Thangkan Interlude

Over the weekend I had a wonderful experience of taking a "Thangka Course" offered by the "Tibethaus" http://www.tibethaus.com/ here in Frankfurt. The course was led by Marian van de Horst http://www.thangka-marianvdhorst.com/!english/index.html. From Friday to Sunday we started with meditation and then moved on to work on the building blocks of a Thangka. The first step is to do the head of Shakyamuni Buddha and then the body. This is done with specific measurements based on sors, a certain measurement. There is really so much to learn about the iconograpy and symbols. They themselves become "scriptures" with all of their information. One thing that I didn't know is that when coloring the eyes, there is always a little bit of red in the edges of both sides. This is for all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and it stands for the compassion that they have for all beings and that their eyes are watered with tears for our suffering. A very nice image.

Anyway...the first drawing was my first head and then I had to learn how to reduce it in size and then one more time and add color. I'm looking forward to continuing with the seminars in February! It is also nice to learn about another tradition in Buddhism.