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Statement of Authorship

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Statement of Access

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Abstract

My thesis examines the contemporary Tibetan art movement that has emerged not
only in the Tibetan homeland but also amongst the Tibetan diaspora. As the movement
spans temporal and spatial boundaries, national and geographical borders, it is appropriate
to examine the movement in the context of globalisation.
I argue that these contemporary Tibetan artists are re-claiming their identity: an
identity which has been usurped, not only by the Chinese occupation of their homeland
which resulted in suppression of Tibetan culture within Tibet and displacement of culture
in case of the diaspora, but also by the pervasive Orientalist view of Tibet as an exotic
Shangri-La, a remote and imaginary utopia. This identity emerges in a post-modern
global era as one that draws on a sense of place and culture to reflect on issues that
transcend the local and have a universal relevance. I examine the different ways in which
the artists, in both their homeland and in exile, negotiate their modern Tibetan identity,
and how this is expressed in their art.
Works of contemporary Tibetan art often involve the deconstruction and
reconfiguration of Tibetan Buddhist iconography. They challenge art audiences to
confront the stereotypes and assumptions of Tibetan culture. In this thesis I argue that
while these artworks may appear iconoclastic, the artists do not reject tradition or
denigrate religious images, but rather, reinterpret Buddhist iconography in a way that is
relevant to current day issues in contemporary life. By redeploying Buddhist iconography
in a contemporary context, these artists renew Tibetan art and Tibetan Buddhist culture,
thereby helping to keep this endangered culture vital and dynamic.
My thesis is largely based on extensive interviews with artists both in Tibet and
the diaspora. In addition, the key authors and publications that have informed my work
are: Clare Harris, anthropologist and curator at Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford, particularly
her two books: In the Image of Tibet: Tibetan Painting after 1959 (1991) and The
Museum on the Roof of the World (2012); Giuseppe Tucci; David Jackson; Per Kvaerne;
Donald Lopez; Janet Gyatso, as well as contemporary Tibetan scholars, such as Tsering
Shakya. I also draw on the work of post-colonial thinkers, such as Edward Said, and
contemporary art theorists such as Nicolas Bourriaud, particularly his publication
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Altermodern: Tate Triennial, 2009.

Little serious scholarship has been undertaken into this relatively new art
movement. Tibet’s unique socio-political situation, with its homeland now in China, a
government-in-exile in India and widespread diaspora in the West, poses important
questions with regard to identity in a globalised world that no longer conforms to the
centre-periphery paradigm but rather accedes to a system of multi-directional cultural
flows. The concept of a transnational art movement, which is nevertheless identifiable by
its cultural foundation, is an important area of inquiry in terms of what it can say about
the evolution of society and culture in a globalised world. It also has implications for the
Eurocentric stranglehold over art history, notions of hybridity and Western cultural
stereotypes of “the other”. By focusing on the contemporary art of the Tibetan
community, my intention is to contribute to the post-Orientalist discussion of culture and
unravel a complex iconography for a global audience.

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A cknowledgements

I would like to thank the University of Tasmania for supporting my project. I

would particularly like to thank my supervisors, Llewellyn Negrin and Sonam Thakchoe
as well as my graduate research coordinators, Paul Zika and Megan Keating. My thanks
also to Suan Lee and to Head of School, Professor Kit Wise, and Dean of Graduate
Research, Professor Clive Baldock. Thank you to Anita Hanson, Brita Hanson and Faye
Harding for proof reading and moral support.
Most importantly, I would like to thank the artists and other members of the
Tibetan community, both in Tibet and in exile. (I hope I don’t forget anyone). In Lhasa:
Ang Sang; Benchung (Benpa Chungdak); Dedron; Donlup; Gade; Lu Zhungde; Nortse
(Norbu Tsering), Nyandak (Tsering Nyandak); Jhamsang; Penpa (Me Long); Penpa;
Shelkawa A Nu; Somani; Tsewang Tashi; Tsering Namgyal; Yak Tseten; and my friend
and guide, Nima. In Exile: Losang Gyatso; Tenzing Rigdol; Karma Phuntsok; Gonkar
Gyatso; Palden Weinreb; Kesang Lamdark; Tashi Norbu.
In India, the Dharamsala artists: Doctor Dawa, Samchung, Ngawang Dorjee,

Kunchok, Tashi Lodeo, and Sarah Hartigan and Tashi Gyatso from Peak Art Gallery.
Tenzin Gyaltsen Ghadong (Wangdue Tsering), applique thangka artist, and Lama Gelek
Samten at Palpung Sherabling Institute, Baijnath.
Very special acknowledgement must be given to Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 17th

Gyalwang Karmapa and Pema Donyo Nyingche Wangpo, Vajradhara 12th Kenting Tai
Situpa. And a big thank you to Karen McKeen who miraculously arranged audiences for
me while at Sherabling. Thanks also to Lama Tsewang Lhakpa and Choje Lama Shedrup
at the Palpung Tibetan Buddhist Institute, Launceston. At the Central University for
Tibetan Studies at Sarnath, Varanasi, India, thank you to Professor Ngawang Samten and
Ani Sonam’s brother, Chophel.
There are also a number of people in China that I wish to acknowledge. In Beijing,
I would like to thank Amy Liu for her hospitality and Shirley Pei for assistance with
travel arrangements, as well as David Livdahl at Paul Hastings, and Derek Wong in
Chengdu. I must also thank Brian Wallace of Red Gate Gallery for giving me his copy of
the Scorching Sun of Tibet catalogue. Thanks also to Stephen McGuiness of Plum
Blossoms Gallery and Martine Beale in Hong Kong.
Thank you to Maria Mawo at Rubin Museum in New York, and Xiaohan and
Rupa at Rossi and Rossi in London; Santosh Gupta at Lotus Gallery in Kathmandu; Eiko
Honda, Gonkar Gyatso’s assistant, for arranging our first meeting in Sydney; artist
Zhuoquan Liu who I met at Gonkar’s show in Brisbane, and Damian Smith in Melbourne.
Special thanks to Ani Karma Sonam Palmo for her friendship and advice on all
things Tibetan, particularly the feminine. And last but not least, thank you to my fellow
traveller, Jocelyn Cunningham, for joining the first India field trip inter alia.
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Table of Contents

Statement of Authorship ...................................................................................................... i

Statement of Access ............................................................................................................ ii
Abstract .............................................................................................................................. iii
Acknowledgements ..............................................................................................................v
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................... vi
Introduction ........................................................................................................................1
Background ......................................................................................................................2
Emergence of Contemporary Tibetan Art ........................................................................5
Literature Review ...........................................................................................................12
Methodology ..................................................................................................................19
Outline of Chapters ........................................................................................................27
Chapter 1. The Buddha Form.........................................................................................29

Traditional Iconometry ...................................................................................................36
New Iconometry and the Buddha form ..........................................................................39
Other uses of the Buddha Symbol ..................................................................................44
The Buddha in Lhasa ......................................................................................................50
Chapter 2. Maṇḍala – Neo-Tantra..................................................................................64

Neo-Tantra......................................................................................................................77
The maṇḍala in Lhasa ....................................................................................................82
Chapter 3. Tantra – Male and Female Principles .........................................................94

Part I. Yab-yum ...............................................................................................................95
Lhasa .........................................................................................................................104
Part II. Goddess – Tārā .................................................................................................113
Tārā in Lhasa ............................................................................................................127
Chapter 4. Sacred Geography – Land and Landscape ..............................................139

Lhasa - Folklore............................................................................................................140
Śambhalaḥ to Shangri-La .............................................................................................147
Tibetan land and landscape in exile .............................................................................168
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Chapter 5. A New Aniconism – Allegory .....................................................................180

Aniconic Art in Exile – Conceptual Art .......................................................................181
Lhasa - Allegory ...........................................................................................................199
Chapter 6. Lhasa and Exile - A Disparate Cohesion ..................................................217

The Diasporic Experience ............................................................................................217
Lhasa – Erosion of Culture ...........................................................................................228
Transnational – Beyond Tibetan Identity .....................................................................236
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................244
Appendix A: Gedun Chophel Artists’ Guild – Mission Statement ..................................250
Glossary ...........................................................................................................................251
Bibliography.....................................................................................................................254
Interviews .........................................................................................................................283
List of illustrations: ..........................................................................................................286

2

Introduction
This thesis examines the contemporary Tibetan art movement that emerged at the
end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century. The aim of this
research project is to situate the movement within the broader phenomenon of hybrid art
culture in a globalised world; exploring how contemporary Tibetan art reflects the
identity of modern Tibetan culture and society beyond the cultural stereotypes, in both the
Tibetan homeland and amongst the Tibetan diaspora.
Tibetan society and culture went though enormous upheavals in the twentieth
century as a result of the expansionist policy of the new Chinese Communist regime that
forcibly occupied Tibet in 1950. This resulted, on one hand, in an indigenous population
who now found itself living in the People’s Republic of China and being subjected to the
violent forces of the Communist Revolution and its form of modernisation. On the other
hand, the events spawned a Tibetan diaspora, first in India and other Himalayan States,
which then spread to the West and underwent another kind of modernisation.
The contemporary Tibetan art movement spans Tibetan artists still in their
homeland, and diaspora artists in India and the West. These two strands have so much in
common that together they form the phenomenon of contemporary Tibetan art movement.
Yet the artists from each side bring their own different complexions, which manifest in
their art. Indeed, to look at only the contemporary artists in Tibet or the contemporary
artists of the diaspora is to only see half the story of the art movement. The artists know
each other, they often exhibit together, draw inspiration from each other, and many
studied together in Chinese universities at the end of the Cultural Revolution. A number
of the artists then became teachers to the younger members of the movement. Some
remained in Tibet, some went into exile while some were born outside Tibet to parents
3

who had already sought refuge in Nepal or India. Together, their different trajectories add
contextual and visual complexity to the oeuvre of the art movement.
Naturally, because of the profound social, political and geographical changes
undergone by Tibetan society, their culture has entered into modernity with even more
heterogeneous complexity than before. Yet the pervasive outside view, which I
interrogate in this thesis, is the romantic conception of a peaceful and exotic culture
steeped in religious mysticism that originated in an idyllic Shangri-La.1 Even some of the
preeminent Tibetan Buddhist scholars in the West still encourage this perspective. For
example, in the catalogue to the vast Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet
exhibition, Robert Thurman wrote: “[t]hrough Tibet’s seventeen-hundred-year
association with the Buddha reality, the entire land of Tibet has become the closest place
on earth to an actual Pure Land.”2 The reality of Tibet’s history is far more complicated
and multifarious than this statement suggests and it is against this backdrop that the
contemporary Tibetan artists remonstrate against the myth and cultural stereotype.
Given the upheaval wrought upon Tibetan society and culture in the twentieth
century, I examine how the changed cultural contexts within which Tibetan artists now
operate impact upon the iconographic, mythological and stylistic features of Tibetan art.
Further, I ask how the contemporary Tibetan artists treat and use the iconographic
material of the religious art traditions of Tibet in order to interpret modern culture and
current issues.
Background
The existence of the contemporary Tibetan art movement is still relatively
unknown in the West. Indeed, even the traditional art of Tibet was very little known in

1
Keila Diehl, Echoes from Dharamsala (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 11.
2
Marylin M. Rhie and Robert A.F. Thurman. Wisdom and Compassion, The Sacred Art of Tibet (London:
Thames and Hudson, 1991), 312.
4

the West until around 1960 because of Tibet’s political and geographical isolation. There
existed only a small number of private and museum collections that had been gathered by
the few Westerners who had visited Tibet on official missions or as travellers and
scholars.3 Then over the next couple of decades, art dealers and collectors in London,
Paris, New York and elsewhere began to acquire Tibetan art; exhibitions were staged and
fine catalogues were produced.4
The proliferation of traditional Tibetan art and cultural objects in the West was a
consequence of an exodus of Tibetans who followed the Dalai Lama, the temporal and
spiritual leader of Tibet, into exile in India in 1959.5 A great flood of Tibetan art became
available in the wake of the first wave of the Tibetan diaspora, as fleeing Tibetans sold
artworks and objects in order to support themselves. Added to this were an enormous
number of works that had been looted by the Chinese and sold through dealers in places
such as Hong Kong.6 As collections grew, impressive exhibitions of traditional Tibetan
art were held in Europe and North America.7
In the meantime, the forces of the Chinese Communist Regime descended into the
violent chaos of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) all over China. In Tibet, religious
practices were banned, religious buildings were demolished and religious objects, texts
and artworks were destroyed or stolen, resulting in the decimation of a culture.8

3
David Snellgrove and Hugh Richardson. A Cultural History of Tibet (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003), 277.
4
Ibid, and see also Pratapaditya Pal. Art of the Himalayas (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1991),7–8.
5
In the next two years, around 80,000 Tibetans fled Tibet (Melvyn C. Goldstein. A History of Modern Tibet,
1913-1951. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, 825).
6
Donald S. Lopez Jr. Prisoners of Shangri-La; Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1999), 137, and see David Germano, “Re-membering the Dismembered Body of Tibet.” In
Buddhism in Contemporary Tibet: Religious Revival and Cultural Identity. Melvyn C. Goldstein and
Matthew T. Kapstein (eds.) (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998, 53–94), 53; John F. Avedon. In
Exile from the Land of Snows. (New York: HarperCollins, 1997). (It was in Hong Kong that I first came
across Tibetan art in these very antique shops).
7
For example: Dieux et demons de l’Himâlaya – Tibet, Kunst des Buddhismus in Paris and Munich (1977–
78); Heritage of Tibet in London (1981–82); Die Götter des Himalaya in Germany (1989–90); Art
esotérique de l’Himâlaya in Paris (1990–91); Wisdom and Compassion: The Sacred Art of Tibet in San
Francisco, New York and London (1991–92); and Tesori del Tibet, oggetti d’arte dai monasteri di Lhasa in
Milan (1994). Snellgrove and Richardson. A Cultural History of Tibet, 15.
8
Germano, “Re-membering the Dismembered Body of Tibet,” 53.
5

Outside Tibet, particularly in Dharamsala in Northern India where the Dalai Lama
set up a Tibetan government-in-exile, priority was given to the consolidation and
preservation of traditional Tibetan culture. The Dalai Lama set up a number of religious,
cultural and educational institutes to preserve Tibetan traditions.9 These Institutes have
continued to develop, such as the Norbulingka Institute named after the Dalai Lama’s
summer residence in Lhasa which finally opened in 1995. The Institute’s purpose was to
provide training and employment for Tibetans in the traditional arts such as thangka
painting (religious scroll painting on cloth) and appliqué thangka (thangkas made from
embroidered silk rather than paint), sculpture and wood carving.10
Figure 1. Appliqué thangka with traditional brocade

border, Śākyamuni Buddha, unknown artist, from the
Norbulingka exhibition, Sacred Arts of Tibet, Henry
Jones Art Hotel, Hobart 2009, 55 x 80 cm (approx.)
(photo by author).
Nearly twenty years later, Norbulingka is centred around a museum of traditional
Tibetan arts, where visitors can observe the artists and craftsmen at work. The official
website states that “Norbulingka has come to represent a viable cross-section of the
Tibetan community at large, where the traditional and modern interact and Tibetan
culture and values retain their vibrant potential.” And further “[i]t reconciles the

9
Men-Tsee-Khang, The Official Website of the Tibetan Medican and Astrological Institute. www.men-
tsee-khang.org/Istatus/establish.htm.
10
Norbulingka Institute. Preserving Tibetan Culture. www.norbulingka.org.
6

traditional creatively and respectfully with the modern, and seeks to create an
international awareness of Tibetan values and their expression in art and literature.”11
However, while the whole complex attempts to combine the traditional with the modern,
the artworks created here are first and foremost religious art (even though they may be
sometimes bought by tourists for merely aesthetic purposes). To this extent they are not
part of the contemporary Tibetan art movement.
Though many of the artists who now live and work in the West spent time in
Dharamsala and studied traditional thangka painting there, their art has modified
extensively the conventions associated with this tradition and no longer serves religious
purposes. Rather it provides a socio-political reflection on contemporary Tibetan and
global issues.
Emergence of Contemporary Tibetan Art
The initial emergence of a contemporary Tibetan art came after a prolonged
disruption in the Tibetan artistic tradition due to the establishment of the Communist
regime in China and its annexation of Tibet. Not only was a great deal of art and visual
culture destroyed in Tibet, but the new Chinese Government prescribed a new form of art
which expressed the ideology of the new regime and reflected the values of
communism.12 Socialist Realism, adapted from their communist neighbour of the USSR
became official cultural policy in Tibet, as it did all over China, particularly during the
turbulent years of the ‘Great Leap Forward’ (1950s) and the Cultural Revolution (1966–
1976). Mao Tse-Tung (1893–1976) iterated his views on art on many occasions. He
emphasised that all art and literature was for the masses, especially the workers, peasants
and soldiers. The main purpose was:

11
Norbulingka Institute: Preserving Tibetan Culture. www.norbulingka.org.
12
Mao Tse-Tung on Literature and Art (Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1977), 10.
7

to ensure that literature and art fit well into the whole revolutionary machine as a
component part, that they operate as powerful weapons for uniting and educating
the people and for attacking and destroying the enemy with one heart and one
mind.13
Under this system, art work that was deemed to be bourgeois or anti-socialist was
condemned.14 Artists were required to make art that served the people according to
Communist Party policy, which resulted in monumental sculpture on the Soviet model,
portraits of Chairman Mao as part of his cult of personality, as well as pictures of the
heroes of the revolution – soldiers, factory workers and peasants.15 Tibetan arts,
particularly religious thangka painting, were banned in Tibet after 1959 as part of the
social and economic reforms which aimed to eliminate the religious dominance of
Tibetan society.16 As we will see, the leaders of the contemporary Tibetan art movement
grew up in Lhasa during the period of the Cultural Revolution and felt its effects in a
number of ways.
After the death of Chairman Mao, which spelt the end of the Cultural
Revolution, an ideological shift took place, which facilitated the emergence of the
Chinese contemporary art phenomenon and then the beginnings of the contemporary
Tibetan art movement. Deng Xiaoping’s ‘Open Door’ policy in 1978 brought greater
freedom of movement in China, and many Tibetans were able to travel back and forth to
India.17 This meant that many Tibetans who had not gone into exile could gain access to
Tibetan culture and religion, that had been denied them under Mao, in the Tibetan
enclaves in India.

24Mao Tse-Tung, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung [The little red book] (Peking: Foreign
Languages Press 1967), 301.
25Michael Sullivan. “Art in China since 1949,” The China Quarterly, no. 159 (September 1999), 712–722.
26Nudes, abstraction and expressionism were classified as “harmful”, while landscape, by which one could
show love of country, was classified as “not harmful”. (Sullivan, “Art in China since 1949,” 713–714).
27Tsering Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, A History of Modern Tibet since 1947 (New York:
Columbia University Press, 1999), 254.
17
Ibid., 375.
8

In addition, the ‘open door’ economic policy allowed a number of foreign art
exhibitions to come to China, giving artists an opportunity to glimpse the artistic
developments being made in the West.18 The most talked about foreign exhibition among
Tibetan artists was Robert Rauschenberg’s touring exhibition, Rauschenberg’s Overseas
Cultural Interchange, which came first to Beijing in 1985 and then to Lhasa where it was
displayed at the Revolutionary Exhibit Hall.19
Another factor in the development of contemporary Chinese and then Tibetan art
was the repudiation of the Cultural Revolution by the Communist Party in 1981. As Xu
Hong observes: “[t]his created an environment in which artists and writers could react to
the constraints imposed on their activity during a decade of despotic rule.”20 The
repudiation effectively meant that the symbolism and iconography of the Cultural
Revolution could be commandeered for new artistic purposes. These tropes can be found
in the work of many contemporary Tibetan artists, particularly those working in Lhasa.
Modern Chinese art developed in a number of directions during the early 1980s,
culminating in what became known as the ’85 movement, ‘New Wave’,21 or avant-garde.
Focused at the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing, this movement swept the
nation,22 and ultimately had an influence on contemporary Tibetan art. The driving force
behind this movement was the art school graduates, who had benefited from the re-
opening of universities and art schools under Deng’s ‘open door’ policy.23 Exhibitions of
contemporary Chinese art began to be held in the late 1970s. According to Fei Dawei,

18
Xu Hong. “Modern Chinese Art,” in Tradition and Change, Contemporary Art of Asia and the Pacific,
Caroline Turner (ed) (St. Lucia, Qld.: University of Queensland Press, 2005, 330–359), 332–333.
19
Conversations with artists in Lhasa, 2010, eg. Tsering Nyandak and Benchung. (And see Rauschenberg
Foundation: rauschenbergfoundation.org/art/archive/photo3000)
20
Xu. “Modern Chinese Art,” 332–333.
21
The artists I spoke to in Lhasa used these terms interchangeably but generally referred to the movement
as the ‘New Wave’.
22
Huang Zhuan. “Reflections on the '80s Avant-Garde,” ArtZine, A Chinese Contemporary Art Portal,
2008. artzinechina.com/display_vol_aid245_en.html.
23
Fei Dawei. “Once upon a cloud: our 1980s art school lives.” In Leap, The International Art Magazine of
Contemporary China (April 2011 – The Education Issue, 89–93), 91.
9

who was among the first post-cultural revolution intake of students at the Central
Academy of Fine Arts, the movement did not gain impetus until a critical mass of art
graduates assembled, “before uniting to launch a rebellion in the art world …”24
Among this new group of art students in Beijing and other universities around
China were a number of Tibetans, including Gonkar Gyatso, Nortse, Ang Sang and
Tsewang Tashi. Apart from Tsewang Tashi, who stayed on in Beijing for a while after
university, these artists returned to Lhasa with new ideas derived from their exposure to
Western art practice and theory and the ground swell of the new Chinese art scene. In
Lhasa, the artists began to work and develop their own art practices and organised a series
of exhibitions under the name of The Sweet Tea House, beginning in 1985.25 This was the
beginning of the contemporary Tibetan art movement.
Figure 2. Artists at “The Third Painting Exhibition of the Tea Houses’ School,” Lhasa, 1987. Gonkar
Gyatso is fourth from the left in between Ang Sang (left) and Nortse (right). (Photo courtesy of Nortse)
The boon of the early 1980s, however, proved to be short-lived in terms of
cultural and individual freedoms in China, and political events once again overtook
artistic endeavours. Martial law was declared in Tibet in March 1989 after anti-Chinese

24
Fei. “Once upon a cloud: our 1980s art school lives,” 93.
25
Conversations with artists in Lhasa, 2010, particularly Nortse, Ang Sang and Nyandak.
:

demonstrations in Lhasa.26 In June, a wave of protests swept across China with the
opposition coming mainly from the very university students who had benefited from
earlier reforms, culminating in the confrontation in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.27
Meanwhile, the Sweet Tea House School of artists in Lhasa ceased to function as
the artists pursued other activities.28 Gonkar Gyatso, who was one of the main forces
behind the early contemporary Tibetan art movement, went into exile in the early 1990s,
first to India and then to London.29 The movement was, however, continued in Lhasa by a
core group, including Tsewang Tashi, Nortse and Ang Sang, who paved the way for the
next generation of artists.
In 2004 the group of artists in Lhasa founded the Gedun Chöphel Artists’ Guild,
named for the revered and controversial Tibetan scholar of the early twentieth century.
While the association comprises an eclectic mix of artists from the old generation and the
new, Tibetan, Chinese and Tibetan Muslim,30 it is a contemporary Tibetan creative
endeavour. Their manifesto acknowledges the common roots of the artists and the
influence of the Cultural Revolution in their lives.31
After the first sporadic exhibitions of contemporary Tibetan art took place in
Lhasa in the late 1980s, a number of exhibitions were held in the early 1990s in
Dharamsala by artists who had gone into exile, such as Gonkar Gyatso and Karma

26
Shakya, The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, A History of Modern Tibet since 1947, 430.
27
Ibid, 431.
28
Conversations with artists, Lhasa 2010, esp. Nortse, Ang Sang and Nyandak.
29
The beginnings of the movement in Lhasa and Gyatso’s career up to the end of the 20 th century are
related in Clare Harris’ In the Image of Tibet, Tibetan Painting after 1959 (London: Reaktion Books, 1999).
30
Tibetan Muslims (Tib. Bod-ka-che) form a small minority in Tibet, not officially recognized by China.
Muslims entered Tibet as early as the eight century from Kashmir and by the seventeenth century there
were Muslims in Tibet who originated from Kashmir, Ladakh, Nepal, and other parts of China. They
intermarried with Tibetans and adopted Tibetan ways of life but retained their religion. This group is
separate from more recent Muslim immigrants to Tibet. They also form a Tibetan minority in exile. See
Ataullah Siddiqui. “Muslims of Tibet,” Tibet Journal (Vol. XVI, No. 4, Winter 1999, 71–85); Chen Bo. “A
Multicultural Interpretation of an Ethnic Muslim Minority: The Case of the Hui Tibetan in Lhasa,” Journal
of Muslim Minority Affairs (Vol. 23, No. 1, April 2003, 41–61); Conversation with Tibetan Muslim artist,
Somani, in Lhasa 2010.
31
The Gedun Chöphel Artists’ Guild manifesto is set out at Appendix A.
21

Phuntsok. By the first years of the twenty-first century, the movement had gained
sufficient momentum to warrant exhibitions at prestigious galleries in the West.
These exhibitions comprised works by artists from both Lhasa and the diaspora.
For example: Contemporary Tibet Painting, Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe, New
Mexico (2004); Visions from Tibet: A Brief Survey of Contemporary Painting, Rossi &
Rossi Gallery, London (2005); Waves on the Turquoise Lake: Contemporary Expression
of Tibetan Art, University of Colorado Art Museum (2006); Lhasa Train, Peaceful Wind
Gallery, Santa Fe (2006); Faces of Tibet, Contemporary Tibetan Art from Lhasa,
Siebengebirgs Museum, Koenigswinter, Germany (2006); Consciousness and Form–
Contemporary Tibetan Art, Rossi & Rossi, London (2007); Tibetan Encounters–
Contemporary Meets Tradition, Rossi & Rossi, London (2007); Tibet Art Now–On the
Threshold of a New Future, Amsterdam (2009); Tibetan Visions–Contemporary Painting
from Tibet, Rome, Italy (2009); Tradition Transformed–Tibetan Artists Respond, Rubin
Museum, N.Y. (2010); Beyond The Mandala–Contemporary Art from Tibet, Rossi &
Rossi and VOLTE, Mumbai (2011); In-Between, Rossi & Rossi, London (2013); Parallel
Realities–Contemporary Tibetan Art, Rossi & Rossi and ARNDT, Berlin (2014–2015).
Occasionally exhibitions of contemporary Tibetan art were held in China during
this period, for example, Lhasa – New Art from Tibet (2007) and Return to Lhasa (2008)
at the Red Gate Gallery in Beijing. Despite the titles of these exhibitions, Gonkar Gyatso,
who was then living in London, represented the diaspora in both exhibitions. Then in
2010 the largest exhibition so far of contemporary Tibetan art was held at Sonzhuang art
colony on the outskirts of Beijing. The Scorching Sun of Tibet exhibition comprised
hundreds of artworks from fifty artists from Lhasa and the Tibetan diaspora. The first
decade of the twenty-first century also saw the increase in solo exhibitions by Tibetan
artists in the West and Asia and the inclusion of contemporary Tibetan artists in major
22

cultural events such as Venice Biennale (2009), the Sydney Biennale (2010 and 2012),
and the Asia Pacific Triennial (2009).
We can discern that there are fundamentally two types of galleries or museums
that curate exhibitions of contemporary Tibetan art. The Rubin Museum in New York and
Rossi & Rossi Gallery in London, for example, have backgrounds in traditional or
classical Himalayan or Asian art, and have, therefore, expertise in traditional Himalayan
and Buddhist iconography. These galleries and museums have branched out into
contemporary art as the new art movements proliferate. The other type of gallery or
museum, such as the Museum of Modern Art in Brisbane (host of the Asia Pacific
Triennial), has an ongoing association with modern Asian art and contemporary art theory,
but not necessarily an equivalent expertise in classical Asian or Buddhist iconography.
I argue that while much of the artwork produced by the contemporary Tibetan art
movement utilises Buddhist iconography and concepts, these ideas and motifs are
properly seen as cultural references rather than simply religious symbols. Like other
newly emerged contemporary art movements, the Tibetan artists draw from their heritage
and infuse it with their recent history and contemporary situation.32 These young art
movements form a narrative of the temporal trajectory of each culture. They express their
unique circumstances and individual roads to modernity as well as their own place in the
geopolitical age. Nicholas Bourriaud speaks of a new modernism resulting from a global
dialogue which is beyond nationalism, and which he calls ‘altermodernism’.33
The transnational artists of the contemporary Tibetan art movement embody this
new direction in art, in which they are not confined by the labels of ‘Tibetan artists’ or
‘Tibetan art’ but contribute to the diversity of global contemporary art. In their re-

32
For example, speaking of the Cuban art movement that started in the 1980s, Antonio Eligio, observes that
the artistic movement developed as a consequence of Cuban cultural policy since the late seventies.
(Antonio Eligio. “A Tree from Many Shores,” Art Journal (Vol. 57, No. 4, Winter, 1988, 62–73), 63).
33
Nicholas Bourriaud, “Altermodern.” Altermodern–Tate Triennial (London: Tate Publishing, 2009), 12.
23

working of traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconography they challenge art audiences to
confront the stereotypes and assumptions of Tibetan culture and force the viewer to
accept contemporary art and artists on their own terms in a globalised world.
Literature Review
To date very little serious academic study has been made of the contemporary
Tibetan art movement in contrast with the development of contemporary Chinese art
which has been receiving serious scholarly in Asian Studies departments of Universities
in the West, led by Chinese academics such as Xu Hong, Wu Hung and Shao Dazhen just
to mention a few.34 Even though most of the founding members of the contemporary
Tibetan art movement were educated to a greater or lesser extent in Chinese art schools
and universities, the contemporary Tibetan art movement remains a separate phenomenon
from the modern Chinese art movement, with distinct styles, techniques, subject matter
and sources of inspiration and therefore deserves study in its own right.
The first serious study of Tibetan visual culture since Chinese occupation is by
Clare Harris, anthropologist and curator at the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford. In her book
In the Image of Tibet, Tibetan Painting after 1959 (1999), Harris addresses the fate of
Tibetan civilization and culture since Tibet was subsumed into China in the mid-twentieth
century. She proposes that while Tibet no longer exists as a nation state or political entity,
Tibetan culture survives both inside the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) and outside
amongst the Tibetan diaspora.
Her main argument is that Tibet exists as an idea in the imagination, and that idea
is contested by a number of parties.35 Harris divides the field into four perspectives: the

34
Articles by Xu Hong of the National Art Museum of China and Shao Dazhen, professor of art history at
CAFA, Beijing, have been published by ANU School of Pacific and Asian Studies and University of
Sydney East Asian Studies, respectively. Wu Hung, professor of Chinese Art History at the University of
Chicago has published books on contemporary Chinese art.
35
Harris. In the Image of Tibet: Tibetan Painting after 1959, 9.
24

image of Tibet in the West, the image of Tibet in exile, the Chinese image of Tibet and
the Tibetan image inside the TAR.
In the first case, Harris asserts that the West takes an Orientalist view of Tibet as a
remote, exotic and idyllic Shangri-La that is suspended in time and accordingly subjects
the visual culture to a “museumizing process.”36 To enforce her point, Harris refers to
exhibitions in the West of traditional Tibetan art, such as the Wisdom and Compassion
exhibition (referred to above), and exhibitions that have included traditional Tibetan art,
such as Magiciens de la Terre (1989) in Paris.37 With regard to the Chinese view of Tibet,
Harris examines images from China that portray Tibetan civilization as backward and in
need of liberation. Added to this is a second slightly later Chinese image of Tibet, in the
romantic primitivist mode that resembles the Western image of an exotic idyll.38
The image of Tibet in exile follows two lines: firstly, the official, conservative
image which promotes a traditional ‘authentic’ culture; and secondly, a counter-narrative
in which artists explore the potential of modernity.39 The final image is the indigenous
view from within the Tibetan Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China.
This perspective follows the evolution of visual culture in the TAR, from the official
propaganda image, through the Cultural Revolution and Deng’s ‘Open Door’ period to
the beginnings of the contemporary Tibetan art movement. Harris examines the
emergence of a modernist sensibility among artists in Tibet and contrasts their situation
with Tibetans living in exile, that is, the conservative Tibetan community in India.

36
Harris. In the Image of Tibet, 12.
37
Other commentators have also pronounced that exhibitions of traditional Tibetan culture in the West
continue to promote an Orientalist fantasy of a Shangri-La mythology. For example, Erberto Lo Bue,
“Review Article,” Tibet Journal (Vol. XXXVI, nos 3 & 4, 2001), 207; Heather Stoddard, in her analysis of
the Wisdom and Compassion exhibition, states: “The ‘myth of Tibet’ and its art is thriving and well.” “The
Development in Perceptions of Tibetan Art: From Golden Idols to Ultimate Reality,” in Imagining Tibet:
perceptions, projections, and fantasies, Thierry Dodin and Heinz Räther (eds) (Somerville MA: Wisdom
Publications 2001, 223–253), 228; and see David Jackson, “Apropos a Recent Tibetan Art Catalogue,” in
Vienna Journal of South Asian Studies (Vol. 37,1993, 109–130).
38
Harris. In the Image of Tibet, 120 & 122.
39
Ibid., 119.
25

Harris explores the notion of ‘authenticity’ with regard to culture in a rapidly
changing world as the disparate Tibetan communities re-invent, in different ways, the
traditions of Tibet. She presents ‘authenticity’, which “is considered essential for self-
determination” as a mutable concept.40 It is subjective and relational, dependent upon
external forces. She proposes that both Tibetans in the TAR and those in exile have
constructed their own versions of ‘cultural authenticity’ in response to the same historical
circumstance. However, Harris further argues that twentieth-century Tibetan ‘art’ and
contemporary art forms have been largely ignored by the West, because they fail to fulfil
Orientalist expectations of Tibet.41 Finally, she suggests that this Orientalist fixing could
possibly be counteracted by acknowledging that an homogenous Tibet does not exist, and
did not exist even prior to Chinese occupation.
Harris’ work was the first major publication to deal with contemporary Tibetan art
and the contemporary Tibetan art movement, which at the date of publication was still in
its infancy. Harris also introduced us to Gonkar Gyatso, who has become very probably
the most important contemporary Tibetan artists today.
Since the publication of her book in 1999, the contemporary Tibetan art
movement has experienced a period of growth and maturity. At the time of writing, the
Tibetan community in exile to which Harris referred was confined to the conservative
faction in India. However, there are now a large number of Tibetan contemporary artists
working both in Lhasa and in exile. Both these sets of artists explore their cultural
identity. As Harris pointed out, the artificial reconstructions of Tibet place a conservative
pressure on the younger generation, and contributes to the prolonging of an identity crisis
suffered by Tibetan artists.42

40
Harris. In the Image of Tibet, 69 & 198.
41
Ibid., 199.
53Ibid., 72.
26

Harris returns to the concept of invention of culture in a chapter of her next major
publication on the subject: The Museum on the Roof of the World – Art, Politics and the
Representation of Tibet (2012). The main argument of the book is that the behaviour of
collectors and curators, both Western and Chinese, fed by the exotic and mystical notions
of the culture, has resulted in the conversion of Tibet into a virtual museum; a process
which started long before the Chinese occupation. In the chapter entitled “The Invention
of Tibetan contemporary Art,” Harris discusses the activities of contemporary Tibetan
artists who are working to counteract and challenge the outsiders’ utopian perceptions of
their homeland. Harris’ brief treatment demands more thorough analysis of the artworks
through which the artists challenge the stereotypes. In this thesis, I examine the ways in
which the Tibetan contemporary artists from both Lhasa and the diaspora explore their
Tibetan identity and draw upon their own perceptions of Tibetan culture.
In another chapter entitled “The Buddha Goes Global” (which was originally
published as an essay in Art History in 2006), Harris retells Gonkar Gyatso’s story and
extends the discussion to his more recent work and the concept of the transnational artist.
Harris’ chapter/essay provokes possibilities for further investigation of the phenomena of
the current global consumerist cult of the Buddha, something which a number of the
artists from both Lhasa and the Tibetan diaspora explore in their work. Accordingly, I
have been able to give due attention to this trend in my research.
The next major scholarly examination of contemporary Tibetan art is by Nathalie
Bousquet-Gyatso, Entre devenir de préservation et désir d’innovation, la peinture
tibétaine en quête de sa propre modernité (fin années 1980 jusqu'à 2005)43 (2007).
Bousquet-Gyatso travelled to Tibet and other places in the course of the research for her
doctoral thesis at the Sorbonne in Paris, department of the History of Art. She takes a

54Between the duty to preserve tradition and the desire for innovation, Tibetan painting in search of its
own identity [sic] (end of the 80s to 2005).

27

chronological and survey approach in the examination of Tibetan painting from the late
1980s to 2005, and includes practising artists who work solely in a traditional style as
well as the innovative contemporary artists.
Bousquet-Gyatso sought to determine if one single attitude or aesthetic could
represent the face of present day Tibet. She concludes that the two streams are united by
their use of the narrative image and the figure of the Buddha. In doing so, however, she
glosses over the significant difference in purpose of each stream. While traditional
Tibetan artists are making art primarily for religious purposes, the contemporary artists
are re-interpreting the iconography of Buddhism for secular purposes, applying it to
current day social and political issues. As such, the cosmopolitan and transnational artists
of the contemporary art movement, both in Lhasa and in the diaspora, have more in
common with their international artist brothers and sisters than with the conservative
branch of Tibetan art, both in their exploration of technique and medium, as well as in
their role as artists. Across the flourishing contemporary art movements of Asia, artists
have drawn from cultural traditions as well as incorporating iconography which depicts
singular politico-socio-historical trajectories and ask profound questions regarding
cultures swept along by overwhelming global forces.
Bousquet-Gyatso has also touched on the concept of ‘méttisage’ (ethnic or
cultural mingling), in the sense of the artist responding to different cultural influences, in
her monograph on the artist Gonkar Gyatso. In Gonkar Gyatso, La peinture tibétain en
quête de sa propre modernité (2005), the author follows the artist’s journey from Tibet,
through India and finally to the West, and covers some of the same material as her
doctoral thesis. This monograph is particularly useful for the reproduction and discussion
of Gyatso’s early works from the 1980s and 1990s, and expands on Clare Harris’ earlier
examination of his work.

28

Whereas Harris and Bousquet-Gyatso looked mainly at the medium of painting,
my research encompasses work in other mediums, such as photography, video
installation, sculpture, installation and electronic media, much of which has only emerged
this century.
A more recent study of contemporary Tibetan art is a doctoral thesis by Leigh
Miller, entitled: Contemporary Tibetan Art and Cultural Sustainability in Lhasa, Tibet
(2014). Miller proposes that forces such as colonialism, globalisation and racism threaten
the survival of Tibet’s indigenous culture, and that innovative artistic production can act
to mitigate these forces. She concludes that Tibetan contemporary artists are pioneering
practices of cultural sustainability.
In her thesis, Miller gives thorough narrative treatment to the chronology of
artistic developments in Tibet in the twentieth century to the emergence of the
contemporary Tibetan art movement. However, she does not address the Tibetan artists in
the diaspora or the important connection between the Chinese contemporary art
movement and the art movement in Lhasa. While Miller’s study focused on the Lhasa
group of artists and the question of sustainability of an indigenous culture, my research
looks at the art movement in a broader context, including artists from the diaspora,
examining how they respond to globalised perceptions.
As my study examines the iconography used by contemporary Tibetan artists,
particularly the translation of a religious symbolism into a modern cultural language, I
have looked to the significant scholarship of traditional Tibetan art for a greater
understanding of the artistic heritage of Tibet from which the artists so obviously draw.
The first studies of Tibetan art by Western scholars occurred in the early
twentieth century. In particular, the Italian scholar, Professor Giuseppe Tucci, has made a
significant contribution to the study of Tibetan art, culture, history and Buddhist
29

philosophy based on his extensive expeditions to Tibet in the first half of the twentieth
century. Tucci was the first to place the history of Tibetan art within its political and
cultural context on the basis of a systematic analysis of historical and religious sources.44
Tucci’s vast scholarship includes: Indo-Tibetica (7 volumes) 1932-1941; Tibetan Painted
Scrolls (3 volumes) 1949; The Theory and Practice of the Mandala, 1949 and The
Religions of Tibet, 1970, just to name a very few. George Roerich’s Tibetan Paintings
(1925) formed the first account of exclusively Tibetan painting styles by a Western
scholar.
Other important scholars whose work has informed my analysis include: the
Indian scholar Pratapaditya Pal (Tibetan Paintings, 1984; Art of the Himalayas, 1991);
Gega Lama, Tibetan painting master living in India (Principles of Tibetan Art, 1983);
David Jackson (A History of Tibetan Painting, 1996; Tibetan thangka painting, 1984);
Valrae Reynolds (From the Sacred Realm, Treasures of Tibetan art from the Newark
Museum, 1999);45 Amy Heller (Tibetan Art, 1999); British Tibetologist, David
Snellgrove, In the Image of the Buddha, 1978, Cultural History of Tibet (with Hugh
Richardson) 1968; and Donald Lopez Jr. (Prisoners of Shangri-La, 1998).46
Since the publication of Professor Lopez’ Prisoners of Shangri-La in 1998, there
has been a recognition in certain circles of the need to re-evaluate the narrow view of
Tibetan culture and history, as Kabir Heimsath notes, but that need has not translated to
the mainstream, being confined to a small group of scholars and researchers. Heimsath
observed that the “outdated mystical view of Tibet” is particularly entrenched when it

44
Erberto Lo Bue. “Giuseppe Tucci and Historical Studies on Tibetan Art.” In The Tibet Journal (Vol.
XXXII, no. 1, Dharamsala, India: Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, Spring 2007, 53–64), 53–54.
45
The collection at the Newark Museum in New Jersey is the earliest American collection of Tibetan art
(David L. Snellgrove and Hugh Richardson. A Cultural History of Tibet (Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2003),
277.
57Other classical Tibetan scholars who have contributed to the literature on contemporary Tibetan art in
catalogue and journal essays include: Ian Alsop (“Contemporary Painting from Tibet” in Visions from Tibet,
2005) and Donald Dinwiddie (“Gonkar Gyatso – Contours of Identity” in Art Asia Pacific, 2009).
2:

comes to their art, and the authenticity of culture is questioned according to the
conservative view, which holds that ‘tradition’ is genuine while innovation is not.47 The
works of art discussed in this thesis represent the artists’ profound endeavours to address
this issue and express their contemporary identity. These artists demonstrate that cultural
richness is not necessarily lost by newness and modernisation. Both the artists in Lhasa
and those in the diaspora confront the question of what is Tibetan today. Their different
circumstances mean they often approach the question from opposite positions.
Methodology
My research is based to a large extent on interviews and conversations with
Tibetan artists both in Tibet and in the diaspora, as well as email correspondence with
artists. In Lhasa, I met a great many artists. While most of the artists spoke some English,
a few of the artists had a very good command of English, in particular, Tsering Nyandak
(Nyandak) and Benpa Chungdak (Benchung). Either one or other of these artists was with
me constantly to act as translator when needed, and it was advantageous to have
translators who were also artists and familiar with the other artists and their work.
On my first field trip to Lhasa I was also fortunate to be able to collaborate with
the artists Gade and Nyandak on an English translation of an essay from the Scorching
Sun of Tibet exhibition in Beijing, which I attended before journeying overland to Tibet.
These several days spent working with Gade and Nyandak were particularly fruitful in
enabling me to gain a good grasp of the ideas and opinions of these two artists on the
subject of contemporary Tibetan art. We discussed at length every idea expressed in the
essay to ensure the best translation possible.48

47
Kabir Mansingh Heimsath. “Untitled Identities, Contemporary Art in Lhasa, Tibet.” Asian Art. 16
December 2005. www.asianart.com/articles/heimsath/index.html.
48
I also have some Chinese language from my years in Hong Kong and China in the 1990s. However, I
usually refrained from using it, even though all the artists speak Chinese, because I judged in impolite to
use the language of the coloniser, so to speak. The only time drew upon it was in my collaboration with
31

The artists in Lhasa seemed very willing to talk candidly and openly about the
issues facing their society, culture and country at the present time. Nevertheless, any
study touching on Tibet is encumbered with the pervasive political subtext of the China-
Tibet situation. Many contemporary Tibetan artists have insisted that their work should
not be seen as primarily political art.49 However, it is impossible to escape the politics.
On my second field trip to Tibet in 2011, an exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art in the
centre of Lhasa was closed down ostensibly for the safety of the artists. And some years
earlier, after riots in Lhasa in March 2008, the artist Nyandak, was questioned by
authorities regarding one of his art works, Middle Path (2008). The authorities accepted
Nyandak’s explanation of the painting and he was not detained.50 During my time in
Lhasa, I felt no restriction on my movements within the city of Lhasa, and I met with and
moved about freely with the artists in public and in their homes and studios. However, I
am under no illusion that the artists were fully aware of what was permissible and what
was not, and I simply followed their lead.
In addition to talking to artists, I attended galleries and exhibitions of
contemporary Tibetan art, both in Australia and abroad. A number of the artists, such as
Gonkar Gyatso and Kesang Lamdark, have their own websites, as do galleries such as the
Rubin Museum of Art and Rossi & Rossi Gallery. Furthermore, exhibitions now utilise
the internet as another means to attract and interact with their audience. For example, the
Tradition Transformed exhibition of contemporary Tibetan art at the Rubin Museum
(2010) incorporated an electronic channel of communication with the artists. A webpage
entitled “What do you see?” allowed an audience, which may or may not have seen the

Gade and Nyandak, because Gade’s father is Chinese (his mother is Tibetan) and the translation was from
the Chinese language.
49
For example, Gonkar Gyatso, Three Realms, panel discussion (Brisbane: Griffith University Art Gallery,
24 February 2012. http://omc.uq.edu.au/audio/artmuseum/GonkarGyatso-ThreeRealms-podcast.mp3), and
Tsering Nyandak, in conversation with Kabir Mansingh Heimsath, The Lightness of Being, exhibition
catlogue (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2008), 7.
50
Conversation with artist, Lhasa, October 2010.
32

exhibition in situ, to leave messages regarding their impression of the art works and to
which the artists could then respond. Elsewhere on the website, each artist had their own
“Artists Blog” page, where they talked about their own art works.51
These then, are the primary ways in which I conducted my research. My research
revealed that a deeper understanding of the work of contemporary Tibetan artists would
be gained by an in depth knowledge of their unique rich culture, history and religious
beliefs. Accordingly, my second field trip to Tibet in 2011 involved more travel into the
countryside to view the landscape that forged a culture. I was thus able to experience
Tibet under snow and see first hand the magnificent classical art of the Gyantse
monasteries two hundred and sixty kilometres south of Lhasa.52
I also had an extended stay at the Central University for Tibetan Studies in
Sarnath, India, in 2012. While there I was able to study many liturgical works of the
Buddhist canons, translated from Tibetan, Sanskrit, Pali and Chinese. Some of the great
early Buddhist art, from which the iconography of Tibetan religious art is ultimately
derived, is located in this area and I was able to visit these works and monuments in situ.
My own research has been augmented by the scholarly work of established Tibetologists,
in terms of the historical, political, ethnographic, sociological and philosophical
(Buddhist) aspects of Tibetan society, and in recent years more scholarly works are
available in English by Tibetan authors.
My analysis has been informed by the iconological approach espoused by Erwin
Panofsky, that is, the interpretation of the symbolic meanings of the iconography in the
artistic works. Panofsky’s method for analysis of a work of art, or body of works, is a

51
Rubin Museum of Art, New York. http://traditions.rma2.org.
52
The art work in these monasteries have been studied extensively, see for example, Giuseppe Tucci,
Gyantse and its Monasteries (Indo-Tibetica Vol. IV), (New Delhi: Aditya Prakashan, [1941] 1989); Erberto
Lo Bue & Franco Rica, The Great Stupa of Gyantse (London: Serindia Publications, 1993).
33

threefold one that, nevertheless, merges into one organic and indivisible process.53 The
first level deals only with the identification of motifs or primary subject matter of a work.
However, even this first level, that Panofsky calls “pre-iconographical description” (53),
calls for a knowledge, either through practical experience or supplemented by other
sources, of the motifs or objects depicted.
Secondly, under iconographical analysis, motifs and combinations of motifs in
composition are connected with themes and concepts by which secondary meaning in
representations of narrative and allegory are identified (53). Iconographical analysis
presupposes a familiarity with specific themes or concepts via literary sources, an
understanding of the historical conditions, and an insight into the artists’ own influences
(61-63). The third level of interpretation, which he terms the ‘iconological’, is applied to
ascertain the “underlying principles which reveal the basic attitude of a nation, period,
class, religious or philosophical persuasion” which are construed by the artist and
translated into an art work (55).
The work is understood, then, as a document of the artist’s personality or the
worldview of the society at a particular time. Panofsky emphasises that the iconological
interpretation requires something more than a familiarity with specific themes or concepts
but a diagnostic attitude – a ‘synthetic intuition’ (64). Because the intuitive approach is
inevitably subjective and conditioned by one’s own ‘worldview’ (Weltanschauung), a
familiarity with and insight into the culture and traditions is imperative. Thus, the
intrinsic meaning of the art should correspond to the intrinsic meaning of other
documents of the relevant time and place that also bear witness “to the political, poetical,
religious, philosophical, and social tendencies of the personality, period or country under
investigation” (64-66).

53
Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1970), 67.
34

Interpretation is informed by knowledge and experience of the artist’s world. In
other words, analysis of the images is conducted for evidence of the philosophical, social,
political, poetical, religious and cultural content that reflects the worldview of the artists
whose works are the subject of the investigation. By this approach the works of art
become cultural documents of their time. The iconography of contemporary Tibetan art is
complex and the artists operate within a global context, therefore the analysis must be
informed by knowledge of both the past and present, inside and outside Tibet.
My analysis is also informed by postcolonial theory, particularly that of Edward
Said (Orientalism, 1978) and Homi Bhabha (The Location of Culture, 1994).
‘Orientalism’ is the term Said employs to describe the Western approach to the Orient.54
Edward Said’s Orientalist theory concerns the tendency to dichotomise the human
condition into an ‘us and them’ polarity, resulting in an essentialist or stereotyped view of
the ‘other’ and in an uneven exchange with various kinds of power: political, intellectual,
cultural and moral.55 As James Clifford remarks: “The key theoretical issue raised by
Orientalism concerns the status of all forms of thought and representation for dealing
with the alien.”56
Tibetan scholar, Tsering Shakya, suggests that so far Tibet has remained outside
the postcolonial discussion because of an assumption that Tibet is immune from
Orientalist discourse, partly because it was not annexed by a Western power. Yet, as he
points out, Tibetan studies have been very much shaped by Orientalist assumptions which
have gone unrecognised.57 Likewise, in his review of researchers on Tibet, Per Kvaerne
begins by stating: “Since the publication in 1978 of Edward W. Said’s Orientalism (…),

54
Edward W. Said, “Orientalism.” In The Edward Said Reader, edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew
Rubin, 67–113 (London: Granta Books, 2001), 93.
55
Ibid., 79.
56
James Clifford, The Predicament of Culture, Twentieth-Century Ethnography, Literature, and Art
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994), 261.
57
Tsering Shakya. “Who Are the Prisoners?” In Journal of the American Academy of Religion (Vol. 69, no.
1, March 2001: 183-189) 183.
35

it is no longer possible for us in the West to attempt to understand the ‘Orient’ (…)
without realizing that such an endeavour is beset by innumerable prejudices, habits of
thought, and instinctive attitudes.”58
It is clearly important to consider the question of Orientalism in the analysis of
contemporary Tibetan art, as I am an Occidental ‘outsider’. As Said himself remarks:
“Orientalism is … a considerable dimension of modern political-intellectual culture, and
as such has less to do with the Orient than it does with ‘our’ world.”59 Panosfky
emphasises the importance of correcting one’s own subjective interpretation with
evidence and insight into the traditions historically related to the works under analysis.60
With this in mind I endeavour to peel back the Tibetan myths and stereotypes to
reveal the ontological and epistemological complexities which inform the work of the
contemporary Tibetan artists. In the case of Tibet, the East-West dichotomy is not the
only mode in play; the annexation of Tibet by China and stereotyped representations of
Tibetan culture in Chinese art mean that Orientalist theory has new application within the
Orient itself. The dichotomy is, therefore, determined along the lines of economic and
political power as well as intellectual and moral power. The contemporary Tibetan artists
actively use their work to challenge both the stereotypes drawn by the Chinese and the
Western constructs of an idealised Tibet.
I employ the hybridity and identity theories of Homi Bhabha, which speak to
contemporary complexities and the emergence of new cultural forms as a result of
colonial and post-colonial contact and cultural cross-fertilisation. Bhabha states:

58
Per Kvaerne. “Tibet Images Among Researchers in Tibet,” In Imagining Tibet: perceptions, projections,
and fantasies by Thierry Dodin and Heinz Rather (eds) (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2001, 47–
63), 47. Interestingly, Kvaerne comments that he would not include R.A. Stein or David Snellgrove (two of
the scholars I rely upon for supplementary information) in his review because he considered their research
did not reflect “values or attitudes extraneous to their research.” (Ibid).
59
Edward W. Said, “Orientalism.” In The Edward Said Reader, edited by Moustafa Bayoumi and Andrew
Rubin, 67–113 (London: Granta Books, 2001), 79.
60
Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1970), 65.
36

The borderline work of culture demands an encounter with ‘newness’ that is not
part of the continuum of past and present. It creates a sense of the new as an
insurgent act of cultural translation. Such art does not merely recall the past as
social cause or aesthetic precedent; it renews the past, refiguring it as a contingent
‘in-between’ space, that innovates and interrupts the performance of the present.
The ‘past-present’ becomes part of the necessity, not the nostalgia, of the living.61
Indeed, the work of the contemporary Tibetan artists can be seen as an insurgent
act of cultural translation. They draw from their artistic heritage but employ a new visual
language which represents a break from the past and from the strict dogma that governed
Tibetan visual culture. However, their purpose is a renewal of Tibetan art and a re-
negotiation of a modern Tibetan identity in the globalised world in which they take part,
beyond the nostalgic image or Orientalist constructs. The new cultural spaces forged by
art that defies the norms provide “the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood … that
initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in
the act of defining the idea of society itself.” 62 For Bhabha “[t]he social articulation of
difference, from the minority perspective, is a complex, on-going negotiation that seeks to
authorize cultural hybridities that emerge in moments of historical transformation.”63
The artists of the contemporary Tibetan art movement form an elite minority
within the Tibetan minority in China and in the Tibetan community in exile. It is their
endeavours that push at the boundaries of what Tibetan culture is, and represent an on-
going negotiation of identity within a culture and society which is undergoing
transformation amidst colonisation, migration and globalisation.
Tibet’s unique socio-political situation, with its homeland now in China, a
government-in-exile in India and widespread diaspora in the West, poses interesting and
important questions with regard to identity in a globalised world that no longer conforms

61
Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994), 7.
62
Ibid. 1–2.
63
Ibid. 2.
37

to the centre-periphery paradigm, but rather accedes to a system of multi-directional
cultural flows. The concept of a transnational artist and art movement, which is
nevertheless identifiable by its cultural foundation, is an important area of inquiry in
terms of what it can say about the evolution of society and culture in a globalised world.
Nicolas Bourriaud proposes that artists are now starting from a globalised state of
culture. This means that hybridity, or rather eclecticism, is a natural state for artists as
they draw their influences from different cultural traditions and temporalities. As
Bourriaud notes: “Today, temporalities intersect and weave a complex network stripped
of a centre.”64 He coins the term ‘altermodern’, derived from the Latin for ‘other’, for the
new modernism, resulting from a global dialogue.65 In this paradigm, the ‘other’ is
embraced, rather than marginalised and exoticised, in a plural society made up of ‘others’.
Bourriaud continues: “In the geopolitical world ‘alterglobalisation’ defines the plurality
of local opposition to the economic standardisation imposed by globalisation, i.e. the
struggle for diversity.” Thus he defines ‘altermodernism’ as “the moment when it became
possible for us to produce something that made sense starting from an assumed
heterochrony, that is, from a vision of human history as constituted of multiple
temporalities.”66 He echoes Franz Fanon when he posits that a new form of modernism
starts from the issues of the present, and not an obsessive return to the past.67
This has important implications for the Eurocentric stranglehold over art history,
notions of hybridity and Western cultural stereotypes of ‘the other’. By focusing on the
contemporary art of the Tibetan communities in Lhasa and the West, my intention is to
contribute to the post-Orientalist discussion of culture and meet with them on equal terms.

64
Nichola Bourriaud “Altermodern.” Altermodern–Tate Triennial, 11–40 (London: Tate Publishing, 2009),
12.
65
Ibid. 12.
66
Ibid. 13.
67
Ibid.
38

Outline of Chapters
In Chapter One, I examine how the traditional iconography of the Buddha has
been re-interpreted by contemporary Tibetan artists. I first briefly explain the traditional
iconometric rules for the construction of Buddhist deities in the iconography of Tibetan
visual culture. As Harris notes in In the Image of Tibet, Panosfky proposes that systems of
proportions reveal themselves as expressions of the ‘artistic intention’ (Kunstwollen),
which may communicate the motivation in clearer terms than the art itself.68 For example,
systems of proportion may be based on the concept of the ideal (of beauty, harmony or
spirituality), and consequently reveal something about the values of the culture that
designed the system. I then examine how the contemporary artists deconstruct and
reconstruct the iconography of the Buddha, this most important of Tibetan cultural
symbols, in an era of the global consumer cult.
Chapter Two looks at the maṇḍala, probably the most recognisable Tibetan
Buddhist iconographic symbol after the Buddha image. The maṇḍala has a deep
connection with the Tantric texts of Tibetan Buddhism and in this regard I explore what
artist Kesang Lamdark calls neo-Tantric art. The contemporary Tibetan artists borrow
freely from the traditional iconography and visual culture in their reinterpretations of the
maṇḍala that is now loaded with new layers of meaning of socio-political commentary.
Consideration is then given to some of the lesser deities or saints (bodhisattvas) of
the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon in Chapter Three. I contemplate some of the ‘Wrathful’
deities and their consorts and the role of Tantra in Tibetan art focusing on the yab-yum
mystical union of the deity and female consort, showing how it is used in contemporary
Tibetan art to address contemporary issues. I also examine the goddess Tārā, the major

79Erwin Panofsky, Meaning in the Visual Arts (Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books, 1970), 83.
39

female figure of Tibetan Buddhism and Tibetan art, as portrayed in contemporary Tibetan
art and the feminist role of the goddess in modern society.
In Chapter Four, I explore the concept of sacred geography, and the concepts of
land and landscape, which in contemporary Tibetan art, extend to urban landscape. In this
context, land is important to both cultural identity and the utopian myth/cultural
stereotype associated with Tibet. I look at how the contemporary artists reconstruct the
traditional chorographic iconography of Buddhist mythology.
Another important recurring theme of Buddhist art in general and specifically
Tibetan art, is the aniconic image, which in terms of Buddhist art has a particular meaning.
In Chapter Five, I consider works which draw on Buddhist concepts without referencing
the Buddha image. Because some of the works may be likened to the aniconic Buddhist
art which preceded the development of the figurative representation of the Buddha, this
chapter forms the complete cycle of Buddhist art; from aniconic origins it passes through
the stage of anthropomorphism and deification and then returns to the symbolic and
metaphoric.
Finally, in Chapter Six I focus on the differences between the artists from Lhasa
on one hand and artists from the diaspora on the other, which I have elucidated in earlier
chapters, demonstrating how each group has negotiated its relationship between Tibetan
culture and the forces of globalisation. At the same time, while there are many different
journeys amongst the artists in the contemporary Tibetan art movement towards a hybrid
art culture, I argue that what unites them is their common visual language, drawing on
their Tibetan heritage, to engage with contemporary social and political issues.

3:

Chapter 1. The Buddha Form

In this chapter, I discuss the role and the treatment of the Buddha form by
contemporary Tibetan artists. The human form of the Buddha was not among the first
motifs to be used in the iconography of Buddhist art, indeed it did not appear until around
five hundred years after the death of the historical Buddha.69 However, it is now the form
most associated with Tibetan art and universally recognised and appreciated for both its
aesthetic and symbolic significance. The classical Buddha form takes a central place in
Tibetan identity. For Tibetans, Buddhism is not simply a religion but a way of life and
driving force in Tibetan thinking: “Tibetan national and cultural identity has merged into
their religious identity to the extent that Buddhism continues [to] influence the life of all
Tibetans.”70 Even while modern Tibetans have been subjected to enormous influences
from Western and Chinese culture, Tibetan contemporary artists in both Lhasa and the
West employ the Buddha form as fundamental to Tibetan culture and identity.
For contemporary Tibetan artists the Buddha form is a signifier of identity and
culture and represents the holder of their history, a receptacle of memory. As one of the
most widely known icons in the world, it is therefore a vehicle that easily transverses
cultural boundaries as an allegorical device, as well as having wide appeal as an aesthetic
form. Given the homogenous nature of its form, it is, paradoxically, the motif that seems
to allow for the most multifarious interpretations and iterations, which testifies to the
complexity of its nature and the philosophy for which it stands.

69
David L. Snellgrove. The Image of the Buddha (Paris & Tokyo: Kodamsha International/UNESCO,
1978), 23.
70
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Human Rights Situation in Tibet, Annual Report 2009
(Dharamsala: TCHRD 2010), 110.
41

Representations of the Buddha in traditional Tibetan art are governed by strict
rules which specify how he is to be depicted.71 The contemporary Tibetan artists whose
work is discussed in this chapter have drawn on these traditions without adhering strictly
to them, giving them a modern interpretation. While according to traditional rules
regarding the depiction of the Buddha and deities of the Buddhist pantheon, these modern
depictions of the Buddha may be offensive and sacrilegious to conservative devotees, I
argue that the work of the contemporary Tibetan artists is not iconoclastic because they
do not oppose the fundamental concepts of Buddhism even though they may depart from
the traditional rules of iconometry governing Buddhist imagery and use unconventional
materials and methods. The iconography is borrowed for its cultural significance, and in
the process is given new cultural meaning beyond its original religious essence.
One artist who has explored the potential of the Buddha figure in his art practice
over the years is Gonkar Gyatso. For Gyatso, his evolution as an artist is closely linked to
the discovery of his Tibetan culture, as he travelled from a Tibet in which his traditional
culture was suppressed, to the more cosmopolitan Chinese capital of Beijing, to exile in a
Tibetan community in India, and finally to the West. Growing up in Lhasa during the
Cultural Revolution, Gyatso had no opportunity to learn about his cultural heritage
including the artistic traditions because religion at that time was forbidden.72 Then while
at art school in Beijing, Gyatso suddenly had access to modern Western art, movies,
literature and music; he read Nietzshe and Sartre and books on Millet and van Gogh.73
When he returned to Lhasa after four years, the Tibetan city had also changed. As a result
of Deng’s ‘Open Door’ policy, religious practice was allowed again and cassette tapes of
the Dalai Lama were being circulated, along with the revelation of a different version of

71
David P. Jackson and Janice A. Jackson. Tibetan thangka painting, methods and materials (London:
Serindia Publications, 1984), 7, 49.
72
Interview with Gonkar Gyatso, Brisbane, 2011.
73
Gonkar Gyatso, “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet, The Experience of an Exiled Tibetan Artist.”
Tibet Journal (Vol. XXVIII, nos. 1 & 2, 2003, 147–160), 148; interview with G. Gyatso, Brisbane, 2011.
42

Tibetan history than the Chinese one Gyatso grew up with. He “became interested in
Buddhism as a practise, as a philosophy and as a source of aesthetic inspiration,”74 and
attempted to make modern thangkas incorporating traditional motifs. However, it was not
until he went to India that he studied thangka painting with exiled Tibetan masters.
Having learned the rules, however, Gyatso then proceeded on to break them. He
was by then already a modernist as a result of his exposure to Western art during the
years he spent studying at art school in Beijing in the 1980s, and he found that no-one in
the conservative Tibetan community of Dharamsala understood his art.75 He says, “In
Tibet, my modernist style had been a survival tactic, but in exile it was unmarketable, and
led to marginalization and rejection.”76 Significantly, while in Dharamsala, Gyatso met
Peter Towse from the St. Martin’s School of Art, who helped to organise a place for him
at the college in London. In the West, Gyatso continued to explore Tibetaness and
spirituality in his art practice. Throughout this journey, the Buddha form has been a
constant in Gyatso’s art, although his medium, methods, intentions and expression have
changed over the years. At the same time however, Gyatso has said that he struggles with
the labels of Tibetan artist, national artist, international artist, and so on. He prefers to
think of himself as a transnational artist.77 Indeed, this is evident by both his journey
across continents and by the subject matter of his art practice.
Buddha in Our Times (fig. 3), a work that Gyatso created for the 2008 Dubai Art
Fair and then exhibited at the 17th Sydney Biennale, concerns globalisation.78 The
central figure is the classic Buddha form in silhouette, and is both monumental and
elusive. Gyatso departs from the established traditions of colour, symbology and
decoration of Buddhist iconography. Instead, he uses modern art methods to complete the

74
G. Gyatso, “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet,” 148.
75
Gonkar Gyatso, Interview, Sydney, May 2010.
87G. Gyatso, “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet,” 149.
77
Conversation with artist, Brisbane 2011.
78
Gonkar Gyatso, Artist’s Talk, MCA, Sydney Biennale, 13 May 2010.
43

work in order to impart a universal message relevant to contemporary life. Using stickers,
papier découpé and pencil, Gyatso incorporates the images of modern life in
juxtaposition with the Buddhist icon.
Figure 3. Buddha in our Times, 2008, Gonkar Gyatso, stickers, pencil and paper cut on
treated paper, 152.5 x 122 cm. (White Rabbit Gallery)
Although Gyatso has used the Buddha figure in his work since the 1980s, he has
been employing this collage style and method of working with stickers and paper cuttings
since around 2003. He attributes the vibrant city life in London as a major influence in the
development of his art practice, but also acknowledges a small debt to Matisse and other
collage artists who Gyatso has researched over the years.79
This work is exemplary of his ‘sticker’ works. It is loaded with modern images
and icons of consumer culture (fig. 4) such as ‘iPhone’, ‘Tesco’, ‘Sky’, ‘Kingfisher’, as
well as ‘Ikea’, ‘Nokia’, ‘Omega’, ‘Virgin’, Homer Simpson, Playboy Bunny, Snoopy,

79
Gonkar Gyatso, Artist's Talk, MCA, Sydney Biennale, 13 May 2010.
44

Lion King, pandas, bar codes, and slogans such as ‘1/2 price’, ‘Broadband’, ‘Do not
destroy’, ‘50% of all waxing’. Brands and advertising slogans litter the work like the
stimuli of media overload in the modern world. These are the messages and images that
bombard the mass media communication channels like modern mantras.
Figure 4. Buddha in our Times

(detail)
I am reminded of the work of Naomi Klein in her book No Logo in which she
discusses the modern obsession with brand identity that is waging war on public and
private, internal and external, spaces.80 Nothing is to be left unbranded and the search is
always on for new markets, new space to extend the brand.81 Ordinary language and
forms are legally and exclusively appropriated by corporations.82 The act of advertising is
now more than scientific and legal, it is spiritual – corporate brand culture is like a cult.
Brands are designed to evoke emotion; they are experiential, they encompass a whole
lifestyle philosophy, and they are cultural accessories.

80
Naomi Klein. No Logo (London: Flamingo, 2000), 5.
81
Ibid., 8.
82
In my work as an intellectual property lawyer I saw corporations increasingly seeking to obtain exclusive
legal rights to ordinary words, phrases and even colours.
45

I would argue that Gyatso is illuminating the global extent of the brand
phenomenon and the way it has come to replace real spirituality and become its own kind
of religion. While initially this brand culture seems to offer endless choice, there is in fact
no choice because the brands are all the same in terms of product and market strategy. As
Gyatso says, “… the freedom I have met in the West can be confusing as well as exciting
because too many choices make for no choice.”83 In reaction to the superstimulus of
global consumerism portrayed in his work, Gyatso has decided to pare back his own
lifestyle. In his new apartment in New York, he says, for example, he has reduced his
possessions to one cup, one bowl, one spoon, and so on.84 His adoption of a minimalist
lifestyle is motivated by what Buddhism says about attachment to material things.85
Gyatso’s art practice can be described as ‘culture jamming’,86 where advertising is
parodied and hijacked, turning it in on itself to throw into greater relief its true role in
modern life. As Mark Dery said in his pamphlet Culture Jamming:
culture jammers … introduce noise into the signal as it passes from transmitter to
receiver, encouraging idiosyncratic, unintended interpretations. Intruding on the
intruders, they invest ads, newscast, and other media artefacts with subversive
meanings; simultaneously, they decrypt them, rendering their seductions
impotent … they refuse the role of passive shoppers, renewing the notion of a
public discourse.87
Gyatso’s work also often contains nationalist sentiments and imagery cut from
magazines and headlines that refer to Tibet, for example, the campaign to boycott the
2008 Olympics in China. In Buddha in Our Times he includes a cutting of a newspaper
headline that simply reads “Vision of Tibet.” He also sometimes uses Tibetan writing and

83
G. Gyatso. “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet,” 150.
84
Gonkar Gyatso, interview, Sydney, May 2010.
85
Ibid.
86
Mark Dery. “Culture Jamming: Hacking, Slashing and Sniping in the Empire of Signs,” 2010.
http://markdery.com/?page_id=154.
87
Ibid.
46

other Tibetan designs. In relation to this he says,
I felt to use Tibetan cultural elements to address global issues, to participate in

global cultural debates, would be a positive development. I used Tibetan elements,
but not in a traditional way….88
Buddha in Our Times, like a number of Gyatso’s works, incorporates the
traditional iconometric grid. The Buddha form is essentially constructed according to the
traditional rules that he learnt in India. The image is faithful to the correct proportions of
the Śākyamuni Buddha in seated position. Details such as his topknot or uṣṇīṣa, and the
characteristic elongated ear-lobes89 are all rendered in correct proportion.
Normally the iconometric grid would be painted out of a traditional thangka,
however, Gyatso finds appeal in its compositional and aesthetic value.90 Thus, in this
work, the iconometric lines (or rather negative space in this case), which criss-cross the
Buddha figure, now serve as a kind of cosmic highway network for the miniature vehicles
(cars, planes and trucks) interspersed throughout the work. Consequently the viewer can
see the grid’s role in the construction of the Buddha form. Speaking of the iconometric
grid in Buddha in Our Times, Gyatso says:
… for traditional artists it’s part of the process, but when they get into the detail
they always wipe it off the structure. But somehow I always do like to keep
them … I try to make it look like [a] motorway or highway. Because this is a
work I did for Dubai … I knew Dubai is something crazy about cars … So I
deliberately [make it] look like highway, it’s lots of cars running.91
Gyatso forces the viewer, while contemplating the serene Buddha image, to
confront the cacophony of the cluttered mind and the congested information super-
highways of the modern world. In being confronted one can choose to meditate on any of

88
G. Gyatso. “No Man’s Land,” 150.
89
David L. Snellgrove. The Image of the Buddha (Paris & Tokyo: Kodamsha International/UNESCO,
1978), 52.
90
G. Gyatso, Artist’s talk, MCA, Sydney Biennale, 13 May 2010.
91
Ibid.
47

those things and consider the impermanence and attachment in relation to them. In this
way Gyatso’s work can be read as a modern Buddhist parable using familiar images to
illustrate an ethical dilemma, that is, the exploitation of consumers by corporations and
the concept of desire as a hindrance to true happiness and fulfilment. The iconometric
grid, central to the image, is like a scaffold to which all these things affix.
As a number of contemporary Tibetan artists have explored the iconometric grid
in their reinterpretation of Buddhist iconography, it is worth taking a brief look at the
traditional Buddhist systems of proportions and the underlying principles governing their
depiction of images in traditional Tibetan art.
Traditional Iconometry
Painting and sculpture were crucial to the religious life of Tibet; they were the
mediums through which the highest ideals of Buddhism were evoked. Thus a sacred
painting was an embodiment of enlightenment.92 In Tibet, painting and sculpture were
traditionally part of the rig gnas, that is, the branches of knowledge of the same order as
grammar, rhetoric, mathematics and astrology.93
There are a number of Tibetan texts that deal with artistic theory and practice. The
technical treatises concerned with the making of sacred images describe the dimensions
and characteristics of sacred figures and other important iconography.94 Buddhist
iconometry based its types on the classifications of physiognomy in ancient India and can
be traced back to the myth of the mahāpuruṣa, the ‘great man’ or saint, whose
distinguishing bodily features defined the measurements of perfect creatures.95 It was not

92
Serindia Publications, 1984), 9.
93
Giuseppe Tucci. Tibetan Painted Scrolls (Rome: La Libreria Dello Stato, 1949) 291.
94
D. P. Jackson and J. A. Jackson. Tibetan thangka painting, 7.
95
Tucci. Tibetan Painted Scrolls, 294.
48

used to reproduce an ideal beauty but “the expression of an inner superiority, the
manifestation, through signs and proportions, of a nature transcending humanity…”96
Tibet followed the traditional Indian system of proportions, and the Indian texts
and canons were translated into Tibetan from Sanskrit along with other Buddhist
scriptures. Techniques for painting the Buddha entered Tibet at different times and from
different regions. This resulted in a number of different systems of proportions for the
Buddha image being utilised.97
The Citrakarmaśāstra (or Vāstuvidyāśastra), a complex Sanskrit śilpa text dating
from the fifth to seventh century CE and ascribed to Mañjuśrī, the Boddhisattva of
Wisdom that deals with the construction of statues of the Buddhist Pantheon98 describes
no less that eighty measurements for the construction of a Buddha image, including the
length between his nostrils, the distance between the eye and the eye-brow, the size of the
eye and pupil, the ears, the fingernails and each of the toes. The text describes dire
consequences for failing to conform to the iconometric rules as well as the benefits of
correct proportion and construction.
The text also prescribes the composition of figures in a work comprising multiple
effigies and describes the proper configurations for many other figures of the Buddhist
pantheon. Postures, colours and ornaments of the different beings are prescribed.99 The
consistency in the representation of Buddhist personages means they can be recognised
and identified by their colours, postures, hand gestures, ornaments and setting. Nothing at
all, it seems, is left to chance or the whim of the artist. As David and Janice Jackson note,

96
97
98
The Vāstuvidyāśastra ascribed to Mañjuśrī. E.W. Marasinghe (trans) (New Delhi: Sri Satguru
Publications, Indian Book Centre, 1989).
99
The Vāstuvidyāśastra ascribed to Mañjuśrī, Chapter XVI, verses 23–25.
49

there is little place for individual, original creation in traditional Tibetan thangka painting,
where even the decoration is stereotyped.100
The liturgical reasoning behind the Buddhist iconometric system is, as Tucci
points out, premised upon the deity recognising himself in the perfected proportions of
the image, so that he will descend into and dwell within it.101 There is no room for
improvisation because if the deity’s aspect does not correspond to the symbolic patterns
that make it understandable to human beings, the deity himself cannot recognize his
temporary embodiment in the image and will not make it his dwelling place.102 The
Buddha image is a hypostatis and Tucci concludes that “[t]he artist is first and foremost
an evoker, then a geometer and last a priest.”103
For the Buddha form, the length of the figure must be the same as the breadth of
the extended arms. The intersection of two main lines, producing a square or a circle, is
the perfect figure within which the image of the Buddha or deity is theoretically
included.104 After fixing the standard unit of measurement, the outline of the image is
constructed geometrically starting from the vertical and horizontal axes. The drawing is
completed in phases tracing new lines parallel to the first. From the points of intersection
transverse lines are drawn forming triangles which determine the proportions of the
different parts (see fig. 5–6).105 These systems of rules and artistic manuals are still used
by traditional Tibetan artists living in exile in India today.106

100
David P. Jackson and Janice A. Jackson. Tibetan thangka painting, methods and materials. Op. Cit., 42.
101
Giuseppe Tucci. To Lhasa and Beyond: Diary of the Expedition to Tibet in the Year 1948 (Ithaca, NY:
Snow Lion Publications, 1987), 75.
102
Ibid., 77.
103
Ibid., 75.
104
105
106
For example: Gega Lama. Principles of Tibetan Art, Illustrations and explanation of Buddhist
iconography and iconometry according to the Karma Gadri School (Darjeeling, 1983).
4:

Figure 5. Śākyamuni Buddha with iconometric grid by Wangdrak

(D & J Jackson, Tibetan thangka painting, methods and materials, 1984, 57)
Figure 6. Basic grid construction for seated Buddha

(D & J Jackson, 1984, 55)
New Iconometry and the Buddha form
A number of the artists in the contemporary Tibetan art movement, particularly
those who have had some training in traditional thangka painting, have experimented
with the iconometric grid and incorporated it into their art as both an aesthetic and
allegorical device. Two contemporary Tibetan artists, Tenzing Rigdol and Palden
Weinreb, both based in New York, have deconstructed the Buddha form to its most basic
and essential elements.
The two works, Edifice SB (Line) (fig. 7) by Weinreb, and Poetry of Lines, No. 5
(fig. 8), by Rigdol, are nearly exact replicas of the traditional iconometric grid for the
seated Buddha. However, these representations act not as scaffolding for an image, but as
code for the Buddha in an almost aniconic way. That is, while the works do not depict the
Buddha in human form, they allude to the Buddha using essential characteristics
according to an established system of proportions.

51

Figure 7. Edifice SB (Line), 2007, Palden Weinreb,

lithograph (Rossi & Rossi, London)
Figure 8. Poetry of Lines, No. 5, 2008, Tenzin Rigdol, acrylic

on canvas (Rossi & Rossi, London)
Palden Weinreb’s work, Edifice SB (Line) (2007) recalls the minimalist geometric
wall drawings of Sol LeWitt,107 and in doing so connects him to the circle of conceptual
art in which the form is subordinated to the idea. However, in this work the form is
essential to the idea. While at first glance the work is a minimalist geometric abstract that
explores line and tension, it is essentially a portrait of the Buddha, symbolic of the
structure of tradition that underpins a culture. The initials ‘SB’ in the title stand for
‘Śākyamuni Buddha,’ and again act as a code for Tibetan religion and Tibetan culture to
which the Buddha is so closely linked. ‘Edifice’ refers to the construction of the form,
and by analogy the Buddhist system. The word invokes the idea that the Buddha form is
not simply drawn, but constructed according to an accepted system, as mentioned above.

107
Weinreb considers Sol LeWitt an “artistic parent” (Queens International 2012: Three Points make a
Triangle. Queens Museum of Art, New York). http://common-name.com/QMA/index.php?/artists/palden-
weinreb/.
52

Likewise, Rigdol uses the iconometric grid in works such as Poetry of Lines No. 5.
Weinreb’s work most closely resembles the traditional iconometric grid for the seated
Buddha form. However, Rigdol’s work is more reductive, using only the lines essential
for identification.
Rigdol grew up in Nepal where his family settled after fleeing Tibet and studied
thangka painting and other traditional Tibetan art forms such as sand painting and butter
sculpture. In 2002 his family were granted asylum in the United States and Tenzing went
on to study art and graphic design at the University of Colorado. Although he has lived
his whole life outside Tibet, his work continues to explore his Tibetaness in a hybrid
fusion of Western art and design techniques and use of Tibetan cultural iconography.
Rigdol says that he seeks to reinterpret, in all possible ways, the traditional form
of Tibetan visual culture “so as to loosen the tight aesthetic belt that Tibetans have been
wearing since aeons.”108 As he says:
Tibet is not over-blessed with multiple or differing approaches to aesthetics …

Hundreds of years of aesthetic endeavour, on the most part, have been invested
only in promoting Buddhist ideology. ... Buddhist imagery … is very deeply
rooted in the everyday lives of the people. Hence, personally for me, there is no
escape from it – at least for now, unless we deconstruct it and then reinterpret it.109
Rigdol notes the irony of the resistance to change in the Tibetan social conscience,
particularly with regard to contemporary art and cultural practices, when the concept of
impermanence or change is fundamental to Tibetan Buddhist thought.110
Rigdol is drawn to the traditional iconometry of Tibetan art: “The lines are drawn
in absolute proportions and then later they are covered in colours, to a point where one
can barely feel the heartbeat of the poor lines.” He is fascinated by the subordination of

108
Tenzing Rigdol, Experiment with Forms (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2009), 5.
109
Tenzing Rigdol, quoted by Francesca Gavin in “The Construction of Harmony,” Experiment with Forms
(London: Rossi & Rossi, 2009), 7.
110
Fabio Rossi & Tenzing Rigdol, Experiment with Forms (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2009), 5.
53

line to colour111 and experiments with the iconometric grid in his Poetry of Lines series
(2008). Ridgol depicts a number of Buddhist deities against individual grid formulations.
However, in Poetry of Lines No. 5, which resembles an exercise in Mondrian geometry,
he depicts only the iconometric grid without the figure. To the traditional Tibetan painter
this is an unfinished work, indeed a work hardly even begun. But in terms of Rigdol’s
contemporary art objective, it is a Buddha figure deconstructed and stripped down to its
barest essentials, its proportions, and its prescribed calculations. But it still represents the
Buddha in the most fundamental way, and appropriates the iconomentric grid as a cultural
object removed from the context of religion.
Karma Phuntsok, a Tibetan artist who has lived for many years in Australia, has
also made radical use of the iconometric grid. Born in 1952, Phuntsok is one of the only
contemporary Tibetan artists to have experienced, albeit as a child, a Tibet in which the
Dalai Lama still lived and the arrival of the Chinese. Karma’s family home was situated
near the Johkang temple in Lhasa, and he remembers the Chinese soldiers using the
temple as a piggery. His family was among the first wave of refugees who followed the
Dalai Lama into exile in 1959 when Phuntsok was about seven years old. The family first
settled in Sikkim and during the 1960s Phuntsok went to a Tibetan boarding school in
Mussoorie, India, where he started drawing with crayons supplied by the Red Cross.
When he was sixteen or seventeen, he started training with a traditional thangka master.
Later he continued his thangka training in Nepal before moving to Australia in 1981.112
Phuntsok uses the grid in allegorical ways. In his 2011 work War Peace (fig. 9) he
superimposes the image of the historical Buddha and iconometric grid against a scene of
devastation and destruction that stands for all the catastrophes that beset the world.113

111
Rigdol, Experiment with Forms, 9.
112
Conversation with Karma Phuntsok, Kyogle, N.S.W., July, 2011.
113
Ibid. (When I visited Karma Puntsok’s studio in Kyogle, in 2011, this work had only recently been
finished and the artist had not decided on a final title. At that time, the artist called the work Construction.)
54

Figure 9. War Peace, 2011, Karma Phuntsok, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 75 cm (courtesy of the artist)
The monochromatic palette of the work produces a world drained of colour as if
drained of hope and joy. Phuntsok’s solution is to construct the world anew in the image
of the Buddha, according to the Buddhist precepts of wisdom and compassion.114 He uses
the iconometric grid purposefully, not just as a compositional device but as an allegorical
device. The disaster scene of Phuntsok’s work has a Brechtian quality of epic theatre.
The work provokes reflection and a critical view. Phuntsok emphasizes the constructed
nature of the world and of reality, which are equally subject to change. Like Brecht,
Phuntsok uses the unexpected, in this case in the juxtaposition of the iconometric grid
over an impressionist scene of desolation. Thus Phunstok, like Gyatso, does not confine
the purpose of the iconometric grid to merely ensuring that the proportions of the Buddha
figure are so exact that he may be able to recognise himself and descend to his dwelling
place. Rather it is used as a metaphor for a moral and ethical construction of the world, in
which suffering is relieved.

114
Conversation with Karma Phuntsok, Kyogle, N.S.W., July, 2011.
55

While Phunstok’s first hand experience of growing up in Tibet prior to the
Chinese occupation, for example seeing the desecration of the Johkang Temple, may have
informed the work, it is equally informed by the violence and destruction caused by war
all over the world. The Buddha, as a metaphor for peace, is not at odds with the artist’s
life in the West.
Other uses of the Buddha Symbol
Apart from the use of iconometry, the figure of the Buddha has been employed in
other ways by Tibetan contemporary artists. An installation work, called Do What You
Love (fig. 10), was Gyatso’s first foray into sculpture, and again it involved an aesthetic
and metaphysical exploration of the Buddha form. The work consisted of twenty-five
headless Śākyamuni Buddha sculptures in polyester resin with a bronze coating mounted
on a black wall. The Buddhas are facing the wall so that it appears as if their heads are
buried within the wall.
Figure 10. Do What You Love, 2010, Gonkar Gyatso, bronze and polyester resin,
25 Buddhas: 40.6 x 41 x 25 cm (Rubin Museum of Art, New York)
The installation was part of a group show of contemporary Tibetan artists at the
Rubin Museum. Renowned for their collection of traditional Himalayan Buddhist art, the
56

Museum asked the contemporary artists to respond in their own style to a work in the
collection. Gyatso chose for his inspiration a classical sculpture of the Buddha from the
fourteenth century.115 It was scanned by a computer to make a three dimensional file and
then the image was manipulated by tilting it forward fifteen degrees and removing the
head. A mould of the headless Buddha was then produced which could be used to make
multiple new sculptures.
Gyatso’s inspiration for the work was the increasing frustration with the impasse
in the ‘China-Tibet situation’, in which neither party could allow the other’s point of view.
Gyatso says that, while normally a Buddha sculpture would be sitting comfortably in a
state of calm, he decided to turn the Buddha’s face to the wall to symbolise the frustration.
He wanted to express a kind of hopelessness. Gyatso, however, is quick to point out that
he is not an extremist, but that he believes common ground should be found with the
Chinese. Nevertheless, with twenty-five Buddha sculptures all facing the wall, it is a
powerful work.116 With regard to the title, Do What You Love, Gyatso is expressing his
playful side in the face of a dire situation. It is intended to be ironic and attempts to
disarm the seriousness of the situation.117 While Gyatso denies the role of a political artist,
he admits that this work is partly a political piece. Again, it is work in which the Buddha
symbolises Tibet and Tibetaness.
Gyatso reprised this work in a series of exhibitions in Brisbane in 2011 and 2012,
called Do What You Love (Three Realms), over a number of venues.118 The installation at
Griffith University Art Gallery encompasses a large darkened space surrounded by gold
painted walls giving the impression of the capacious interior of a temple or gompa; a

115
Conversation with Gonkar Gyatso, Brisbane, 2011.
116
Ibid.
117
Ibid.
118
The ‘Three Realms’ refer to the types of Buddhist realms in which rebirth takes place: the sense desire
realms, the realms of form, and the realms of non-form (see for example: Donald W. Mitchell, Buddhism,
Introducing the Buddhist Experience (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 43–44).
57

space to inspire awe and reverence, with the monumental collage Buddha sculpture as the
centrepiece (fig. 11–12). On two opposing walls Gyatso has created an invented script
combining Tibetan and Chinese characters, using his own thumbprints as brushstrokes, to
compose the ‘Wheel of Life’ figure (a familiar theme in Tibetan art that illustrates the law
of karma and one that Gyatso has returned to many times) and other auspicious symbols.
Figure 11. Do What You Love

(Three Realms), 2012, Gonkar
Gyatso, Installation
(Griffith University Art
Gallery, Brisbane)
Figure 12. Do What You Love (Three

Realms) (details)
Traditionally, 119 the pig, the rooster and the snake representing ignorance, desire
and aversion, are depicted within the centre of the ‘Wheel’. In order to break free of the
cycle of saṃsāra and attain enlightenment one must overcome these obstacles. In place of

119
In traditional thangka or mural depictions the wheel is held by a terrible figure, usually Yama the Lord
of Death, who represents impermanence. Within the spokes of the wheel are images of the realms of rebirth.
On the outer rim of the wheel human figures represent the chain of causality or saṃsāra, a concept that
explains how ignorance leads to an accumulation of karma and successive rebirths. (Fredrick W. Bunce, A
Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography (New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2001).
58

the traditional iconography, Gyatso positions at the centre of the ‘Wheel’ the headless
statue of Śākyamuni Buddha, originally created for the Tradition Transformed exhibition
at the Rubin Museum in 2010.
As with the installation in the Rubin Museum, the two wall-mounted Buddha
sculptures in the Three Realms installation have their backs to the room and their heads
apparently buried in the wall. They have been covered in stickers and papier decoupe of
brand names, advertising and icons of mass media and consumer culture. Placed at the
centre of the ‘Wheel’ they stand in for the traditional symbols of ignorance, desire and
aversion: the headless Buddha is ignorance, and the stickers represent desire and aversion.
Within the darkened space of the installation scattered around the floor in various
states of disarray are more bronze headless Buddhas. They are upturned, knocked over,
fallen where they lay, or tumbled forward so that their heads appear buried in the floor.
Sand is scattered on the floor and on the Buddhas. Each sculpture is spotlit like shards of
light penetrating the cracks of a ruined temple. The scene is one of destruction and
wreckage. Overseeing all, seated on a low platform taking the place of the lotus throne, is
an intact sculpture of Śākyamuni Buddha in lotus position and earth-touching mudrā.120
Covered in the labels of modern life – symbols of conditioned existence - he surveys
serenely the vista of decay and change. Underneath the stickers the Buddha’s head, which
is perfect in form with spirals of hair and elongated ear-lobes, appears suffocated. The
covering of the eyes and mouth with stickers illustrates the strength of the illusion of
happiness created by the material world and culture of consumerism; his words are

120
Earth-touching or earth-witnessing mudrā: bhūmiśparṣa mudrā – a symbolic posture that usually
identifies the image as Śākyamuni Buddha. The right arm is pendant over the knee with the fingers
extended toward the ground. It refers to the moment in the Buddha’s story immediately prior to his
attaining enlightenment when, after being challenged by Māra, he called on the earth to witness his right, by
virtue of his accumulation of merit over his lifetimes, to be seated at the place of future Buddhas. (see
Warren, Henry Clarke (trans.) Buddhism: Pali Text with English Translation (Introduction to the Jātaka).
Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, [1896] 2008; Rhys Davids, T.W. (trans.) Buddhist Birth Stories; or
Jātaka Tales (London: Trubner & Co. Ludgate Hill, [1880] 2000). It has come to signify both the moment
of the Buddha’s enlightenment and his defeat of Māra, the evil one.
59

silenced and teachings stifled by the earthly objects of attachment and desire in the form
of labels and brands, advertising and headlines, representing the modern day mantras and
icons of devotion: the new creeds. The viewer may meditate on the decline of spiritualism
and ascent of consumerism in the world, or reflect on the archaic nature of a dogma that
would have an artist perish for miscalculating the proportions of an image.
On a socio-political level, the scene also references the destruction of Tibetan
temples following the Chinese occupation and during the Cultural Revolution. A
metaphorical reading extends the decay and destruction to the larger idea of the Tibetan
culture and society and its erosion by assimilation into greater China. However, Gyatso
has often insisted that the purpose of his art is not to make propaganda statements
regarding the Chinese-Tibet political situation. It is part of a bigger picture and Gyatso is
cognisant of the many troubles that afflict this planet.121
The central Buddha sculpture was the centre-piece for the Kiss the Sky exhibition
in Brisbane in 2011. Gyatso presented a similar Buddha sculpture in ‘earth-touching’
mudrā, covered in stickers and papier decoupe, which formed part of a series of eight
sculpture installations named after the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism.122 (fig. 13)
Figure 13. Buddha, 2011, Kiss the Sky installation

Gonkar Gyatso, Buddha cast, stickers, paper cut
(Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane)

121
Gonkar Gyatso: conversation with author in Sydney, 12 May 2010; and panel discussion at Griffith
University Art Gallery, Brisbane (as part of the Three Realms exhibition), 24 February 2012.
122
Golden Wheel, Golden Fish, Lotus, Victory Banner, Endless Knot, Parasol, White Conch Shell and
Treasure Vase. See for example Robert Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Boston:
Shambhala, 1999, 171–187).
5:

Covered in stickers and papier decoupe, these sculptures constitute a progression
from Gyatso’s collage works on paper. The Buddha sculpture model is ornamented and
recalls the devotional application of mille feuille of gold leaf that is placed on Buddha
sculptures in temples in parts of Asia. The act of placing the flakes of gold leaf is an act
of devotion as well as an offering and it is the act of offering that Gyatso says is part of
his motivation for making his art.123 The application of gold leaf also has the consequence
of enhancing the beauty of the statue, intensifying the golden glow and splendour of the
religious object which is precious in both spiritual and monetary terms. In the case of
Gyatos’s Buddhas, layers of stickers and patterns overlap and meld into spaces of
intermingling colour. There are cartoon characters, icons of cinema and fiction, brand
names and logos, as well as advertisements and newspapers and magazines headlines. On
each sculpture a conspicuous sticker with a representation of an invented ‘auspicious’
symbol marks the points of the Tantric Buddhist channel-wheels (cakras).124 For example,
the Golden Wheel sculpture has a sticker with a gas mask head symbol at his heart cakra.
As with his paper works, Gyatso uses these Buddha models as scaffolds for the profound
issues which concern modern life, such as consumerism and environmental issues.
Speaking of this exhibition, Gyatso says that it marks a starting point of shifting in
a new direction. Although he is Tibetan, Gyatso considers himself more than that because
of the journey his life has taken over different continents and cultures. But he says, his
Tibetaness is something he can’t get rid of and it will always show in his work.125 While
there are many cultural clues in his work, not all of them obvious, it is the Buddha form
which remains the most tangible cultural identifier for Gyatso’s Tibetaness.

123
Gonkar Gyatso, panel discussion at Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane (as part of the Three
Realms exhibition), 24 February 2012.
124
The Vajrayana or Tantric Buddhist channel-wheel system, based on the Hindu cakra system, has five
channel-wheels representing body, speech, mind, qualities and activities of an enlightened being. Robert
Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Boston: Shambhala, 1999, 135–144).
125
Gonark Gyatso, conversation with artist in Brisbane, 2011.
61

The Buddha in Lhasa

The contemporary Tibetan artists, in both the diaspora and in Lhasa, utilise the
Buddha form as a cultural identifier. Additionally, both groups use the Buddha in
metaphorical ways to express their views regarding broader issues, such as globalisation.
The artists of the diaspora retain their link to their Tibetan identity through the Buddha
form while they are far from the land of their heritage and immersed in foreign cultures.
However, the artists of the diaspora use the vehicle of the Buddha to demonstrate the
changes wrought on Tibet by outside influences, both Western and Chinese. At the same
time, the Lhasan artists contest the stereotyping of Tibetan identity by reference to
Buddhism. Their focus is to depict a modern Tibet as it is, not a static society of memory
or imagination.
Gade, who is one of the leading contemporary artists working in Lhasa today, has
become well known for his ‘Neo-thangka’ works, which seek to challenge the
preconceptions of Tibetan art by adopting the design and layout of religious painting but
substituting deities for modern icons that more aptly fit with life and reality in modern
Tibet. In his New Buddha series (2008) (fig. 14–16) Gade uses a traditional compositional
format of Tibetan Buddhist deity thangkas.
Figure 14, Figure 15, Figure 16. New Buddha series: McDonalds, Spiderman, Mao Jackets, 2008, Gade,
mixed media on canvas, 99.6 x 120 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)
62

In traditional arrangements of composition in thangka painting the central subject
is placed in a realm beyond normal space and time.126 The central figure, be it a Buddha,
deity or important lama in the lineage, is normally seated on a throne often with a lotus
flower which is a standard Buddhist symbol dating back to the earliest Buddhist art in
India. It signifies the divine birth and the perfected spiritual state of the being. The main
deity or principal figure is portrayed in the centre surrounded by smaller images of lesser
figures, descending in rank.
There are a number of traditionally established groupings, including the repetitive
depictions of a large number of figures. These compositions consist of a central main
figure surrounded by many smaller identical figures. The lesser figures, numbering from
one or two hundred are arranged in vertical and horizontal columns. These kinds of
thangkas were usually painted with a red or black background with the figures outlined in
gold. These thangkas were usually commissioned because there was felt to be greater
merit in numbers. By multiplying the number of figures the patron multiplied the force of
his merit or the force of the deity to counteract a problem or obstacle.127 This is the
compositional model of thangka, sometimes called the ‘thousand Buddha’ or ‘myriad
Buddha’,128 which Gade has used for this series.
However, in Gade’s New Buddha series, instead of the traditional Buddha images
we are presented with Spiderman, Ronald Macdonald, and Red Guard, as principal deity.
The backgrounds are painted with ‘thousand Spiderman’, ‘thousand McDonalds’ and
‘thousand Mao Buddha’ images. They are the modern heroes that we now visualise and
admire, instead of the old deities. We can see these super-heroes on television or film and
experience their adventures; we can imagine ourselves as having their attributes, their

126
Serindia Publications, 1984), 25.
127
Ibid, 26–27.
128
Pratapaditya Pal. Art of the Himalayas (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1991), 177–178.
63

postures and their mantras. Spiderman is shown with one leg partly extended like Green
Tārā, ready to jump up and come to the rescue. His hands are in teaching mudrā, but what
does he teach? The comic book super-hero is an ethical hero and good always vanquishes
evil. Ronald Macdonald is shown in meditation mudrā. In place of the usual attributes, he
is holding a hamburger; a staple of modern life and symbol of globalisation. The
hamburger is his symbol, one of the attributes by which we recognise him just as we
recognise the Buddha and other deities by their special symbols and attributes. In the Red
Guard Buddha we recognise the Buddha by his topknot and elongated ears, and the Red
Guard persona by his Mao Jacket and red arm-band. The figure combines two very
different types of liberators, Mao who purported to liberate Tibet from the colonial
imperialists, and the Buddha, whose form of liberation is spiritual not material.
These are the icons of Gade’s youth and life in Lhasa that have replaced the
traditional Buddhist deities. Gade grew up in Tibet during the Cultural Revolution in
which the Red Guards in Mao suits were ever present. So we see Cultural Revolution
iconography being appropriated and reinterpreted in his work. With regard to the other
icons, Spiderman reminds him of his childhood reading comics and watching Spiderman
movies, and McDonalds has become the new ubiquitous icon, even in Tibet.129
Although Gade is aware that his work may offend some Buddhists, his imagery
comes from an attempt to locate traditional Tibetan art in a contemporary context and
imagine what a Tibetan painting looks like when it is detached from religion.130 His
works are suffused with a sense of humour which can be irreverent in its mockery, but
also poignant in its satirical insight. Throughout, he draws deeply from Tibetan visual
tradition often using handmade paper, mineral pigments and traditional compositions.131

129
Conversation with artist, Lhasa, 2010.
130
Gade. “Artist’s statement,” Mushroom Cloud exhibition catalogue (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms Gallery,
2008), 63.
131
64

Figure 17. Thousands Bound, 2010, Gade, acrylic

and natural pigment on cotton canvas, 135 x 180 cm
(Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe)
Figure 18. Śākyamuni with Buddhas, Boddhisattvas and

Lamas, Mid 13th century, Central Tibet, thangka,
gouache on cotton, 99 x 80 cm.
(Private collection, Switzerland,
Wisdom & Compassion exhibition)
In his work Thousands Bound (2010) (fig. 17), Gade parodies a more complex
Tibetan thangka model that involves multiple deities with a Buddha figure at its centre
and utilisation of Cultural Revolution iconography. In traditional compositions (fig. 18)
the central deity is usually seated on a throne and flanked by attendants or bodhisattvas
with various symbols of their attributes. The central group is then surrounded by further
rows of arhats132 all with bright aureoles signifying their holiness. They may be joined by
revered lamas and important personages of the different Tibetan Buddhist lineages,
benign and wrathful deities, possibly including the four guardian deities at the four
corners, as well as all manner of mythical creatures. They may be placed in fantastical
settings of trees, mountains, gardens and temples, which form vignettes of scenes from

132
Arhat: worthy one, perfected person (Bhikkhu Bodhi (ed), In the Buddha’s Words (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 2005), 469.
65

their lives. In this type of composition, the two main disciples of the Buddha are placed
by his side, to the left and right.133
In Gade’s curious and eccentric version of a thangka, the central figure of the
Buddha is indeed seated on his throne but with his eyes veiled as if to screen him from
the bizarre goings on around him. He is flanked by two attendants, a female Red Guard
on one hand and a Minnie Mouse in hot pink bikini and high heels on the other. On either
side of the central group are sets of would-be arhats illuminated by aureoles. However,
the arhats are all Mickey Mouses and more Red Guard-Buddhas also with veiled eyes.
Above the columns of arhats are four Chinese soldiers who stand in for the four Guardian
deities. Above the central group, in place of an important sacred figure, is a cartoon
version of a many-armed wrathful deity flanked by two pairs of ludicrous rutting beasts.
On the top-most row, in place of the five most important Vajrayāna Buddhas134 we find
Spiderman Buddha, Mickey Mouse Buddha, Ronald McDonald Buddha and E.T.
Buddha, all in seated position. In the centre, parodying the Reclining Buddha, we find a
reclining Mao Tse Tung, with an aureole surrounding his head, in a field of sunflowers.
This is no doubt a reference to his cult of personality during the Cultural Revolution when
he was revered as the Red Sun of China.135
The lower half of the work more resembles a burlesque show. We see monks
cavorting with Red Guards in a circle dance. We see the hands of puppeteers
manipulating puppets dressed as Tibetan nomads or death and an acrobatic troupe made
up of monks, animals and birds. This group seems to illustrate a more bizarre version of
the Buddhist parable of the Four Brothers (of which more will be said in a later chapter).
All around are fantastical mythical creatures and plants. Like many of Gade’s more
complex works, the canvas is crowded with individual scenes, images and symbols, all of

133
134
Ibid., 27.
135
Interview with Nyandak and Nortse, Lhasa 2010.
66

which have relevance to his traditional culture or modern life.
Gade appropriates the iconography of Tibetan religious painting and suffuses it
with images of modern life and imagination to demonstrate how the old ideologies are
being displaced by the new imported ones of consumerist society. Old Buddhist icons are
replaced with the icons of modern culture which are flooding the Tibetan consciousness.
He is depicting a society in transition. In a mix of Tibetan and global culture, Gade asks
us to consider the implications of rapid and radical social change. He juxtaposes contexts
and imagines what Tibetan art looks like without religion.136 It is then we realise that
even out of a religious context so much of the symbolism is cultural, ethnographic. Just as
contemporary Western art may contain symbols of, or references to, Christianity without
becoming religious art, Gaed’s neo-thangka art is secular, for all its religious symbolism.
Yet it is also full of questions regarding Buddhist Tibetan culture and the socio-
political marriage with modern China and cultural influences from the West. Modern
Tibetan culture is now an amalgam of a number of influences: traditional Tibetan, which
includes the earlier influences from India and Nepal; Chinese influences which include
economic, political, historical and deomographic elements; and Western elements which
come either directly through exchange with visitors and tourists or through a China that
has adopted certain Western features. Thus, in modern Tibet, the Buddha figure is joined
by the figures of Mao and Red Guards from the Cultural Revolution period, as well as
Western icons, such as Ronald McDonald and Mickey Mouse. Consequently, for Gade,
the tradtional thangka does not reflect the realities of modern Tibet.
Gade also explores the idea of cultural dilution in other works. In 2006 he created
a work in collaboration with photographer Jason Sangster, entitled Ice Buddha Sculpture
No. 1 – Lhasa River (fig. 19). First shown at the Lhasa – New Art from Tibet exhibition in

136
67

Beijing in 2007, the work comprises photographic images of an installation-performance
work. Gade gathered water from the Kyi Chu River which runs through Lhasa, and used a
mould to create an ice sculpture of Śākyamuni Buddha. Sangster’s photographic images
document the melting of the ice Buddha sculpture in the river.

Figure 19. Ice Buddha Sculpture No. 1 Lhasa River, 2006, Gade (and Jason Sangster)
digital photographs, 80 x 50 cm, edition of 12 (Red Gate Gallery, Beijing)
The Potala Palace, the traditional residence of the Dalai Lamas, visible in the
background of the images situates the work in its cultural context. Gade explained that the
work is about “the cycle of birth, life and death, solidifying raw elements into solid form
and returning to the raw elements.” 137 As mentioned previously, this concept is central to
Buddhist philosophy, and applies universally. The work has particular reference to the
dilution and deterioration of traditional Tibetan culture, signified by the Buddha form,
since the occupation of the Chinese in the middle of the twentieth century. The Buddha
sinking into the Lhasa River with the iconic image of the Potala Palace in the background
is a powerful metaphor for the loss of Tibetan society and culture. At the same time the

248Lhasa – New Art from Tibet, catalogue, (Brian Wallace, ed) (Beijing: Red Gate Gallery, 2007), 42.
68

work appears restrained. The Buddha form seems to particularly lend itself to expressions
of peace and pacification, perhaps due to its harmonious proportions and association with
a state of tranquillity. However, the images belie an underlying violence.
The Lhasan artists often address socio-political issues using complex or coded
language. Their work can appear opaque in meaning due to the use of unfamiliar, often
peculiar, and idiosyncratic symbolism in combination with an allegorical approach. It is
not surprising, given the political constraints under which they work, that they may wish
to disguise the import of their work. Simon Zhen suggests that habitual self-censorship,
which is common in China and Tibet, may be the result of the internalisation of the
censorship imposed by the State, which reached its apogee during the Cultural Revolution
but still exists today.138 However, this results in complex works that contain many layers
of meaning. Indeed, it is impossible to grasp all the references without understanding the
local vernacular and in-group puns, word play and other metaphorical devices that may
be popular from time to time, as well as idiosyncratic symbolism employed by different
artists as camouflage. Accordingly, this kind of self-censorship also contains an element
of dissent and resistance which is crucial to identity and self-determination. This is
evident in the work of Tsering Nyandak (Nyandak).
Nyandak is one of the group of gifted contemporary artists working in Lhasa who
also uses the damaged Buddha figure as a metaphor for the destruction of Tibetan culture,
impermanence and change. Nyandak spent some years in exile in India but chose to
return to Tibet. This gives him a unique perspective on Tibetan culture, having seen both
the efforts for preservation in Dharamsala, and the radical changes in Lhasa. The use of
the Buddha form in his work is an identifier of Tibetan culture. In the works, Paper Plane
and Buddha Head (2008), Nyandak addresses practical social issues. For example, in

138
Zhen, Simon K. “An Explanation of Self-Censorship in China: The Enforcement of Social Control
Through a Panoptic Infrastructure.” Inquiries Journal (Vol 7, no. 9, 2015).
www.inquiriesjournal.com/a?id=1093.
69

Buddha Head (fig. 20), Nyandak is referring to the process of moving nomadic Tibetans
into concrete houses so that their traditional ways of living are altered. In these new
situations they are prevented from undertaking their customary pilgrimages, and from
grazing their animals on the grasslands.139 This “development brings on the
disappearance of a lot of traditional elements.” 140 In this work the Buddha’s head,
representing Tibetan tradition and culture, is being transported to another place as a
metaphor for an altered way of life.
Figure 20. Buddha Head, 2008, Tsering

Nyandak, acrylic and oil on canvas,
128 x 128 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)
Nyandak says he uses the Buddha, not because of his religious inclination but “as
a physical object that relates to me and my surroundings. It’s objectified, but also works
as a container. Every object can hold information, so the Buddha head has certain
information it can give; whether that be of a stereotypical, mythical or romantic
nature …”141 Indeed, as we have seen, the Buddha’s head or Buddha form is the
repository of profound significance and a receptacle of memory.

139
Nyandak. Conversation with artist, Lhasa, 2010.
140
Nyandak. “Tsering Nyandak in Conversation with Kabir Mansingh Heimsath,” in The Lightness of
Being (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2008), 8.
141
Ibid., 8.
6:

Thus Nyandak’s use of the Buddha is more to do with identity than form, it is
more allegorical than aesthetic. His work often concerns the attachment to Buddhism and
tradition. Nyandak, who follows Tibetan Buddhist teachers in the West, feels that
Tibetans often cling to their Tibetan Buddhist traditions without real understanding of the
extent to which they hide behind them.142 Nyandak is ambivalent about his cultural
traditions and the place they have in the modern world. This is not untypical of a younger
generation in any society whose realities are no longer that of their parents. At the same
time Nyandak is a believer in self-determination and often expresses in his work a
powerlessness in the face of forced change.
Figure 21. Paper Plane, 2008, Tsering

Nyandak, Acrylic and oil on canvas,
Paper Plane (fig. 21) again concerns the destruction of tradition. This work is one
of a series that feature baby or child figures and the nakedness of the baby signifies
innocence; the innocence and naivety of the Tibetan people in the face of forced social
and political change.143 However, Nyandak likes ambiguity in his work so that meanings
can be multi-layered or universal.144 In fact, he doesn’t like to explain the symbolism in

142
Nyandak, Conversations with author, Lhasa, 2010.
143
Ibid.
144
Nyandak. “Tsering Nyandak in Conversation with Kabir Mansingh Heimsath,” 9.
71

his work, but would rather leave interpretation to the viewer. Thus, his use of objects such
as the paper plane or balloon, or the colour red, does not necessarily have a fixed
conceptual significance. Nevertheless, Nyandak’s propensity for elusive or ambiguous
symbolism can be interpreted as a symptom of the tendency to self-censorship that he
shares with other Lhasan artists.
This period in his work is marked by his use of vast, empty landscapes (which are
quintessentially Tibetan and at the same time ambiguous) and ominous skies pressing
down that give the impression of both space and claustrophobia at the same time.
Similarly, his palette is full of both light and melancholy – like a half-life. Nyandak has
no training in traditional thangka painting and, in any case, it is not his purpose to
represent the Buddha’s head in a perfect form, quite the opposite. In Paper Plane the
head of Śākyamuni Buddha is easily recognisable by the curls of hair on his head,
elongated ear-lobes and eyes closed in meditation. The face remains serene despite the
scarring. It is monolithic but damaged. His hair itself is like a rocky jagged landscape
echoing the mountainous topography of Tibet. The strand of wire cutting across the
painting on the level of the Buddha’s forehead is also ambiguous, but it can be read as a
barrier, a fissure, a separation from; it looks dangerous. The innocent child at the base of
the head does not appear to understand what the head (he’s chasing the paper plane) is,
only that it is familiar, safe – it is tradition and identity.
In 2006 Nyandak collaborated with another Lhasan artist, Yak Tseton, on a digital
photographic project comprising five images collectively titled sTon pa (Buddha).145 The
work deals with modernisation and the global homogenisation of culture. In Skyscaper
Buddha (fig. 22) the wire structures and superimposed Buddha image evoke the idea of

145
The Tibetan word sTon pa, means to instruct or reveal, and teacher, and is an epithet for the Buddha.
72

modern city skyscrapers carrying giant advertising messages.146 The simulated
scaffolding or iconometric framework acts as a cage behind which the Buddha is looking
out. Whilst Buddhism occupied the central position of visual culture in traditional Tibetan
society, it has been replaced with the advertising of commercial life that drives
consumerism. The digital billboard design does not necessarily reinstate the Buddha’s
visual prominence as Brian Wallace suggests147 but rather demonstrates how the image of
the Buddha has been appropriated for commercial purposes.148
Figure 22. sTon pa (Skyscraper Buddha) 2006, Tsering Nyandak & Yak Tseten, photograph, 60 x 80 cm
(Red Gate Gallery, Beijing)
Interestingly, two Sydney Biennales (2010 and 2012) have used the Buddha
image as their headline banner and standard-bearer. In 2010 the image was provided by
Gonkar Gyatso’s Buddha in Our Time (discussed above), and in 2012 by Gade, (figs. 23,
24). The works were patently used to ‘brand’ and ‘sell’ the Biennale. They projected an
image of universality; they said that the gallery is a temple, that art equals religion, that

146
Brian Wallace (ed). Lhasa – New Art from Tibet (Beijing: Red Gate Gallery, 2007), 42.
147
Ibid.
148
73

the exhibition is not superficial or impenetrable but spiritual and fashionable,
cosmopolitan and tolerant. The commercial strategy to promote the Biennale and attract
customers is the very same strategy used by corporations in promoting the ‘lifestyle’ of
their international brands, the very brands which adorn Gonkar Gyatso’s Buddha. Thus
the Buddha image has become not only a religious icon, but a very marketable
commercial one.
Figure 23. Sydney Biennale banner 2010, (Gonkar Gyatso) Figure 24. Sydney Biennale banner 2012, (Gade)
***
In this chapter I have examined the portrayal of traditional Tibetan iconography in
the form of the Buddha by some contemporary Tibetan artists. I have argued that
although the artists do not comply with the ancient rules for creating Buddhist art, far
from being iconoclastic, they reinterpret traditional iconography in a way that is relevant
to the modern world. The works retain a sense of the allegorical in the exploration of new
Tibetan culture and identity. The Buddha form is also often used as a metaphorical device
74

for universal issues. As we have seen, the artists in Lhasa often employ the Buddha form
to explore the dilution and erosion of Tibetan culture. In the West, the Buddha form is a
symbol of the artists cultural and ethnic identity.
In the sphere of Tibetan visual culture, the contemporary artists are no longer
confined by exclusively religious purposes or institutions. They have freed themselves
from cultural and ideological boundaries. While the iconography, concepts and legends
are part of their cultural identity and identity as artists, they have reconstructed the
Buddha in their own image.

75

Chapter 2. Maṇḍala – Neo-Tantra
The iconography of the maṇḍala appears in a great many works of both traditional
and contemporary Tibetan art. It holds major importance in Tibetan visual culture and
Buddhist doctrine. While for Tibetans the Buddha form is both a cultural and religious
identifier, the maṇḍala,149 which devolved from the esoteric Tantric movement,
represents the Tibetan and Buddhism cosmos and worldview. Tantric art involves a large
and complex iconography, however this chapter is devoted to the maṇḍala. I will describe
traditional meanings of Tibetan maṇḍala iconography and consider how the
contemporary Tibetan artists utilise and rejuvenate this visual language in their own
versions of the maṇḍala.
In her monograph on Gonkar Gyatso, Nathalie Gyatso proposes that the figure of
the maṇḍala is emblematic of the crossroads of the West and Tibet.150 In the catalogue
for a contemporary Tibetan art exhibition at Plum Blossoms Gallery in Hong Kong in
2008, the director Stephen McGuiness said, “Mandalas are familiar to many people as
colourful ‘new age’ circular shaped artworks occurring in both spiritual and secular
encounters.”151 Yet, according to tradition, the maṇḍala has never been a subject of
profane art.152 That is, until now. As McGuiness states, “Mandalas can be said to have
become representative of and a symbol of ancient Tibetan culture.”153
The traditional maṇḍala forms part of the religious phenomenon of Tantra named
after the texts, Tantras, which were written in India about a thousand years after the

149
The Sanskrit work maṇḍala literally means ‘circle’ (Amy Heller, Tibetan Art (Milan: Jaca Book, 1999),
225).
150
Nathalie Gyatso. Gonkar Gyatso, La peinture tibétaine en quête de sa proper modernité (Paris:
L’Harmattan, 2005), 98.
151
Stephen McGuiness, “Foreword, Fragile Mandala.” In Nortse – Tsering Nyandak: Fragile Mandala,
exhibition catalogue (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms Gallery, 2008).
152
153
McGuiness, “Foreword, Fragile Mandala,” 2008.
76

historical Buddha. As Indian Buddhism was systematically adopted in Tibet, the Tantras
came to form part of the Tibetan Buddhist canon.154 Many Tantras devoted whole
chapters to painting and maṇḍalas,155 such as the Hevajra Tantra whose written form
dates from the eighth or ninth century156 and the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, popular in India
during the late tenth to early thirteenth centuries.157 The tradition of worship of the
divinities, mystical utterances, and yogic practices which became Tantricism158 gave rise
to a vast oeuvre of imagery and art works that are characteristic of Tibetan Tantric art.
In Buddhist tradition, the maṇḍala demarcates a consecrated area and protects it
from permeation of negative forces. The schema of the maṇḍala corresponds with more
primitive shamanic systems in which the priest or magus marked out on the ground a
sacred area inside which the sacred purity of the place was protected from spiritual
pollution or forces that threatened the physical integrity of the one performing the
ceremony. Inside the circle the shaman identified himself with the forces of the universe
and invoked its power within himself.159 However, a maṇḍala is more than a consecrated
area that must be kept pure for ritual and liturgical end. It is, above all, a map of the
cosmos. It is the essential plan of the universe in its process of emanation and re-
absorption, both spatially and temporally.160
The original purpose of the maṇḍala was to enable the crossing over from the
plane of saṃsāra, the mundane world, to the plane of Buddha and nirvāṇa, the
unconditioned state beyond the cycle of rebirth.161 The two planes are ‘superposed and

154
David L. Snellgrove. The Hevajra Tantra, A Critical Study: Part I, Introduction and Translation
(London: Oxford University Press, 1980 (1959)), 2.
155
156
Snellgrove. The Hevajra Tantra, 10.
157
David A. Grey. The Cakrasaṃvara Tantra (The Discourse of Srī Heruka) A Study and Annotated
Translation (New York: Columbia University Centre for Buddhist Studies and Tibet House, 2007), 3.
158
T. N. Mishra. Buddhist Tantra and Buddhist Art (New Delhi: D.K. Printworld, 2000), 14.
159
Giuseppe Tucci. The Theory and Pratice of the Mandala (New York: Dover Publications, 2001), 23–24.
160
Tucci. The Theory and Pratice of the Mandala, 23 and Tucci. Tibetan Painted Scrolls, 270.
161
Tucci. The Theory and Pratice of the Mandala, 22.
77

interpenetrated’.162 The means to cross from one plane to the other is by a process of
ritual initiation and purification; specifically, a progressive process of re-absorption and
disappearance into the immediately preceding psychic state until the elimination of māyā
(illusion) is realised.163 The rediscovery of the interior reality takes place in the inner
space which has been transformed into cosmic space. Transformation from the plane of
saṃsāra to that of nirvāṇa occurs in successive phases – from the periphery to the centre,
as does the plan of the maṇḍala, where the passage to the other plane takes place.164
The deity’s place is the centre of the maṇḍala. The deity is evoked or descends
into the centre of the meditator’s being or heart. The space within him is then changed
into primordial space at the point of the origin of the universe. In this process the self and
the deity synthesise, and the illusions of time and space, self and other disappear.165
Symbolic of this final stage is the obliteration of the physical representation of the
maṇḍala when the ceremony is over.166
The instructions for preparation of the maṇḍala are prescribed in the Tantras.167
The drawing of the maṇḍala is a sacred rite in which any error will result in a failure of
the psychological conditions necessary for transformation.

162
163
W.Y. Evans-Wentz (ed.) The Tibetan Book of the Great Liberation (London: Oxford University Press,
1968), 6.
164
165
Ibid, 34.
166
167
See, for example, the Cakrasaṃvara Tantra, Chapter II, ‘The Proceedure of Wheel Worship’:
Well-protecting oneself thus, ornamented with mudrās and mantras, draw the terrifying maṇḍala
which bestows great power. Then, with a corpse thread, or one coloured with the great blood, lay
out the terrifying maṇḍala, Heruka’s supreme mansion. [It is of] a single cubit, four or eight, [with]
four corners all around, bedecked with four doors, adorned with four arches… Place in the middle
of that a lotus with petals and a fully-opened centre, endowed with filaments. Place in the centre of
the lotus the hero who is the terror of Mahābhairava [Śrī Heruka], who is bright and brilliant…
Then make the vases, without bases, black [in colour], and so forth. They are filled with pearls,
gold, and jewels, and with coral, silver, and copper, and with all foods, with skull bowls placed
upon them. Then wind their necks with thread, their tips adorned with blossoms. Place eight at the
doors, well wound with pairs of cloths. The ninth central vase is wound with a pair of cloths,
decorated with gold, silver, jewels, or pearls. One should scatter precious golden ornaments on the
maṇḍala. (Verses 10-15).
(David A. Grey. The Cakrasaṃvara Tantra (The Discourse of Srī Heruka), A Study and Annotated
Translation. (New York: Columbia University Centre for Buddhist Studies and Tibet House, 2007).
78

Figure 25. Kapaladhara Hevajra Mandala, Central Tibet, 1st half 16th century, thangka,
pigment on cotton. 41.9 x 34.9 cm. (Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation Collection)
A maṇḍala is drawn upon the ground in a purified and consecrated place. Powders
or granules of five colours of symbolic significance are used to trace the complex pattern
of lines and figures. Threads are coated with the coloured powders and laid out on the
ground. They are then held taut above the surface and released, forming straight coloured
lines as the process is repeated to form the schematic outlines of the maṇḍala designs.168
The maṇḍala has been utilised by contemporary Tibetan artists in a number of
ways removing it from its original ritual purpose. #

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168
Tucci. The Theory and Pratice of the Mandala, 37–38.
169
The Missing Peace Project: www.tmpp.org
79

$!37& $!38. Sand maṇḍala, Tenzing Rigdol, September 2007, coloured sand,
(Rubin Museum of Art, New York)
Rigdol’s sand maṇḍala combined traditional and non-traditional Tibetan art
practices. Some elements of the creation of the work resembled the traditional ritual, such
as the use of coloured sand to form the graphic design. Some of the graphic elements
were also similar: the eventual image is divided into four triangles within squares and
concentric circles. Certain of the decorative elements, such as the border patterns, clearly
derive from Tibetan pictorial tradition of depicting fire and cloud. However, the spaces
usually reserved for representations of the deities were replaced with secular symbols,
such as the Olympic Rings that referred to the then upcoming Olympic Games in Beijing,
and the train tracks which referenced to the China-Tibet railway. In the centre of the
maṇḍala, rather than a deity, Rigdol placed a figure of a gun upon a lotus to represent the
violence that afflicts the world (fig. 26).170
After ten days of working to create the maṇḍala, the grand finale saw a group of
Tibetan dancers in traditional costume singing and dancing over and around the maṇḍala,
the movements of their feet obliterating the image of the maṇḍala (fig. 27). The work was

170
Tenzing Rigdol, quoted in “Tenzing Rigdol’s mandala. Particles of prayers” by Swapna Vora
(Asianart.com, 11 June 2008) www.asianart.com/articles/vora/rigdol/index.html#1.
7:

not intended as a religious ceremony but a piece of performance art with a philosophical
rather than a religious meaning, albeit a meaning which derives from the Tibetan
Buddhist tradition and tantric practice. The image was not consecrated and the sand was
not scattered in a sacred ritual but simply disposed of by the gallery staff. In the final
reckoning, the philosophical thought behind the work is that of “letting go.” 171 Rigdol
says that the work is not destroyed by the dancers but merely takes another form.
Essentially, this is a secular version of the Buddhist concept of impermanence, which is
demonstrated by the destruction of the traditional maṇḍala in sacred ritual. While Rigdol
typically explores traditional Buddhist iconography in his work, he considers his work to
be secular rather than religious:
I have come to understand that the traditional work of art is rather a stage to
explain Buddha’s thought. And after that I try to use the mere forms of the various
deities as a stage to express my own personal thoughts; thoughts [about]
contemporary issues, thoughts that deal with my limited world views of our
current problems…. The stage then becomes a space for individual expression. So
in my work I assume that the viewer confronts the work of art with his or her own
cumulative experiences and turns into an art of meaning-making. I use the
traditional iconographies, or visual grammartology [sic] of Tibetan traditional art
to rather express my personal thoughts and feelings with utmost newness.172
In this respect Rigdol’s re-staging of the maṇḍala differs from previous
performances of the maṇḍala in Western art galleries which purported to re-create the
original ritual. Such performances reinforced stereotypical images of Tibetan culture as
never changing, symbolizing a spirituality that has been lost in the West. One of the
earliest instances of this presentation of the maṇḍala as a quasi-shamanistic ritual in
Western art galleries occurred in the Magiciens de la Terre exhibition in Paris in 1989

171
Tenzing Rigdol. quoted in “Tenzing Rigdol’s mandala. Particles of prayers” by Swapna Vora.
172
Tenzing Rigdol. Reimagining the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions: A Conversation (panel
discussion, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 7 March 2014). (1:02:47).
http://www.metmuseum.org/metmedia/video/lectures/reimagining-buddhist-traditions.
81

which explored the idea of the artist as priest or magician. During the exhibition three
Buddhist monks from Tibet and Nepal created a sand maṇḍala in the Grande Halle
exhibition space. In the catalogue notes the artists explain that they do not have an
equivalence in their culture for ‘art’. For them art merges into the broader category of arts
and crafts (zorig), which includes painting, sculpture, architecture, that is, all artisanal
techniques.173 The exhibition notes describe the sand maṇḍala as:
a very complex ritual [which] brings down the essence of the deity at the centre of
the mandala … Sand mandalas are generally not made in public but in temples.
When the mandala is finally destroyed, the sand imbued with the divine, is poured
into a river which disperses the beneficial benefits.174
As alluded to in the catalogue notes, the creation of the maṇḍala was never meant
to be a profane spectacle. However, in the context of the exhibition, the sacred Tibetan
Buddhist ritual must have seemed something of an artistic magic trick.
Figure 28. Monks making a sand or powder maṇḍala. Drepung Monastery, Lhasa, 1937
Charles Suydam Cutting (The Newark Museum Archives)
In a similar vein, a performance of the sand maṇḍala ritual was staged at the
Wisdom and Compassion exhibition of traditional Tibetan art in San Francisco in 1992. A

173
Musee National d'art Moderne. La Magiciens de la terre. Edited by Jean-Hubert Martin (Paris: Centre
Georges Pompidou, 1989), 241.
174
Ibid.
82

group of monks from the Dalai Lama’s monastery created a sand maṇḍala in the
courtyard of the museum. The exhibition was mounted in a design inspired by the
maṇḍala which the director of the Museum said represented a paradise, a divine universe,
the home of a god, and symbolised the divine nature in our own world.175
Donald Lopez said in response to this exhibition that the traditional art works
were “fetishized by the conceit that the work, through its acquisition and display, had
been rescued from destruction so that a part of Tibet’s unique and endangered cultural
heritage could be preserved.”176 In the museum the artwork was imagined to represent a
lost time and place, in which mankind existed in harmony with nature, understanding the
mysteries of the universe. This epitomises the idea of romantic primitivism developed by
Roger Sandall where: “a suffocating religiosity now descends on public discussion... [in
which it is claimed] that native culture possesses a ‘spirituality’ found nowhere else.”177
This romantic primitivism, of which Rousseau was arguably the greatest champion,
“consists of fantasies inside the heads of urban dwellers – delusions of a morally superior,
Edenic world beyond the horizon – which are then projected onto primitive peoples
themselves.”178
Whether the intention is to bestow a blessing upon an exhibition, or to highlight
the technical skills of the monk-artists, the act of the sand maṇḍala in the Western art
gallery or museum renders it a work of performance art, despite the spiritual impulse.
Audiences come and go, sampling the ritual as they do performance works (for the
construction of a sand maṇḍala takes days or weeks).

175
Rand Castile. “Message.” In Wisdom and Compassion, The Sacred Art of Tibet, Marylin M. Rhie and
Robert A.F. Thurman (London: Thames and Hudson, 1991), 9.
176
Donald S. Lopez Jr. Prisoners of Shangri-La; Tibetan Buddhism and the West. (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1999), 137.
177
Roger Sandall. Culture Cult, Designer Tribalism and other essays (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press,
2001), 181.
178
Ibid., ix.
83

Figure 29, Figure 30, Figure 31, Figure 32. Tibetan Guyto monks, sand maṇḍala (Hobart, 2010 & 2011)
In contrast to this appropriation of the maṇḍala by Western art museums, its use
by contemporary Tibetan artists such as Rigdol does not engender the illusion of an ideal
culture that is fossilised and never changing. Rather, it presents Tibetan society culture as
a living reality, complex and diverse, in a globalised world.
Apart from the sand maṇḍala at the Rubin Museum, Rigdol has also explored the
maṇḍala on canvas in a number of iterations to explore his exilic existence in America.
Obama Mandala: Mandala of Hope (fig. 33) was painted the year of Barack Obama’s
first election as President of the United States of America. In the centre of the maṇḍala
where the deity would normally reside, Rigdol has placed the iconic image of Obama by
artist Shepard Fairey in his campaign poster, which featured the word ‘Hope’.
Rather than Obama being deified in this work, Rigdol is expressing his own world
view and the mood of the time as presented in Obama’s autobiographical work, The
audacity of hope: thoughts on reclaiming the American dream (2006).

84

Figure 33. Obama Mandala: Mandala of Hope,

2008, Tenzing Rigdol, acrylic on canvas,
Figure 34. Obama Mandala: Mandala of Hope

(detail)
In this work, Rigdol explores the metaphorical spaces of his hybrid culture by
juxtaposing a popular image of Western political culture against a basic traditional
maṇḍala. Thus Obama, who had quickly become an icon for the marginalised and
minorities as well as mainstream liberals,179 takes the central position. Here, Rigdol
expresses his identification with a liberal and progressive brand of American political
culture; an identification that allows him to feel included in American society and
represented in politics, regardless of his ethnicity and cultural background, and without
having to deny these parts of himself.180 Indeed, he can celebrate his difference within the
national diversity. The work represents a shift from the new immigrant’s feeling of
belonging neither here nor there, or being in “no man’s land” as Gonkar Gyatso put it,181
to a sense of belonging to two different cultures at the same time.

179
Joy-Ann Reid. Fracture: Barack Obama, the Clintons and the racial divide (New York: HarperCollins,
2015).
180
During a speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, Obama memorably said: “There is not a
black America and white America and Latino America and Asian America – there’s the United States of
America.” (Barack Obama. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream.
Melbourne, The Text Publishing Company, 2006, 213.)
181
Gonkar Gyatso. “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet.”
85

Another Tibetan contemporary artist who has explored his exilic existence and
Tibetan heritage through art is Tashi Norbu, currently based near Amsterdam in the
Netherlands. In Adventure of My Life (fig. 35) Norbu expresses visually his life’s journey
from a traditional Tibetan culture to the West. The work is dominated by the symbols of
the Buddha form and the maṇḍala, as the two most ubiquitous cultural identifiers of Tibet
and Tibetan religion. As Norbu says: “When you talk about Tibet … you have the
Buddha and then the mandala …”182
Figure 35. Adventure of My Life, 2013, Tashi Norbu, Tibetan scriptures, magazines, acrylic enamel
and oil paint on plywood, 120 x 240 cm (Mechak Centre for Contemporary Tibetan Art)
Norbu undertook his art training in both traditional Tibetan thangka painting in
Dharamsala and Western art at Saint Lucas Art Academy in Ghent, Belgium. Being well
schooled in both traditions, Norbu tries to combine the two. He experiments with ways of
painting the Tibetan motifs that he has studied, and bringing them into the Western world,
where he lives, and how he can communicate this in his work.183
Around the two central motifs of the Buddha and the maṇḍala, Norbu places other
cultural expressions of his life and his art training in the East and the West. Around and

182
Tashi Norbu, In-Between, roundtable discussion, Rossi & Rossi, London, 3 November 2013.
http://www.rossirossi.com/contemporary/exhibitions/in-between/video-x 1:13:40
183
Ibid.
86

over the two panels that make up the work, Norbu repeats the image of the fourteenth
Dalai Lama’s face. It appears to float over both East and West as if he is some
omnipresent being. Indeed, the visage of the Dalai Lama probably completes the
triumvirate of the preeminent symbols of Tibetan religion and culture.
Scattered in and around the Tibetan motifs are symbols of Norbu’s Western life
and identity. From his life as an art student in Belgium, Norbu includes snippets of the
iconic Belgium comic book, Tintin by Hergé, in particular some scenes from Tintin in
Tibet. At the top left of Norbu’s painting we see Tintin in his mountain climbing gear
climbing the Himalayas with his dog, Milou (Snowy), in his backpack. Then, to the right
of the Buddha’s head is another scene of Snowy tugging at the robe of a young novice
Tibetan monk in order to get help to save Tintin.184 The other Belgian comic book
character in the work is Wiske (from Wiske en Suske by Willy Vandersteen) depicted just
below the character of Tintin on the left. Wiske is shown dressed in white, and holding a
full blown lotus that is the symbol of the Tibetan deity White Tārā. This image of Wiske
is from the edition titled Jewel in the Lotus (1987), which was published in the Tibetan
language. Both these comic book elements provide direct links between Tibetan and
Western culture; two iconic comic books which were spawned in the West, both of which
have story lines which reached into Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism.
Across the expanse of the panels of the work Norbu has collaged leaves of
Tibetan scripture that he retrieved from stūpas outside the Dalai Lama’s palace in
Dharamsala.185 These Tibetan texts are then overlaid with images and paint or cuttings
from Dutch magazines. The work is thus revealed like a palimpsest in which we discern
the layering of present experiences over faded pasts, or they are melded together

184
Hergé, Tintin au Tibet (Tournai: Casterman, 1999), 46.
185
Tashi Norbu, In-Between, roundtable discussion. (It is common for Tibetan scriptures to the burnt in
stupas when they have deteriorated through use. Norbu likes to collect these whenever he goes back to
Dharamsala. I also collected some pages of text from stupas at Sherabling Monastery in India).
87

augmenting realities and altering the landscape generation upon generation. This can be
seen most effectively in the maṇḍala section of the work. Norbu combines both
traditional Tibetan elements and techniques with Western art elements and techniques.
Overlaying the Tibetan scripture texts, Norbu has depicted a maṇḍala which complies
with tradition in a number of ways, such as the concentric outer rings and the square inner
sanctum with four gates. The outer circle, which normally comprises a ring of flames, in
this case contains some flames painted in the traditional Tibetan style but also newspaper
cuttings and images from Western magazines.
In Norbu’s work, the centre of the maṇḍala does not contain a deity but the text of
the gleaned pages of scripture is revealed in what, at first, appears to be an empty space.
Again departing from tradition, Norbu surrounds the centre with a circle of clouds and
collaged magazine cuttings. For Norbu the clouds represent a veil to the mysteries
contained within:
We, human beings, do not understand everything in our world. The clouds present
us a veil behind which many ‘secrets’ are hidden. In fact, they are not tangible
with our senses, but they may reveal through meditation and development of a
higher Buddha nature.186
While Norbu’s work does not depict a traditional maṇḍala, his understanding of
the mandala’s purpose in pictorial representation is based on Tibetan Buddhist tradition:
A constructed mandala is a celestial residence of a meditation deity and every

aspect of it has a deeper meaning. The doorways in all four directions represent
the Four immeasurable Thoughts: love, compassion, joy and equanimity. The
mandala also represents the universe, which is dependent on the exact ratio of the
four elements (fire, water, earth and air). E.g. too much fire burns, too less makes
it cold and the right amount make growing and flowering possible. This is both
taught in Buddhism as well as in the Western science education.187

186
Tashi Norbu. Facebook.
187
Ibid.
88

The work comprises a collection of images from both Tibetan and Western
cultures. In addition, Norbu combines traditional Tibetan and Western art techniques,
from the traditional fire and water formations to the abstract paint-drip treatment. Like the
category of thangka that portrays narratives from the Buddha’s life, this autobiographical
work illustrates episodes and memories from Norbu’s life as an artist who has spanned
cultures. Many of the vignettes exemplify the cross-over of cultures that the artist has
encountered. For example, the person of the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetans,
has successfully crossed over into Western spiritual and humanitarian culture. He thus
occupies a place in both the artist’s worlds – the Tibetan world of his ancestry and culture,
and his new world in the West. In the other direction, the popular culture characters of
Tintin and Wiske & Suske have made forays into Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. The work
represents the artist’s transnational experiences in an increasingly globalised world where
cultural flows move in both directions. While the work is grounded in Tibetan visual
culture with the two dominant forms of the Buddha and the maṇḍala, the composition
strays from that strict tradition and ultimately the images from both cultures mingle freely.
Neo-Tantra
Kesang Lamdark is a Tibetan contemporary artist living in the West who has
taken the fusion of Tibetan iconography and Western methods and materials to an
extreme. His Tibetan identity, religious heritage and political inferences remain strong
currents in his art. Lamdark calls himself a Khampa Warrior,188 a reference to his father’s
people from Kham in Eastern Tibet who are renowned for their fierce warrior-like
character.189 Lamdark belongs to the second generation of Tibetan exiles, born in India

188
Kesang Lamdark. Khampa Worrior – Neo-Tantric Art [sic]. www.lamdark.com
189
See for e.g.: Shakya. The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, 173–4; Giuseppe Tucci. Tibet, Land of
Snows (New York: Stein and Day, 1967), 143, 153.
89

after his parents fled in the early years of Chinese occupation. His father is a Rinpoche190
and Abbott in a Tibetan monastery. Before Lamdark was one year old his family were
accepted as political refugees in Switzerland. He was adopted by a Swiss family when he
was four, and his father returned to Tibet to resume his position as Abbott. While
Lamdark grew up in the West, he has journeyed to Tibet as an adult, in particular to his
father’s region. It is clear that his heritage and his father are very important influences on
his work, although his knowledge of Tibetan Buddhism was gained through his adoptive
Swiss father who is also a Buddhist and is the curator of Rikon Tibetan monastery in
Switzerland.191 Regarding his Tibetan father, he says: “I have always seen my father as a
spiritual warrior. My hope is to continue this fight through my art.”192
Figure 36. O Tantric Mandala, 2010, Kesang Lamdark, plexiglass, LED light and wood, 119.9 x 9.9 cm
(Rossi & Rossi, London)
Lamdark refers to his work as Neo-Tantric art and he has a close personal
connection to Tibet’s esoteric religion. In Lamdark’s O Tantric Mandala (2010) (fig. 36),

190
Rinpoche: ‘precious one’ – an honorific title for high and reincarnated lamas in Tibet.
191
Kesang Lamdark. In-Between, roundtable discussion, Rossi & Rossi, London, 3 November 2013.
192
Kesang Lamdark. Khampa Worrior - Neo-Tantric Art [sic]. www.lamdark.com
8:

the artist has constructed a contemporary maṇḍala from the modern materials of
plexiglass, wood and LED light. The circular black plexiglass that forms the maṇḍala is
etched with complex iconography arranged in a series of concentric circles. The symbols
seem to float on the reflective black background as if suspended in the depths of a liquid
pool or the far reaches of the universe, or indeed the inner universe of the mind. It
emphasises the inner psychic aspect of the cosmos of the maṇḍala, the idea that the inner
space of the mind is as infinite as the universe. The external space of the universe is but a
metaphor for the corresponding space within, as is the physical space of the maṇḍala.
While the initiate may stand in the centre of the physical maṇḍala in order to invoke the
deity or the Buddha to achieve enlightenment, all the power and crossing of metaphysical
planes occurs in the space within. When the work is read as representing inner space it is
easier to conceive of the terrible symbols of skulls and graveyards that represent
hindrances to enlightenment as being all in the mind.
With regard to Lamdark’s symbology, he has combined traditional Tantric
iconography with ‘neo-Tantric’ symbols of his own devising. At the very centre of the
work lies a complete traditional maṇḍala in miniature with male and female deities in
Tantric embrace. However, the artist departs from tradition, not only with the materials
and the iconography, but with composition. Beyond the central maṇḍala is more freely
floating pseudo-Tantric imagery. There are two cycles of terrible heads, ritual implements,
skulls and monstrous chimeras. The skull is typical of the iconography of the maṇḍala
and the terrific deities wear necklaces and crowns made of skulls.193They drink from cups
made from skulls and use skulls as receptacles for paint and other substances. The skull
represents the state of non-illusion. As in the vanitas art of the European Christian
tradition, the skull represents the transience of mortal life and certainty of death.

193
Bunce. A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 249.
91

Beyond these two cycles, suspended in the cosmos are ritual implements, Tantric
yogis, human and animal figures and pornographic images, arranged in a way that is not
seen in traditional Tibetan visual culture. Lamdark’s cosmos is populated with various
images of couples in sexual union, including a number of animal couples. These figures
reference the Tantric union of male and female (yab-yum), however, they do not resemble
typical Tantric imagery. Some appear to be depicted in poses taken from the fourth
century Indian Tantric text, the Kāma Sūtra, which was intended as a study on one of the
essential aspects of life and the art of living in a civilised world.194 As we have seen, the
deities in Tantric maṇḍalas are often surrounded by the goddesses and ḍākinīs (female
spirit – sky-dancer) of their Tantra. However, in Lamdark’s maṇḍala, floating around the
central figures, are also images of the female form derived from modern pornography.
Lamdark’s cosmos is very different from that depicted in a traditional maṇḍala.
Yet ingredients of the Buddhist cosmos are there, such as the six saṃsāric realms of the
heavenly beings, jealous gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts and hell beings.
According to Buddhist thought, the six realms are the states of rebirth according to the
degree of merit achieved at the time of death. In hell, everything is repulsive and painful
states of mind are constant. In a state that overlaps with humans, the hungry ghosts are
constantly tormented by unsatisfied desires. The animals are governed only by their base
sense needs and undergo suffering because of it.195 The human realm is where further
merit and wisdom can be gained which may in turn lead to a higher rebirth in one of the
heavenly realms where divine beings are no longer subject to earthly desires.196 In
Lamdark’s cosmos the fundamental states of desire are represented in the sexual act.

194
Alain Daniélou. The Complete Kāma Sūtra (Rochester, Vermont: Park Street Press 1994), 4.
195
Donald W. Mitchell. Buddhism, Introducing the Buddhist Experience (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002), 44.
196
Ibid.
92

In the catalogue essay for the Generation Exile exhibition, Clare Harris refers to
Lamdark’s commodification of the female body and the shock value of the work. She is
of the opinion that Lamdark is: “specifically interested in engaging with the carnal and
the crude.”197 However, the complexity of the iconography Lamdark employs belies this
simplistic view. This work, where sexual imagery is juxtaposed with Tantric motifs and
primordial or occult artefacts, suggests layers of meaning and insight into men’s desires
and fears. The floating images on black background evoke the inner universe,
emphasising the idea that the realms of desire, suffering and nirvāṇa are in the mind. As
Maxwell Heller notes, when viewed from certain angles the reflective medium of
Lamdark’s maṇḍala makes the surface “seem like lake water, strangely dark and
impossibly smooth and [its] perfection communicating a sense of meditative calm,” while
at the same time reflecting the light and movement in the room.198 Heller suggests that in
this work “we can divine many messages about East and West, ancient and modern,
tragedy and comedy, masculine and feminine, religion, art and commodity.”199 He finds
Lamdark’s approach to sexuality ambiguous, in that his work contains elements, which
are both comical and sobering.200 He notes that “[f]or every measure of spiritual levity in
his work, there is an equal amount of scepticism, materialistic obsession, hedonism, and
pop-culture worship …”201
The imagery is alternately bizarre, hideous, sexual and sensuous. Like much of his
work, O Mandala Tantric, divided opinion amongst Lamdark’s audience, which we can
see from the comments on the exhibition’s interactive website. A very few were offended
by the blatant sexual imagery. Most, however, were awed by the sublime and celestial

197
Clare Harris. “Cataolgue Essay.” In Generation Exile – Exploring New Tibetan Identities, Palden
Weinreb and Kesang Lamdark (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2011, 7–21), 16.
198
Maxwell Heller. “Grave Sarcasm: The Work of Kesang Lamdark,” in Kesang Lamdark: Son of a
Rimpoche (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2011, 5–16), 14.
199
Ibid., 5–7.
200
Ibid., 7.
201
Ibid., 10.
93

effect of the work. The sexual representations were not mentioned except for one
comment in which the viewer described the work as: “… the new spirituality, meditative
for a specifically modern audience that is already so exposed to violence and
nudity …”.202 Indeed, so ubiquitous have sexual and pornographic images become in
modern Western culture that one becomes inured of them.
Tantric practices involving sexual union are described in explicit detail in ancient
texts such as the Hevajra Tantra.203 The purpose of these practices was to achieve
spiritual liberation. However, if a religious group practiced these sexual rituals today, it
would probably be considered in the West a bizarre and dangerous cult. Yet, sexual
images have steadily entered mainstream Western culture over the last few decades so
that pop culture now resembles soft-core pornography, so saturated has it become with
sexual imagery and behaviour.204
This is indeed part of the culture that Lamdark finds himself being socialised by
as a Tibetan exile growing up in the West, as he internalises the cultural norms and
attitudes. In this work the lines are blurred as to what is moral or spiritual and what is
immoral or amoral. Lamdark’s neo-Tantric maṇḍala, with its mirrored surface, holds up
this mirror to the Western hedonistic lifestyle where it is equally possible to shop online
for both spiritual enlightenment and sexual gratification.
The maṇḍala in Lhasa
A number of artists in Lhasa also incorporate the maṇḍala in their work. As with
the diaspora artists, the Lhasan artists often employ the maṇḍala as a keystone symbol of
Tibetan culture and identity. As a representation of the Tibetan Buddhist cosmos, the

202
Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond. “What do you see transformed?” The Rubin Museum
of Art, New York, 2010. http://traditions.rma2.org/o-mandala-tantric.
203
See for example: The Concealed Essence of the Hevajra Tantra, With the Commentary Yogaratnamala,
translated by G.W. Farrow and I. Menon (Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass Pubs., 1992).
204
Gail Dines. Pornland, How Porn has Hijacked our Sexuality (Boston: Beacon Press, 2010), ix, 25, 26.
And see Alan McKee et al. The Porn Report (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2008), 20.
94

maṇḍala is packed with signs of new influences as the Tibetan worldview changes. For
the artists in the West, the focus is on how they negotiate their relationship with Western
culture while for the artists in Lhasa, the concern is with the destruction of Tibetan
culture as a result of the encroachment of external influences from China and the West.
As we saw in Chapter One, Gade’s art practice often involves the replacement of
ancient Tibetan iconography with icons and subjects from modern culture. Like Tenzing
Rigdol, Gade’s intention is to take religion out of the equation while continuing to draw
from the Tibetan religious art tradition. However, as we have also seen, Gade, like other
Lhasan artists, makes liberal use of references to the Cultural Revolution which is not
common amongst the artists in exile in the West.
Figure 37. The New Sutra: Wedding Ceremony, 2007, Gade,

mixed media on handmade Tibetan manuscript paper with burnt and distressed edges,
4 panels, 92 x 100 cm (total)
(Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong)
95

In Wedding Ceremony (fig. 37) from The New Sutra series (2007), Gade follows
the traditional pictorial and compositional rules of the Tibetan maṇḍala but also
incorporates new profane figures and symbols, resulting in another form of hybrid
artwork. In doing so, Gade uses the formal elements of a maṇḍala as a cultural, rather
than a religious, object. In the catalogue for the exhibition Mushroom Cloud (Plum
Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong) the artist states that although he knows his work offends
many Buddhist believers, he wanted to see what Tibetan painting would look like when it
is detached from religion.205
Gade uses a reconstructed hand-made Tibetan paper based on traditional scriptures
and fuses it with modern iconography. The paper is rubbed with charcoal, burnt at the
edges and distressed, in order to give an appearance of antiquity.206 This technique and
medium is then juxtaposed against the obviously modern imagery, resulting in a
deliberate anachronism meant to challenge the normal perceptions and assumptions
regarding Tibetan art and culture.
Superficially, the construction and composition of the maṇḍala follows tradition.
However, Gade has replaced traditional iconography with his own symbols. The usual
outer ring of fire that acts as a barrier to the inner sanctum and symbolises the fire that
destroys ignorance is replaced by a ring of simple geometric border design. Similarly, the
rings that normally contain the graveyard sequences and lotus petals are replaced by a
circular assembly of Mickey Mouse icons in meditation posture as if they were little
Buddhas. The Mickey-Buddhas are seated on lotus thrones with aureoles of light
surrounding their heads.
Inside Gade’s ring of Mickey-Buddhas is the square plan of the maṇḍala proper,
the palace-city and dwelling place of the deity. Gade has set out the four walls and the

205
Gade. “Artist Statement.” In Mushroom Cloud (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms Gallery, 2008), 63.
206
Gade. Interview, Lhasa, 2010.
96

four gates of the directions, north, south, east and west. Whereas in traditional maṇḍala
the gates of the palace are protected by the four guardian-deities of the four cardinal
points, in this maṇḍala Gade uses the superhero-deity Spiderman (which we have seen in
Chapter One) as the guardian of the gates. As Ian Findlay-Brown proposes, the depiction
of these new iconic figures is intended to provoke the viewer into the realisation of the
extent to which secular imagery has replaced the religious, and how much they are
inadvertently deified by consumer culture.207
In the centre of Gade’s maṇḍala, where the deity (or deities in Tantric union)
would normally be, a wedding ceremony is depicted which combines Tibetan and
Chinese traditions. The bride has Tibetan head-dress while the groom wears a Chinese
robe. Gade’s mother is Tibetan while his father is Chinese from Hunan province; it thus
represents a personal narrative as well as a broader metaphor for the fusion of two
cultures. In the main square, instead of sequences of the entourage of ḍākinīs or female
deities, Gade makes strange interpretations of traditional folklore and Buddhist
iconography. For example, above the wedding scene a Buddha figure is dressed in a Mao
tunic and flanked by Tibetan yaks rather than the more traditional iconography of deer. In
the south-west corner is a representation of the Chinese money tree, which is customarily
present at weddings and represents good fortune and immortal life.208 In the south-east
corner appears to be an idiosyncratic and secular version of the iconography of the multi-
armed deity riding his animal vāhana (vehicle or mount upon which a deity sits or rides).
In place of the usual ornamentation of the traditional maṇḍala - the vases of
flowers, the parasols and banners of cloth, jewels and necklaces of pearls, gold and coral,
cakra wheels and thunderbolts (vajra; dorjé) - Gade has depicted the paraphernalia of
modern life, such as safety-pins, torches, a light bulb, a cup, a toilet roll, a glove, as well

207
Ian Findlay-Brown. “Wandering Among Icons.” In Mushroom Cloud exhibition catalogue (Hong Kong:
Plum Blossoms Gallery, 2008), 10.
208
Stanley K. Abe. Ordinary Images (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 33.
97

as more iconic references such as a can of soft drink called ‘Love’ written in the
distinctive script and trademark colours of Coca-Cola. With the introduction into the
work of these mundane objects and modern icons Gade wants to reflect the current
cultural state of Tibet affected by the Cultural Revolution and globalisation and his
concern for the dilution of Tibetan culture. Since his youth, Chinese and foreign
influences have had an important impact on his thinking and the memories of his
childhood. However, the strongest influences were Buddhism and Tibetan culture, and
these continue to dominate Gade’s work in which he attempts “to talk about the realities
of life as it is in Tibet”,209 a society and culture in transition. Gade believes it is important
to find another way to depict a Tibet that exists in his own time, beyond stereotypes and
in the context of economic changes, secularisation and globalisation. He says that every
Tibetan is in the middle of a spiritual transition and religious transformation:210
The culture is changing and it has been changing very quickly … Tibetan culture
has many other elements to it so it is not just the traditional. The traditional way of
living is just part of this and it is vanishing. I feel that this is not within anyone’s
control. Tibetans feel that they want the right of choice to live the way they
want.211
Another Lhasan artist and one of the original members of the Sweet Tea House
school is Nortse (Norbu Tsering). He is another artist whose researches have led him
through an exploration of the truths and realities of Tibet in the modern and global eras.
To this end Nortse incorporates the motif of the maṇḍala as well as other signs of
traditional culture, recent history, and social or political commentary into his work. One
of the focal points of Nortse’s art practice is the influence of the Cultural Revolution on
Tibetan culture, pondering how the Tibetan people have managed to survive decades of

209
Ian Findlay-Brown. “Wandering Among Icons.” In Mushroom Cloud, exhibition catalogue (Hong Kong:
Plum Blossoms Gallery, 2008), 9.
210
Gade, Interview, Lhasa, 2010; and Gade “The whole story of Scorching Sun of Tibet,” in Scorching Sun
of Tibet, exhibition catalogue, Songzhaung Art Centre (Beijing: 2010), 11.
211
Gade, Interview with Ian Findlay-Brown, July 2007.
98

violent social change, and how these changes have affected the innermost being of each
individual.212 He says “[t]heir stories were part of the story of my own soul.”213
Nortse took a long and winding road to arrive at this point. Having grown up in
Lhasa during the Cultural Revolution he was selected to study art in Beijing, along with
Gonkar Gyatso and four others, where he studied socialist realism. However, Nortse did
not finish the course and subsequently went on to study art at Tibet University in Lhasa as
well as in Universities in Guangzhou and Tianjin in search of a unique expression.
Finding the art schools unsatisfying, he rejected the realist style which they propounded
after encountering Western art in the 1980s.214 Eventually, he concluded that even the
formal vocabulary of Western art was not sufficient for addressing the spiritual crisis of
contemporary Tibet, and that only through full participation in the present day realities of
society and individual experience could one come to a thorough understanding of the
actual situation of contemporary Tibetan art.215
The two works, Red Sun and Black Sun (figs. 38, 39), represent a new direction
for Nortse. Produced for the group exhibition at Rossi & Rossi Gallery in London,
Tibetan Encounters, Contemporary Meets Tradition, the works were in response to
traditional Tibetan icons.216 For Nortse, the idea of the traditional Tibetan art works
brought to mind the destruction of the Buddhist monasteries and Tibetan art and culture.
Flowing from this, Nortse’s Red Sun, Black Sun works constitute modified maṇḍalas
incorporating an ancient concept and traditional materials with new techniques and
materials. Nortse produces a hybrid art form which evokes the ancient past in the present,
and gives a profound socio-political commentary.

212
Nortse, “Statement.” In Consciousness and Form: Contemporary Tibetan Art (London: Rossi & Rossi,
2007).
213
Ibid.
214
Nortse, Interview, Lhasa, 2010.
215
Nortse. “Statement.” In Consciousness and Form: Contemporary Tibetan Art.
216
Fabio Rossi, Tibetan Encounters, Contemporary Meets Tradition, exhibition catalogue (London: Rossi
& Rossi, 2007).
99

Figure 38. Red Sun (Nyi ma mar po), 2006, Nortse, wood, Tibetan paper, katag, plastic
tubes, acrylic paint, metal statue remains, 75 x 75 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)
Figure 39. Black Sun (Nyi ma nag po), 2006, Nortse, wood, Tibetan paper,
katag, plastic tubes, acrylic paint, broken light bulb and barley, 75 x 75 cm
This is another instance of work by a Lhasan artist that conceals its message in
coded symbolic language. Nortse’s symbolism is recondite, and the tactile aesthetic of the
collaged materials conceals the psychic pain of the artist offered on behalf of his culture
and society. The centrality of Tibetan identity in these works is inferred by the use of
traditional Tibetan materials such as handmade Tibetan paper, barley seeds, ceremonial
white scarves (katag), Buddha statuette and the motif of the maṇḍala: things that have
been essential to Tibetan customs and culture. As Leigh Miller proposes, Nortse uses
materials and Buddha figures to create connection to cultural and religious heritage and
trauma.217 But these works primarily concern the relationship to the Chinese Cultural
Revolution of the 1960s and its consequences for Tibetan culture and identity.
In Red Sun, the sun refers ironically to Chairman Mao, who was the ‘Red Sun’ in
the hearts of all Chinese people.218 At the centre of this work is a traditional bronze statue
of the Buddha which takes its place as the deity at the centre of the cosmos and Tibetan

217
Leigh Miller. Contemporary Tibetan Art and Cultural Sustainability in Lhasa (Doctoral thesis. Emory
University, Atlanta, 2014), 345.
218
Nortse & Benchung, conversation with author (Lhasa, October 2010).
9:

worldview, after the pattern of a traditional maṇḍala. However, the statue, which was
bought at the local market, is headless and broken, signifying the physical destruction of
monasteries and artworks as well as the intangible damage done to Tibetan culture during
that time. The red veins, made of plastic tubing, scattering blood in all directions, and the
improvised tears surrounding the ruin of the Buddha, recall the loss of life as well as
culture and damage to families and communities.
Black Sun also represents the violence and destruction of the period. The black
colour in this work symbolises the loss of belief and despair experienced by the Tibetan
people during this time. It denotes a dark and difficult time for Tibet, as if the sun has lost
its light and colour.219 The Buddha in the centre of this modified maṇḍala is fashioned
from slivers of glass from a broken light bulb, so it speaks of light being shattered and
being left in darkness. The deity at the centre of the world from which emanates the
metaphysical light is rebuilt from fragments to emit a refracted luminosity. Barley seeds
(the staple crop of the high Tibetan plateau) are scattered around the central Buddha
representing both the seed of Tibetan culture and the divine essence or seed of the
Buddha at the centre of the maṇḍala tradition. As the maṇḍala represents the Tibetan and
Buddhist cosmos, the works signify the destruction of their whole world, physical and
spiritual, during the dark period of the Cultural Revolution.
These coexistent themes of social commentary and spirituality are prevalent in
much of Nortse’s work. The State of Imbalance (fig. 40) is part of a series of self-portraits
from 2008, which was conceived of as an attempt at another new mode of expression in
paint on canvas. Nortse explains that his unfixed way of creating expresses his personal
condition, that of “a type of imbalance, a lack of equilibrium.”220 He goes on to say that
in this “fluid ever-changing creative mode, I am throughout continuing or extending …

219
Nortse & Benchung, conversation with author (Lhasa, October 2010).
220
Nortse (Norbu Tsering), “Self-Portraits and my state of imbalance, my loss of equilibrium,” in Nortse,
Self-Portraits – The State of Imbalance, exhibition catalogue (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2008), 6.
:1

my personal experience and recollections, clumsily piecing together the fragments of my
spiritual inner life.”221 The ‘I’ in his self-portraits expresses this state of imbalance and
conflict between ancient and modern culture.222
In The State of Imbalance the artist stands in front of a maṇḍala which appears to
glow against the infinite space of the universe. The structure of the maṇḍala, with its
outer ring of fire and inner square plan of the sacred city with its four gates at the cardinal
points, is clearly discernable. This version of the maṇḍala recalls Tucci’s explanation of
the Tantric maṇḍala practice: “Man places in the centre of himself the recondite principle
of life, the divine seed, the mysterious essence. He has the vague intuition of a light that
burns within him and which spreads out and is diffused. In this light his whole personality
is concentrated and it develops around that light.”223 Indeed there is a feeling that the
diffused light on the canvas originates from an inner place of the man, the artist, at the
centre of the maṇḍala.
Figure 40. Mandala – The State of Unbalance, 2008, Nortse, mixed media on canvas, 51 x 61.5 cm

221
Nortse. “Self-Portraits and my state of imbalance, my loss of equilibrium,” 6.
222
Ibid., 7.
223
:2

While the maṇḍala stands for symmetry and balance with the universe, the title of
this work suggests the opposite: a loss of equilibrium, inner imbalance and confusion of
identity caused by the conflict between traditional Tibetan culture and modern society in
Lhasa where, in only a few decades, there have been sweeping changes in demographic
makeup, commerce, communication, transport, architecture, fashion, food, education,
language, and so on. The artist is wearing a traditional Tibetan shirt together with
multiple neckties from Western culture (or modern business culture in general). He
relates that it is not exceptional for people to be dressed this way in Lhasa,224 although he
has taken it to extremes. This confusion of costume is a metaphor for the confusion of
Tibetan identity in this modern era of Chinese occupation and globalisation, to the extent
that Nortse sometimes feels that he and his compatriots are part of an on-going social
experiment.225
In this coded language Nortse reveals his most personal truths. The use of the
symbolic bandages around his head here points to the physical and psychic scars, wrought
by the Cultural Revolution both on individual and collective Tibetan identity. Indeed, the
motif of the bandages is an idiosyncratic symbol of the Cultural Revolution that Nortse
uses frequently in his work.226 Against the omnipresence of the maṇḍala, the signifier of
Tibet and its culture, the everyman struggles to regain the balance needed to enter into the
state of harmony with the universe. In Nortse’s work the spiritual truths are inextricably
connected to the socio-political realities.
Nortse also tackles the realities of the inner world of the psyche, where the
psychological wounds and scarring are no less felt than the physical ones. In Release Life
(fig. 41) almost all the canvas is taken up by the maṇḍala. The effect is to bring the

224
Nortse. Conversation with author. Lhasa, October, 2010.
225
Nortse, “Self-Portraits and my state of imbalance, my loss of equilibrium,” 6.
226
Ibid.; and conversation with author. Lhasa, October 2010.
:3

presence of the maṇḍala into the viewer’s personal space so that one can be virtually
absorbed into it.
Figure 41. Release Life 2007, Nortse, mixed media on canvas, 135 x 135 cm
From what we understand of the inner workings of the maṇḍala outlined above,
this rendition is more reminiscent of an antediluvian sand maṇḍala seen from above than
a hanging thangka or mural. It resembles an ancient plan whose clear structure has been
eroded over eons of time. We can discern the outer concentric rings which contain the
square maṇḍala proper in the centre – the ideal city with its four gates at the cardinal
points. However, against its black background, seen only at the corners of the work, the
viewer senses the maṇḍala is actually suspended in infinite space.
As a map of the cosmos, Nortse’s maṇḍala appears as the earth or the world set
against the void. It recalls the famous blue marble photographs of the earth from space
with their swirling patterns of cloud and cyclones hovering above the land. Nortse’s
maṇḍala pushes against the edges of the canvas. With its thin surrounding layer of
atmosphere or nebulous light, it appears dynamic as if in the endless process of expanding

:4

infinitely. This illusion is assisted by the bursting forth of butterflies from the essential
place in the centre –– the place of origination where the two planes of the mundane world
and the Buddha can be traversed. These butterflies are modified lung ta (wind horse)
from Tibetan folklore which symbolise the human spirit. According to Tibetan custom
small pieces of paper inscribed with scripture are taken to the top of a mountain and
released, or thrown up where the wind carries them to the sky. They can be likened to a
blessing or a wish to assist in the realisation of one’s hopes or dreams.227 Thus the
butterfly–lung ta of Nortse’s work represents the primordial essence of life and its
beneficent aspiration, extending out across the universe. Release Life has the tenor of
benign mystery. Nortse’s maṇḍala finds the expression of the plan of the cosmos that,
while drawing from tradition, crosses cultural boundaries by his synthesis of imagery,
medium and technique from different eras and cultures.
000
The traditional practice and iconography of the maṇḍala is extremely complex.
The contemporary Tibetan artists have deconstructed it in different ways using a variety
of mediums, techniques and focuses. While the works are profane in the way of Western
art, they draw from something very sacred in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition of the
maṇḍala. In this way, these artists renew the tradition of the maṇḍala in Tibetan art,
creating multi-layered works that explore the metaphysical, the mundane and
ultramundane, of the twenty-first century. In an atmosphere of cross-cultural fertilisation
the new maṇḍala break down old rules of Tibetan visual culture for the purpose of a
renewal of Tibetan art and a re-negotiation of Tibetan identity in a globalised world.

338Nortse & Benchung. Conversation with author. Lhasa, October 2010.
:5

Chapter 3. Tantra – Male and Female Principles

As we saw in Chapter Two, the centre of the Tibetan maṇḍala can be described as
a sacred abode of the Buddhist deities. It is usually populated with images of the Buddhas
or deities from the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon, frequently various male and female deities
engaged in Tantric union, or on their own. In this chapter, I continue to examine this
Tantric aspect of Tibetan iconography, its treatment and interpretation by contemporary
Tibetan artists and the consequent new significations of traditional iconography.
The Tibetan iconographic pantheon is vast and varied. It is populated not only
with Buddhist figures such as bodhisattvas,228 arhats229 and venerated teachers, but also
with gods and goddesses of Hindu origin that entered Tibet from India in the eleventh
century,230 as well as deities and iconographic devices of indigenous origin.231
The deities in Tibetan Tantric art have both a wrathful and peaceful aspect. The
wrathful deities represent the fierce aspect of dissonant mental states while the peaceful
forms represent the tranquil mind. The role of the wrathful deities is to defeat the enemies
and obstacles to enlightenment, hence their terrifying appearance.
There are numerous examples of different figures from the Tibetan pantheon in
the oeuvre of Tibetan contemporary art. However, in this chapter I will focus on a couple
of iconographic examples that recur in the work of a number of the artists in both Lhasa
and in the diaspora, these being the yab-yum (father-mother: male-female) in which a
deity, in either its wrathful or tranquil aspect, is depicted in sexual union with his consort,
and Tārā, who is one of the most popular female goddesses in Tibetan culture.

228
‘Seeker of enlightenment’ – one who seeks enlightenment in order to deliver all beings from suffering.
Mitchell, Buddhism, Introducing the Buddhist Experience, 351.
229
‘Worthy one’ – followers of the Buddha who have attained enlightenment (Ibid.)
230
For example, see Janet Gyatso “Image as Presence” in Tibet Art (The Newark Museum, New Jersey,
Munich: Prestel, 1999), 210.
231
For example, see Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 32-33.
:6

Part I. Yab-yum
Figure 42. Paramasukha Cakrasamvara

yab-yum, Central Tibet, second half 17th
century to early 18th century,
thangka, 139.7 x 68.5 cm
In his review of the contemporary Tibetan art exhibition, Tradition Transformed,
at the Rubin Museum in New York, art critic Ken Johnson lamented that the exhibition
lacked the “sex and violence one normally associates with the traditional Tibetan
artforms.”232 Perhaps Johnson was thinking about the wrathful Tibetan deities of yab-yum
iconography such as depicted in figure 42. This thangka depicts the Tantric archetype
deity Buddha Saṃvara and his consort Vajravārāhī in sacred blissful union. Saṃvara
stands in warrior pose and his open mouth bears fangs which grind up the false world,
while his third eye sees the ultimate reality. His four faces are coloured blue, green, red
and yellow symbolising four of the Buddha’s wisdoms. Vajravārāhī emulates his pose
with her leg stretched up around his waist. He holds in his twelve hands various

343Ken Johnson. “Heady Intersections of Ancient and Modern - Art Review.” The New York Times, 19
August 2010.
:7

implements symbolic of the triumph over ignorance and evil, including the flayed skin of
the mad elephant of ignorance, a trident staff crowned with a severed head, an axe and a
chopper, and a skull bowl filled with blood. She holds in her hands a vajra (diamond,
thunderbolt) chopper and a skull bowl, symbolic implements for destroying ego. They
wear long garlands of skulls or severed heads representing conquest and transformation
of egotistic mental processes and they wear the five-skull diadems typical of wrathful or
protector deities. They are surrounded by a circle of fire, representing enlightenment, and
beneath their feet are the crushed bodies of mundane deities symbolising the conquest of
even the most divine forms of egotism.233
A recital of the typical accoutrements of the wrathful deities sounds gruesome to a
modern Western sensibility and it may appear to those unacquainted with the significance
of Tantric symbology that Tibetan art is indeed full of sex and violence. However, Tantric
art is esoteric and ritualistic and concerns complex philosophical and doctrinal concepts
which are quite the opposite of vulgar sex and violence.
The contemporary Tibetan artists involved in the Tradition Transformed
exhibition at the Rubin Museum, particularly Losang Gyatso (whose work will be
discussed in this chapter) and Tenzing Rigol, took umbrage at Johnson’s review. Rigdol
contended, for example, that Johnson “failed to understand the metaphorical allusions and
the conceptual vocabularies” of the art234 pointing out that the figures in Tantric positions
“are not sexual but spiritual; they are not about violence but about absolute compassion,
…”235

233
Rhie and Thurman, Wisdom and Compassion, The Sacred Art of Tibet, 215-221; and Worlds of
Transformation, Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion (New York: Tibet House and Rubin Museum,
1999), 302-303.
234
Tenzing Rigdol. “Heady Intersection of an Alien and Tibetan Modern Art,” Artist’s Blogs, Tradition
Transformed, Rubin Museum, New York, 24 August, 2010, http://traditions.rma2.org/tenzing-rigdol.
235
Ibid.
:8

Rigdol also took exception to Johnson’s opinion that, despite Tibet’s political
history in the second half of the twentieth century, the works did not directly deal with
politics.236 This is evident in his work titled Autonomy (fig. 43) in 2011, in which he
explores social and political issues using the yab-yum figure as his vehicle. The work
became part of the artist’s Darkness into Beauty exhibition in London in 2013.237 In this
work he uses the yab-yum as a metaphor for the union or assimilation of Tibet into China
and to comment on the adoption of the Genuine Autonomy policy by the Tibetan
Government in Exile.238
Figure 43. Autonomy, 2011, Tenzing Rigdol, collage – silk brocade,

scriptures, 200 x 200 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)
The basic iconography of the seated yab-yum is immediately apparent. The deity
and his consort are seated on a throne or solar disc with a vast and elaborate aureole
representing the universe surrounding them made of ornate Chinese silk brocade. In

236
Rigdol “Heady Intersection of an Alien and Tibetan Modern Art,” Artist’s Blogs; and see Johnson,
“Heady Intersections of Ancient and Modern - Art Review.” (Rigdol, who is a published poet as well as a
visual artist, suggested that Johnson’s review was “Like a blind man writing a thesis on light”).
237
Tenzing Rigdol. Interview with Clare Harris, Darkness into Beauty (video) (London: Rossi & Rossi,
2013) www.rossirossi.com/contemporary/exhibitions/darkness-into-beauty/video1#.
238
Dhondup Tashi Rekjong, “The New Face of Tibet,” Darkness into Beauty exhibition catalogue (London:
Rossi & Rossi, May 2013).
:9

Tibetan Buddhist philosophy the two most important forces are wisdom and compassion.
Both must be present for harmony to exist in the universe and for enlightenment to be
possible. In visual culture, compassion is represented by the male and wisdom by the
female, shown as the consort of the male. These two forces are related to the pre-Buddhist
Indian concept of Śiva (male) and Śakti (female).239
In the composition of the standing yab-yum (ālidhāsana) (fig. 42) the female
figure has one or both of her legs wrapped around her partner.240 When yab-yum figures
are seated (vajrāsana) as in Rigdol’s work, they depict the peaceful, rather than the
wrathful, aspects of the deities. The male deity sits on a throne in the meditation position
or with one leg pendant outside the throne. His female partner sits facing him with her
legs wrapped around his back.241 The figures may be represented as regular human
figures or with multiple arms and heads as in the Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra yab-yum
thangka (fig. 44).
Figure 44. Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra yab-yum, Central regions or eastern Tibet,

16th to early 17th century, thangka, pigment on cotton, 76.8 x 58.4 cm
(Rubin Museum of Art)

239
Ajit Mookerjee and Madhu Khanna. The Tantric Way; Art, Science, Ritual (London: Thames and
Hudson, 1977), 12–13; and Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 267.
240
Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography 350.
241
Ibid.
::

Rigdol’s yab-yum figures closely resemble the deities of the Guhyasamaja
Manjuvajra yab-yum so it is worth looking briefly at the traditional symbolism. Each
partner has three faces and six arms and sits in tantric sexual union. Their ornaments,
jewelled crowns, necklaces, earrings, bracelets and anklets, symbolise attainment of the
transcendent virtues of generosity, wisdom and compassion. They are swathed in silk
brocades decorated with clouds and lotus flowers. Their symbolic implements include the
wheel, lotus, jewel, sword and bell, symbolising the male and female aspects of reality-
perfection wisdom.242
In Rigdol’s work the male deity also has three faces and six arms and is comprised
of Chinese bank notes bearing the portrait of Mao Tse-Tung. His female consort is crafted
from notes of Tibetan currency, now an obsolete and historical artefact but still an
indicator of self-identification and sovereignty. The background of the work is composed
entirely of Tibetan scriptures, a familiar motif in Rigdol’s work, which embodies Tibetan
identity. As Rigdol expresses it:
The significance of scripture in my work has more to do with its distinct script.
Though there are many different Tibetan dialects, there is only one unifying
Tibetan script that binds all Tibetans together. So I consciously remove the
landscape, whereby I remove the Chinese influence and replace it with our
Tibetan scripture.243
Given that the official name of the Tibetan homeland within modern China is the
Tibetan Autonomous Region, it would appear that the title of the work contains an
element of irony. The issue appears to be achieving and maintaining a dynamic
equilibrium between autonomy and unity; the condition of balance between shifting
forces that is characteristic of living processes, a state of repose between antagonistic
influences that counteract each other. The question is one of balance, a harmonious

353Rhieand Thurman, Worlds of Transformation, Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, 420.
354Dhondup Tashi Rekjong, “The New Face of Tibet,” Darkness into Beauty exhibition catalogue (London:
211

adjustment of parts, or in this case, rights. Rigdol uses the yab-yum, whose essence is the
perfect combination of wisdom and compassion, as a metaphor for the political status of
Tibet within China.
Article 3 of the Chinese Constitution, adopted in 1954, provided that “The People’s
Republic of China is a unitary multinational state. All the nationalities are equal ...
Regional autonomy shall be exercised in areas entirely or largely inhabited by minority
nationalities. Such autonomous areas are inalienable parts of the People’s Republic of
China.”244 This has been a matter of dispute ever since. In 2008 the Tibetan Government
in Exile published a Memorandum setting out their policy on the issue and calling for
‘genuine’ autonomy:
We remain firmly committed not to seek separation or independence. We are
seeking a solution to the Tibetan problem through genuine autonomy, which is
compatible with the principles on autonomy in the Constitution of the People’s
Republic of China (PRC). The protection and development of the unique Tibetan
identity in all its aspects serves the larger interest of humanity in general and those
of the Tibetan and Chinese people in particular.245
In Rigdol’s work, China and Tibet are represented by the male and female deities.
They are united in perfection of wisdom, yet each retains their own individual character
as represented by the sovereign currency. It is an expression of the ideal situation, yet to
be achieved, of the policy of the Tibetan Government in exile.

