Buddhist Art, artists and art...the-artists.org

Buddhist Art. Although buddhist art is not a modern or contemporary art style, and below names are not artists in the vocabulary of the-artists.org, i include it because of my personal interest. Tibetan art in particulary. Tibetan art is first and foremost a form of sacred art, reflecting the over-riding influence of Tibetan Buddhism. The main forms of buddhist art are thangka and sculpture or statue.

Thangka is a painted or embroidered Buddhist banner which was hung in a monastery or a family altar and occasionally carried by monks in ceremonial processions. In Tibetan the word thang means flat, and thus the Thangka is a kind of painting done on flat surface but which can be rolled up when not required for display, sometimes called a scroll-painting. The most common shape of a Thangka is the upright rectangular form.

The Buddha Statue represents a philisophical belief system that's deeply concerned with overcoming suffering. The hope of nirvana is really a hope in finally ending the cycle of suffering in this world. The law of karma can be very rigid and impersonal. Under the Buddhist system of moral cause and effect there is no mercy and no forgiveness. Escape is only possible through a continuous cycle of good deeds and striving for "unattainable" self-perfection.

Tibet Shop
Tibet Shop's thankgas are painted in workshops in Southern Himalaya region, by Tibetan, Bhutanese and Nepalese painters, who are practising Buddhists. The artworks are carefully selected from thousands of pieces. We compare them with the sadhana texts and old masterworks as often as we can, to make sure they are iconographically correct, and buy from workshops, who respect the tradition. Most of our thangkas are hand made copies of old masterworks, that were based on certain visions or rituals. Painters make their paints from minerals and herbs in the traditional manner.

Buddhist art and architecture
The form given to a painted or sculpted image follows a clear and well defined iconography set out in the appropriate texts, whilst artistsâ€™ manuals illustrate the strict measures to be observed in achieving correct proportion and balance. The Tibetan artist, like his Indian counterpart, is not free to improvise on his personal concepts of the appearance of an individual deity but is required to work within a well defined structure. In the tantric art of Tibetan Buddhism, benign, wrathful, serene or terrifying deities all illustrate an aspect of the Buddha mind, or the potential to be found in each of us, so that the artist projects for us archetypal images from deep within our subconscious, inviting us to contemplate those aspects of our being which usually remain hidden. For the meditation practitioner, such images are models for the process of visualisation, where the adept develops the ability, through stabilised concentration and cultivated inner vision, to visualise the deity in all its phenomenal detail and then absorb this vision into him/herself and so absorb the spiritual qualities particular to that deity...

Buddhist
Symbols

Celestial
Gallery

Esoteric
Tibetan Art

Tibetan Wall
paintings

Dalai Lama

Karmapa

Trungpa

The Way of the Bodhisattva Treasured by Buddhists of all traditions, The Way of the Bodhisattva (Bodhicharyavatara) is a guide to cultivating the mind of enlightenment, and to generating the qualities of love, compassion, generosity, and patience. This text has been studied, practiced, and expounded upon in an unbroken tradition for centuries, first in India, and later in Tibet. Presented in the form of a personal meditation in verse, it outlines the path of the Bodhisattvas those who renounce the peace of individual enlightenment and vow to work for the liberation of all beings and to attain buddhahood for their sake.
"If I have any understanding of compassion and the practice of the bodhisattva path, it is entirely on the basis of this text that I possess it." H. H. the Dalai Lama

Buddhist Art (in progress)

Tibetan buddhist deities:

The Kagyu Lineage of Tibetan Buddhism: