Wings of Joy, Pema Rinzin Exhibition, Joshua Liner Gallery, March 17th Opening.

Aphorisms About Iconography in Himalayan Art

Aphorisms are sometime useful to help remember things and to sometimes learn new information. Here are some aphorisms relating to Himalayan Art: Aphorisms.

Off to China

It has been a year since I was in China last. The first few days of this trip will be spent in Hong Kong meeting with people and getting over the jet lag and trauma of a 15 hour flight from New York. The flight was uneventful for the most part except I was fortunately upgraded to Business Class. Apparently I have been flying with Cathay Pacific Airlines loyally for over ten years. Tomorrow will be a day of meetings. On Thursday I fly to Shanghai and will begin using my China Travel blog for trip updates rather than this blogger web site. I'll post here the China blog link tomorrow.

Publication: Yogini's Eye by Sonam Tsemo

This is an excellent new publication that discusses in detail the system of Buddhist Tantra as understood by Lobpon Sonam Tsemo. The Yogini's Eye is quite technical and a slow read. Have patience.

Oxford Conference

This should be an interesting weekend. I am flying to Oxford, England, for a two day conference on life writing. Yes, I had to look it up as well. It will be about Tibetan life writing. It turns out it is a fancy word for biography.

I will keep you posted as the weekend and conference progresses. However, before that, I really have to write a Tricycle Blog entry and send it off once I land in Heathrow in the morning. Although the coach to Oxford does have wi-fi service. They are so modern in the old world!

Publication: Langkajie Tangka (The paintings of Namkha Gyan)

Namkha Gyan of Trehor was a very famous artist of East Tibet in the late 17th and 18th centuries. One of his chief patrons was the 3rd Panchen Lama who commissioned paintings which were then given to the Chinese Emperor of the time. These paintings can still be seen in the Palace Museum in Beijing. Other examples of Namkha Gyan's work can be found in Chengdu, as well as the Kangdze region of East Tibet.

This publication is of significant importance as the first modern publication in any language to be devoted to the works of an individual Tibetan historical artist.

Langkajie Tangka: The Legacy of Seventeenth Century Tangka Painting Master. Author: Yangtar Lhamo. January 2012. ISBN 978-7-5410-4806-7.

Publication: Collection of Tanglazewang

Thanglha Tsewang (1902-1989) first learned how to draw at age 10 from his uncle. He was very much encouraged at his studies by Katog Situ. Later, he became a monk and was very closely associated with Palpung Monastery in Eastern Tibet. Over the course of his life he created a large body of works, primarily Tibetan paintings - many of which are reproduced in the publication. Collection of Tanglazewang. Authors: Konchog Tenzin, Yontan Tsering, Dodril. August 2006. ISBN 7-5409-3235-X/J-121.

Gesar Publication from Chengdu, China

A new publication highlighting a set of eleven paintings depicting the life story of Gesar has been published by the Sichuan Museum of Chengdu, China. The large format coffee table style art book has full page images of the eleven paintings along with inummerable details of each. The text is primarily in Tibetan and Chinese language with three English language articles by prominant Western scholars. The well known R.A. Stein article in French on the Gesar painting set has been translated into English and Chinese. Amy Heller discusses the historical and art historical context and Jeff Watt contributed an article on the art and iconography of Gesar.

From the Treasury of Tibetan Pictorial Art: Painted Scrolls of the Life of Gesar. Sichuan Museum. Editor, Zhang Changhong. June 2012. ISBN 978-7-101-08513-6.

Hong Kong Airport

Arrived at the Hong Kong airport and had the good fortune after getting off the plane of being right next to a Cathay lounge. One of the best things to do after a long flight is to take a shower. Anyway, back to the seat experience. In the premium section of the plane there are only two seats with unhindered leg room. I was in seat 31C. The seat immediately to my left would be 31A or B. These are the only two with long leg room. All of the Premium seats are wider with a few extra inches of leg room. The food service is better and the video monitors are larger. That is it. There is no other differences than that. In the future I will continue to book the coach seating, exit row aisle.

Heading For Chengdu

I haven't left New York yet but will be shortly - heading to Chengdu. After I leave Hong Kong I won't be able to access this Blogger account so will instead post to the On the Road account. Last time I had some problems posting images to the account largely due to the fact I couldn't figure it out using an Ipad. I will try and post more images with the laptop. Anyway, here is the Url - http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jeff-on-the-Road/

A few weeks ago when heading to Vancouver on Cathay they bumped me to the new Premium Class. I didn't like it. They gave me an aisle seat but in a regular row. Yes there was more leg room than usual, but, that is not the issue with tall people. It is knee space. There wasn't much. Today Cathay has upgraded me again to Premium. I declined, but they talked me into trying the front row aisle seat which they say has even more leg room without the knee space issue. The problem with tall people and flying is often the knees press against the back of the chair in front. After awhile this becomes excrutiatingly painful. In the front row of Premium there is only more leg room and then a barrier separating you from Business. I agreed to try it. We shall see. The flight to Hong Kong is a little long to be experimenting with new untried seats but there you have it - a new adventure in sitting. The food is much better in Premium based on my first experience some weeks ago. I was actually surprised by that. It was even comparable to Business Class which is very goood on Cathay.