244
Shakya. The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, A History of Modern Tibet since 1947, 510. This article is
now carried forward to Article 4 of the Constitution as amended in 2004: “Regional autonomy is practiced
in areas where people of minority ethnic groups live in compact communities; in these areas organs of self-
government are established to exercise the power of autonomy. All ethnic autonomous areas are integral
parts of the People's Republic of China.”
245
“The Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People,” delivered to the European
Parliament in Brussels, December 2008. Department of Information and International Relations, Central
Tibetan Administration of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India.

212

Gonkar Gyatso also uses the yab-yum iconography to explore important socio-
political questions. In his series, The Minority Question (2005) (fig. 45–47) Gyatso
variously uses representations of yab-yum with both the normal number of arms and with
multiple arms. While the basic pictorial device uses the yab-yum iconography, Gyatso
departs from the traditional composition in order to articulate his enquiry. Unlike
traditional yab-yum depictions, Gyatso’s foundation is the historical Buddha figure,
Śākyamuni, rather than an archetypal Tantric deity seated on the customary lotus throne.
In The Minority Question 1 (fig. 45), Gyatso has used the device of the iconometric grid,
highlighting the ancient lineage of the Tibetan artistic tradition of representation of the
Buddha form.
Figure 45. The Minority Question 1, 2005, Gonkar Gyatso,

India ink & pencil on treated paper, 26 x 26 cm, (Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane)
In each work the Buddha figure is in silhouette formed from tightly laced
calligraphy made up of segments of traditional Tibetan prayers and scriptures. Even in
silhouette, the identifying characteristics are recognisable: the symmetrical body, slender
waist, and legs in lotus meditation position, the head covered in tight curls and topknot.
213

Although the presence of the female consort, whose legs are wrapped around the Buddha
form, suggests that the Buddha’s back faces the viewer, it becomes apparent that the
Buddha’s silhouette is identical whether viewed from the back or the front. The figure
formed out of words and script seems disembodied, signifying that the consort does not
embrace an actual deity but a symbolic Buddha that represents a culture, an identity, an
ideology and history. Thus the union can be seen as the embracing of, and union with, an
idea and a philosophy.
Figure 46. The Minority Question 3, 2005
Figure 47. The Minority Question 5, 2005
Gonkar Gyatso, India ink & pencil on treated paper, 26 x 26 cm

(Griffith University Art Gallery, Brisbane)
214

Apart from the Tibetan calligraphy making up the Buddha form in each of the
works, Gyatso also uses language script as a metaphoric and compositional device. As we
saw in Chapter One, Gyatso has created a novel hybrid script using the Tibetan alphabet
combined with Chinese characters. The backgrounds of The Minority Question 3 and 5
(figs. 46 & 47) are filled with characters from this invented script. This invented language
as a pictorial device provokes many questions with regard to the ‘minorities question’. It
symbolises the complex situation of a multicultural or bicultural society. What happens
when cultures mix or are forced to mix? To what extent does it result in a hybrid form?
And to what extent does one culture become assimilated to the other dominant culture?
What happens to the language of the assimilated culture? Do they cling, like the consort
in these artworks, to the foundation and bulwark of their worldview, or do they embrace
change and multiply?
The 2009 Report on the Human Rights Situation in Tibet states that the continued
segregation in the education system and devaluation of the Tibetan language and culture
has long-term consequences for the Tibetan ‘minority’. Further, on-going inequality and
population displacement results in economic marginalisation as Tibetans are unable to
compete against Chinese workers in a job market where their language skills, knowledge
of Chinese work culture and government connections are inadequate for them to derive
the full benefit from the development in Tibet.246 Lhasa and other population centres in
Tibet are segregated into old Tibetan and new Chinese quarters; differences in customs
and language mean that the two groups are unlikely to mix socially. The demographic
makeup of Tibet is changing as more ethnic Chinese migrants settle in Tibet,247 with

246
Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD). Human Rights Situation in Tibet, Annual
Report 2009 (Dharamsala: TCHRD, 2010).
247
Shakya. The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, A History of Modern Tibet since 1947, 438.
215

Tibetans in some areas being forced out or reduced to a minority.248
As university students, Tibetans like Gonkar Gyatso, who were fortunate enough
to gain entry into a university were steered towards one of the universities for
nationalities, such as the Central University for Nationalities in Beijing, that were
designated for students from the ethnic minorities in China. Tibetans are only one of fifty-
six minority ethnic groups that make up the population of the modern Chinese State and
all are supposedly guaranteed the same fundamental rights by the Chinese Constitution.249
So the question is not just about Tibet, but all minorities. Indeed, in a multicultural world,
China is not the only country which contends with such situations. Gyatso has taken the
traditional yab-yum and, while retaining elements of traditional Tibetan art and Buddhist
philosophy, has adapted the iconography to reflect on the issue of minorities. Looking at
these issues from the outside, in the West, Gyatso is now able to ponder these questions
from a broader philosophical point of view.
Lhasa
A lot has changed since the diaspora artists or their parents went into exile. Their
views of Tibet are informed by distant memories as well as Western media, the internet
which provides a virtual Tibetan community for those in exile, and Dharamsala where the
government-in-exile resides. If these artists have been to, or back to, Tibet it has been for
short term restricted visits only. This relative remove from Tibet provides a space for the
diaspora artists to think about issues philosophically or in terms of Western political
thought.
For the artists in Lhasa, however, the changes that have occurred since Chinese
occupation are interwoven into their lives and identities. Many of the main artists of the

248
Robbie Barnett. “Essay.” In The Tibetans, by Steve Lehman (New York: Umbrage Editions, 1998, 178–
196), 187.
249
“Constitution of the People’s Republic of China.” The National People's Congress of the People's
Republic of China. http://www.npc.gov.cn/englishnpc/Constitution/node_2825.htm.
216

movement were born on the threshold of the new regime, in the early 1960s. (Of all the
contemporary artists discussed, only Karma Phuntsok was born before 1959 and has a
memory of Tibet before the Chinese invasion.) For the artistsin Lhasa, their parents’
memories of Tibet before the Chinese occupation would be harder to sustain in the face of
everyday reality. But for those who went into exile, memories would be cleaved to as a
keepsake, as their physical home is left behind. The artists in Lhasa have lived, if not
side-by-side with the Chinese, with their ever-present existence and the massive
permanent impact on their society. The artists in Lhasa therefore have grown up in a
multi-racial, multi-cultural society, albeit an unequal one. Given that the presence of the
Chinese in Lhasa is a permanent reality, the minority question for the artists in Lhasa is
not just one of abstract human rights but one of pressing concern in their everyday lives.
While the diaspora artists appear to intellectualise abstract concepts such as autonomy
and minorities in the tenor of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
(1948),250 the Lhasan artists, tend to take a grass-roots approach to issues of immediate
import, which is no less complex, using the yab-yum in their art practice to explore
questions of social and political hybridity.
In Raging Fire (2010) (fig. 48), Gade presents a modern version of a Tantric yab-
yum which nevertheless retains obvious traditional painting techniques and features of a
fierce deity maṇḍala centrepiece, while at the same time removing it from a religious
context. In this work, Gade transposes Cultural Revolution imagery for the traditional
iconography. I first saw this work at the Scorching Sun of Tibet exhibition in Songzhuang
Art Museum outside Beijing in 2010. Together with a number of other works from this
exhibition, Raging Fire formed part of a solo exhibition at Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa
Fe, titled Half Tibetan – Half Chinese. As mentioned in Chapter Two, Gade’s mother is

250
United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)
www.ohchr.org/EN/UDHR/Documents/UDHR_Translations/eng.pdf.
217

Figure 48. Raging Fire, 2010, Gade, acrylic and natural pigments on cotton canvas, 100 cm diameter,
(Songzhuang Art Museum, Beijing)
Tibetan while his father is Chinese. Gade believes that his joint heritage, which he calls a
“contradictory condition,” is manifest in his work.251
In Tibet "half Tibetan - half Chinese" is a special group. Tibetans think you are
Chinese and Chinese think you are Tibetan. This fragment of time in Tibet is
perhaps Tibet's most fierce age of cultural change and secularization. Divinity,
nature and life itself have been alienated, faith transformed; a people once led by
the spirit are now increasingly permeated with material desires ... During the
present sensitive period, my "intermediate perspective" is perhaps relatively
objective, but certainly isn't absolute. This is an extremely contradictory and
complicated psychological state, at least when it comes to me.252
In Gade’s Raging Fire the male and female deities are portrayed in a fierce and
wrathful aspect as Red Guards from the Chinese Cultural Revolution. The couple in union

251
Gade. Half Tibetan – Half Chinese, exhibition catalogue, Peaceful Wind Contemporary (Santa Fe, New
Mexico, 2010).
252
Ibid.
218

are standing in ālidhāsana posture on a lotus throne and surrounded by an aureole of fire.
The male deity has three terrible grimacing faces and many arms. He does not hold any
traditional ritual implement but each of his hands forms a fist, a weapon in itself. He
tramples bodies beneath his feet, as does Hevajra and other wrathful deities, representing
not the destruction of ignorance or the worlds of desire and form, but the swathe of havoc
and destruction left by the Red Guards across the country. The female consort embraces
her partner with one leg wrapped around his back. Her face is also in fierce aspect and
while her right hand is plunged behind her into the sacred fire, her left hand holds aloft
triumphantly the Red Book of Mao Tse-Tung representing the new ideology of
Communist China.
Plunging through the middle of the canvas is a monochrome fissure. It signals an
ominous rift in the world portrayed as if caused by lightning or other cosmic force. In this
sudden flash the faces of the Red Guards seem even more ghastly. The main figures are
flanked on each side by the customary attendants. However, rather than being
bodhisattvas holding their sacred symbols, Gade’s attendants are two female red guards,
one also holding a Red Book and the other wearing a gas mask, symbols of the new
ideology and the destructive forces of the Red Guards. Both ‘attendants’ hold their hands
in a combination of teaching and fearlessness mudrās, parodying the stance of
boddhisattva figures in traditional painting. They are surrounded by comically monstrous
alien creatures, or chimeras, as well as skulls, fish with frightening teeth and pieces of
raw meat. In another humorous moment, a robed monk peers out from behind the
attendant on the right, alluding to the religious origins of the yab-yum iconography.
The lotus throne and the aureole of fire are rendered in the traditional Tibetan
style and the composition of the central deities and flanking attendants is also based on
traditional Tantric painting, as are the bodies which are trodden under foot by the male
219

Red Guard. However, Gade departs from religious convention and removes the imagery
into a secular context. Accordingly, the work is not simply iconoclastic because the gods
are not actually mocked. Rather, Gade has composed the Cultural Revolution yab-yum
completely removed from religion.
In this work Gade again shows us the images which have taken the place of the
traditional Tibetan Buddhist deities, in this case the Chinese Red Guards of the Cultural
Revolution reminding us of the ‘raging fire’ of the terror which occurred in that period,
not only in Tibet but all over China, and the accompanying new ideology of liberation
according to Chinese communism. The phrase in Chinese has long referred to the blaze of
red flags carried into battle253 and is also a metaphor for sexual lust.254 Gade conflates
these two subtle references within this work.
The work challenges the notion of ‘liberation’. On the one hand is the spiritual
liberation and enlightenment symbolised in the union of the yab-yum deities representing
wisdom and compassion. On the other hand is the ‘liberation’ of Tibet by the Chinese
People’s Liberation Army (PLA) from the foreign imperialists.255 Gade’s work also
parodies the monumental style of the social realist aesthetic of the Cultural Revolution
era, which glorified the deeds of workers, peasants and ordinary heroes of the people.
As we have already seen, for the contemporary artists working in Lhasa, the
Cultural Revolution is significant to their collective consciousness and has played an
important role in shaping their art language. Another Lhasan artist who utilises the yab-
yum as well as imagery from the Cultural Revolution is Ang Sang, contemporary of
Gonkar Gyatso and Nortse and one of the original members of the Sweet Tea House
School in Lhasa in the 1980s. In his work, Red Decade (fig. 49), Ang Sang utilizes both

253
Cultural China. “Ru Huo Ru Tu (Like a Raging Fire).” Cultural Fire – History. 2007-2014.
www.history-cultural-china.com/en/38History1199.html.
254
Amy Tan. The Valley of Amazement (New York: Harper Collins, 2013), 314.
255
Shakya. The Dragon in the Land of the Snows, A History of Modern Tibet since 1947, 37; Tsepon W.D.
Shakabpa. Tibet: A Political History (New Delhi: Paljor publications, 2010), 410.
21:

the iconography and philosophy of the Tibetan yab-yum as well as the Chinese concept of
the yin-yang in order to construct a political and social allegory that resonates in some
ways with Tenzing Rigdol’s work Autonomy.
Figure 49. The Red Decade, 2008, Ang Sang, mixed media on cloth, 100 x 100 cm (approx..)
There is symmetry in combining the two essences in this context as the yin-yang
of traditional Chinese philosophy explains the true nature of the universe as a balance
between two forces. The yin is seen as the negative or passive force in nature, embodied
in the female and the phenomena of darkness, coolness, the earth and the moon, while the
yang is the positive force embodied in the male, light, warmth and the sun. Almost all of
nature, including humankind, comprise a combination of both forces. The perfect state in
the operation of the universe is when these two forces work in harmony.256
The yin-yang is a motif that Ang Sang returns to often in his work and was
originally influenced by a traditional sculpture in which the two halves were painted

256
Lewis M. Hopfe and Mark R. Woodward. Religions of the World (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007), 167; and Ninian Smart. The World's Religions, Old Traditions and Modern
Transformations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 108.
221

different colours.257 He feels an affinity with the idea that all phenomena, animate and
inanimate, contain these elements. It is the resulting contrast and ambiguity that Ang sees
translated in everything crossing cultural boundaries.258
The main iconographic device of the work is the yab-yum in the seated vajrāsana
pose, which traditionally denotes the peaceful rather than the wrathful aspects of the
deities. However, in this depiction the deities display twin (or yin-yang) sides to their
nature. The many-armed male deity of Ang’s work is not only in union with his counter-
part female consort, but he is also made up of two parts, left and right. The left side of the
face bears the characteristics of the Tibetan deity, such as the crown, elongated ears, and
earring which is worn to signify deafness to evil words.259
The right side of his face wears a Chinese Red Army cap, also a symbol of the
Cultural Revolution. In his left hands he holds traditional Tibetan ritual objects: the
prayer wheel which contains written notes containing prayers or mantras; the akshamala
or Tibetan rosary denoting cyclic time;260 and the Tantric axe wielded by protective
deities and used to subdue the enemies of religion.261 He also holds a flame representing
one of the five Buddhist elements of the universe in the form of a fire stick, which is
associated with procreation in Indian Tantric tradition.262 These cultural and religious
symbols signify the Tibetan essence of the figure. In his right hands the male deity holds
symbols of Chinese culture and the Cultural Revolution: the little Red Book of Chairman
Mao; a circular badge with the portrait of Mao; a Chinese calligraphy brush with red
fibres like fire; and a sign with the Chinese Star and Chinese characters.

257
Ang Sang. Conversations with author, Lhasa. September and October 2010.
258
Ibid.
259
Hevajra Tantra, Part II, Chapter vi, verse 3.
260
261
Ibid., 80.
262
Ibid., 14.
222

In place of the traditional aureole of light which typically surrounds the head of
the deities, there is the iconographic symbol of the “Red Sun of Mao” commonly depicted
in the propaganda poster art of the decade of the Cultural Revolution from the 1960s. The
positioning of this Mao portrait indicates that he is being given the place of honour of the
vajra-holder or head deity. Except for a partial lotus throne in the lower left quarter, the
Tantric couple are surrounded by a circular mantra in Nepalaksara script, which has been
used since ancient times to transcribe scriptures.263 The circle is filled with Chinese
characters. Thus, the languages of ancient Buddhist texts and modern Chinese society are
juxtaposed.
A recurrent motif in Ang’s practice is the feature in the canvas which he rubs with
Tibetan mani stone inscriptions during the preparation of the ground.264 These stones,
which are characteristically Tibetan, are engraved with the widely popular mantra of
Avalokiteśvara265 (Oṃ mani padme hum) and are left in certain places by pilgrims and
travellers after making their invocation to the deity who protects them from danger.266
The result is a rubbing or transfer of the mantra onto Ang’s canvases before he begins the
painting. This can be seen most clearly at the four corners of the canvas outside the
maṇḍala circle. It is another way the artist grounds his work in his Tibetan identity and
cultural heritage.
Like Gade and other Lhasan artists, Ang Sang uses visual language from the
Cultural Revolution which had such a significant and on-going effect on the history of
Tibet, its people and culture. Ang Sang questions the hybrid nature of people and culture
in modern Tibet as a result of the assimilation into China, population displacement and
erosion of language. The result, in real terms, for Tibetan society is a hybrid culture of

263
Ani Palmo, conversation with author, 2010.
264
Ang Sang, interview, Lhasa, 2010.
265
Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit), (Tibetan: Chenresig). The Bodhisattva of Compassion, patron of Tibet. The
Dalai Lama is said to be his manifestation (Mitchell. Buddhism, Introducing the Buddhist Experience, 123).
266
Tucci. Tibet, Land of Snows, 155, 159.
223

Chinese and Tibetan, Buddhist and Communist, with two languages vying with each
other - Chinese being the main language of education, politics and commerce and Tibetan
being the language of traditional culture and religion. Where Tibetans may wish to carry
on their own traditions, in public life they are everywhere faced with Chinese influence.
For Tibetans born during the Cultural Revolution or later, there is no memory of a purely
Tibetan culture prior to the Chinese occupation; that is lost to the annals of history and
they were born into an already hybrid society. For the Chinese population in Tibet, they
are likewise surrounded by examples of traditional Tibetan culture and Tibetan Buddhism.
Thus it may be said that modern culture in Tibet is neither one nor the other, or is both. In
the words of Chinese President Hu, it is a society with “Chinese characteristics and
Tibetan features.”267
The marriage of equals depicted in Ang Sang’s work represents an ideal situation
which may not translate in everyday reality, but one which is strived for. However, unlike
Gyatso’s Minority Question series, Ang Sang’s Red Decade is somehow disconcerting. In
Gyatso’s works the yab-yum figures appear to be in union, yet the title of the works,
Minority Question, suggest something as yet unresolved and un-harmonious. This tension
between the image and the title reflects the rift between the socio-political reality of Tibet
and the ideal. On the other hand, Ang’s Red Decade, which refers to the decade of the
Cultural Revolution, suggests a social harmony that is contrary to our understanding of
that period. As we have seen, the artists in exile are free to question issues regarding the
socio-political situation in Tibet with impunity. Whereas, the artists in Lhasa need to be
more circumspect with regard to the images they produce, as least ostensibly. As a
consequence the artists in Lhasa are more likely to self-censor and produce works that do
not cross the line, or use complex symbolism as a coded visual language.

267
Xinhua (Official State news agency). “President Hu stresses stability in Tibet.” (China Daily. 9 March
2009) http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-03/09/content_7557101.htm.
224

Part II. Goddess – Tārā
While the female principle features prominently in yab-yum imagery as a
counterweight to that of the male, there are also female deities who are important in their
own right in Tibetan Buddhist iconography. In this part I explore the feminine in Tibetan
art and its interpretations in the context of the contemporary art movement focusing on
the popular figure of Tārā (or Dölma in Tibetan).
Iconographically and anthropologically, the female figure symbolises love and
compassion as well as wisdom. She can be a defender and protector, primordial mother
who is creation and whose love knows no bounds, mother earth. The archetypal female is
common to human culture and the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon has a number of important
‘goddesses’, both fierce and peaceful, who are loved and worshipped in their own
right.268 They are derived from a number of Hindu Śaivite goddesses and are subject to
the same iconometric rules as other Buddhist deities.
Most popular of all female deities of the Tibetan Buddhist pantheon is Tārā.
According to Miranda Shaw, the earliest definitive evidence of Tārā is from the seventh
century, in which she appears as an attendant and emissary of Avalokiteśvara, the
boddhisattva of compassion, in both literary and artistic sources in India.269 The greater
emphasis on the cult of Tārā, as Tucci points out, is coetaneous with the second diffusion
of Buddhism in Tibet from the ninth century.270
There are many versions of legends of Tārā’s origin. According to one version,
Avalokiteśvara was looking down from his heaven at the world of suffering and he wept
at his inability to save all beings from their pain. The goddess Tārā was born from his

268
Although the concept of a divine female figure or goddess may be thought universal, the Theravāda
branch of Buddhism never adopted feminine deities (Alice Getty. The gods of northern Buddhism, Their
history, iconography and progressive evolution through the Northern Buddhist countries (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 1914), 105). So we will not find depictions of Tārā in the Theravādan societies such as in
Thailand or Burma (Jeannine Auboyer, et al. Forms and Styles, Asia. Fribourg: Evergreen, 1978).
269
Miranda Shaw. Buddhist Goddesses of India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2007), 314.
270
Tucci. The Religions of Tibet, 22.
225

tears, or from a lotus floating in one of his tears. In some versions of the legend, two
Tārās were born from his tears, a serene white Tārā from his right eye, and a dynamic
Green Tārā from his left.271 Yet another version of the legend tells that the tear from the
eye of Avalokiteśvara fell onto a valley and formed a lake and from the waters of the lake
arose a lotus-flower, which, opening its petals, disclosed the pure goddess Tārā.272 This
last version of the legend brings to mind the iconography of other famous goddesses, such
as Boticelli’s Venus; born of sea foam, mother of the Roman people, goddess of love and
other feminine virtues; a neo-platonic Madonna.273 Indeed, there are elements of
universality with regard to female goddesses, such as the embodiment of creation, and the
virtues of goodness, purity and motherhood.
Alice Getty suggests that the popularity of Tārā may be due to the fact that the
faithful may appeal to her directly without the intercession of the lamas, which is not the
case with the other deities.274 This aspect recalls the most revered female figure of the
Christian religion, Mary the Mother of Jesus, whom the Catholic Church worships as the
glorious intermediary and intercessor. She is the mother of God, gentle, utmost in
tenderness and of limitless loving-kindness.275 Likewise, Tārā is considered the “mother
of all Buddhas and bodhisattvas.”276 Her name is derived from the Sanskrit root ‘tar’ (to
cross). So it is said that Tārā helps believers to cross the Ocean of Existence.277
While other Buddhist deities can have several iconographic manifestations, Tārā
has a seemingly endless number of emanations, which expresses “the boundless facets of

271
Meher McArthur. Reading Buddhist Art, An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs & Symbols (London:
Thames & Hudson, 2004), 47.
272
Getty, The gods of northern Buddhism, 105.
273
H.W. Janson; A History of Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 1962), 345.
274
Getty. The gods of northern Buddhism, 105.
275
“Octobri Mense; Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on the Rosary.” (Libreria Editrice Vaticana. 1891.
www.vatican.va/holy_father/leo_xiii/encyclicals/documents/hf_l-xiii_enc_22091891_octobri-
mense_en.html.)
276
277
The Tibetan translation of Tārā, dӧl-ma, means ‘saviouress’ or ‘deliveress’ (Ibid.,105).
226

her nature” and testifies to her immense popularity.278 The text Twenty-one Praises of
Tārā, in which each verse praises a different aspect of Tārā, became the most popular of
all prayers to Tārā in Tibet.279
Although her most popular iconographic depictions are the peaceful Green and
White Tārās, other fierce Tantric forms are also known. White Tārā’s symbol, the full-
bloom white lotus (padma), which opens by day and closes by night, represents day.
Green Tārā’s motif, the utpala, or blue lotus, with the petals closed, is associated with the
moon and represents night.280 But Tārā may also carry other symbols of her attributes and
powers, such as a jewel, vase, vial, sword, arrow, bow, wheel, staff, skull of blood, noose,
prayer beads (mālā), and book.
The contemporary Tibetan artists engage with the iconography of Tārā in a
number of ways. Whereas traditional iconography usually depicts Tārā in a composite
group with her many emanations surrounding a central Tārā, the contemporary artists
generally depict a single figure of the female goddess. They apply the most characteristic
features of Tārā, but take these in new directions, employing modern techniques and
materials often resulting in a kind of fusion of Tārā which never entirely conforms to
traditional iconography but nevertheless remains, explicitly or implicitly, Tārā.
For the Tradition Transformed exhibition at the Rubin Museum in New York in
2010, American based artist, Losang Gyatso, created a digital photographic work titled
Clear Light Tārā (fig. 50), which depicts White Tārā surrounded by other Buddhist
deities. Gyatso took his inspiration from a White Tārā thangka (fig. 51), which was one
of the first pieces acquired by the founders of the Museum.

278
Miranda Shaw. Buddhist Goddesses of India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2007), 336.
279
Martin Wilson. In Praise of Tārā, Songs to the Saviouress: Source Texts from India and Tibet on
Buddhism's Great Goddess (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1992), 107.
280
Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 321; Getty, The gods of northern
Buddhism,106.
227

Figure 50. Clear Light Tārā, 2009, Losang Gyatso,

digital photograph, 91.4 x 76.2 cm (courtesy of the
artist)

Figure 51. White Tārā thangka, Tibet, 19th century,

pigments on cloth, 74.9 x 54.1 cm (Rubin Museum of Art)
White Tārā (Sitatārā) is one of the most serene forms of the female deity and
represents perfect purity, transcendent knowledge and wisdom. She is the consort of the
bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara and is represented at his right hand, generally standing in a
lyrical swaying pose. However, most usually she is depicted, in both painting and
sculpture, seated in the cross-legged posture, the soles of the feet turned upward. She
wears the garments and ornaments as a bodhisattva, and her hair is abundant and wavy.
Her right hand is in ‘wish-granting’ mudrā. With her left hand, which is in ‘explanation’
mudrā, she holds the stem of a full-blown lotus.281 She has the third eye of fore-
knowledge, and if there are eyes on the palms of her hands and the soles of her feet, she is

281
Meher McArthur. Reading Buddhist Art, An Illustrated Guide to Buddhist Signs & Symbols (London:
Thames & Hudson, 2004), 47.
228

called ‘Tārā of the Seven Eyes’. She is often surrounded by her multiple emanations or
other deities as she is in this thangka.
Although Losang Gyatso’s work retains the essential traditional iconometry and
composition of Tārā and surrounding deities of the original thangka, the emphasis in this
work is on light and the luminous essence, which this Tārā embodies. Gyatso was born in
Tibet but spent his childhood in Britain after his family went into exile. He later spent two
years in India studying Tibetan painting before moving to the United States in 1974
where he studied at the Academy of Art in San Francisco.
With the assistance of modern digital technology Gyatso manipulates the image to
produce a bokeh effect. He does not oppose the traditional iconography but abstracts from
it and extracts light. He produces a luminescent work of iconic memory as if he has
captured Tārā’s aura or essence. We can make out Tārā’s figure seated on a lotus throne
against the sun and moon discs. She is surrounded by depictions of other aspects of
herself and other deities who are also expressed as auras of light.
Losang Gyatso expressed the intentions behind this work in an interview for the
Tibet Art Now exhibition in Amsterdam in 2009. He relates that up until the time of his
own childhood Tibetan icon paintings were created for the practice of Buddhism. But
since then there has been a profusion of Tibetan art, from both inside and outside Tibet, in
tourist centres and factories in India, Nepal and even in the West, that has no other
purpose than to be sold in shops as tourist souvenirs. In the process, so Gyatso says, the
magic and presence of the essence of the deities depicted has been lost.282 For this reason
he experiments with creating deity paintings that try to restore some of that energy and
power of the great paintings of the past. However, his paintings and art works are not for
meditation or for religious practice, but rather “a personal kind of experiment in seeing if,

282
Losang Gyatso, interview by Simonetta Ronconi (Tibet Art Now. Amsterdam: June 2009)
http://www.tibethouse.nl/tan/interview.htm.
229

through painting, it creates an image of a deity and try [sic] and express a little bit of the
space of that particular deity through colour and form.”283 In effect, Gyatso is trying to
renew a Tibetan artistic tradition that has lost its metaphysical power through
overproduction. This is reiterated in the artist’s blog for the Tradition Transformed
exhibition, where he explains his motivation:
My interest is in trying to locate the threads between past and present, and
exploring possible conceptual spaces in the future that can accommodate some of
the core. Once these bearings are recovered and soundings appreciated, I think we
have the freedom to go wherever and change however much we want without
losing our way.284
Losang Gaytso’s second purpose was to produce a more universal Tārā image
which transcends the cultural and ethnic elements of traditional costume and adornments,
the image and idea of the landscape of Tibet, and the environment of the monastery. By
utilising technology to digitally manipulate the thankga image, Gyatso goes beyond the
hand of the original artist to create an image which produces an ‘auratic’ effect not just
for Tibetans who understand the traditional symbol but also for non-Tibetans.285 He says:
I was interested in what a Tibetan thangka looked and felt like to a non-Tibetan
who doesn’t view it through a complex Tibetan socio-cultural prism, and who
brings their own experience of viewing art. This led me to strip away as much
culturally-specific information and form as possible, and to reduce the White Tārā
thangka to as pure a universal manifestation as possible.286
The concept of ‘clear light’ is derived from the Buddhist texts. In Tibetan Tantric
Buddhism ‘Clear Light’ (ӧsel) is the mind’s natural state of clarity.287 It is the very

283
Losang Gyatso, interview by Simonetta Ronconi.
284
Losang Gyatso, “Tradition Transformed - Artists Blogs.” Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists
Respond (Rubin Museum of Art. 13 September 2010. http://traditions.rma2.org/losang_gyatso).
285
Ibid.
286
Losang Gyatso. quoted in Michael Sheehy, “Transforming Tradition: Tibetan Artists on the Dialectic of
Sanctity and Modernity.” In Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond, 19–33 (New York: Art Asia
Pacific, Rubin Museum of Art, 2010), 23.
287
Thubten Yeshe (Lama). Introduction to Tantra. Edited by Jonathan Landaw (Boston: Wisdom
Publications, 2001), 77.
22:

subtlest state of mind achieved during the highest Tantric yoga or during death.288
According to Tantra, the true nature of the mind is essentially pure. However, the clear
light nature of mind is clouded by afflictive emotions and thoughts. But through
meditative practices the mind can be freed to express its true essence.289 In Tantric
Buddhist practice, to contemplate the nature of the meditational deity is to dissolve its
appearance into light, and to absorb it. Thus, one’s mind becomes inseparable from the
mind of the deity. Gyatso has manipulated a traditional thangka image to express the
‘Clear Light’ mind in the external form of an aura or observable light that appears to
emanate from Tārā and the other deities.
Another artist who explores the qualities of light in relation to Tārā is Kesang
Lamdark, an artist who seems to go the furthest in pushing the boundaries of traditional
iconography. A trace of underlying insurgency in his art practice may render his works
iconoclastic to some. However, as we saw in Chapter Two, Lamdark takes seriously his
conviction to ‘neo-Tantric’ art. He explores modern media techniques to synthesise
traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconography with Western materials, techniques which he
has brought to the creation of modern effigies of Tārā in sculptural form.
Lamdark’s standing sculptures of Pink and Blue Tārā (2008) are made from
chicken wire, melted plastic and neon light (figs. 52, 53). They measure about one and a
half metres tall and so are, more or less, life size. The hot pink and electric blue plastic
Tārās do not appear to have any relation to the Tārās of the ancient Tantras. The colours
belong to the modern era, as does the synthetic medium. The plastic is melted over a
chicken wire frame and forms the feminine figure of the Goddess Tārā in a surprisingly
elegant pose considering the crude materials.

288
Thubten Yeshe, Introduction to Tantra, 144.
289
Tenzin Gyatso (Dalai Lama XIV). “The Buddhist Concept of Mind.” In Mind Science, An East-West
Dialogue, edited by Daniel Goleman and Robert A.F. Thurman, translated by Thubten Jinpa (Boston:
Wisdom Publications, 1991, 11-18), 17.

231

Figure 52. Figure 53.
Pink Tārā, Blue Tārā, 2008,
Kesang Lamdark,
neon light, plastic, chicken wire,
ht. 143 cm
While the medium used by Lamdark obscures the features, it appears that
intricacies of design are not as important as the abstract and intuitive impression of the
goddess. Her stance is graceful not fierce, and she holds her hands in the mudrās of White
and Green Tārā, the wish-granting and explanation gestures. Her ornaments are also
discernable; her crown and the lotus flowers on her shoulders (see figs. 54, 55). Her body
has beautiful feminine proportions and she wears a crown and costume with drapery and
adornments on her shoulders. Lamdark’s goddesses achieve a fluid and swaying stance
with arms elegantly extended in a lyrical dancing gesture which recalls the devī (goddess)
counterparts of Vedic sculpture (see fig. 56).

Figure 54. White Tārā, Tibet, 17th

century, gilt bronze, ht. 54.5 cm
(The Berti Aschmann Foundation
of Tibetan Art, Museum Rietberg,
Zurich)
Figure 55. Green Tārā, Tibet, 15th

century, gilt copper, ht. 30 cm
(Mr & Mrs L. Solomon, Paris)
232

Figure 56. Standing Tārā, Nepal,

14th century, gilt copper alloy with colour,
inlaid with semi-precious stones, ht. 59.1 cm
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York)
In his review of the exhibition Impermanence - Contemporary Tibetan Art, art
critic and Hong Kong Gallery owner, John Batten offered his view on the significance of
the colours of Tārā:
A tara [sic] is a female Bodhisattva or Buddha, whose form - identified by its

colour – can represent a Buddhist virtue: for example, a White Tara denotes
compassion and serenity; a Yellow Tara is associated with wealth and prosperity.
A pink-coloured tara is unknown in Tibetan iconography, but this garish version
constructed with chicken wire covered in dripped plastic with inserted pink
fluorescent lighting could be imagined to represent the less virtuous behaviour of
paid sex.290
However, it may be a Western sensibility that Batten is expressing, for in places
like India, for example, hot garish colours are extremely popular and not at all associated
with cheapness or vulgarity. Ultimately, it is the incongruity that appeals to Lamdark. In
the artist’s words:
As an expatriate living abroad, I have developed a taste for many different

cuisine’s. [sic] When I am eating, I like to mix unusual things together: meat with
chocolate, bananas with anchovies. As an artist, I combine unusual materials to
create a taste for something different. Ultimately, my life and my work are about

290
John Batten. “Impermanence - Contemporary Tibetan Art,” Rossi & Rossi, Wong Chuk Hang (AICAHK
International Association of Art Critics Hong Kong, 18th August 2014).
http://www.aicahk.org/eng/reviews.asp?id=295.
233

bringing together the unfamiliar. From Tibet to India to Switzerland to America;

from hair to plexi to butter to nail polish, my unique background gives me a
distinctive appetite.291
Lamdark has created a number of sculptures using hot pink, including a 10,000-
kilogram boulder, taken by truck from his father’s hometown in Tibet to Shanghai, which
he covered in pink plastic. In that work the boulder represented the Himalayas, the plastic
represented the West and pink the colour of the artist.292
At first glance one may question whether Lamdark’s sculptures are actually
mocking parodies of traditional Tibetan religious artworks with their use of mundane
materials such as plastic and chicken wire and their garish colours. However, he says it is
the common things that make works of art precious. Essentially, Lamdark sees the
medium of plastic as no different from stone or metal. Religious artworks are only made
precious by the worshipper. The same can be said for Lamdark’s works; the medium used
is not important. “Otherwise” he says “its just a hunk of rock, metal or plastic.”293 The
idea behind this is a concept that is central to Tibetan Buddhism, the idea of the false
appearance of things, that is, emptiness or śūnyatā. It is the mind, or convention, which
imputes existence or meaning to an object, which is not inherent in the object itself.
In his catalogue essay for the Tradition Transformed exhibition, H.G. Masters
suggests that while Lamdark’s Tārā sculptures appear as “something kitschy” like
illuminated flamingo lawn decorations,294 his work retains a respect for his heritage
insofar as it can be seen to be reflecting on the transformation of sacred religious icons

291
Kesang Lamdark, artist’s statement, www.lamdark.com/popup_text/statement1.html.
292
Kesang Lamdark, “Outdoor special project,” Pink Himalayan Boulder, 2008.
www.lamdark.com/shock.html.
293
Kesang Lamdark. “The World According to Kesang; Kesang Lamdark in conversation with Elaine W.
Ng.” In Plastic Karma, 6–9 (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2008), 9.
294
H.G. Masters. “Enlightenment Might Not Be Possible in This Lifetime: Strive for Your Own Liberation
with Laughter and Diligence.” In Tradition Transformed: Tibetan Artists Respond (New York: Art Asia
Pacific, Rubin Museum of Art, 2010, 59–79), 71.
234

into cheap plastic sculptures.295 His Tārās parody the kitsch religious souvenirs obtainable,
for example, outside the Vatican and other places of Christian pilgrimage, of Jesus or the
Madonna whose red hearts pulse with battery operated lights. Even more so in the East,
gaudy effigies of gods and goddesses with coloured lights can be found everywhere,
adorning dashboards of cars and buses and household altars.
Lamdark pushes the boundaries of traditional iconography and iconometry to
investigate what is essential and what is superfluous distraction. His Tārās, with their
internal light sources, transform into modern versions of a Tantric meditational deity.
These intuitive forms are without precise iconography and freed from traditional religious
constraints, and in colours more associated with Yves Klein or pop culture than the
traditional Green and White goddesses.
Tenzin Rigdol is another Tibetan artist in exile who has explored the
modernisation of Tārā. In Updating Green Tārā (fig. 57) Rigdol depicts Tārā in the form
of people’s champion and political figurehead, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National
League for Democracy in Burma, and winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991.
Figure 57. Updating Green Tārā, 2010,

Tenzing Rigdol, mixed media, 60 x 45 cm
(Rubin Museum of Art)

295
H.G. Masters. “Enlightenment Might Not Be Possible in This Lifetime,” 71–73.

235

Figure 58. Green Tārā, Tibet,

13th century, thangka, ink and
colour on canvas, 52.4 x 43.2 cm
(Cleveland Museum of Art)
In traditional iconography, Green Tārā (Śyāmatārā) (fig. 58) symbolises Divine
Energy. She is represented seated on a lotus throne, the right leg pendant, with the foot
supported by a small lotus, the stem of which is attached to the lotus-throne. It is said that
her right leg is extended forward symbolising her readiness to leap into action to save
others. She wears the ornaments of a bodhisattva, and usually the five-leaved crown. Her
right hand is in ‘wish-granting’ mudrā and her left is in ‘explanation’ mudrā and holds the
blue lotus. She may be represented alone or surrounded by numerous of her
emanations.296
Rigdol’s collage process of using scriptures and refracted elements of design is
immediately recognisable, and his Green Tārā is a fusion of classical iconography and
modern art technique and style. Suu Kyi’s face, familiar from global newspaper and
television coverage, is tinged green in the iconographic tradition of Green Tārā.
She is seated on her lotus throne supported by modified sun and moon discs that
contain Tibetan scriptures and are bordered by the traditional patterns of the sacred
flames and serve as an aureole around her head as if she were a bodhisattva. She is also
draped in the girdles, ribbons and bracelets of a bodhisattva and emulates Tārā’s bodily
posture with one hand in explanation mudrā and the other in wish-granting mudrā. She is

296
236

in half-lotus position with right leg extended, ready to leap to the aid of those who need
her. Tārā is surrounded by offering bowls symbolising her devotion and commitment to
work for the welfare of beings “until Saṃsāra has been emptied.”297 Thus Rigdol’s Tārā
serves as a metaphor for the ideal leader in today’s geo-political climate.
Aung San Suu Kyi does not just represent a beacon of hope to the Buddhist people
of Burma (Myanmar), but around the world she is seen as courageous woman and leader,
committed to non-violence and the betterment of her people. Ang Chin Geok describes
her thus: “She seemed almost, like Athena, to have leapt fully formed and armed into the
forefront of the world’s media.”298 In reality, Suu Kyi did not suddenly appear fully
formed; however her parentage did set her apart from the beginning, like her heavenly
counterparts whose births are marked by something special or miraculous. The role of
Suu Kyi’s father as the leader of the Burmese Liberation movement lends her a quasi-
royal and semi-divine status in Burma.
While Rigdol’s work does not really attempt to deify the very human Aung San
Suu Kyi, she has become legendary, and her apparent wisdom, compassion and courage
make her an obvious choice to embody the attributes of Green Tārā in a modern world. It
is implicit that the qualities and attributes of Tārā exist in the world in a tangible way.
Like the Buddhist Tārā deity, Suu Kyi has acquired her own cult status although she
demurs to a personality cult.299 Apart from her ordinary existence as a human being, she
has come to symbolise much more, not only in her own country, but around the world.300
The reality of her story is infused with legend. While campaigning in the days
before her house arrest she and her supporters were stopped by armed soldiers. Suu Kyi

3:8Tāranātha Jo-Nan. The Origins of the Tārā Tantra, (c.1600). Edited by David Templeman (Dharamsala:
The Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1981), 12.

