“Lama, Patron, Artist: The Great Situ Panchen,” on view March 13 through July 18 at the Smithsonian’s Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, offers a fresh approach to Tibetan painting by bringing to the foreground the remarkable life story of the great artist-scholar Situ Panchen Chokyi Jungne 1700-1774. Paintings, sculptures and illuminated manuscript pages from the 12th to the 19th centuries represent Situ’s life and greatest artistic achievements. Originally organized by the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City, the exhibition is based on new research conducted by David Jackson, a leading scholar of Tibetan culture and history. Jackson and his co-organizer, Rubin curator Karl Debreczeny, chose an innovative path for this first Western exhibition on Situ, approaching the paintings as historical documents and delving deeply into his diaries, journals and other primary sources. The portrait that emerges reveals a brilliant polymath who changed the course of Tibetan painting and made significant contributions to the literary arts, medicine and diplomacy of 18th-century Tibet.
Month: May 2010
The Great Aspiration
My favorite part of the Kagyu Monlam daily program in Bodhgaya is when His Holiness, the 17th Karmapa puts on his Black Hat and recites the Monlam Chenmo, or the Great Aspiration. This is a profound prayer written by the 7th Karmapa, Chodrak Gyamtso. Here is an excerpt:
“May all the deaf in all world-realms acquire the ears of the devas.
May the blind acquire the pure eyes of the devas.
May the mute gain eloquent speech.
May the insane gain sanity.
May every person gain a good appearance, eloquent speech, brilliant intelligence, and all praiseworthy qualities….”
“May I be like a father, a mother, a friend, a relative, and a king for all beings. Like medicine, food, clothing, and so forth; like earth, water, fire, air and space, may I become a support for the lives of all beings.”
—The Kagyu Monlam Book
A Compilation for Recitation
View a brief clip of His Holiness reciting this prayer:
Photo of Torma Offerings on the 15th night of Monlam Chenmo, Tibet 1921
Rare torma photo taken in Lhasa, 1921 by Rabden Lepcha (?) from the collection of Sir Charles Bell. From the Tibet Album on the Pitt Rivers Museum Website–they have a fascinating stock of old photos taken in Tibet by Rabden Lepcha, Sir Charles Bell, Hugh Richardson, and others, including some photos of torma and torma-related rituals. To view the photo at their website:
Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche– Projecting the Dharma: Film and the Transmission of Buddhism to the West
A public talk at Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut 25 January, 2008 http://www.siddharthasintent.org. Via Facebook | Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche. Watch the video here: http://vimeo.com/771706
Glimpses of Bodhgaya
Take a brief tour of Bodhgaya, India. This short was filmed in the winter of 2008-09 and the sights depicted include the Mahabodhi Stupa and surrounding park, Mucalinda Lake, the Buddha statue near the Japanese Temple, Shechen Monastery, and the Thai Temple. Photography: Ko Jung-Fa; Music courtesy of Kevin MacLeod.
