Thangka

This is Axel

                  

I always loved to draw since I can remember.  It helped to have a mom who was the best artist in East Lansing or any other city around.  My brothers and I would sit around and draw super heroes and  monsters for hours.

I have always drawn since, but mostly just pencil.  I have always been afraid of doing watercolor as I don't really understand it and mostly when I do it, a good pencil picture turns into a bad watercolor picture.

But coming to Nepal inspired me to try again.  The Tibetan Buddhists here paint pictures called Thangkas, which are representations of their Buddhist gods and goddesses.  I always love gods and goddesses as I think that if we go back far enough our religions started at the same point.  It has always been a hobby of mine to look for similarities in religions.  When you do, it is amazing how many you can find.

                    

Danny and Linda were here (Terah's parents) and they also admired Thangkas.  I thought, what the heck, I'll try painting one for them.  So while they were in Thailand and I was at home bored I painted the above one.  It is the god Rahul who is the guardian of doctrine.  I thought that was like Danny, and I liked the way he looked so I gave it a shot.

It turned out kind of a comic book version of a Thangka.  But it was my first, so I still enjoyed doing it.  Danny and Linda have it back in Canada.

             

Then I found a real Thangka painter in Thamel and he came over to teach me.  Before he came I drew the above one and he showed me how to paint it better than I had been doing.  The shading using different colors was new to me and it started to turn out OK

But then while I went outside to stop a fight with our chickens, Dona decided to get my blue paint and spill it all over the top.  I had done the same thing to a picture of my moms when I was about the same age.  Karma....

                          

It was fun doing the water.

Then I decided to do a real one.  On real Thangka paper (which is made from animal skins) and spend my time.  I didn't get any pictures of the pencil drawings, but here are the final outcomes of the paintings.

I spent two months right here every morning and night.  I was sooo happy to get this one finished... And yes, I need glasses now.  I am old.

I decided to do two male gods and two female gods on the outside to represent our four kids.  Above is another Rahul.  Look in his right hand.  It is the keys to the priesthood.  Had to change it somewhat.   The outside boarder has Garuda eating snakes.

Terah was born in the year of the Dragon and I am the year of the Rooster.  So I did us standing on a gold dragon and gold rooster (or Phoenix).  The gold is actual gold.  NOT gold paint.  You buy these gold dust pieces and mix them with water and a bit of glue and then paint it.  It makes the picture really light up.  I spent about 50 bucks just for this kind of gold alone on this picture.

The gold Phoenix.  Typically the right side of the body is for mercy and is considered the 'female' side (in the Kaballah).  The male side is for justice.  So I put my animal under the left and Terah's dragon under the right. 

Here is the fabric of Najima, the goddess of health and prosperity.

 

 

You can see in her right hand the temple (SLC) where Terah and I were married.

Here is the whole thing.  You can see 'Terah' and 'me' in the middle and the two boys and girls.  Girls in white and boys in blue.   The Buddha at the top has a white dove on his shoulder and palm prints.  Yes, I made Buddha into Jesus. 

 

That is just the way I roll.

In Buddhism this is white Tara.  The goddess of protection.  It was fun doing the flowers.

A big one of Terah and me.

This god Bhairub is supposed to have a necklace heads of those he conquered.  I thought I would put the different cultures of places we have lived. 

Here I am with a sword (I love fencing) and Terah has the Golden Plates in her hand. 

This is Queztalcoatl, the Aztec representation of Jesus.   You can also see the trident in my other hand which is because I love spear fishing.

Here is another god Jamballa the god of wealth for a boy.  I didn't really think one was Xay and the other Asa.  Sometimes they have to work hard for money and others they have to protect our religion's doctrine.  So sometimes they are this sometimes the other.

                    

In the end, the last thing you are supposed to paint is the eye of the god or Buddha.  It is the 'awakening' of the Thangka and after that you shouldn't touch it again because the god now lives in the picture.  So I made the last thing I painted was the eyes on Terah.  After all she is my goddess.

Here I am with the final product.  We had a local Tibetan frame shop who specializes in Thangkas to frame it.  They did a great job.  And it only cost $100!

I am now working on another one.  It is going to be Vishnu's 'Churning of the milk'.  It is a representation of the creation of the world by the gods and demons before the demons where cast out.  Sound familar?