3:9 Ang, Chin Geok. Aung San Suu Kyi, towards a new freedom (Sydney: Prentice Hall, 1998), xi.
299
Erlanger, Steven. “Rangoon Journal; A Daughter of Burma, but can she be a symbol?” (New York Times,
11 January 1989).
300
Ang, Aung San Suu Kyi, towards a new freedom, 56.
237

walked alone straight into the line of fire before the soldiers were ordered to stand
down.301 It was this incident that, more than any other, created the mystique of Aung San
Sui Kyi302 and helped to consolidate Suu Kyi’s reputation among the Burmese people,
many of whom began to consider her a female bodhisattva.303 During her years of house
arrest Burmese people carried her effigy on small badges and postcards. Her house
became the object of pilgrimage, thousands gathering every week outside her home for
her ‘gate-side’ speeches. Like Tārā, Suu Kyi has said that if her people ever needed her,
she would not fail them.304
While Rigdol’s Tibetan heritage is important to his identity, like Gonkar Gyatso,
his vision has been expanded by his experiences in exile and in the West, so his concerns
are broader than issues about Tibet. In transposing Aung San Suu Kyi’s image to Green
Tārā, Rigdol has produced a universal Tārā for the modern age whose qualities include
both spiritual and political leadership, the readiness and willingness to come to the aid of
those in need and compassion for all.
Clearly, despite their years living in the West, Tārā is still meaningful to the
Tibetan diaspora artists. However, they have interpreted her in new ways that reflect their
engagement with Western sensibilities, turning her into a more universal heroine for a
modern age, or using modern art techniques and materials to transform her into work of
contemporary art beyond her religious significance and Tibetan identity. A number of
artists working in Lhasa have also re-interpreted the goddess Tārā.

301
Ang, Aung San Suu Kyi, towards a new freedom, 63.
302
Peter Popham. The Lady and the Peacock: the life of Aung San Suu Kyi (London: Rider, 2011), 127.
303
Ibid.,128. A joke current in Rangoon in those days told that General Ne Win’s favourite daughter, Sanda,
had challenged Suu Kyi to a duel. Suu declined saying ‘Lets just walk down the street together unarmed
and see which of us gets to the other end alive’ (Justin Wintle. Perfect Hostage: A Life of Aung San Suu Kyi,
Burma’s Prisoner of Conscience (London: Hutchinson, 2007), 319).
304
Ang, Aung San Suu Kyi, towards a new freedom, 90, 61.
238

Tārā in Lhasa

Dedron is one of the few female contemporary artists working in Lhasa. Her work,
Green Tārā, is part of a series called My Sisters (2009) in which the artist celebrates a
global sisterhood, portraying women from Queen Elizabeth II to Marilyn Monroe,
American athlete Marion Jones and the Mona Lisa, as well as female characters from
Tibetan folklore. Dedron’s works convey the character of folklore and folk art and
display a quintessentially feminine character; her figures are thoughtful, sympathetic and
nurturing. These typically female characteristics are not necessarily unknown in the
works by male artists nor are they requisite in works by female artists, however, Dedron’s
art always possesses a certain delicacy and gentleness which feels female.
Green Tārā (fig. 59) is a work unlike traditional portrayals of this Buddhist deity
in both composition and concept. Dedron’s Tārā is shown in an intimate portrait. The
focus in each work of this series is the face, and within the composition are collected the
attributes of each character. Dedron employs portrait techniques to achieve an expression
of personality, not by using naturalism, but by her own naïve folk-art method of
collecting together the objects and
symbols which represent clues to the
figure’s character and imbue the works
with depths of meaning.
Figure 59. Green Tārā, 2009, Dedron,

mineral pigments on Tibetan paper
54 x 38 cm
239

Dedron does not employ traditional composition and deity posture but relies
principally on colour to denote the altruistic warrior nature of Green Tārā. However,
Dedron’s Tārā also has many of the attributes normally associated with White Tārā, such
as the trinayāna (three eyes), symbolising knowledge and wisdom and the ability to see
beyond the mundane world.305 She has an eye on the palm of her hand, which is also
more typical of White Tārā who has eyes on her hands and feet, indicating her
omniscience. Dedron’s Tārā is also portrayed as a protectress in the form of a mother, as
she has three infant creatures clinging around her. Her right breast is fully visible,
emphasising her motherly, nurturing aspect.
While Dedron’s Tārā differs stylistically to many of the popular depictions of the
goddess in Tibetan art, she displays similarities to the fifteenth century White Tārā of the
Red Temple of Tsaparang in Guge, Western Tibet (fig. 60). We see correlation, for
example, in her five-leafed crown, the blue lotuses above each ear, earrings and bracelet
(ornaments of the bodhisattva), the trinayāna, and the bulbous shape of her breast.
Figure 60. White Tārā panel, Red Temple,

Tsaparang, Guge, Western Tibet,
15th century, wall painting

305
Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 312.
23:

Dedron has decorated the background with various symbols that have Buddhist
significance. Like other deities, Tārā is often seated on a lotus throne with sun and moon
discs behind her, whereas Dedron has fashioned a pyramid shaped throne at the top of
which is the symbol of the sun and moon. In the Buddhist tradition, the sun and the moon
symbolises the twin unity of absolute and relative truth, a concept central to Buddhism.306
With regard to Tārā iconography, the sun and moon may also indicate the lotus flower of
White Tārā, representing day, and the blue lotus of Green Tārā, denoting night.
Beneath the sun and moon symbols is the svastika, an ancient Indic symbol which
is one of the sixty-five marks of Buddhahood found in the imprint of the Buddha’s foot
and symbolises the esoteric doctrine of Buddhism.307 On top of the throne is a makara, a
device often seen in Dedron’s work, which is a kind of mythological sea-monster,
believed to dwell at the base of the earth within the cosmic ocean.308 It represents a
vāhana, or sacred vehicle, upon which Tārā’s throne is sometimes carried. The child on
the left of the canvas holds a fish, the matsya, one of the eight auspicious symbols of
Buddhism, representing fertility and abundance as well as salvation from the ocean of life
and pain.309
Other stylistic devices emphasise the Tibetanness of Dedron’s work; the clouds
that float past Tārā’s head are typical of Tibetan decorative style. Dedron has also used
hand-made Tibetan paper which is scorched or burnt at the edges to render the appearance
of antiquity that is reminiscent of ancient Tibetan manuscripts and illuminations. Thus
Dedron pays homage to the time-honoured Tibetan traditions.310 This stylistic feature is
used in each work of the My Sisters series and also represents the primal nature of the

306
307
Ibid. 294; and Getty. The gods of northern Buddhism, 176.
308
Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 171–172.
309
Ibid. 180; Robert Beer. The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs (Boston: Shambhala, 1999),
176.
310
Dedron, conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
241

relationship between women: the relationship that women have to their ancestors as well
as to each other, no matter their ethnic origins or status in life, whether it be Queen,
Goddess, Princess, movie star or figure from folklore or legend. Even in legend, a story of
a woman always holds some truth about the female role in society and the nature of
woman. In this series, Dedron wanted to show all sides of femininity.311 She shows Tārā
as goddess, protectress, warrior and mother, one who is wise, compassionate and
omniscient. While Tārā is Tibetan and Buddhist, the virtuous qualities are universal.
Dedron, who grew up in the Tibetan countryside before moving to Lhasa, has
spoken of her deep love of Tibetan people and her unique culture as well as her affinity
with nature312 which is evident in her earthy sensitivity to colour and composition, filling
her works with cultural motifs and little creatures of myth and legend. Her works are
imbued with a confidence in and love for her culture, as well as a consciousness of being
part of a wider human family. Dedron does not feel bound by iconographical traditions
but rather feels an affinity with the Buddhist deities as part of her ancestry, which she
weaves into a personal and cultural narrative.
For those who express their affinity with the Tārā deity, such as the artists
discussed above, the appeal lies principally in her femininity. To embrace Tārā is to
embrace the feminine energy of wisdom, as well as her compassionate mother and
saviour aspects. In the works so far discussed, Tārā is portrayed in her bodhisattva aspect.
However, there is evidence to consider Tārā a Buddha and not merely a bodhisattva as is
usually assumed. Miranda Shaw, for example, points out that in a number of sources from
the seventh to eight centuries Tārā is attributed with every perfection of character, and all

311
Dedron. conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
312
Dedron. Nearest to the Sun (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2009), 6-7.
242

enlightened qualities and powers, and is explicitly referred to as a Buddha.313 Physically,
Tārā is said to display the thirty-two major and sixty minor marks of a Buddha.314 As
Shaw says, “the early writings exalt her as the embodiment of the very principle of
Buddhahood. There are assertions that Tārā encompasses the body, speech and mind of
all Buddhas and is the essence of all past, present and future Buddhas. Thus, the belief
that she is liberator, protector and saviour without equal.”315
In The Origins of the Tārā Tantra, Tibetan historian, Tāranātha, recorded in the
first years of the seventeenth century that Tārā, first known as the Princess “Moon
Wisdom,” was a devout follower of the Buddha’s teaching and through her devotions
achieved a level of awakening. Tāranātha reports that Tārā was told by monks that
because of her virtuous actions she had come into being in a female form, and that her
continued dedication would result in a change of form to that of a man.316 However, we
are told that Tārā said: “In this life there is no such distinction as ‘male’ and ‘female’,
neither of ‘self-identity’, a ‘person’ nor any perception (of such), and therefore
attachment to ideas of ‘male’ and ‘female’ is quite worthless.” Tārā therefore vowed to
remain in female form and work for the welfare of sentient beings until the end (“until
Saṃsāra has been emptied”). We are then told that Tārā (Moon Wisdom) meditated for
ten million and one hundred thousand years and became known as the Saviouress so her
name was changed ever after to Tārā.317
The Lhasan artist, Jhamsang, not only challenges the notions of male- and female-
ness in the Buddhist deities, but also explores the boundaries of iconoclasm by

313
Miranda Shaw. Buddhist Goddesses of India (New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal, 2007), 315; see also
Martin Wilson. In Praise of Tārā, Songs to the Saviouress: Source Texts from India and Tibet on
Buddhism's Great Goddess (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1992), 32, 274.
314
Shaw, Buddhist Goddesses of India; Martin Wilson, In Praise of Tārā, 248.
315
Shaw, Buddhist Goddesses of India, 316.
316
Tāranātha. The Origins of the Tārā Tantra (c.1600). Edited by David Templeman (Dharamsala: The
Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, 1981), 11.
317
Ibid.,12.
243

challenging accepted iconographic norms. In his Buddha series (2010), Jhamsang portays
a number of Buddhist deities, both male and female, including the historical Buddha, as
having overtly female shape and characteristics. Jhamsang chose female emanations for
the deities partly because of his aesthetic inclination to give expression through the
female form for its visual appeal. In addition, it is Jhamsang’s view that the female
emanations of the deity better convey the affinity with nature, which is often seen as
feminine, and the natural rhythms of life. At the same time, the mechanical and robotic
characteristics of his figures signify the masculine worldview which the artist sees as the
virile and sometimes destructive effect of ‘progress’ and technology. The robotic
appearance of the deities is a statement about the influence of the modern technology
upon the artist’s local culture and way of life.318
Jhamsang’s Tārā from the 2010 Buddha series (fig. 61) is seated in the crossed
legged posture on a modern version of a lotus throne which is minimally decorated with a
vaguely Tibetan geometric border pattern. Her shiny metallic skin is like armour through
which nothing can pierce. She is the Buddhist comic book heroine in the manner of
Wonder Woman.
Figure 61. Tārā (New Buddha series),

2009, Jhamsang, Mixed media,
100 x 100 cm

318
Jhamsang and Nyandak, email correspondence with author, 2013
244

Although this is a Tārā, she has been given the topknot (uṣṇīṣa) and the long
earlobes normally associated with the male historical Buddha. Her right hand is in the
earth-witnessing mudrā (bhūmisparśa-mudrā), which is mainly associated with images of
the Buddha.319 Near to her right hand is a mechanical snake-like creature which appears
to represent Māra, the evil one, who seeks to prevent people from achieving
enlightenment. Māra is indicated here because it was this very earth-witnessing hand
gesture that the historical Buddha is said to have used when Māra challenged his right to
sit beneath the legendary Boddhi tree, at the navel of the earth, where all future Buddhas
sit. Having no other witnesses, the Buddha touched the earth and called upon it to witness
his accumulated merit and fitness to realise nirvāṇa.320 By placing his Tārā in earth-
witnessing posture, Jhamsang endows the female deity with the characteristics of the
male Buddha, including the right to sit in the place of the Buddhas and the capacity for
achieving full enlightenment.
From a feminist-Buddhist point of view, Jhamsang has given Tārā the attributes of
a Buddha which are usually associated with male figures. Thus she could be said to
express, in Western psychology terms, the anima and animus of Buddha and Tārā; the
male element in the female and the female element in the male.
In her left hand Tārā holds a gun to her head, and part of her metallic skull is
missing as if blown away by the weapon. According to the artist, the gun represents
masculine power which manifests in modern technology and the development of modern

319
320
T. W. Rhys Davids (trans.) Buddhist Birth Stories; or Jātaka Tales. The Oldest Collection of Folk-lore
Extant: Being the Jātakatthavannana for the first time edited in the Original Pali by V. Fausboll (London:
Trubner & Co. Ludgate Hill, 2000 (1880), 101; Henry Clarke Warren (trans.). Buddhism: Pali Text with
English Translation (Introduction to the Jātaka), (Delhi: Bharatiya Kala Prakashan, 2008 (1896), 125;
David L. Snellgrove. The Image of the Buddha (Paris and Tokyo: Kodansha International/Unesco, 1978),
67. According to the “The Nidāna Kathā” (the Introduction to the Jātakas – the story of the lives of the
Buddha c.300BCE–500CE) where the story of the Buddha’s enlightenment is related, this was the final
event in the Buddha’s epic battle with Māra. Although the earth-witnessing gesture did not take place at the
very moment of the Buddha’s enlightenment, it has come to pictorially symbolise the Buddha’s awakening
and his victory over Māra. (For translations of the Nidāna Kathā see Rhys Davids 2000, Warren 2008.)
245

devastating weaponry by which societies sow the seeds of self-destruction.321 The image
may also be read as Tārā having the power to destroy the ‘ego’ which is viewed as an
impediment to enlightenment. As such she can be ‘Tārā Destroyer of All Attachment’
(Raga-nisudana-tārā), ‘Destroyer of All Enemies’ from the “21 Homages to Tārā”
referred to above. According to the Tārā Tantra she sits on a lotus throne and sun disc. In
her right hand she holds a trident at her heart piercing an enemy’s body and holds her left
forefinger in a threatening gesture. Her essence is mind, her function is mind increasing,
and she is the abode of all courage. She destroys the enemies of enlightenment,
specifically the enemies that are of the mind: attachment to the internal as ‘I’ and
attachment to external things as ‘mine’.322 Thus in Jhamsang’s work, it is perhaps not the
head that has been destroyed by the gun but the ego, the self, the source of all attachment,
suffering and prevention of attaining enlightenment. This Tārā represents the power to
end suffering once and for all, according to the most fundamental of Buddhist precepts.
Viewed in this light there can be no greater super-heroine.
While Jhamsang has produced a shocking image of Tārā pointing a gun at her
partially destroyed head, it is not really any more shocking than an image of Tārā holding
traditional weapons such as a sword or objects such as a human skull filled with blood.
While we have become inured to these symbols because they are seen as holding a
traditional place in Tibetan visual culture, their impact is diminished and the violence is
hardly felt. The violence is not against physical demons but the demons within the mind
or within society, that are given mythical and anthropomorphic form in order to reify
them and make them easier to access in allegory than in abstract concepts. These enemies
of enlightenment are nonetheless so tenacious and relentless that violent means of
destruction are necessitated, hence the ferocious imagery of the traditional iconography.

321
Jhamsang and Nyandak, email correspondence with author, 2013.
322
Wilson, In Praise of Tārā, 152-153.
246

This work was first shown as part of his New Buddha series in the ‘Scorching Sun
of Tibet’ exhibition in 2010 in Beijing, the first major exhibition in China of
contemporary Tibetan art. In his catalogue essay, the curator Li Xianting described
Jhamsang’s works as ‘straightforward, representing Buddha with robot’.323 This is clearly
an oversimplification which does not delve into the intricacies of Tibetan iconography or
Buddhist philosophy. What Jhamsang has done is to bring the Buddhist concepts back to
their original significance by at once shocking the viewer with the violence necessary to
dispel one’s own demons and to illustrate that they are indeed inner demons rather than
creatures of myth and legend. In this sense, Jhamsang’s work upholds the meditational
value of traditional Tibetan Tantric painting. Jhamsang’s comic book Tārā is a
meditational deity in modern visual language.
The earliest of the works in this style, Tara (2008) appeared in the catalogue for
the Tradition Transformed exhibition at the Rubin Museum in 2010 (fig. 62). Tārā is
depicted as super-hero, a futuristic bionic woman. She is not mortal and has super-human
powers.
Figure 62. Tara, 2008,

Jhamsang, acrylic on canvas,
114.3 x 101.6 cm
(Collection of Shelley and
Donald Rubin)

323
Li, Xianting. “Scorching Sun of Tibet.” In Scorching Sun of Tibet, exhibition catalogue, 5–9 (Beijing:
Songzhuang Art Promotion Association, Gedun Choephel Gallery, 2010), 7.
247

In this work, a shiny metallic and robotic woman is portrayed in the familiar pose
of Green Tārā, with her hands in wish-granting and explanation mudrā and with one leg
partly extended, ready to leap into action. She is not seated on a lotus throne but on a
minimalist platform of modern design without her usual adornments. The figure has been
pared back to the essential elements by which we recognize Green Tārā. While the Tārā
figure looks to the future, the background connects it to the past, for the figure is depicted
within the axes of the traditional iconometric grid which dictates the proportions and
composition of the deity. Jhamsang, whose training in traditional thangka painting is
evident in his rendering of iconometrically correct figures, is perhaps suggesting that the
old rules are not merely a relic of the past but a scaffold on which the future can be built;
a connection between the past, present and future.
Jhamsang’s divine bionic heroines recall the comic book superheroes, secular
archetypes who, in fact, share many of the attributes of divine beings. In modern western
culture, fictional heroes come to replace the religious icons. If we look to the first
feminine super-hero of the modern era, Wonder Woman, whose stories were first
published during the Second World War, we find a feminine archetype existing in a
masculine dominated world, but who has the physical and mental attributes to save beings
from evil and suffering. Her purpose then, is hardly distinguishable from Tārā’s, even if
her religious conviction differs. Indeed, unlike other modern super-heroes, Wonder
Woman has her own religious association above any ethical or moral imperatives that
normally motivate superheroes; she belongs to the cult of Aphrodite, the Greek Goddess
of love and beauty and is described thus:
Beautiful as Aphrodite, wise as Athena, strong as Hercules and swift as Mercury,
Wonder Woman wings her winning way from Paradise Isle, secret home of the
248

Amazons … fighting ever fearlessly to conquer evil and create permanent peace
and happiness in the world.324
Thus Wonder Woman not only has attributes of deities, she comes from a semi-
divine or sacred place. Among her attributes or powers are her golden tiara and girdle, her
magical metal bracelets (the bands of Aphrodite) which protect her in the world and can
deflect bullets.325 She has a magical and unbreakable golden lasso with which she
captures evil-doers and compels them to submit.326 She can communicate telepathically
and has her own magical vehicle to carry her, an invisible plane (a concept not unlike the
vāhanas, or sacred vehicles, of the Buddhist deities). Bryan Dietrich compares Wonder
Woman to the Indian goddess and female principle Śakti, as well as a Tantric Goddess
and the Christian Madonna.327 Deitrich also notes the boundaries that Wonder Woman
crosses: “sea to land, female to male, virgin to mother, woman to warrior.”328
Jhamsang’s Tārā also crosses boundaries, indeed the archetypal female defender
and protector crosses cultural and temporal boundaries. By drawing on influences from
Tibetan artistic and religious heritage as well as modern foreign influences of popular
secular culture and technology Jhamsang creates a modern female deity which combines
Buddhist iconography with pop art to visualise a Tārā of the future.
***
The goddess Tārā is important in the oeuvre of contemporary Tibetan art because it
explores the possibilities of the feminine in philosophy, mythology and relevance to
modern life. The artists have explored the idea of the goddess in a multicultural world
working for human rights and democracy, as well as the idea of a universal sisterhood,

324
William Moulton Marston. The Wonder Woman Chronicles. Vol. 3 (1943) (New York: DC Comics,
2012), 6.
325
Ibid., 78–79.
326
Ibid., 73.
327
Bryan D. Dietrich. “Queen of Pentacles: Archetyping Wonder Woman.” Extrapolation (University of
Texas) 47, no. 2 (Summer 2006): 207-236, 219.
328
Ibid., 220.
249

encompassing all periods in history as well as ethnicity and culture. They have also
experimented with techniques and materials to investigate what a modern goddess would
look like and be like.
In their interpretation of Tārā, the artists of the diaspora demonstrate their
engagement with world politics, as demonstrated by Rigdol’s use of the image of Aung
San Suu Kyi. In Lhasa, while Dedron draws from traditional Tibetan folk art in her
interpretation of Tārā, other works in the same series, such as Mona Lisa and Marilyn
Monroe, demonstrate the outside influences on her life in Tibet. We conclude that the
need for a goddess or respected female figure is not diminished in the modern world in
both Tibet and in the West.

24:

Chapter 4. Sacred Geography – Land and Landscape
In this chapter I examine the deconstruction and reconstructions by the
contemporary artists of the ‘sacred geography’ in the visual culture of Tibet. Along with
language, land is a fundamental cultural identifier.329 The Tibetan contemporary artists
reinterpret existing artistic traditions of land, landscape and folklore to articulate a
contemporary social commentary. While the artists in Lhasa focus on the changing
landscape of Tibet and ways in which their society and culture has been affected, the
diaspora artists portray a land from which they have been displaced yet with which they
continue to have a profound connection.
Landscape is not a separate genre in the traditional religious visual culture of
Tibet. However, elements of nature (such as earth, air, water and fire), as well sacred
places, both mythical and based in reality, have an important place in sacred Tibetan art.
We have seen, for example, the maṇḍala as representative of Tibetan cosmology,
corresponding to the geography of the universe.
In traditional Tibetan art, landscape is used in a way more similar to Chinese
landscape or Indian narrative art than the Western counterpart.330 Since the earliest
periods of Chinese art we find panoramic landscape composition from a bird’s eye view.
In both the handscroll and mural mediums, works are divided into successive scenes
which lead the viewer on a narrative journey through the landscape, moving across
multiple vantage points where “temporal sequence [is] joined to spatial extension in ways
that cannot be matched in Western easel painting.”331 In addition to the continuous
pictorial narrative whereby scenes are delineated into separate spatial cells by elements

329
See for example: Francesca Merlan. Caging the Rainbow, Places, Politics and Aborigines in a North
Australian Town (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998), 124-125.
330
Robert E. Fisher Art of Tibet (London: Thames & Hudson, 1997), 127, 210.
331
Yang Xin et al. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting (New Haven & London: Yale University
Press, 1997), 10.
251

such as rocks, mountains or trees, landscape elements also provide material for visual
metaphors that are woven into the composition.332 Within the diverse roots of the Chinese
landscape tradition, religious and philosophical systems such as Buddhism played a
significant role in landscape development, so for example, mountains that appear in early
paintings often represent the sacred mountains of Buddhist legends.333
In Tibetan painting tradition, all these tropes are regularly employed: the image of
the sacred mountain; bird’s eye view panoramas; continuous pictorial narrative; multiple
viewing points; discrete scenes and linked spaces defined by geographical and other
features, temporal and spatial sequences. Landscape is used in Tibetan art in ways that
relate both to their Buddhist belief system as well as pre-Buddhist indigenous beliefs and
folklore, depicting sacred mountains and the ‘purelands’ or paradises of Buddhist deities.
Lhasa - Folklore
Figure 63. The Demoness, 2006, Gade, ‘pecha’ (sacred manuscript) format,
11 panels, 75 x 191 cm overall (Plum Blossoms Gallery, Hong Kong)
Gade’s 2006 work entitled The Demoness (fig. 63), which was shown as part of his
first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, Mushroom Cloud, draws from different mythological

332
Yang et al. Three Thousand Years of Chinese Painting, 49.
333
Ibid., 8.
252

and artistic traditions and conflates them as a compositional device.
Constructed from panels of handmade Tibetan manuscript paper, Gade used “forms
and elements of traditional Tibetan painting, including the unique depiction of time and
space in classical Tibetan painting.”334 This compositional style has distant echoes in both
Indian and Chinese narrative art. In traditional Tibetan painting it is most often seen in
depictions of ‘Jātaka tales’ or scenes from life stories of the Buddha or other Buddhist
figures. These scenes, legendary or historical, are usually represented pictorially around
the canvas and separated from each other by geographical or architectural devices, such
as mountain, palaces or garden walls.
Depictions of the sacred geography of Tibet often occur in the context of creation
stories which are frequently conflated with Buddhist histories. In revisions of the story of
the first propagation of Buddhism in Tibet, the land has been portrayed in the form of a
supine demoness (srin mo). In the traditional Buddhist account, this female srin-mo is
particularly resistant to the new religion. The whole land of Tibet is seen as the
embodiment of the vast recumbent body of this demoness. Before Buddhism could be
established in the country, the srin mo - her body and therefore the land – needed to be
subdued.335 It is as if the land itself is converted to Buddhism, not merely the inhabitants.
According to a twelfth century account,336 the srin-mo is perceived by Princess
Wencheng, the Chinese wife of the Tibetan King, as she consults her geomantical charts
to solve the impediments to transporting a Buddha statue to Lhasa.337 Princess Wencheng
(or Kong jo, as she is called in Tibet) saw that Tibet was like a supine srin-mo: the Lhasa

334
Gade. “Artist Statement.” In Mushroom Cloud (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms Ltd, 2008), 63.
335
R. A. Stein. Tibetan Civilisation. Trans. J. E. Stapleton Driver (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), 38–39.
336
Michael Aris identifies the Mani bka’ ‘bum, a twelfth century terma (revealed text) account of King
Songtsen Gampo (613–649), as the first appearance of the demoness. It therefore postdates the entry of
Buddhism into Tibet by several centuries. Michael Aris. Bhutan, the Early History of a Himalayan
Kingdom (Warminster: Aris & Phillips Ltd., 1979), 8; see also R. A. Stein. Op. Cit., 38.
337
Janet Gyatso. “Down with the Demoness: Reflections on a Feminine Ground in Tibet.” In Feminine
Ground, Essays on Women in Tibet, edited by Janice D. Willis (Ithaca, New York: Snow Lion Publications,
1989, 33–51), 37.
253

valley (the Plain of Milk) was the palace of the king of the klu spirits,338 and the lake in
the Plain of Milk was the heart-blood of the demoness. The three mountains surrounding
the valley were her two breasts and the vein of her life-force.339 (fig. 64)
Figure 64. The Demoness of Tibet, Tibet, c. early 20th century,

ground mineral pigment on cotton (Rubin Museum of Art)
Certain sites inhabited by the indigenous Tibetan spirits were seen as ‘faults’ in
the landscape and needed to be transformed to counteract the inauspicious configurations
in the Tibetan land and to enable the building of the Jokhang temple.340 The demoness
was finally subdued by the construction of Buddhist temples at key points across the
country. The Jokhang Temple was poised on the srin-mo’s heart. The buildings on her
shoulders and hips subdued the four main sectors; the temples on her knees and elbows
controlled the four inner borders, and those on her hands and feet, the four outer borders.
Thus an elaborate scheme of thirteen Buddhist temples was articulated that followed the
design of a maṇḍala (fig. 65).341

338
Klu – water snake spirits equivalent to nāgas of Indian mythology (Samten G. Karmay. The Arrow and
the Spindle, Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point,
1998), 253.
339
Michael Aris. Bhutan, the Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom (Warminster: Aris & Phillips Ltd.,
1979, 12.
340
J. Gyatso, “Down with the Demoness,” 38; Aris, Bhutan, the Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom, 14.
341
J. Gyatso, “Down with the Demoness,” 38; Aris, Bhutan, the Early History of a Himalayan Kingdom, 15.
254

Figure 65. The maṇḍala

scheme of temples that
subdue the Demoness
(Michael Aris, 1979, 16)
The demoness legend is essentially the story of the conquest by Buddhism over
the pre-Buddhist animist beliefs (that Stein calls the ‘nameless religion’342) and the
intrinsic features of the two belief systems remain strongly intertwined in folklore and the
Tibetan world-view; for example, the animist srin beings are sometimes placed in the
retinues of the wrathful Buddhist deities.343 Comparisons may be made with various
conceptions of creation myths and earth goddesses, such as the Dreamtime ancestors of
indigenous Australians who do not merely belong to a past time but are extant, albeit on
another plane. They are responsible for the geography of the cosmos, the earth and the
heavens. The Dreaming beings as well as the places into which their bodies transform344
are the most prevalent theme of their art as they connect humans with the land.
In Gade’s work, the land is formed by other histories, figures and events. In place of

342
R.A. Stein.Tibetan Civilisation (Trans. J. E. Stapleton Driver. London: Faber and Faber, 1972), 191.
343
J. Gyatso, “Down with the Demoness,” 35.
344
Francesca Merlan. Caging the Rainbow; Places, Politics ad Aborigines in a North Australian Town
(Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press 1998), 213.
255

the usual iconography associated with the Demoness legend, Gade depicts passages from
the history and culture of Tibet, both ancient and modern. The landscape is filled with
mountain peaks, clouds, rivers and all manner of strange and mythological flora and
fauna. At the heart of the Demoness, where the Johkang temple is usually situated, Gade
places an image of the Reclining Buddha345 (fig. 66).
Figure 66. The Demoness, Gade (detail – left side)
At the right elbow of the Demoness is a fine lady being carried in a palanquin,
possibly Princess Wencheng herself. In the vicinity of the Demoness’ chin, is a ladder;
symbolism derived from another myth concerning the first kings of Tibet who used a
ladder and cord to descend from heaven to the sacred mountain Gyang-to.346 The ladder
symbolises the connection between man and heaven.347

345
The Buddha reclining, or in Parinirvāṇa (S.), represents the historical Buddha in his final moments
before death. He lies on his right side, at the point of leaving his physical form and passing into final
enlightenment. (Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 222.)
346
The successive kings return to heaven by the same means until the seventh king accidentally cuts his
‘heavenly cord’ and cannot return to heaven (Samten G. Karmay. The Arrow and the Spindle, Studies in
History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet (Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1998), 252.)
347
It is believed that everyone is born with this cord on his head and Karmay suggests that contemporary
ritual gestures involving special cords and scarves (katags) have symbolic significance, renewing the
former accord between man and heaven. (Ibid., 418.)
256

On the Demoness’ right forearm (fig. 66) is a group of soldiers in Western colonial
dress, an allusion to the British invasion of Tibet in 1904. Travelling from her left foot
and over her knee (fig. 67) is a train of carriages alluding to both the modern railway and
the caravans of the ancient silk route. On a mountain top on the right knee are two Red
Guards from the Cultural Revolution era, clutching their Red Books of the sayings of
Mao Tse Tung, and gesturing with evangelical zeal (a pose characteristic of the Chinese
propaganda poster art of the period) to the land beyond the mountains – to Tibet.
Figure 67. The Demoness, Gade, (detail – right side)
At the position of the Demoness’ buttock, is a yak hide raft (the traditional Tibetan
method of river travel) with a number of figures on board.348 On the vessel is the Buddha,
who can be discerned from the characteristic shape of his head with topknot, elongated
ears and halo. With him are a number of characters representative of historical and
mythological Tibet: a Chinese peasant, a Tibetan nomad in chuba,349 a bodhisattva with
ornaments, a Tibetan woman with traditional headdress, an Indian pandit, a monk, a
mythical bird, and E.T. (one of the artist’s favourite characters from childhood).

348
This sequence recalls an earlier work by Gade, Sentient Beings on a Yak Hide Raft (1997).
349
Chuba: traditional Tibetan garment, long wrap-around robe made of wool worn by both men and women.
257

The temples in the original legend not only suppress the sites of the old spirits,
they transform them into Buddhist ground. As Janet Gyatso observes, the old sites of the
indigenous religion are associated with special configuration of land and mysterious
forces. The new Buddhist religion expropriates those sites and builds on them. Thus the
new structures obliterate the old sacred sites but subsume their power.350 In Gade’s
version of the Demoness, those sites are changed again. Whilst the land of Tibet remains
permeated with strange mythological creatures or spirits, as well as Buddhist indications,
these are now pervaded with secular sites and activities, modern and foreign influences,
taxis, planes and helicopters, and new icons like Mickey Mouse. New myths, legends and
histories are built, layer upon layer.
Gade is interested in the state of the people who are living in Tibet’s changing
society: the “cultural icons such as Mickey Mouse are a reflection of the current cultural
state of Tibet affected by the Cultural Revolution and globalization. There is no longer a
single, homogenous culture in Tibet. Rather it is hybrid and diverse.”351 Gade wants to
locate traditional Tibetan art in a contemporary context. He tries to imagine what a
Tibetan painting looks like when detached from religion.352 So although his work is
replete with Buddhist references, these are also cultural representations. As Leigh Miller
Sangster writes: “[Gade’s] mission is not to preserve the past or make prescriptions for
the future, but to document the present.”353 While contemporary Tibetan art draws from
cultural memory, Miller suggests the works “do not give us nostalgia for a fantasy or an
idealised museum-specimen Tibet, but is an experiment in the sustainability of Tibetan
cultural identity in twenty-first century China.”354

350
Janet Gyatso, “Down with the Demoness,” 43.
351
Gade. “Artist Statement.” In Mushroom Cloud (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms Ltd, 2008), 63.
352
Ibid.
353
Leigh Miller Sangster. “Gade – Mushroom Cloud.” In Mushroom Cloud (Hong Kong: Plum Blossoms
Gallery, 2008, 16–19), 17.
354
Ibid., 19.
258

In his catalogue essay for the Mushroom Cloud exhibition, Ian Findlay-Brown
suggested that works such as these by Gade help “to dispel many of the myths and
inconsistencies about contemporary Tibetan culture and society that have been
perpetrated by foreigners ignorant of the Tibetan reality of today.”355 For Tibetan artists,
there are many different realities. There is also a clear dissatisfaction with the outside
world that looks in.356 In The Demoness, Gade portrays a complex and multifaceted view
of Tibet in response to the stereotype that is often perpetuated in the West. He inserts pre-
Buddhist and Buddhist references, passages from the Colonial period and the Cultural
Revolution, together with contemporary secular and religious culture, presenting Tibet,
not as a legendary place but a society with a real and complex history and culture. His
work highlights that while modern Tibetan culture is increasingly diluted by influences
from China and the West, encounters with foreign cultures go back to the turn of the
twentieth century in the case of the British expedition, or the marriage of a Chinese
Princess to the Tibetan king in the seventh century. Thus, the hybridity is Tibetan society
is not entirely new.
Śambhalaḥ to Shangri-La
Another aspect of the sacred geography of Tibet combines Tibetan folklore,
Indian mythology and Buddhist eschatology. It concerns the sacred domain of Śambhalaḥ,
the legendary Buddhist paradise, or pureland, and forerunner to Shangri-La as a mystical
and perfect place. According to Buddhist doctrine, the ninety-six provinces of Śambhalaḥ
are laid out like a maṇḍala and are surrounded by Snow Mountains (fig. 68). It is related
to the Kālacakra maṇḍala which has become, since the twelfth century, important in the
Tantric cosmology of Tibet. According to the Kālacakra Tantra, barbarians and

355
Ian Findlay-Brown. “Wandering Among Icons.” In Mushroom Cloud, by Gade (Hong Kong: Plum
Blossoms Gallery, 2008, 8–11), 8.
356
Ibid., 11.
259

unbelievers would be vanquished by a new king from the north who would save the world
at the end of time.357 For Tibetans, the Kālacakra provided a cosmology that confirmed
the locus of the true dharma (Buddhist law) as being in the northern hidden country of
Śambhalaḥ. Not only did this paradigm work with the indigenous beliefs of ‘hidden
mystic valleys’ and the terma (revealed scripture) tradition, but the mythology also
reinforced an emerging Tibetan idea that the dharma had taken refuge and hidden in
Tibet itself.358
Figure 68. The Kingdom of Śambhalaḥ and Buddhist Armageddon, Eastern Tibet, 18th century,
175.3 x 196.9 cm (Zimmerman Family Collection)
This mythical land of Śambhalaḥ came to be re-configured in the Western cultural
imagination as Shangri-La, and it is this myth that a number of the contemporary Tibetan
artists have confronted and engaged with, in their quest to reconstruct and reclaim
identity. Tibet was given the sobriquet Shangri-La after the novel Lost Horizon by James
Hilton, published in 1933 and adapted to film in 1937. Hilton’s Shangri-La is secluded
and almost impossible to reach, on the far side of a mountain range. While it is located in
Tibet, the detail comes from the Western imagination. Although the characters were

357
R.A. Stein. Tibetan Civilisation. Trans. J. E. Stapleton Driver (London: Faber and Faber, 1972), 55.
358
Ronald M. Davidson. Tibetan Renaissance: Tantric Buddhism in the Rebirth of Tibetan Culture (New
York: Columbia University Press, 2005), 41.
25:

portrayed as inherently flawed, the possibility of the existence of a perfect place whose
role it is to save the world from itself, parallels the Tibetan Śambhalaḥ legend.
This idealised form of civilization is seen as “truer” than the rational West gone
“off the rails.”359 The oversimplification, Susan Sontag suggests, is because these
supposedly ideal civilisations are being used only as models and stimulants for the
imagination precisely because they are not accessible.360 Alex McKay proposes that the
imagining of Tibet serves only to obstruct the understanding of historical realities.361 The
western myths of Tibet effectively hijack Tibetan identity promoting expectations of a
remote Utopia which cannot be fulfilled.
Tibet continues to be burdened with this role by some in the West, being lauded as
“the altar of the earth.”362 Claims are made in popular film that the Tibetan people “have
practised non-violence for over a thousand years”363 yet we have detailed accounts of
brigandage and violence from travellers and scholars, such as Giuseppe Tucci, who made
numerous research expeditions to Tibet.364
The mythologizing of Tibet as a sacred place is explored in another allegorical
work by Gade, Railway Train, in which the land of Tibet is portrayed in the
anthropomorphic form of the Reclining Buddha (fig. 69). The work was part of the
exhibition Lhasa Train at Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico in 2006, in
which twenty artists from Lhasa interpreted the arrival of the Beijing-Lhasa railway.

359
Susan Sontag. “Artaud.” In Antonin Artaud, Selected Writings (Berkeley, Los Angeles: University of
California Press, 1988, xvii-lix), xli.
360
Ibid.
472Alex McKay. “Introduction,” in Tibet and her Neighbours. Alex McKay (ed) (London: Edition Hansjörg
Mayer, 2003) 10.

362
Tibet, Cry of the Snow Lion. 103 min. Directed by Tom Peosay (Produced by Earthworks
Films/Zambuling Pictures. 2002).
363
Kundun. 134 min. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenpaly by Melissa Mathison. Performed by Gyume
Tethong (Produced by Barbara De Fina, 1997).
364
For example: Heinrich Harrer, Seven Years in Tibet (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1954), 89; Sven Hedin,
Trans-Himalaya: Discoveries and Adventures in Tibet. Vol. II (London: Macmillan & Co., 1909) 339;
George N. Patterson, Tibetan Journey (London: Faber & Faber, 1954) 21; Tucci. Tibet, Land of Snows, 143.
261

Figure 69. Railway Train, 2006, Gade, mixed media on handmadeTibetan paper, 60 x 130 cm
(Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe)
In Railway Train the Reclining Buddha is a metaphor for Tibet because the land
is inextricably linked with Buddhism. Tibet is thus imagined as the embodiment of the
religion. However, Gade depicts Tibet as a kind of religious theme park. He describes the
work and the ideas behind it in the exhibition catalogue:
The whole shape is of the reclining Buddha. Nowadays Tibet has lots of changes
brought by the West, and the East too. Our generation is a time when we
experience this the most and see the effects from all of these changes. In my
painting you can see lots of things, like Disneyland, a China Mobile signboard,
Coca Cola signboards, which are seen by us every day in our lives. Of course,
Disneyland is not here yet, but just like the train, maybe in the future it will also
come to Tibet.365
The focal point of the composition is the new Lhasa train, named ‘Qing 1’,366
which brings visitors from the West and from China. Among the passengers, the first is
the historical Buddha, referring to the entry of the Indian religion into Tibet in the seventh
century. Further up the train we see the famous profile of Sherlock Homes who made a
fictional excursion into Tibet367. Also on board is the character E.T. who entered Tibet via

365
Gade, Lhasa Train exhibition catalogue, Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe, 2006.
www.asianart.com/exhibitions/lhasatrain/3.html.
366
Abrahm Lustgarten. China's Great Train: Beijing's Drive West and the Campaign to Remake Tibet (New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 2008), 231.
367
In 1903 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made a fictional foray into Tibet. (Doyle has been connected to the
Theosophical Society founded in 1875 by Madam Blavatsky who claimed to be in touch with mysterious
masters in Tibet.) In The Adventure of the Empty House Sherlock Holmes, who was supposedly killed at
Reichenbach Falls at the hands of his arch enemy Moriarty, has in fact been travelling incognito for three
years, two of which were spent wandering in Tibet where he attained entry to Lhasa and met the ‘head
262

cinema, television and merchandise. The train takes a circuitous route around the
landscape/amusement park, in and out of tunnels passing various spectacles on the way:
dancing ḍākinīs watched by tourists, Buddhist stupas, mythical creatures, snow leopards
and yaks. There is also the mythical Tibetan Khyung (horned eagle or Garuda) bird that
symbolises wisdom and whose likeness has been found on ancient rock carvings from the
pre-Buddhist period.368 There are wrathful deities clutching the ritual dagger (phurpa) or
lightening bolt (dorjé) and the ritual bell (drilbu), as well as meditating monks or yogis in
mountain caves.
Figure 70. Railway Train, Gade (detail - right)
On the far right is a scene that again references his earlier work Sentient Beings in
a Yak Hide Raft (fig. 70). We see two people in traditional chuba and head dress in a yak
hide craft which is steered from the front with an oar. In the boat are also a yak and a
horse, both sentient beings and icons of Tibet. The image recalls the Greek myth of
Charon who ferries the souls of the dead across the river Styx. The next sequence

lama.’ Arthur Conan Doyle. “The Empty House.” In The Return of Sherlock Homes, 7–29 (London:
Penguin, 1981) 16. This joinder of the seemingly immortal Sherlock Holmes, who has mental powers
beyond those of normal people, with Tibet serves to enhance the mystery of both Holmes and Tibet. In very
few words, Holmes is placed on the same plane as the lamas. Tibetan author and social commentator,
Jamyang Norbu, pursued the invention of Holmes’ journey in Tibet in his novel The Mandala of Sherlock
Holmes, The Adventures of the Great Detective in India and Tibet (London: Harper Collins, 2009).
368
John Vincent Bellezza. “Images of Lost Civilization: The Ancient Rock Art of Upper Tibet.” Asianart.
22 November 2000. www.asianart.com/articles/rockart/index.html.
263

travelling west across the canvas is another motif frequently used by the artist, the Money
Tree. In this scene we see golden coins adorning the branches like blossoms and a pair of
lovers embracing under the canopy, while up above a monkey-demon disguised as cupid
prepares to shoot an arrow at them. Another monkey-like creature in the tree appears to
be stealing some of the coins recalling the legendary monkey who steals the elixir of life
or peaches of immortality.369 The legend of the money tree recalls animist beliefs in
which powerful spirits, both malevolent and protective, inhabit things such as trees. Lha-
shing is the Tibetan life-spirit tree. The Chinese money tree, decorated with magical
creatures, celestial figures and auspicious animals, is associated with paradise and
immortality, and the coins link paradise with a material bounty in this world.370 Here the
influences of Chinese folklore are mingled with Tibetan folklore and Buddhist imagery,
and we are reminded again that the artist’s parentage is both Chinese and Tibetan.
A Gothic fairy-tale castle appears in the middle ground, totally incongruous in the
Tibetan landscape but representative of Western influences mingling with Tibetan and
Chinese. A Tibetan lama and a western fairy-tale witch on a broomstick fly through the
air around the castle. These figures recall the myth of the flying or levitating Tibetan
monk, as well as the wrathful female protector of Tibet, Palden Lhamo, who according to
Buddhist iconography rides a wild mule rather than a broom-stick but carries a long club
topped with a lightening bolt.
On the left side of the painting a traditional Tibetan building rises in caricature of
the Potala Palace, the traditional residence of the Dalai Lama (fig. 71). It is thus a symbol
of both spiritual and temporal power. In Gade’s work, the vast signage that overshadows
the palace is the Coca-Cola logo, giving the impression that the theme park is sponsored
by the giant multi-national corporation, the new holder of emotional and temporal power.

