![]() All I wanted was to absorb the experiences that came my way by keeping myself alert enough to notice and observe all the data that I was being exposed to. As a result, the experiences I go through along the way, guide my journey.Īll I knew was that I wanted to explore monasteries in Sikkim – but I had no idea what aspects of monasteries would be revealed to me on this journey. So I do not have a clear idea of what to expect. I usually travel ‘blind’ – without detailed research. To see more of this art visit our Thangka Gallery and our Binod Moktan Landscape Gallery. (Second Floor) in Old City, Philadelphia, 19106. Indigo Arts, a Gallery of Ethnographic, Folk and Contemporary Arts from Asia, Africa, and the Americas, is located at 151 North 3rd St. Binod Mokhtan now lives in the Philadelphia area. ![]() Working in what is known as the Neo-Tibetan style, he renders the spectacular Himalayan landscape, the “sky above and the earth below” in a stylized manner which owes much to the thangka. When he moved to Kathmandu, Moktan ventured into landscape painting as well. Binod received instruction in religion, philosophy and history and well as painting from his grandfather, and began painting thangkas at age twelve. His grandfather was a master of Buddhist Tantra and head priest of the Tashi Chyoifeling Monastery. This year he was awarded the Gorkha Dachhin Bahu award by the king of Nepal, Gyanendra Bir Bikram Shah Dev.īorn in 1963, Binod Moktan descends from nine generations of priests and teachers of Tibetan Buddhism. He has participated in many exhibitions of thangka art over the last decade, including a UNESCO show in Paris in 2004 and has been the recipient of many awards for his work. Nima Gyamcho Lama who was born in 1962, is also one of Nepal’s leading thangka artists. He has exhibited his work, and instructed people in the art of the thangka, in Japan, Europe and the United Statews, as well as Nepal. He has directed the Dharmapala Thangka Center in Kathmandu since 1982. After years of painting he now devotes much of his time to training others. Karma Tsering Lama was born in 1961, and painted his first thangka at the age of nine. All three artists were born in the Sindhupalchock district of Nepal, close to the Tibetan border. Karma Lama, Nima Lama and Binod Moktan are at the center of the effort to keep the thangka tradition alive. But the portability of the thangkas allowed a larger proportion of them to survive, and the tradition has been kept alive in the exile of Nepal, India and beyond. ![]() When the Chinese occupied Tibet in 1959 they destroyed ninety percent of the monasteries and most of the murals and larger artworks. They could be rolled up and carried by both roaming herders and monks travelling between monasteries. Painted with water-based mineral pigments on cotton fabric, they were framed with ornate silk brocades and hung on rods. Since old Tibet was largely a nomadic country, the thangkas were designed to be portable. Subjects might be the Buddha or numerous other deities, great teachers, or ornate mandalas - geometric diagrams of the cosmos. They might be commissioned to teach the young, to help heal the sick, to aid the dead in their reincarnation, or more commonly as a focus of meditation by the faithful. Meaning literally, “rolled art”, the thangka is a Buddhist scroll painting used for a variety of spiritual, didactic or social purposes. The earliest extant thangka paintings date to ninth century Tibet. Though they live today in Nepal and the United States, these three artists work in a Tibetan painting tradition which stretches back over a thousand years. The artists will also be at Indigo Arts on the afternoon of Saturday, December 10th (3:00 to 5:00pm) for a demonstration of the art of Thangka painting. The exhibit opens with a reception on First Friday, December 2nd, from 5:00 to 9:30 pm. Binod Moktan, also skilled a painter of thangkas, applies his talents to painting the Himalayan landscape of his memory. Karma Tsering Lama and Nima Gyamcho Lama are masters of the intricate Tibetan Buddhist devotional paintings known as Thangkas. PHILADELPHIA - Sky Above and Earth Below, which opens at Indigo Arts Gallery on December 2nd, 2005, features the work of three Tibetan artists. Tibetan Landscapes and Thangka paintings by Karma Tsering Lama, Nima Gyamcho Lama & Binod Moktan
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