. Pal, Art of the Himalayas: Treasures from Nepal and Tibet, New York, 1991

This description is by Dr. Shailendra K. Verma, whose Doctorate thesis is on "Emergence and Evolution of the Buddha Image (From its inception to 8th century A.D.)".

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Unveiling the Divine Art: Journey into the Making of Thangkas

A Thangka is a traditional Tibetan Buddhist painting that usually depicts a Buddhist Deity (Buddha or Bodhisattva), a scene, or a mandala. These paintings are considered important paraphernalia in Buddhist rituals. They are used to teach the life of the Buddha, various lamas, and Bodhisattvas to the monastic students, and are also useful in visualizing the deity while meditating. One of the most important subjects of thangkas is the Bhavacakra (the wheel of life) which depicts the Art of Enlightenment. It is believed that Thangka paintings were developed over the centuries from the murals, of which only a few can be seen in the Ajanta caves in India and the Mogao caves in Gansu Province, Tibet. Thangkas are painted on cotton or silk applique and are usually small in size. The artist of these paintings is highly trained and has a proper understanding of Buddhist philosophy, knowledge, and background to create a realistic and bona fide painting.
The process of making a thangka begins with stitching a loosely woven cotton fabric onto a wooden frame. Traditionally, the canvas was prepared by coating it with gesso, chalk, and base pigment.
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After this, the outline of the form of the deity is sketched with a pencil or charcoal onto the canvas using iconographic grids. The drawing process is followed in accordance with strict guidelines laid out in Buddhist scriptures. The systematic grid helps the artist to make a geometrical and professional painting. When the drawing of the figures is finalized and adjusted, it is then outlined with black ink.
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Earlier, a special paint of different colors was made by mixing powdered forms of organic (vegetable) and mineral pigments in a water-soluble adhesive. Nowadays, artists use acrylic paints instead. The colors are now applied to the sketch using the wet and dry brush techniques. One of the characteristic features of a thangka is the use of vibrant colors such as red, blue, black, green, yellow, etc.
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In the final step, pure gold is coated over some parts of the thangka to increase its beauty. Due to this beautification, thangkas are much more expensive and also stand out from other ordinary paintings.
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Thangka paintings are generally kept unrolled when not on display on the wall. They also come with a frame, a silken cover in front, and a textile backing to protect the painting from getting damaged. Because Thangkas are delicate in nature, they are recommended to be kept in places with no excess moisture and where there is not much exposure to sunlight. This makes them last a long time without their colors fading away. Painting a thangka is an elaborate and complex process and requires excellent skills. A skilled artist can take up to 6 months to complete a detailed thangka painting. In earlier times, thangka painters were lamas that spent many years on Buddhist studies before they painted.
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