369
Philip Ardagh. Chinese Myths and Legends (Chicago: World Book, Inc., 2002), 45–46.
370
Stanley K. Abe. Ordinary Images (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 33.
264

Trade marks and logos have become the new icons in the ideology of consumerism since
the exposure of Tibet to the outside world by the annexation by China.
Figure 71. Railway Train, Gade (detail - left)
As mentioned above, in these panorama paintings Gade references a traditional
style of Tibetan painting which incorporates architecture, landscape and narrative. We can
see certain similarities, for example, with a traditional thangka from Eastern Tibet, A
Buddhist King with Landscape and Heavens (fig. 72).
Figure 72. A Buddhist King with Landscape and Heavens, Eastern Tibet, 2nd half 17th to 1st half 18th century,
thangka, pigments on cotton, 152.4 x 243.8 cm (Collection of Shelley & Donald Rubin, New York)
This thangka is a consummate example of the architectural-landscape style, which

265

incorporates narratives of myth and legend, history and doctrine. The focus of this
thangka is a Buddhist king and his court receiving petitioners bearing gifts. The king
holds the royal wheel of power, a symbol of the mythical last king of Śambhalaḥ.371 It is a
portrayal of the ideal Buddhist king who rules according to the dharma and fosters the
pursuit of enlightenment of all sentient beings.
The scene is divided by geographical and architectural features. In the mountains
are caves with practicing yogis. Here and there about the landscape, in grottoes and in
dwellings, monks and householders practice mediation and read scriptures. The land is
prosperous, the animals are plentiful and fat, the trees are full of jewels and the people
live well, wearing rich clothes and riding horses. It is reminiscent of Lorenzetti’s Allegory
of Good Government (1337–39) in the Palazzo Publico in Sienna, which illustrates that
wise benevolent government results in a happy and prosperous State.
In the upper left of the thangka is an elephant, an animal that has significance in
Buddhist mythology originating in India. This zoomorphic sequence refers to the story of
the ‘four harmonious brothers’ (or friends), a parable supposedly told by the historical
Buddha to his followers to teach them the importance of respect, harmony and
collaboration.372 This vignette is echoed in a scene on the left side of Gade’s work (fig.
71) in which an elaborately caparisoned elephant (also a common feature of the European
style circus) is being ridden not only by the monkey, hare and partridge, but by the
mahout (elephant driver) who is a Chinese communist in a Mao suit. At the back is a man
with a megaphone. These very strange bedfellows illustrate the adulteration of Tibetan
culture through the penetration of influences from China and the West, and the

371
Rhie and Thurman. Worlds of Transformation, Tibetan Art of Wisdom and Compassion, 449.
372
Loden Sherap Dagyab. Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture. Translated by Maurice Walshe (Boston:
Wisdom Publications, 1995), 107. As told in the canonical text the Foundation of Discipline (’Dul-ba gzhi,
Skt. Vinayavastu): Once there lived in the forest a partridge, a hare, a monkey and an elephant, who were
friends. With the aid of a tree they established their respective ages, and accordingly, the younger animals
respected the older ones. They obeyed the law and lived a virtuous life. Soon, all the animals adopted their
ways, and eventually the king did likewise, and peace and happiness prevailed in the land.
266

exploitation of Tibet by China as a tourist destination.
In the scene on the far left side of the panorama, action takes place on the flat
roof of a traditional Tibetan building (fig. 71). Incense wafts into the air from a juniper
stove (sangkhang) to invoke and appease the deities. On a ladder a man in western
clothing wears a set of wings and looks to the heavens and appears to be reciting a mantra
before launching forth, hopefully to fly on the wings on enlightenment.373 Another man
on a ladder at the side of the building holds a pennant aloft. The ladder recalls the sacred
ladder mentioned above by which the first kings descended to earth and ascended to
heaven, symbolising the connection between man and heaven.374
Gade makes reference in many of his works to the idea that Buddhism is being
displaced in Tibet by the ideologies of capitalism and consumerism. In this work Tibet is
reincarnated as an amusement park where the entertainment themes are religion and folk
tradition; a Shangri-La where tourists can come for rejuvenation amongst the snow-
capped mountains and find wisdom with their Coca-Cola. Thus the authentic Tibet is
replaced by a fake one that generates money, and tourists are the new pilgrims. As Gade
explains:
Tibet has gone through a cultural revolution, and now commercialism, so now
Tibetan culture has become some sort of circus center, or resort center, where you
can see everything. Some things are very foreign, almost extraterrestrial. All of
these changes are not brought only by the train, but the train plays the role of
instigator and is a focus point. So now we cannot place our identity in a fixed
area, as there are too many things that have happened. And we feel this loss of
identity, and maybe we are the only generation to experience such a thing. I am
just displaying such circumstances.375

373
The scene is also reminiscent of the Greek legend of Icarus who was enabled to fly with wings made of
wax and feathers. Heedless of his father’s warning he flew too near the sun, causing the wax to melt, thus
he fell into the sea and drowned.
374
Samten G. Karmay. The Arrow and the Spindle, Studies in History, Myths, Rituals and Beliefs in Tibet
(Kathmandu: Mandala Book Point, 1998), 252.
375
Gade. Lhasa Train, catalogue, 2006.
267

Gade reconstructs Tibetan pictorial traditions and, by confronting the myth and
exposing the reality, moves towards reclaiming a Tibetan identity in the present.
In another variation on these themes, New Tibet (2006) (fig. 73), Gade juxtaposes
a pictorial medium that derives from illuminations of Tibetan scriptures with panoramas
of incongruous scenes and landscape. His use of murky mineral pigment enhances the
effect that, at first glance, the works appear to be within the traditional visual tradition.
However, on closer inspection one is confronted with a disturbing reality that challenges
the outsider’s image of both a traditional and a post-occupation Tibet. Gade demonstrates
the influence on Tibet by both China and the West, with particular emphasis on
importation of modern culture, consumerism, materialism, economics, industry and
ecology. He reveals the effects, both good and bad, on Tibetan society and the landscape
both urban and rural.
Figure 73. New Tibet, 2006, Gade, mineral colour and acrylic on handmade Tibetan paper, 18 x 117 cm
(University of Colorado Art Museum, Boulder)
In an interview in 2004 Gade addressed the stereotyping of Tibet: “foreigners
think that Tibet is only religious but this culture is more complicated. We also like to eat
fast food and watch American movies. We need to represent real life and ask real
questions.”376 Gade is concerned with depicting his real life in Tibet. He proposes that the
contemporary Tibetan artists “are recording the transmigration of a civilization and a
disappearing myth.”377

376
Gade quoted by Craig Simons. “At a Gallery in Lhasa.” (New York Times. 22 November 2004).
www.nytimes.com/2004/11/22/arts/design/22tibe.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0.
377
Gade. “Modern Art in Tibet and the Gedun Choephel Artists' Guild.” In Visions from Tibet: A brief
survey of contemporary painting, exhibition catalogue, Peaceful Wind Gallery, Santa Fe, N.M. (London:
Rossi & Rossi, Peaceful Wind, 2005, 16–17), 16.
268

Gade adopts the design and layout of religious painting but substitutes deities with
modern icons that more aptly fit with life in modern Tibet. He constructs a panorama of
the endless Tibetan mountain range seen from a bird’s eye view and with multiple
vantage points. In this way, the story of the landscape is revealed; the landscape is the
setting and integral part of the story. The technique lends itself well to the Tibetan
mountains whose timeless snow capped peaks, impenetrable high passes, narrow valleys
and snaking rivers converge with modernity in the shape of serpentine roads winding
around the mountains, bullet trains plunging through them over raised railway bridges to
urban centres of sky scrapers and industrial complexes.
The wide and shortened Tibetan paper with burnt edges is made to resemble
religious manuscript (pecha) and to enhance the artist’s story-telling tableau; it implies an
ancient source. The magical clouds, which traditionally surround the snow mountains
(kang-ri) in Tibetan art, now curl themselves around twin towers of steel and glass that
stand as high as the mountains themselves. A plane flies over the mountains towards the
East. Satellite dishes beam communications into the new Tibet. In this futuristic image,
very little is really surprising. Today, Lhasa is a modern city with multi-level department
stores and continuous suburbs of apartment blocks. Down town Lhasa has not yet reached
the same heights of other Chinese cities such as Beijing or Shanghai, but this view is not
so far from reality and a distinct possibility. The train too has arrived, the culmination of
an engineering feat, on the highest railway track in the world over hundreds of miles of
permafrost.378
On the right side of the work (fig. 74) is a military base with watch-towers and
security fences, armoured vehicles and a missile being launched, leaving in its wake
clouds of smoke and fire. In this work, fire takes on the aspect of destruction in the form

378
Lustgarten. China's Great Train, 67, 200.
269

of pollution or nuclear fall-out. It is an only too realistic picture of the Chinese impact on
the ecologically sensitive and politically strategic region of the Tibetan plateau; air
pollution is already on rise in Tibet.379 Geological surveys made in preparation for the
railway project found mineral reserves worth billions of dollars, thus making Tibet one of
the richest areas in China’s territory.380 Scars from mining are now visible on the Tibetan
countryside; soil and water contamination, spillage from oil drilling and pollution from
smelting are now new problems in Tibet.381
Figure 74. New Tibet (detail - right)

Figure 75. New Tibet (detail - left)

In the left foreground (fig. 75), we find a crumbling monastery while elsewhere

379
Lustgarten. China's Great Train, 276.
380
Ibid., 240.
381
Ibid., 243-4.
26:

modern skyscrapers rise. A giant Ferris wheel represents the Kālacakra, the wheel of time,
signifying impermanence and associated with the mystical land of Śambhalaḥ. This ‘New
Tibet’ is a far cry from the Shangri-La of the western imagination. It is this reality of
modern Tibet that Gade wants us to see.
A different approach to the deconstruction of the Shangri-La myth is taken by
Tsewang Tashi who is professor of art at Tibet University in Lhasa and one of the first
group of Tibetan art students to study in Bejing in the 1980s. In his photographic series
Shangri-La (2008), Tashi confronts both the Western Shangri-La myth and the Chinese
romantic primitivist projection of Tibet. As his work highlights, it is not only the West
that is responsible for the creation of the idealised image of Tibet. Donald Lopez and
Clare Harris have proposed that Tibet is a contested idea that exists in the imagination.382
Similarly, as Said has pointed out, the image that the West creates for itself of the East is
not exclusively determined by the West.383 For instance, the first films of Tibet in the
1920s were edited by the Tibetan elite who influenced the Tibetan images expressed in
Western films and this editorialisation has continued for a post-occupied Tibet.384
China has also contructed its own mythologized image of Tibet. In the earliest
days of the new Communist regime, the Chinese portrayed Tibet as a barbaric feudal
society.385 The first propaganda images showed Tibetans as simple peasants in exotic
costume who were delighted to be finally liberated.386 This image was replaced after the
Cultural Revolution with a representation in the style of European genre painting,
depicting Tibetan nomads in the countryside, at one with nature, often with their animals.
This is the romantic stereotype image that endures to this day in parallel with the Western

382
Harris. In the Image of Tibet, Tibetan Painting after 1959; Donald S. Lopez Jr. Prisoners of Shangri-La;
Tibetan Buddhism and the West (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999).
383
Said. “Orientalism.” In The Edward Said Reader, 79.
384
Martin Brauen. Dreamworld Tibet; Western Illusions. Translated by Martin Wilson (Bangkok: Orchid
Press, 2004), 131.
385
W. Smith. “The Transformation of Tibetan National Identity,” 208.
386
The Propaganda Poster Art Centre, Shanghai, PRC.
271

idealised image.
The Shangri-La photographic series is a conscious reply to a series of pastoral
paintings by Chen Danqing, a Chinese painter who entered the graduate program at
Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts in 1978 and was part of the Native Soil art or
Rustic Realism movement that emerged in China in the late 1970s.387 In its day, the style
in which Chen painted was as radical as the art of Jean-François Millet in nineteenth
century France.388 The original intention of the Native Soil art movement was to repudiate
the idealism of the paradoxically termed Socialist Realism, in favour of a more humanist
and authentic portrayal of life in China under communism.389 However, this pastoral style
has come to be seen in a different light in the ethnic Tibetan region as a caricature or
stereotype of Tibetans, but is sought after by Chinese and Western tourists alike.390 The
originals and prints of the works of Chen Danqing and other exponents of the style, such
as Ai Xuan, continue to fetch high prices in the Hong Kong and Chinese high-end art
markets. Reproductions, often blatant plagiaries, and prints of their paintings can be
bought by the dozen in the tourist art shops of Lhasa.
The Tibet depicted in Chen’s paintings is no longer exemplary of modern Tibetan
life and contemporary Tibetan artists consider this art form merely a kitsch souvenir.391 In
contradistinction to the Orientalism of the myth of Tibet, Tsewang Tashi created the
Shangri-La series of tableau photographs.

387
Wu Hung. Contemporary Chinese Art: A History 1970s > 2000s (London: Thames & Hudson, 2014), 43.
388
The first public exhibition of European art after the Cultural Revolution was held at the National Art
Gallery in 1979. The Nineteenth Century French Country Landscape Painting Exhibition included works
by Millet and Camille Corot (Ibid., 30). Chen Danqing cites Corot, Millet and Rembrandt as among his
main influences. (Chen Danqing. “My Seven Paintings” (1981), in Wu Hung. Contemporary Chinese art:
Primary Documents, (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010, 25-29), 26.
389
Wu. Contemporary Chinese Art: A History 1970s > 2000s, 44.
390
While the contemporary artists in Lhasa disparage this style of art, some of the artists have produced
these art works to earn money (Nyandak, conversation with author, Lhasa, October, 2010).
391
Ibid.
272

Figure 76. Shangri-La No. 1, 2008, Tsewang Tashi, digital photograph, 100 x150 cm (Red Gate Gallery)
Figure 77. Entering the City II, 1980, Chen Danqing, oil on canvas 78 x 63 cm (CAFA, Beijing)
Each image is a staged scene and pastiche of one of Chen’s Tibetan series of
paintings. Shangri-La No. 1 (fig. 76) depicts a young Tibetan family in a modern urban
street in Lhasa. It references Chen’s Entering the City (Jincheng) (1980) (fig. 77), which
also depicts a Tibetan family walking down a street thirty years earlier. In Chen’s work,
the characters are dressed in the customary attire of rural Tibetans. They walk past
traditional low houses and the woman suckles a baby at her exposed breast. Chen
exercised some artistic licence in portraying the woman breastfeeding while walking
along the street, but such an arrangement of the characters supports the notion of the
Tibetan nomad as being close to nature and the land – echoing the primitivist ideals in
European art earlier in the century. In his essay “My Seven Paintings” Chen states that the
sight of Tibetan women nursing their children left a profound impression on him and he
made a number of sketches of one particular shepherdess and a mother and son, who
273

formed the basis for many of the female figures in his paintings.392
Whilst Chen was attempting to portray Tibetans in a dignified way and avoid the
patronising depictions of the Chinese propaganda images of socialist realism, it is this
romantic quality that Tashi now wants to confront.
In Tashi’s version we see a young Tibetan family in a similar arrangement.
However, this time the woman carries the baby on her back in a modern back-pack baby
carrier. Their clothing is a mixture of Western and modern Tibetan, and the combination
of style of dress was chosen by the artist to demonstrate the hybrid aspect of a modern
Tibetan lifestyle.393 If this is Shangri-La, then it is just another name for the place where
they live. There are no hints of a land of harmony, tranquillity, remote, secluded and
idyllic. This is a place like any other, a street like any other, a young family like any other,
going about their daily life.
The family are walking past a Chinese language advertisement for yak meat.394
The consumer culture that has been introduced into Tibet is demonstrated by this
advertisement, which features a dancer in Tibetan costume of the kind usually seen in
shows for mass consumption by tourists. It is the dancer in the advertisement who seems
out of place and time. With regard to language, although there are a number of linguistic
groups in greater China, the national language is Putonghua (common speak) Chinese.
The young family’s mother-tongue is Tibetan but, in a couple of years, when the boy goes
to school, he will learn Chinese as his parents did. They will speak Tibetan to each other
and Chinese when required. This is the Tibet in which this family now lives.
In Shangri-La No. 2 (fig. 78) Tashi offers a pastiche of Chen’s earlier work
Pilgrimage (Chaosheng) (fig. 79), which depicts four pilgrims praying outside the

392
Chen Danqing. “My Seven Paintings” (1981), in Wu Hung. Contemporary Chinese art: Primary
Documents (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2010, 25–29), 26.
393
Tsewang Tashi, Conversation with author, Lhasa, 2011.
394
Ibid.
274

Jokhang Temple in the main square in Lhasa, the Barkhor. The pilgrims are dressed in a
rural Tibeten costume and they prostrate on prayer rugs. Behind them a sheep huddles
next to the temple wall, by which Chen again shows the actors as being in harmony with
nature and the land. Everyday, pilgrims and Lhasa residents pray and circumambulate the
temple with their prayer beads and prayer wheels. In the past, pilgrims would walk for
weeks, months, or even years, sometimes prostrating themselves the entire distance to
Lhasa.
Figure 78. Shangri-La No. 2,

2008, Tsewang Tashi, 100 x 150 cm,
Figure 79. Pilgrimage (Chaosheng),

1980, Chen Danqing (CAFA, Beijing)
Chen says that his painting “doesn’t convey the intense emotions I felt when I set
eyes on the tens of thousands of pilgrims in Lhasa.”395 He wrote:
The spectacle of the pilgrimage is so extraordinary and rare to witness … I kept

395
Chen, “My Seven Paintings,” 28.
275

hesitating as to whether there was a need to paint this … If I were only trying to
make known rare religious activities from this century, then documentary films or
photojournalism would be much stronger mediums. Yet photographs seem to lack
a certain power of expression when directed at everyday life …396
Chen’s ultimate objective was for the viewer to be moved by the realism and
humanism of the work and to feel that: “This is life, these are human beings.”397
However, three decades later Chen’s works no longer express the realities of modern
Tibet. While pilgrimage continues, the pilgrims mostly now arrive in buses, cars and
trucks. The Barkhor has been paved and much of the ‘old town’ has been razed and
replaced by a vast people’s square and tourist shops in the front of the Johkang.
In Tashi’s tableau four Tibetans are shown in the same states of prostration on
their prayer rugs, and wear similar costumes, headdress, jewellery, amulets and prayer
beads. In the place of the sheep Tashi has placed a Chinese tourist with a camera, who
kneels in to take the perfect shot of the woman at prayer; the long lens on his camera
appears all the more intrusive. He wears a Tibetan cowboy hat like the one held by the
pilgrim standing on the right, although the tourist’s hat was probably bought in the market
as a souvenir. He resembles a hunter, his quarry being the native Tibetan. On the far left
stands another tourist, a European, and next to her a tour guide with her conspicuous
coloured pennant. They observe the pilgrims in the same way one would observe the
native fauna – they are still so as to not disturb, but are voyeuristic intruders. The group
of pilgrims, however, pay no attention to the tourists. The situation of being observed and
photographed while at prayer has become normalised. Although this scene has been
staged by the artist,398 it is a familiar sight in the Barkhor and common for tourists to
thrust cameras in the face of any Tibetan wearing traditional costume. As Leigh Miller

396
Chen Danqing, “My Seven Paintings,” 27-28.
397
Ibid., 28.
398
Tsewang Tashi. conversation with the author, Lhasa, 2011.
276

observes, the viewer of Tsewang’s art work becomes complicit in the act of voyeurism.399
Shangri-La No.3 (fig. 80) references Chen’s The Women Washing Their Hair (fig.
81), which depicts two Tibetan women, naked from the waist up, washing and grooming
their hair. (Chen’s work in turn recalls both Degas and Gauguin, in as much as the women
have been captured in the moment of washing and they coalesce with nature in their semi-
nakedness.) They are outdoors, in front of a low built dwelling. A male figure stands with
his back to the viewer holding a water jug for the woman.
Figure 80. Shangri-La No. 3, 2008,

Tsewang Tashi, 100 x 150 cm,

Figure 81. The Women Washing Their Hair,

1980, Chen Danqing, oil on canvas,
54 x 68 cm (CAFA, Beijing)
In Tashi’s rendition, some young modern Tibetan women are in the process of
washing and grooming their hair in similar poses to those in Chen’s work. But this time
they are on the footpath outside what appears to be a modern Tibetan restaurant or bar

399
Leigh Miller. Contemporary Tibetan Art and Cultural Sustainability in Lhasa, Tibet (Doctoral thesis),
Emory University, Atlanta Ga. 2014, 245.
277

and they are using plastic stools and basins that are part of the new disposable consumer
culture. A third woman sits on the left drinking a can of Coca-Cola. A male figure, again
with his back to the viewer, holds a red bucket for one of the woman. In Tashi’s scene the
Tibetan man wears a western business suit and, incongruously, a red tasselled hair band in
concession to tradition.
The scene appears to be the aftermath of a party, with beer and Coca-Cola cans
scattered around and the remains of food on the table. The shop front has western
Christmas decorations on the window and a Christmas tree next to the door-way
juxtaposed against the Tibetan door-hanging embroidered with the auspicious infinity
knot that signifies the unity and impermanence of all things. In this scene of hybrid
festivity, the door-hanging and the man’s hair band are the only Tibetan identifiers. The
Christmas decorations are clearly western and indicate the extent to which western
culture has infiltrated such geographically remote and non-Christian areas such as Tibet.
Indeed, Christmas is now a regular event in many parts of China, not so much as a
concession to western tourists but as merely another commercial opportunity.400 Whilst
the scene does not expressly indicate the sex trade, it does suggest it. In the past few
decades the sex trade has flourished in Lhasa with hundreds of brothels being opened,
mainly for the Chinese army and migrant workers.401
The fourth work in Tahsi’s photographic series, Shangri-La No. 4 (fig. 82),
references Chen’s The Shepherd (fig. 83), a rural scene in which a Tibetan man, dressed
in a chuba, is flirting with a Tibetan woman, from whom he is stealing a kiss, much to her
amusement. In Tashi’s scene a young Tibetan woman is dressed in a silver mini dress
emblazoned with the logo of a Chinese beer company. She has long white boots and a
shiny red belt while the man is dressed in sheep skin chuba with one arm and shoulder

400
Tsewang Tashi, conversation with author, Lhasa, 2011
401
Himalaya, Michael Palin. Roadshow Entertainment, 2004.
278

exposed, as is the custom. However, under his traditional garb he is wearing jeans and
western shoes.
Figure 82. Shangri-La No. 4, 2008, Tsewang Tashi, 100 x 150 cm (Red Gate Gallery, Beijing)
Figure 83. The Shepherd, 1980, Chen Danqing, oil on canvas, 80 x 52 cm (CAFA, Beijing)
In Chen’s work, the couple stand before a low wall, beyond which stretches the
vast plains of the Tibetan plateau dotted with sheep. In Tashi’s work, the scene has been
staged in the garden of a five star hotel in Lhasa.402 In order to recreate an exotic Tibetan
atmosphere for foreign guests, a pagoda has been installed with a golden roof suggestive
of a Buddhist Temple. Some stone sheep have also been placed around to suggest an
‘authentic’ nomad touch, revealing the extent to which the land and natural landscape is
being appropriated and industrialised.
In these scenes the artist challenges the foreigner’s perception of Tibet. It is not
the Tibet of the tourist brochures or the Tibet of the past, the Tibet of the imagination.
Leigh Miller concludes that the settings and the relationship of the subjects to each other
“serve to document a reality in the present upon which a fantasy is projected and

402
Tsewang Tashi, conversations with author, Lhasa, 2011
279

staged.”403 Tashi recognises that the modern Tibet may not fulfil the expectations of
foreign visitors who come to see the Tibetan ‘Shangri-La’. Nevertheless, in reconstructing
these scenes of daily life, Tashi’s purpose is to depict what is in front of him, not,
paradoxically, an artificial image.404 By parodying the romantic images of Tibet in
Chinese art he brings into sharper relief the contemporary reality and exposes the illusion
of the idealisation of Tibet and the evolution of its society.
Tibetan land and landscape in exile
The contemporary artists of the diaspora also address the issue of land and the
landscape of Tibet in connection with their Tibetan identity. Not surprisingly, the diaspora
artists connect with the land of Tibet in some ways that are different to the Lhasa artists
who have not been displaced from the land of their birth or ancestry. Yet that connection
is still very strong and is sometimes expressed with a sensibility of longing.
Like Gade, Gonkar Gyatso has depicted the land of Tibet as an incarnation of the
Reclining Buddha. The work, Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express (2009) (fig.
84), was first exhibited at the 53rd Venice biennale and then at the 6th Asia Pacific
Triennial in Brisbane, Queensland.
Figure 84. Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express, 2009, Gonkar Gyatso, stickers, pencil, paper-
cuts and screen prints on treated paper, 10 panels, 200 x 900 cm total (Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane)

403
Leigh Miller. Contemporary Tibetan Art and Cultural Sustainability in Lhasa, Tibet (Doctoral thesis),
Emory University, Atlanta Ga. 2014, 245.
404
Tsewang Tashi, conversations with author, Lhasa 2011.
27:

In the artist’s statement on his website, Gyatso says: “Just as the identity of my
motherland, Tibet, cannot be separated from religion and politics, I think my own
sensibility has been shaped by the undeniable bond between the two.”405
By depicting the land of Tibet in the shape of the Reclining Buddha, Gyatso refers
directly to the indelible link between the country and Buddhism and the culture and
people. Donald Dinwiddie proposes that by using the Reclining Buddha as the scaffold
the artist is drawing an analogy to the Buddha in parinirvāṇa, the moment of the
Buddha’s death and achievement of release from the cycle of reincarnation. Dinwiddie
suggests that this is the Buddha of an ending and beginning, and by analogy, an ending
and beginning of Tibet.406 In other words, the old Tibet is in the state of regeneration in a
new time; socially, culturally and politically.
The narrative of the work starts on the right at the point of the departure station
for the China-Tibet railway. We then follow the train journey westwards to Lhasa. The
stations are marked at different points along the route as the altitude rises to the Tibetan
plateau (fig. 84).407 Apart from an allusion to the rising altitude, the gradual build up of
the Buddha figure denotes an increasing momentum as the train moves west.
Figure 85. Figure 86. Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to

Lhasa Express (details)

405
Gonkar Gyatso. Artist’s statement. gonkargyatso.com.
406
Donald Dinwiddie. “Gonkar Gyatso - Contours of Identity.” Art Asia Pacific (May/June 2009: 132–139),
138.
407
Gonkar Gyatso, Artist’s Talk, Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery, 6 December 2009.
281

Gyatso took inspiration from the commercial customer pamphlets of the new rail
service to design symbols with an overtly social and political message.408 Underneath his
‘stations’ he has created symbols imitating international visual information diagrams that
overcome language barriers (figs. 85, 86). At Lan Zhou station, for example, the first
symbol follows a standard format of a red circle and diagonal red strike. Inside the circle
is a pair of scales – the implication is “justice forbidden here.” Underneath is another
symbol of a yellow triangle with black border (a colour scheme which demands attention)
that contains the Amnesty International logo of a candle wound with barbed wire. The
implication is that human rights are an issue here. Underneath the Lhasa station a greater
number of symbols are used; indeed the further west the train travels towards Tibet, the
greater is the number of injunctions. Along with the scales and Amnesty International
symbols there are, for example, two other symbols of red circles cut by diagonal strikes:
one contains a pair of hands joined together in symbol of prayer and the second is a
human silhouette in the posture of meditation. These symbols suggest that religion, and
the Buddhist religion in particular, is banned.
Figure 87. Reclining Buddha –

Shanghai to Lhasa Express (detail)
At one point on the Buddha’s topography is an Australian Aboriginal man in a
primitive state of dress holding not a spear but a Tibetan iconographic trident impaling
the M&M cartoon icon (fig. 87). A speech bubble from his mouth reads: “Hi H.H. Make

408
Dinwiddie. “Gonkar Gyatso - Contours of Identity,” 138.
282

sure don’t end up like us in your own land.” The ‘H.H.’ refers to ‘His Holiness’, the
honorific title of the Dalai Lama. An analogy is being drawn between the indigenous
peoples of Australia and Tibet who have both been marginalised by the occupation of
their land by foreign powers and the influx of alien peoples and ideas.
Gyatso also wanted to express some of the impressions he gained from taking the
rail journey himself in 2008. This was a nostalgic journey for Gyatso. For many years he
had not been able to return to the land of his birth because it is very difficult for an exiled
Tibetan to re-enter Tibet. However, with the acquisition of a British passport, he was able
to travel to China and take the train to Lhasa. This new route and mode of transport
provided views of the landscape not previously seen. Gyatso speaks of the North Western
part of Tibet as being a vast land, ‘a no-man’s land’, as the train speeds past vistas of
distant snow mountains. Gyatso attempts to bring these impressions of North West Tibet
to the work. On the far left of the work the built up image recedes, which Gyatso says
represents the untouched landscape of this remote region where there are no people, only
wildlife.409
While most Chinese cities are choked with people, cars, pollution, skyscrapers
and commerce, the sparsely populated area of Tibet provides space and the prospect of
riches to support China’s economic growth.410 The railway forms part of China’s policy to
modernise Tibet; to promote urbanisation and industry intended to have trickle-down
economic effects on rural areas.411 However, the concerns for Tibetans are that the influx
of Chinese workers will result in overcrowding, increased crime and Tibetans being
unable to compete for jobs. While the Chinese feel that great social and economic
progress has been made, some Tibetans feel differently, that development projects like the

409
G. Gyatso, Artist’s Talk, Asia Pacific Triennial, 2009.
410
Lustgarten, China's Great Train, 65.
411
Ibid., 124.
283

railway will result in further marginalisation for Tibetans.412 On the Buddha’s shoulder
(figs. 88, 89) is a collection of sign-posts which collectively read: “Choose the Right
direction?” The signage indicates a moral choice rather than merely compass points and is
suggestive of the labyrinth of political, social and consumer choices that must be
navigated in a globalised world.
Figure 88, Figure 89. Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express (detail)
However, while Gyatso expresses concern about the impact of globalisation and
commercialisation on Tibet, he also recognizes that the new train has brought benefits as
well.413 Indeed, it has allowed him to travel through the country of his birth, opening up
new vistas to drink in en route. As Simon White points out, we sense the ambivalence in
Gyatso’s work.414
Gyatso strives to show that the personal and the social are necessarily entwined.
Because a work of art is always interconnected with its social and political environment,
he believes that artists can create original statements by actively incorporating elements
from their society into their art. In the catalogue essay for his Three Realms exhibition in
Brisbane, Savita Apte says that “[b]y accepting his historical moment, Gyatso creates
images of lasting importance that have their own intensity and their own moment.”415

412
Lustgarten. China's Great Train, 119.
413
G. Gyatso, Artist’s Talk, Asia Pacific Triennial, 2009.
414
Simon Wright. “Gonkar’s Pop Candy.” Gonkar Gyatso: Three Realms, exhibition catalogue (Brisbane:
Griffith University Art Gallery, University of Queensland Art Museum, 2012, 26–33), 31.
415
Savita Apte. “Gonkar Gyatso: Disconnected, Displaced, Dispossessed, and Still Reaching for the Sky.”
Gonkar Gyatso: Three Realms, exhibition catalogue (4–9).
284

While Gyatso’s work has most relevance for his native land of Tibet, it also has a broader
message regarding globalisation.
Two exile artists who have taken a different approach to the idea of connection
with the land as part of Tibetan identity are Kesang Lamdark and Tenzing Rigdol.
As part of the Outdoor Special Projects component of the 2008 Shanghai
Contemporary Art Fair, Kesang Lamdark erected a 10,000 kilogram Tibetan boulder in
the grounds of the Shanghai Exhibition Centre. The artist arranged for the boulder to be
brought from Tibet by truck to the site in Shanghai. The popular Buddhist mantra “Oṃ
mani padme hum”416 was carved into the rock and it was then covered in a pink plastic
sheet which was melted with a heat gun. The result is Pink Himalayan Boulder (fig. 90).
Figure 90. Pink Himalayan Boulder, 2008,

Kesang Lamdark, boulder and melted plastic
(Shanghai Exhibition Centre)
H.G. Masters calls the work a “brutally iconic monument,”417 but he does not
expound on this. Certainly the scale of the work and the solidity of the stone are

416
Oṃ mani padme hum (jewel in the lotus) is the mantra of the Bodhisattva of Compassion,
Avalokiteśvara (Chenrezig). As mentioned in Chapter Three, mani stones are engraved with this mantra
and left in certain places by pilgrims and travellers after making their invocation to the deity who protects
them from danger (Tucci. Tibet, Land of Snows, 155, 159.)
417
H.G. Masters. “Kesang Lamdark, Where I work,” ArtAsiaPacific (Issue 90, Sep/Oct 2014),
http://artasiapacific.com/Magazine/90/KesangLamdark.
285

monumental, as are the Himalayas. Although the stone is not technically from the iconic
Himalayas but another mountain range further north, the Himalayas are synonymous with
Tibet. By using the appellation ‘Himalayan’ in the title, the work becomes a symbol of the
land of Tibet without explicitly stating the brutal truths. The boulder had to be smuggled
from a part of Eastern Tibet which is now included in Sichuan Province, an endeavour
made more dangerous because of the ongoing precarious political situation regarding
Tibet’s status within China. A work was entitled ‘Tibetan’ Boulder would simply be
asking for trouble. As Lamdark explains:
The origin of the PHM [Pink Himalayan Boulder]is in Garze (Ganzi). Garze is my
fathers hometown in East Tibet. The Garze area is under heavy military control. So
the uploading on the truck had to take place at night time. The truck got to a police
control in Luho (next town). They asked “what are you doing with the boulder? Its
forbidden to bring a boulder from Tibet to China.” A baksihs418 [sic] solved the
problem. …419
Figure 91. Pink Himalayan Boulder, 2008

(detail)
Then there was also the matter of the Shanghai Contemporary 08 censorship board
who questioned the meaning the engraving on the stone boulder (fig. 91). As Lamdark

418
Bakshish or baksheesh is a gratuity or bribe.
419
Kesang Lamdark. “ShContemporary08.” http://lamdark.com/shock.html (under “Galleries”).
286

recounts, the driver who delivered the boulder told the authorities that the words were an
old Chinese prayer written in the Tibetan language.420 In fact, the engraving of the mantra
“Oṃ mani padme hum” transforms the rock into a traditional Tibetan mani stone. In
Lamdark’s own words:
“Om ‘jewel in the lotus’” is an attempted free translation of this prayer.

The ‘jewel’ symbolizes the active male principle in creation and at the same time
signifies the ‘path’ that can be described as ‘loving kindness’. The ‘lotus’
symbolizes the passive female cosmic principle and signifies ‘the highest wisdom’.
Together they represent he fulfilment of the teachings.421
By engraving the boulder with the mantra, Lamdark achieves the dual purpose of
making a Buddhist or spiritual offering of his work, and stamping the work again as a
symbol of Tibetan identity. As mentioned in Chapter Three, Lamdark says that the rock
symbolises the Himalayas, the plastic the West and pink the colour of the artist. It is as if
Lamdark is wrapping himself around the boulder; although he lives in the West, his
intrinsic affinity is with the land of Tibet.
Tenzing Rigdol is another exile artist who has also explored the concept of
identification in the land and the earth. In October 2011, he erected a site-specific
installation in Dharamsala, India. The work, entitled Our Land Our People (fig. 92), took
seventeen months to bring to fulfilment and comprised twenty-two tons of soil which had
been transported from the Tibetan town of Shigatse in trucks through Nepal to India.
Rigdol’s journey to create this installation was recorded as a documentary film called
Bringing Tibet Home, directed by Rigdol’s friend and compatriot, Tenzin Tsetan Choklay.

420
Kesang Lamdark. “ShContemporary08.” http://lamdark.com/gall_shanghai_08.swf.
421
Ibid.
287

Figure 92. Our Land Our People, Tenzing Rigdol, October 2011, site specific installation, Dharamsala,
India, soil from Tibet, 13 x 13 m. Photograph by Bhuchung D. Sonam (Rossi & Rossi, London)
Rigdol spread the native soil over a forty-three foot square stage and invited
Tibetans in Dharamsala to walk on the earth, to write on it or to express their thoughts
and emotions at a microphone.422 The installation only lasted a few days and at the
conclusion the viewers and participants were allowed to take some of the soil with them
as a reminder of their ancestral and cultural homeland. Rigdol also presented a tray of soil
to the Dalai Lama who wrote in it the word Tibet in Tibetan script.
In creating this artwork, Rigdol was inspired by his late father’s unfulfilled wish to
see Tibet one more time.423 He says:
… I realised that there are many Tibetans like my father who couldn’t go back to
Tibet due to the political reasons and then I thought maybe I could bring Tibet or a
small part of Tibet to them … I made plans to transport 20,000 kilograms of soil
from Tibet to India, through Nepal. And the journey was a bit difficult and
dangerous one and altogether it took me about seventeen months and after crossing

422
Tenzing Rigdol and Tenzin Tsetan Choklay. Bringing Tibet Home. “The Artwork.”
www.bringingtibethome.com/artwork/.
423
Tenzing Rigdol, “Reimagining the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions: A Conversation.” Panel
discussion. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 7 March 2014 (metmuseum.org).
288

more than fifty checkpoints and border securities I managed to get the soil into
Dharamsala … I made a three-dimensional sculpture of a Tibetan flag which also
looked like a stage and laid the 20,000 kilograms of soil on top of it and had people
walk on it. And I also had a standing microphone in which they could say and share
whatever they feel while they were standing on the Tibetan soil.424
Dharamsala was chosen because, as Rigdol says, it is now a special place for
Tibetans. The Tibetan government in exile is located there as well as the residence of the
Dalai Lama.425 Because the majority of Tibetans in exile live in and around Dharamsala
it is there the work has the greatest real impact on Tibetan people as an interactive art
work. As Rigdol says:
There are many like my father, I think, who wanted to go back to Tibet. But then I
don’t want to equate the soil that I’ve brought as Tibet. But then I think once they
get on the soil it might somehow give them the idea of what they might feel in a
bigger proportion when they really go back in Tibet.426
While Rigdol says that he does not equate a quantity of soil with Tibet itself, the
fact that the artists are motivated and inspired by the physical earth of Tibet shows that
the affinity with the homeland is almost tangible. This affinity was shared by the Tibetans
in Dharamsala, many of whom were moved to tears by Rigdol’s installation.427
For the Tibetans in exile, it seems, contact with a physical piece of the land evokes
a longing, not just out of nostalgia, but for a part of themselves that is missing. The land
is part of their identity and without it they are not quite whole. Tibetans in exile live in
alien environments, whether it be Dharamsala, or the United States (in Rigdol’s case) or
Switzerland (in Lamdark’s case). Even for those who were born outside Tibet, as Tenzing
Rigdol was, the piece of native rock or soil expresses: this is me, this is where I come

424
Rigdol, “Reimagining the Indian and Tibetan Buddhist Traditions: A Conversation.”
425
Ibid.
426
Tenzing Rigdol. In Bringing Tibet Home, directed by Tenzin Tsetan Choklay, 2013.
427
Bringing Tibet Home, Tenzin Tsetan Choklay, 2013.
289

from. Note that Rigdol says “when” not “if” the Tibetans in Dharamsala go back to Tibet,
indicating that Tibet will always be considered home for the exiles.
Yet the Tibet portrayed by the artists in Lhasa is not one that these Tibetans exiles
would be familiar with. Although they don’t realise it, Tibet is now an alien place, one
which the Lhasan artists have evolved with. Ironically, for many exiles, Tibet has now
become their unreachable Shangri-La.
Figure 93, Figure 94, Figure 95, Figure 96, Figure 97, Figure 98, Our Land Our People, Tenzing Rigdol,
2011, (Bringing Tibet Home, directed by Tenzin Tsetan Choklay, 2013)

28:

In this chapter I have examined the way in which the iconography of Tibetan
geography and landscape is reinterpreted in contemporary Tibetan art. The artists draw
from artistic traditions and folklore and use these devices to engage with themes of land
and myth to articulate modern socio-political realities surrounding identity and self-
determination. They reinterpret traditions by anthropomorphising the land of Tibet and
address global issues as well as issues that affect the land of Tibet. They use a number of
mediums and techniques from traditional paper and pigments to installations made from
rock and soil to challenge perceptions of Tibet and Tibetanness and present a vision of a
society in a state of transition, displaced affected by myriad influences of globalisation. In
these different ways, the artists deconstruct and reconstruct artistic traditions and reclaim
ownership of the visual depiction of Tibet and Tibetan identity.