More later......

Virupa Page on the HAR Website

Virupa, the Lord of Yoga, 9th century (Tibetan: bir wa pa, nal jor wang chug); foremost in magical attainments amongst the 84 mahasiddhas of India. He can appear in a number of different forms and colours. He can also appear in different contexts such as a set of lineage images, a narrative scene, the set of Eighty-four Mahasiddhas, as a Guruyoga meditation form, etc. Virupa is not unique to any one tradition of Tibetan Buddhism and therefore can be found almost anywhere. In the Sakya Tradition Virupa is typically depicted in one or all of six textually documented forms that follow the major events in his life story.

When depicted with the right arm raised in the air and performing a wrathful gesture Virupa can easily be mistaken for the Nyingma teacher Shri Simha who appears in a similar posture and gesture.

"Reversing the Ganga and subduing the evil king; while holding the sun - drinking the liquor of the entire country, without being drunk; completely shattering the Linga and subduing the Chandali; to the renowned Lord of Power, I bow my head." (Sakya liturgical verse).

Twenty-one Paintings & Me

Here is an impressive set of twenty-one paintings depicting a large central Shakyamuni Buddha in each with the one hundred and eight previous life and life stories of the Buddha surrounding the center. It is quite impressive to see all hung together and even more impressive that the set is still together. It is very common for art dealers, East and West, to break up sets because the dealers can get more money for individual paintings than for sets of paintings.

Yes, it is Asia Week again in New York City, but for those of you that have been through a few Asia Weeks, then you know it is more like two, three or four weeks in total time investment and cumulative exhaustion.

Sakya Tridzin Wangdu Nyingpo

Additional images have been added to the Wangdu Nyingpo main page. He was the 29th Sakya Tridzin and considered the second Padmasambhava of this Age. He was considered to be a rebirth of Ngor Khenchen Palden Chokyong and others. Most of his profound teachings were received from his father Kunga Lodro, the previous Sakya Tridzin. Wangdu Nyingpo constructed a new Vajrabhairava temple in Sakya with a bigger than life size central image along with the twelve wrathful retinue figures slightly larger than the size of a man. Along with that he constructed a new protector chapel with very large sculpture. Renowned as a 'treasure Revealer' (terton) his books are still available and read today.

Wangdu Nyinpo is sometimes employed as a guruyoga practice based on a text that he wrote himself. He is depicted in a wrathful form with either a black hat topped with a raven or a standard Sakya hat with lappets draped across the top.

The 69th Abbot of Ngor Evam Choden Monastery, Ngagwang Yontan Gyatso (1902-1963), was believed by some to be an incarnation of Wangdu Nyingpo, as is the current Sakya Tridzin, Ngagwang Kunga (born 1941).

The Pillars of Lhakang Chenmo, Sakya Town

The temple of Lhakang Chenmo in Sakya Town, Tibet, is famous for it very large and massive pillars. There are four principal pillars in the main temple of Lhakang Chenmo. Each of the pillars are named and have a special story relating their symbolic meaning and how they came to be in the main temple of Sakya.

- Yellow Pillar

- Tiger Pillar

- Wild Yak Pillar

- Black Blood Dripping Pillar

Sakya Monastery & Town

The Sakya Monastery & Town Page on the Himalayan Art Resources website has been updated with 600 images from the SRG Archive. Not all of the images have been divided into their subject or location themes. This will happen over the next couple of weeks. The Manjushri Cave has been added. This is the location where Sachen Kunga Nyingpo had direct communication with Arya Manjushri during a six month retreat. The Ushnishavijaya Stupa has been added. This is the final resting place for the body of Bari Lotsawa Dharma Drag. Both of these sacred sights are located in the same building on the North side of Sakya to the left of the white patch of earth. The protector chapel of Lhakang Chenmo, the main South Monastery, has also been added.

Flying Out of New York, What Do the Lamas Do?

You know, there has been some talk lately about which electronic devices can be used on a plane and which devices cannot. There has also been some talk about turning all electronic devices off during take-off.

Well, I don't know what the true story is and if there are any universally adhered to policies for electronic devices on planes. I have however flown regularly for the past 12 years. And, I do try and always fly with Cathay Pacific or one of its partner airlines. There are two reasons for this. The first, Cathay flies most of the routes I need to travel. Secondly, Cathay offers great, GREAT, service, as do most of their partners. But, back to my initial point which I haven't yet even started to make.

So, I have used a set of Bose headphones, electronic headphones, for years. They were purchased exclusively for air travel. I'm sure they will work perfectly fine off the plane as well. For me they work great! A friend tells me that the Sony also work well. Regardless, I recommend them to anybody that does a lot of air travel. How they work is - aside from reducing background and foreground noise - they reduce the airplane buzz in your head which more importantly reduces jet-lag. That is the unofficial scientific explanation.

However, back to the point. I have never been asked on Cathay Pacific to turn off my headphones during take-off or landing. On one occasion flying on American Airlines between New York and San Fransisco, prior to take-off, I was asked to both turn them off and to take them off my head.

Now, what is most interesting is that on my most recent flight, which I am writing about now at over 30000 feet, I was not asked once to turn off my Ipad which I was using right up until the end of final taxi immediately prior to gunning the engines and taking-off. I would have continued to use the Ipad but I opted to close the cover and put it down simply because of the shaking of the plane. I was of course still wearing the Bose headphones. So, there you have it, my point. Rules are rules as long as they are enforced or people continue to believe in them. That is the substance of it - my point.

Now, with safety aside, on another topic of some importance, it is nice that Cathay has brought back the beef tenderloin for one of the meal choices in business class on the New York to Vancouver flight. For awhile, and I can't remember for how long, but, they were experimenting with food all too much for my liking. I was fortunate tonight. They bumped me from coach seating up to business class. A class to which I am not completely unaccustomed, yet not guaranteed.

I'm sure there are ways to guarantee business class seating. Aside from money of course. I have a friend who would likely know the particular Catholic saint responsible for arranging such things. Unfortunately Tantric Buddhism does not upgrade and modernize their deities as quickly and as efficiently as the Catholic Church modernizes their saints.

For Tantric deities, if I was to take a guess as to who could assist with business class accommodation, then it would likely be some form of a wealth deity, probably peaceful, but with the added feature of a red body colour - adding a little expediency to the mix - as colours have meaning in Tantric Buddhism.

To their credit, the Catholics have books which describe all of the different saints and especially which particular saint is best suited for each and every special human need and condition. Tantric Buddhism, however, does not. In the interests of keeping up with the Roman Catholics and modernization in general, Tantrics should upgrade and offer deities, cataloged and organized, assorted for all daily human needs and conditions. Towards this common good, surely there must already be a 'Terma' out there, hidden or discovered, that addresses such things as air travel.....what do the Lamas do?

(Written Tuesday night, 20th of December).

Lecture, Leaving Chengdu, Hong Kong

The last lecture was Thursday night. It was on Tibetan Painting Styles. There were 60 + students and teachers. It seemed to go quite well with many questions at the end. There definitely needs to be a system developed for teaching Tibetan styles. There isn't anything right now that is suitable and useful.

I never like to leave Chengdu. It is a city that is comfortable for me. However, I was up at five and to the airport by seven. The flight was delayed an hour but that didn' t prevent me from getting to Hong Kong with plenty of time to catch my next flight. I had a comfortable exit row seat and a perfectly adequate breakfast on the flight. Dragon Air is not as good as Cathay but they try. Because of that extra marks are awarded.

Fortunately for the HK to JFK portion of the trip I won't be traveling in the cattle car. This will allow me to nap as well as get a little work done prior to landing. The ipad is very useful for writing without the cumbersome and large folding laptop. I am now a firm believer in ipad, or similar, technology. It made me more productive and more adaptable to changing work situations and spaces while in Chengdu. It also allows me to carry a virtual Tibetan and English library with me where ever I go.

iPad Purchase

Well it is coming on to nearly four months since I bought an IPad. It has taken a lot of getting used to because it is not very intuitive in so many ways. So far it is well worth while because I use it as a Tibetn text reader and have it loaded with all the most important collections of texts that I use frequently. It is also filled with thousands of images from collections that I am working on. It is certainly the technology I have been waiting for for a number of years. I certainly recommend it for all those people that need quick access to large collections of Tibetan texts and images. What is certain is that in the near future the features and large memory that is found on the iPad will be available on a number of other technology brands at a half or a third the price of the iPad. So far it has been my second most useful technology purchase after I upgraded to a Blackberry from a standard cellular phone.

Chengdu in November

The weather in Chengdu in November should be around 15 or 16 degrees during the day. That means Celsius of course. I hope to be able to complete the survey of one large museum collection and also spend time with at least one other collection. The museum collection was partially surveyed last year but not completed. The wonderful thing about Chengdu aside from the mild climate and great food is that there is always more art to see. As everyone knows, Blogger isn't accessible in China. I will be using the alternate Blog site for occasional updates on activities: http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jeff-on-the-Road/page-1.html

Mild Earthquake in New York

Yes, I felt the earthquake up on the 9th floor of the office building where I work in midtown Manhattan. Once I noticed it the duration seemed to only be for maybe a few seconds and then it came back and lasted 7 to 10 seconds. It was the gentle swaying - like rocking a baby - that I noticed.