291

Chapter 5. A New Aniconism – Allegory
So far I have examined the reinterpretation by Tibetan contemporary artists of
iconic elements of Tibetan visual culture; the figurative elements and depictions of the
Buddha and deities, and use of traditional Tibetan iconography. We have seen that
traditional Tibetan art is underpinned by philosophical concepts portrayed in narrative
and allegorical ways. In this chapter I will consider works that draw on Buddhist concepts
without portraying the deities usually depicted in traditional Tibetan art. I draw an
analogy between these works and the aniconic Buddhist art which, it is generally believed,
preceded the development of the anthropomorphic representation of the Buddha figure in
the second century CE.
As Klemens Karlsson explains it, while aniconic art can just mean non-figurative
art, in traditional Buddhist art it refers to the absence of the Buddha in human form, but
otherwise the art is fully figurative.428 According to Karlsson there was a transformation
of aniconic art consisting of auspicious signs into Buddhist aniconic art. These auspicious
signs, such as the wheel (cakra; khor-lo in Tibetan), footprints (buddhapāda) (fig. 99),
sacred trees, and lotus flowers, were transformed into compositions representing the
Buddha in a narrative context without
representing his human form.429
Figure 99. Buddhapāda (Buddha’s footprints)

with Dharmacakra (wheel of law), svastika and
other auspicious symbols, stone bas-relief, 2nd
century C.E., Amarāvatī, India,
(Government Museum, Madras, India)

428
Klemens Karlsson. Face to Face with the Absent Buddha, the formation of Buddhist Aniconic Art
(Doctoral thesis) Uppsala University, Stockholm, 2000, 19.
429
Ibid., 167 & 193.
292

In this chapter I propose that the Tibetan contemporary artists continue the practice
of aniconism from traditional Tibetan Buddhist art. This practice results in works that
express Buddhist metaphysical and philosophical concepts without however, making
direct reference to any of the Buddhist deities. Using a range of different mediums and
techniques, the works are sometimes abstract, sometimes figurative, and synthesise the
ideas of Western conceptual art. Yet the ideas expressed in metaphorical or allegorical
ways, are rooted in Buddhist and Tibetan culture. While the exile artists often use these
symbols to explore the vicissitudes of a hybrid life in the West, the Lhasan artists create
hybrid allegories representing the erosion of Tibetan culture.
Aniconic Art in Exile – Conceptual Art
Figure 100. My Exilic Experience, 2011, Tenzing Rigdol, subway maps, fabrics and scriptures,
Two panels 91.5 x 61 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)
In the work My Exilic Experience (fig. 100), Tenzing Rigdol references the
buddhapāda to engage with issues of identity as a Tibetan in exile. Rigdol utilises his
familiar collage techniques combining Tibetan scriptures and brocade fabric. The work
incorporates the symbol of the footprint as a cultural symbol of Tibetan identity. Rigdol
293

has fashioned the brocade fabric and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority subway
map of New York to form footprints. The background is completely covered with Tibetan
scriptures and, as mentioned in Chapter Three, Rigdol uses the Tibetan script as a sign of
Tibetan identity, a written language that unites Tibetans.430
According to the aniconic theory of early Buddhist art, the footprints of the
Buddha were used to symbolise the presence of the historical Buddha in a visual
narrative.431 Buddhist legend tells that shortly before the Buddha died, he went to
Kusinara in India and stood upon a stone with his face to the south. He is said to have left
an impression of his feet on the stone as a souvenir to posterity.432 David Snellgrove says
that footprints were originally used in Buddhist art to indicate the Buddha’s personal
presence in biographical or legendary scenes but soon became independent cult
objects.433 Certainly the symbol is ubiquitous and found all over the Buddhist world, from
Sri Lanka to Tibet. We can find the use of footprints to represent the historical Buddha in
Tibetan thangkas that date from at least the tenth or eleventh century.434 In Tibetan
traditional art the footprint motif has not only been used to denote the presence of the
Buddha but also certain revered lamas.435 It is understood that the footprint of a lama
stamped with the cakra symbol indicates the lama’s Buddha nature.436 As Amy Heller
states, “… it is as if the person is there. By placing the footprints, it is the presence of the
lama himself.”437
In Rigdol’s work the footprint, while alluding to the buddhapāda, is about himself
and his own journey. He says: “The map questions my journey as a Tibetan living away

430
Dhondup Tashi Rekjong. “The New Face of Tibet,” Darkness into Beauty exhibition catalogue (London:
431
43). See also Bunce, A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 50.
432
Meher McArthur, Reading Buddhist Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 2004), 121.
433
Snellgrove. The Image of the Buddha.
434
Pratapaditya Pal. Art of the Himalayas (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 1991), 142.
435
Amy Heller. Tibetan Art (Milan: Jaca Book, 1999) 84, and Pal, Art of the Himalayas, 174.
436
Pal, Art of the Himalayas 174; and Rhie and Thurman, The Sacred Art of Tibet, 250.
437
Heller. Tibetan Art, 84.
294

from his occupied country.”438 Ridgol has lived in New York for a number of years now
and it has become a formative place in his journey as an artist and a person. However, he
remembers feeling very nervous when his uncle first taught him to navigate New York’s
subway system.439 He has used maps in a number of his collage works and they represent,
not only his negotiation of the space in which he lives, but also the ongoing negotiation of
the metaphysical space of his life and his identity as a Tibetan in exile. The footprints
indicate ‘presence’, like the footprints of lamas on traditional thangkas, In this case, it is
the artist’s own presence.
Rigdol’s work, My Exilic Experience, represents his early attempts to come to
terms with the new and complicated social rituals and technologies of the West. The
subway map is representative of the larger journey taken by Rigdol and other members of
the Tibetan diaspora, as well as the daily negotiation of New York city. Losang Gyatso,
who is another artist living in the United States and has collaborated with Tenzing Gyatso
on art projects, has articulated the process of negotiating one’s identity. He believes
Tibetans are:
… negotiating our own identities, finding, negotiating the changes happening to

Tibetan society inside Tibet and outside Tibet we’re all living, no matter where
we are in the world, we’re negotiating our own identities and I think art and
literature, films, can play a very productive creative role in creating spaces that
don’t exist in reality but spaces for us to consider and then can choose whether to
subscribe to them or not.440
In terms of Homi Bhabha’s hybridity theory, these are the ‘in-between spaces’ and
borderline engagements of cultural difference that challenge our definitions of tradition

438
Tenzing Rigdol. “Art. New Occupation,” by Zeenat Nagree, Mumbai Time Out, 18–31 March, 2011, 76.
439
Ibid.
440
Losang Gyatso. Interview by Sominetta Ronconi. Tibet Art Now (TAN) exhibition, Amsterdam, June
2009. www.tibetartmovement.com/tan/interview.htm.
295

and modernity.441 These contemporary Tibetan artists are working at the boundaries of
both Tibetan and Western culture. They inhabit the spaces where they must reconcile
their ethnic roots and cultural traditions with another culture and other traditions. They go
from being neither one nor the other to both; keeping, and at the same time, dispelling
otherness. For Bhabha, the social articulation of difference for cultural sub-groups, is a
complex on-going negotiation through which cultural hybridities emerge.442 Bhabha
presupposes that there has already been a move away from classification based on single
essential characteristics, and toward myriad contextual circumstances and histories “that
inhabit any claim to identity in the modern world.”443 The traditional component is only
a partial form of identification. In this context, by reiterating traditions, such as traditional
art forms and iconography, new cultural temporalities are introduced into the invention of
tradition. By reconstructing Tibetan iconography, artistic traditions are reinscribed. The
traditions are extended, new meanings are added, and the visual language endures,
translated into a new era.
My Exilic Experience is not only a conceptual synthesis of metaphors from
Tibetan tradition and Western modernity. The synthesis extends to his materials. Rigdol’s
use of the brocade fabric, which we see in many of his paintings, is not a merely aesthetic
device. Brocade and other rich fabrics have long played an important role in Tibetan
visual culture and religious life, including for robes, drapery and thangkas made from
appliqué and embroidery.444 Rigdol fuses the traditional Tibetan thangka materials with
modern Western art techniques and images to express the artist’s own hybrid identity and
the metaphysical road travelled from Tibet to the West. He draws on the age-old aniconic
device of the buddhapāda footprint, which could be said to carry his genetic code. But

441
Homi Bhabha. The Location of Culture. (London: Routledge, 1995,) 1–2.
442
Ibid., 2.
443
Ibid., 1.
444
Valrae Reynolds. “Ritual Textiles,” in Art of the Himalayas by Pratapaditya Pal,106; and Tenzin Gyltsen
Ghadong, interview with author (Palpung Sherabling Monastry, India, 17 November 2010).
296

this is only his partial identity. Another, equally important part, on which his identity is
charted, is the map of New York.
Kesang Lamdark has also experimented with aniconic symbols of Buddhist art.
Just as he reinterpreted Buddhist deities in works such Pink Tara and Blue Tara, Lamdark
reinterprets aniconic Buddhist iconography using modern materials and techniques as
well as modern Western art ideas, particularly in his series of Wheel sculptures.
The wheel is another important aniconic symbol from early Buddhist art. It is one
of the eight sacred symbols associated with the Buddha and is often found painted on the
door and gates of Tibetan monasteries.445 It refers to the Buddha’s first sermon or
discourse at Deer Park in Sarnath, India. This sermon, considered to be the third great
event of the Buddha’s career after his birth and enlightenment, is referred to as the first
turning of the wheel of the law (dharma). As an architectural ornament, the Wheel of
Law is almost always shown in Tibet flanked by two deer-like animals recalling the
sermon in the Deer Park446 (fig. 101).
Figure 101. Dharma wheel flanked by deer, c.

14th century, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa (Larsen
& Sinding-Larsen, The Lhasa Atlas. 2001,
114–115.)

Figure 102. Limestone relief with dharmacakra,

2nd century C.E., Amarāvatī, India
(Doris Weiner Collection, New York)

445
Pal. Art of the Himalayas, 184.
446
Valrae Reynolds, From the Sacred Realm, Treasures of Tibetan Art from The Newark Museum (Munich:
Prestel, 1999), 254
297

The wheel was originally the symbol of the universal ruler (cakravartin – ‘he who
sets the wheel in motion’) and, by analogy, associated with the Buddha as the spiritual
universal ruler. It is found engraved on depictions of the hand and footprints of the
Buddha, as marks that denote his identity as a cakravartin.447 In early Indian iconography
the wheel is found atop columns, for example, or above an empty throne surrounded by
worshippers or flanked by deer, or on a lotus pedestal and encircled by a halo448 (fig. 102).
As Buddhism developed and spread across Asia, the wheel came to symbolise the
Buddhist doctrine in general. The Tibetan wheel retains its significance as an emblem of
sovereignty and is thus associated with the empowerment of important lamas such as the
Dalai Lama.449 Its component parts also have their own symbolic meaning. The hub of
the wheel represents training in moral discipline, the spokes stand for the application of
wisdom in regard to emptiness with which ignorance is dispelled, and the rim denotes
training in concentration.450
Figure 103, Figure 104. Wheel (Pink) 2010, Wheel (Blue) 2011, Kesang Lamdark,
plastic, bicycle wheel, 123 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)

447
51; and Reynolds, From the Sacred Realm.
448
Snellgrove, The Image of the Buddha, 33, 417.
449
Reynolds, From the Sacred Realm.
450
Loden Sherap Dagyab Rinpoche. Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture (trans. Maurice Walshe) (Boston:
Wisdom Publications, 1995), 30.

298

In his works Wheel, 2010 and 2011 (figs. 103, 104), Lamdark has juxtaposed the
Dada concept of the ‘ready-made’ referencing Duchamp’s work The Bicycle Wheel, with
the seemingly contradictory concept of Buddhist symbolism.
The wheel is the most ubiquitous of Buddhist symbols, occurring in varied contexts
from the ornamental to the iconographic. It is symbolic of the dharma, the cycle of life or
saṃsāra, continuous change, rotation of the world, and absolute completeness.451 It is,
therefore, loaded with meaning. Conversely, the ready-made in Duchamp’s art involves
neutrality, banality and lack of meaning. Duchamp selected the wheel as an act of “visual
indifference”452 in a gesture designed to challenge the sanctity of art. Yet while these two
different uses of the ‘wheel’ seem to be diametrically opposed, there are interesting
convergences between them.
According to Octavio Paz: “[t]he practice of the ‘ready-made’ demands absolute
disinterest.”453 For him the ready-made is not only a semantic game, but also an ascetic
exercise, a means of purification and its goal is non-contemplation.454 Paz suggests the
ready-made is not an artistic act but an ‘art’ of interior liberation. Interestingly, Paz
invokes the Buddhist ‘Perfection of Wisdom’ sūtra and its concept of ‘emptiness’
(śūnyatā). ‘Emptiness’, he says, is what Duchamp calls the beauty of indifference and
what Paz himself sees as “freedom.”455
While Lamdark’s Wheel can be seen as a homage to Duchamp’s Bicycle Wheel
(1913), Lamdark does not portray the wheel as a neutral object but imbues it with
iconographic and philosophical significance. Lamdark’s anti-art tendency is directed at

451
Loden Sherap Dagyab Rinpoche. Buddhist Symbols in Tibetan Culture. Trans. Maurice Walshe (Boston:
Wisdom Publications, 1995), 31.
452
Marcel Duchamp. “Ready-Mades.” In Dada, art and anti-art by Hans Richter (New York: Harry N.
Abrams, Inc. 1965), 89.
453
Octavio Paz. “The Ready-Made.” In Marcel Duchmap in Perspective, edited by Joseph Masheck
(Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975, 84–89), 88.
454
Ibid., 88.
455
Ibid., 89.
299

the rejection of the traditional rules of design and construction, and the conventional
preciousness of the medium in Tibetan Buddhist art. It is a cakra deconstructed, stripped
of all decoration and context.
In keeping with his art practice Lamdark melds incongruous mediums and
materials by coating the wheel frame in melted plastic of Yves Klein Blue and Hot Pink.
It is the synthetic medium of a modern, consumer, throw-away culture. Maxwell Heller
suggests that the treatment with plastic and colour turns the bicycle wheels into dazzling
pop-art maṇḍalas which degrade a sacred image at the same time as elevating a discarded
wheel, and turns religious objects into toys.456
However, as we saw with regard to the Pink and Blue Taras, the nature of the
medium is not necessarily the best indicator of importance of a work. Even though
traditional religious artworks are indeed usually made of precious materials, for Lamdark,
an artwork is really only made precious by the user or worshipper.457 Even if a statue is
made of gold, it is only a hunk of metal without the value placed on it by the viewer. It is
only a matter of perception. In the case of the ‘ready-mades’, although they consist of
mundane objects, their value and importance are immediately elevated by the act of
designating them as art and placing them in a museum or gallery. While the gallery or
museum audience does not necessarily worship the objects of art, they are there to admire
them and to be lifted temporarily from the mundanity of their own lives while they are
inspired by beauty or contemplate the higher questions posed by art.
Lamdark repeats the gesture of the ‘ready-made’ with an entirely found object in
the form of a ragged umbrella, which invokes the Buddhist iconography of the parasol
(chatra) representing nobility of birth and protection. People of wealth and high rank

456
Maxwell Heller. “Grave Sarcasm: The Work of Kesang Lamdark.” In Kesang Lamdark, Son of a
Rimpoche (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2011, 5–16), 10.
457
Ng.” In Plastic Karma (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2008, 6–9), 9.
29:

were protected against rain and sun with parasols which were usually carried by servants,
or in the case of an important lama, by monks of a lower order.458 This symbol is also
associated with the Buddha in aniconic Buddhist art. We can see, for example in a second
century limestone relief from the Amarāvatī Stupa in India (fig. 105), the parasol
suspended over a throne under a Boddhi tree. The throne, tree and parasol all, separately
and collectively, represent the Buddha. The Boddhi tree alludes to the circumstance of his
enlightenment, and the throne and parasol point to the exalted status of the Buddha and
his doctrine. The parasol further represents protection from evil.459

Figure 105. Parasol, throne, boddhi tree and footprints,

representing the Buddha. 2nd century C.E. Limestone bas relief,
from Amarāvatī Stupa, Andhra Pradesh, India. (British Museum,
London)
Figure 106. Umbrella, 2011, Kesang Lamdark,

umbrella and plastic, 112 x 90 x 70 cm

458
Meher McArthur, Reading Buddhist Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 2004), 119.
459
Bunce. A Dictionary of Buddhist and Hindu Iconography, 23, 59, 105.
2:1

In Lamdark’s Umbrella (fig. 106) aesthetics and form are subordinated to the idea,
and even the most humble of materials may support a philosophical concept. In the end,
Lamdark detaches from and is disinterested in the preciousness of materials. Because all
phenomena are ‘empty’ in Buddhist thought, the nature of the object is irrelevant, their
essence is the same.
As we have seen in earlier chapters, Lamdark continually seeks to experiment
with seemingly incongruous materials and techniques. His works, which he likens to
“little shrines,”460 mark his life journey which is itself an incongruous mix of influences
and experiences of places and cultures. His work can be seen as an unlikely hybrid of
Dada and Buddhist philosophy, yet it is perhaps not as unlikely as it would first seem.
Another artist who has reinterpreted the auspicious symbol of the parasol or
umbrella is Palden Weinreb. In many ways his work represents a significant departure
from most of the works examined here. Weinreb is one of the few contemporary Tibetan
artists to work in a much more abstract art style. However, Weinreb’s art practice also
engages with his cultural and religious heritage.
Weinreb was born in 1982 in New York to a mother who was one of the first
Tibetans to be granted asylum in the city and a Jewish-American father who had
embraced Tibetan Buddhism. He is thus of the second-generation of Tibetan exiles, born
outside Tibet in a city which is an icon of Western modernity in terms of art, cultural
diversity and human endeavour. Weinreb graduated from Skidmore College in 2004 with
a degree in studio art. He employs modern technology and electronic medium combined
with conventional materials to produce abstract work.
Weinreb’s journey is a true hybrid one. He is a product of two diasporas yet at
home in a dynamic Western society. Although his work is abstract and has reached a

460
Ng.” In Plastic Karma (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2008, 6–9), 9.
2:2

stage far beyond the imagery of Tibetan traditions, nevertheless his art practice draws
from his Tibetan collective consciousness.
Weinreb uses such mediums as graphite and encaustic on paper or board,
plexiglass, silverpoint and lithograph, as well as light sources. He utilises digital tools to
produce harmonious abstract works of line and contour. The form of Untitled (Parasol),
2007 (fig. 107), seems to hover in space. Its organic shape seems to contain life. It pulses
and floats in an oceanic void like a jellyfish.
Figure 107. Untitled (Parasol) 2007,

Palden Weinreb, lithograph, 112 x 71 cm
At first glance Weinreb’s work appears to consist totally of geometric abstraction,
an exploration of the harmony of line, and does not seem to possess any of the features
one would normally identify with Tibetan art, traditional or contemporary. Nevertheless,
according to the artist, his Tibetanness and Tibetan Buddhism play important roles in his
work:
While trying to find my voice as an artist, I was frustrated, both by my struggle to

identify that voice, and because my efforts in finding it did not gain direction. I
decided to stop forcing myself toward a false creativity, and to let go of my
preconceived notions of what creation is. I was dealing with Buddhist themes at
the time - absolving oneself of samsara; losing a sense of desire in a culture
2:3

dependant upon it; attaining nothingness. As I lost faith in my understanding of

creation, one day I began a series of work out of sheer desperation. I began to
recite a mantra. Recording my meditation in a continuous motion, I moved my
pencil in accordance with the syllables I recited. Reaching a meditative state, I
was able to clear my mind of everything. What I was left with was a path drawn to
that state, essentially a path to nothingness.461
Weinreb’s words resonate strongly with the traditional Tantric texts in the sense
of contemplation of the void (nothingness or ‘emptiness’) and creation, the essence of the
universe, saṃsāra and meditation on a mantra. Looking closely at Weinreb’s work we
identify the hypnotic intoning of a mantra at work. The works themselves become a kind
of maṇḍala, built up of a mantra chanted over thousands of times until it becomes wholly
subsumed in the emerging forms. The process and purpose for the practitioner to intone
various mantras, or seed syllables, is described in the Tantras, for example: “In his own
heart he imagines the syllable RAM and a solar disk arising from it, and then upon that
syllable HŪM, the nature of which is Wisdom and Means.”462
It appears as though Weinreb has captured the essence of the creative process, not
by conscious thought or deliberate action but by direct communication with the inner void
inside his heart or consciousness, and the drawings are a recording of his meditation. In
the catalogue essay for Weinreb’s 2010 exhibition The World is Flat, H.G. Masters says
that Weinreb’s works need to be viewed patiently and repeatedly.463 By taking time over
these works one can allow oneself to be absorbed into the subtle constructions and
gradations until viewing the works becomes a mantra to the viewer. The mantra transfers
from artist to viewer via the work of art.

461
Palden Weinreb. “Palden Weinreb (artist's statement).” Mechak Center for Contemporary Tibetan Art.
www.mechak.org/palden_weinreb_portfolio.html.
462
Hevajra Tantra, Part I, Chapter iii, verse 5.
463
H.G. Masters. “Catalogue Essay.” In This World is Flat, Palden Weinreb (London: Rossi & Rossi, 2010,
7–11), 8.
2:4

Masters states that Weinreb’s works are “primarily concerned with the subtle
construction of optical space by the gradation or absence of lines and the formal play of
repeating shapes.”464 Weinreb creates the illusion not only of three-dimensional space but
also of movement, for example in the works Flow (fig. 108). Like a mantra that flows
through the imagined channels of the mind or body, Weinreb’s drawings seem to breathe
in and out, and the air or space seems to flow like a ribbon of water, endlessly, this way
and that, with no beginning or end. The gradations of the lines form organic shapes which
ripple in their fluidity. They are as hypnotic and demulcent as the repeated syllables of a
mantra.
Figure 108. Flow, 2011, Palden Weinreb,

graphite on paper, 152.5 x 101.5 cm
Figure 109. Untitled (Oscillate), 2011, Palden Weinreb.

Graphite and encaustic on board, diameter 61 cm
Clare Harris observes that Weinreb’s artworks often appear to play with the
relationship between two and three dimensions, as he delineates form that appears to
hover in an indeterminate space.465 In the work Untitled (Oscillate) (fig.109) Weinreb

464
H.G. Masters, “Catalogue Essay.” This World is Flat.
465
Clare Harris. “Catalogue Essay.” In Generation Exile – Exploring New Tibetan Identities, Palden
2:5

employs the geometric shapes more reminiscent of a cakra or maṇḍala combined with his
distinctive mantra-like fluidity. The form appears like a globe, hovering in space. It is at
once a hologram, a helix, a radiating sun, a plenum, space filled with matter. The eye is
constantly lured to the centre back. It seems to oscillate, like breathing, like a meditation.
Weinreb’s art recalls the virtual movement of the Kinetic art of Victor Vasarely,
particularly his geometric abstractions of the 1960s. This ‘virtual movement,’ which
imposes itself on the viewer is more than the mere suggestion of movement of traditional
art. For Vasarely, who was preoccupied with wave vibrations, the notion of movement
was inseparably linked with that of spatial illusion: “By virtue of the opposing
perspective these positive and negative elements alternately arouse and dispel a ‘sense of
space’, an illusion of movement and duration.”466 In Weinreb’s work it is the alternate
line and non-line in intricate precision that provides the positive and negative elements
that create the same illusion of movement and duration. His ellipses also recall the
spiralling patterns of Marcel Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs and interest in optical illusion.
The works contain a quality of harmony, symmetry, fluidity and ethereality. As
deconstructed maṇḍalas, cakras and visual mantras it is easy to conceive of their ability
to invoke peacefulness and tranquility in the viewer who meditates upon them. As we saw
in Chapter Two, the diagrammatic elements of the maṇḍala are important in Tibetan
Buddhist Tantric practices and visual culture. The Tantras also place great importance on
the mantra, the recitation of special syllabic symbols to evoke the deity from the essential
and infinite space within one’s own consciousness. The meditator thus visualises the deity
and concentrates on the deity’s mystical syllable which gives rise to the image within
him.467 Each deity has his own mantras and there are many different mantras for different

466
Frank Popper. Origins and Development of Kinetic Art. Translated by Stephen Bann (London: Studio
Vista, 1968), 96, 101.
467
2:6

purposes and stages of ritual. Whilst many of the contemporary Tibetan artists have
deconstructed and reconstructed the maṇḍala form and cosmology, Palden Weinreb is a
contemporary Tibetan artist whose work could be said to embody the visual mantra.
Clare Harris likens Weinreb’s precision to the strict lines necessary for producing
the traditional maṇḍala: “Since the maṇḍala is essentially a reconstruction of the cosmos,
there was no room for error when Tibetan monk-artists created such potent diagrams.
Like Weinreb, they knew that each individual component of an image had to be perfect
since they were ultimately replicating the sublime, transcendent form of the universe.”468
As aniconic art for the twenty first century, Weinreb’s forms act like visual mantras and
seem to contain the universe within them or as Weinreb states “the path to nothingness.”
Śūnyatā or ‘emptiness’ (or ‘nothingness’), a concept concerning the reality of
existence, is one of the most fundamental and esoteric concepts in Tibetan (Mahāyāna)
Buddhist philosophy.469 In the work This is Not a chair, 2008 (fig. 110) Tenzing Rigdol
delves into this esoteric principle in the language of contemporary art and invites the
viewer to ponder the nature of existence and reality in the space of an art gallery.
The work consists of an ordinary freestanding, folding chair covered in Buddhist
scriptures; an assisted ‘ready-made’ if you will. The title for his works echoes the witty
intellectualism of René Magritte’s famous graffito Ceci n’est pas une pipe (This is not a
pipe). At the same time, with the object of a chair, Rigdol acknowledges Joseph Kosuth’s
conceptual artworks. But underlying both these gestures is the reference to Buddhist
philosophy and the concept of śūnyatā.

468
Clare Harris. “Catalogue Essay.” In Generation Exile – Exploring New Tibetan Identities, Palden
469
In Tibetan Buddhist terms, the reality of phenomena is created by our perceptions and consciousness,
whereas all phenomena are empty of existing independently. “Inherent existence is not apprehended to exist
by any valid perception or state of mind. It is from this point of view that we speak of the self of
phenomena and the self of a person as not existing.” (Tsultim Gyeltsen (Geshe). Mirror of Wisdom -
Teachings of Emptiness. Translated by Lotsawa Tenzin Dorjee (Long Beach, California: Thubten Dgargye
Ling Publications, 2000), 110.)
2:7

Figure 110. This is Not a Chair, 2008,

Tenzing Rigdol, chair and scriptures
Magritte’s work La Trahison des images (1928–9) depicting a pipe and the
inscription, “This is not a pipe,” raises questions about the relationship of images to the
things they represent. In particular, the question is raised about the way meaning is
conveyed, or blocked, by symbols.”470 Magritte’s title, The Treachery of Images, suggests
betrayal and deceit. Rigdol’s work goes even further in its epistemological and
ontological exploration, not just of our perception of the world - which as Magritte
declared, is false - but into the very nature of being and existence.
Buddhism’s very particular and radical stance on reality and perception takes
Magritte’s treatise a step further. For this work is not a picture of a chair but an actual
chair; at least it is the thing that we perceive and label as a chair. So then how can it be
said to not be (a chair)? As it is normally stated in Buddhist thought: nothing exists from
its own side and everything is subject to dependant origination.471 In other words the
existence of phenomena is causal rather than springing spontaneously into existence. So
when Rigdol says ‘this is not a chair’ he means that it is not a chair because, according to
Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, it is empty of inherent or objective existence. It is

470
Robert Hughes. The Shock of the New, Art and the Century of Change (London: Thames and Hudson,
1991), 244.
471
Jeffrey Hopkins. Emptiness Yoga, The Tibetan Middle Way (Ithaca, N.Y.: Snow Lion Publications,
1995), 78.
2:8

interconnected to and dependent upon other phenomena. In terms of Buddhist philosophy,
the work can be read as a modern visual form of the traditional Buddhist parables which
used similes to help to explain esoteric concepts such as the interconnectedness of things
and emptiness of existence.472
The Buddhist Lankavatara Sūtra473 is a discourse on the false appearance of
things, the nature of consciousness and how the mind creates a false dualistic experience
of self and the world.474 According to the sūtra, objects in themselves are neither in
existence nor in non-existence and are quite devoid of the alternatives of being and non-
being (duality). Rather, there is but one common essence. Only by casting off notions of

472
The Questions of King Milinda is a Buddhist text dating from before the early fifth century which
consists of the discussion of Buddhist doctrine treated in the form of conversations between a certain King
Milinda and Nâgasena, a Buddhist sage (Muller & Davids 1996). In one dialogue the Nâgasena explains the
nature of existence and emptiness of phenomena to King Milinda using the simile of a chariot:
(King Milinda to Nâgasena): ‘Then thus, ask as I may, I can discover no Nâgasena. Nâgasena is a mere
empty sound. Who then is the Nâgasena that we see before us? …
And the venerable Nâgasena said to Milinda the king: …‘How then did you come, on foot, or in a
chariot?’
‘I did not come, Sir, on foot. I came in a carriage.’
‘Then if you came, Sire, in a carriage, explain, to me what that is. Is it the pole that is the chariot?’
‘I did not say that.’
‘Is it the axle that is the chariot?’
‘Certainly not.’
‘Is it the wheels, or the framework, or the ropes, or the yoke, or the spokes of the wheels, or the
goad, that are the chariot?’
And to all these he still answered no.
‘Then is it all these parts of it that are the chariot?’
‘No, Sir.’
‘But is there anything outside them that is the chariot?’
And still he answered no.
‘Then thus, ask as I may, I can discover no chariot. Chariot is a mere empty sound. What then is
the chariot you say you came in? It is a falsehood that your Majesty has spoken, an untruth! There is no
such thing as a chariot! …
And Milinda the king replied to Nâgasena, and said: ‘... It is on account of its having all these
things – the pole, and the axle, the wheels, and the framework, the ropes, the yoke, the spokes, and the goad
– that it comes under the generally understood term, the designation in common use, of “chariot.”’
‘… Your Majesty has rightly grasped the meaning of “chariot.” And just even so it is on account of all
those things you questions me about – the thirty-two kinds of organic matter in a human body, and the five
constituent elements of being – that I come under the generally understood term, the designation in
common use, of “Nâgasena” …
(Muller, F. Max, ed. The Questions of King Milinda. Sacred Books of the East. Translated by T.W. Rhys
Davids (1890) (Delhi: D.K. Publishers, 1996), 43–45.
473
The Lankavatara Sūtra is one of the major texts of Mahāyāna Buddhism, written some time before the
5th century (D.T. Suzuki 2005, xv). It is referred to by the Tibetan monk Bu Ston in his History of
Buddhism in India and Tibet in the 13th century (Bu-ston (1290-1364). The History of Buddhism in India
and Tibet. Translated by E. Obermiller (Delhi: Winsome Books, 2005), 158, 162.
474
2:9

oneness and otherness, being and non-being, can one realise wisdom and ultimate
reality.475 In the chapter on “False-Imagination and Knowledge of Appearance” it is
explained that the objective world rises from the mind itself and that, in fact, the whole
mind-system arises from the mind itself.476 All things are like māyā (illusion).477
This notion is not exclusive to Buddhist thought; indeed Kant followed a similar
train of thought. For example, in The Critique of Pure Reason he says “Still less must
phenomenon and appearance be held to be identical. For truth or illusory appearance
does not reside in the object, in so far as it is intuited, but in the judgement upon the
object, in so far as it is thought.”478 According to Kant, the outer world causes only the
matter of sensation, but the mental apparatus orders this matter in space and time, and
supplies the concepts by means of which we understand experience. Perception is
subjective, therefore things in themselves, which are the causes of our sensations, are
unknowable.479 Thus our vision of the world does arise from the mind itself and therefore
we cannot know what the world objectively looks like independently of the interpretive
schemas we use to order our sensory experience.
Conceptual artist, Joseph Kosuth, echoes Kant’s view: “The accuracy in which we
perceive the world directly corresponds to the perceptivity of our apparatus; thus, the
entire base of our knowledge exists entirely on a projection, empirically based on a
general idea we have acquired through experience of what seems to be and what seems
not to be. All thought or knowledge or ‘truth’ is man-made.”480 In his work One and
Three Chairs, Kosuth explores the nature of things and appearances, presenting a chair, a

475
D.T. Suzuki (trans.) The Lankavatara Sūtra, An Epitomized Version (Varanasi: Pilgrims Publishing,
2005), 8–13.
476
“The objective world, like a vision, is a manifestation of the mind itself.” Ibid., 10.
477
Ibid., 8.
478
Immanuel Kant. The Critique of Pure Reason, The Critique of Practical Reason, and other ethical
treatises (Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1952), 108.
479
Bertrand Russell. History of Western Philosophy (London: Unwin Univeristy Books, 1980), 680.
480
Joseph Kosuth. Art After Philosophy and After: Collected Writings, 1966-1990 (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1991), 4.
2::

photograph of a chair and a definition of a chair in words. Rigdol’s work of a chair which
declares that it is not a chair, provides the final element in Kosuth’s equation. Rigdol
sought to explore whether the perception of an object could be changed by an
intervention. He says:
I wondered if I could change the functionality of a clearly defined object by adding

other values to it. In this case, I covered the chair with Tibetan Buddhist scriptures
and asked myself if this could still be a chair? Perhaps it is a chair which one
cannot use to sit on, or maybe someone can sit on it while others cannot, depending
on their own mental disposition.481
The object chosen by Rigdol for his work, a chair, is an apposite ready-made; it is
neutral, it has no special significance in Tibetan or Buddhist iconography, it is an
everyday object like thousands of others. In this analysis it could be substituted for any
other everyday neutral object without having the slightest effect on the implication of the
work. It is merely an exemplar for all things, all phenomena.
Through the medium of the neutral object of the ‘ready-made’ and the idea behind
the ‘treason’ or illusion of images, Rigdol’s work becomes the contemporary vehicle for
the contemplation of ‘emptiness’ and highest reality according to Buddhist thought.
While the Buddhist scriptures tell us that the higher reality of ‘emptiness’ cannot be
expressed in words, Rigdol attempts to express the concept through art. The true essence
of the object is depicted by the scriptures with which it is covered. The scriptures become
a metaphor for ‘emptiness’ like aniconic Buddhist symbols.
Lhasa - Allegory
A number of contemporary artists in Lhasa also explore the possibilities of
conceptual art and allegory. They too produce art works with underlying Tibetan Buddhist
concepts without resort to depictions of deities to communicate these themes. However,

481
Art Tattler. “The Experiments, Philosophies, and Politics of Tenzing Rigdol.” 2009.
http://arttattler.com/archivetenzingrigdol.html.
311

while the Tibetan contemporary artists in the disapora are reflecting on the contemporary
relevance of Buddhist concepts in a Western context, the focus of the artists in Lhasa is,
instead, on the erosion of culture in their society and homeland.
Harnessing the Buddhist concept of impermanence as an allegory of the erosion of
Tibetan culture, the Lhasan artist, Benchung, explored these themes in a video installation
work entitled Floating River Ice, 2003, (fig. 111). The work, employing multiple
monitors playing unsynchronised copies of the fifteen-minute long video, was exhibited
at the Scorching Sun of Tibet exhibition in Beijing in 2010. Benchung, who was once a
student of Gonkar Gyatso, attained his Masters degree in fine art at Oslo University,
Norway, where he met international artists and travelled to the art centres of Europe.
Consequently, he has been able to embrace the new mediums of Western contemporary
art in the pursuit of his own creative ideas.
Figure 111. Floating River Ice, 2003, Benching, video installation, 15 mins. Looped
In the work, Benchung is seen drawing patterns in chalk on the road of a Lhasa
intersection in the early morning. The patterns are based on a traditional ritual performed
at important moments or places such as on the ground before monastery gates for a high
312

Lama’s visit, or on the door of a house where a marriage takes place, to bestow luck and
good fortune.482 Traditionally, the eight auspicious symbols of Tibetan Buddhism,483
which, as mentioned above, have been used in aniconic Buddhist art, are painted in white
clay or limestone powder on the doors of gates, walls and on the road in ritually important
places. (fig. 112) Similarly, when a person dies symbols are drawn on the ground to take
the body from the home to the burial site while two lines of chalk are drawn along the
road from the door to the intersection to prevent evil spirits from crossing the path.484

Figure 112. Auspicious symbols on pavement,

Sherabling (Tibetan) monastery, Baijnath,
Himachal Pradesh, India, 2010)
Benchung chose the urban street location in Lhasa for the work because an
intersection represents danger, activity and change.485 At an intersection there is the
danger that your path will be intercepted from a number of other directions, which could
cause harm or otherwise affect your life. An intersection is also a place where one
changes direction. Benchung also chose this location because of its modernity and
universality. It is recognisable as a city intersection in any urban landscape. It is not the
old Lhasa of Western imagination or Tibetan memory, with mud or cobble streets and
dung daubed houses, but the new Lhasa with traffic lights, taxis and neon lit shops and

482
Benchung conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
483
Cakra (wheel), parasol or umbrella, lotus flower, conch shell, treasure vase, endless knot, pair of gold
fishes, banner of victory.
484
Heinrich Harrer. Lost Lhasa, Heinrich Harrer's Tibet (New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc., 1992), 200.
485
Benchung conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
313

restaurants. It is what Lhasa has become.486 The contemporary urban setting throws into
higher relief the tradition and technique of the painting of the auspicious symbols: the old
and new meeting at the crossroads. It is the fusion or hybridisation of traditional and
contemporary art techniques and concepts across boundaries of culture, time and space.
Benchung went to the intersection with a friend who helped film the process while
it was still dark, apart from the street-lights that can be seen reflected in the road surface
wet from rain. The film first captures Benchung drawing different patterns on the road,
both figurative and abstract. Over the course of the film the sun rises and the sky lightens
as vehicles cross the intersection and the patterns slowly disappear, eroded by the tyres of
the cars, by people crossing the road and by the rain. Eventually, it is not possible to
perceive what patterns were there.
Benchung was inspired by the traditional sand maṇḍala practice which is
undertaken slowly and carefully but destroyed in a ritual ceremony upon completion. He
says that although the sand maṇḍala technique and tradition is not the same as the ground
painting of auspicious symbols, the process is similar, its ceremonial destruction
emphasising the impermanent and ever-changing nature of things.487
The medium of video is not used in this work as a narrative tool but to express the
concept of time. The first phase of the film has an element of performance art with
Benchung drawing patterns in the half-light. There is something reminiscent of Hans
Namuth’s 1950 film of Jackson Pollock at work in Benchung’s gesture, as he bends his
body to apply his chalk to the road surface.
The film then transitions from performance into a work about time. Erosion,
change and decay normally happen so slowly that they are not perceivable to the eye and
therefore often go unnoticed or ignored. Benchung captures the process of change in this

486
Benchung, conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
487
Ibid.
314

work and it is projected back as art. The sense of change in the exposure of the erosion of
the patterns on the road is heightened by the transition of darkness to light, and the
endless looping of work reinforces this ongoing cycle of night and day. There is also the
sense of surveillance as Benchung goes about his work, surveillance of the city at night,
surveillance of a Chinese occupied Tibetan city, surveillance of time. Benchung utilises
multiple mediums of the road as a canvas, the chalk, himself in performance, as well as
the video camera. As a new artistic medium, video is said to be the ‘art of time’.488 It is
thus a medium which successfully delivers Benchung’s expression of the Buddhist
concept of impermanence and erosion of tradition. Moreover, like Gade’s Ice Buddha
Sculpture – Lhasa River (fig. 19), Benchung’s installation carries an undercurrent of
protest at the destruction of Tibetan society.
Benchung continued his exploration of impermanence in another video
installation work, Untitled 1, 2006 (fig. 113). In this work he explores this Buddhist
concept by recording the slow melting of butter on the window of a suburban train in
Norway. The butter is a staple of the traditional Tibetan diet so is used to represent
Tibetan culture, while the train represents time and movement. The butter is smeared on
paper and hung on the window of the train. The focus on the window is constant but the
backdrop is continually changing as the train moves. The backlit image first reveals the
hills outside Oslo, proceeds through the suburbs and under the city to the suburbs on the
other side. It is winter and behind the butter smeared paper the landscape rushes by,
voices are heard, stops are called and people board and alight the train. Benchung uses the
melting butter to demonstrate the process of change; the butter melts slowly, but outside
the speed of the train causes the landscape to change rapidly. As the butter melts the
paper starts to change and become translucent as it absorbs the butter and as the light

488
Michael Rush. Video Art (London: Thames & Hudson, 2003), 8.
315

changes. Benchung wanted to show the counterparts of control and lack of control in his
work, which he considers applies to life in general; either way change is a constant:
I use this because you know the butter melting, the process of changing and the
city on the subway the way of mindscape also changing – so this is the process of
changing very slowly. Because in the subway the heat is not very strong, warmer,
so slowly, but outside the speed of the subway the landscape changes quickly, so I
want to show control or uncontrol in my works. Like life, sometimes can control
and sometimes really cannot control. And also those works I got the idea from
Tibet and Buddhist philosophies, impermanence, changing.489
Figure 113. Untitled 1, 2006,

Benchung, video installation
(courtesy of the artist)
In Tibetan religious culture butter is used in monasteries to make sculptures, so
this material has a long-standing tradition in the Tibetan arts. However, the butter
sculptures of the monasteries are made with coloured butter and are designed to retain
their shape for an extended period of time. Benchung wanted to use the material in the
opposite way showing its perishable nature, as well as creating an abstract image rather
than a figurative work. In Benchung’s view, the mixing of colour with the butter changes
the butter into something else, whereas he wanted to focus on the butter itself and use it
as a metaphor.490 He wanted to use traditional materials to connect with his work but not
in a traditional way, in order to demonstrate the ephemeral nature of things. Again, any

489
Benchung. Conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
490
Ibid.
316

narrative in the work is subordinated to the conceptual aspect of time and change. Viewed
in this way the work is a cross-cultural synthesis of mediums and ideas expressing an
abstract concept of Buddhist philosophy drawn from the artist’s native culture to
substantiate its truth and relevance in a world that is changing at an ever more rapid pace.
Penpa is another artist from Lhasa who explores the Tibetan Buddhist view of the
human condition. For a number of years now, Penpa has been paring back his work in an
attempt to arrive at his essential core as an artist. While he used to work with a full colour
palette, he started to strip away layers by experimenting with black, white and primary
colours. Then, in his later work he went a step further by using the more reductive media
of pencil, ink and paper, and natural drawing techniques.491 Penpa has also returned to art
school a number of times in his artistic journey. Born in a village just outside Lhasa in
1974, he graduated from Hefei Normal University, Anhui, in 1995. Later, he attended
Tibet University art school in Lhasa from 1999 to 2003. When I met him in 2011, Penpa
had returned to Tibet University to compete a Masters degree. He is a member of the
progressive Gedun Choephel Artists Guild in Lhasa.
In a series of allegorical works entitled Five Subtle Desires (2010), which were
shown at the big Scorching Sun of Tibet exhibition in Beijing, Penpa uses the body to
portray abstract ideas. While Buddhist art, like Christian art, has a long tradition of using
allegory to express religious and philosophical concepts, Penpa’s works are unadorned
and do not rely on complex iconography. Instead, they are raw and undisguised in their
attempt to penetrate the heart of the matter. Penpa explores the causes of suffering
according to Buddhist philosophy and the constituents of body and mind known as the
five aggregates (skandha).492 In Buddhist thought the senses are the source of attachment
or desire, and as such contribute to the causal origination of suffering. The senses can be

491
Penpa. Conversation with author, Gedun Choephel Artists Guild, Lhasa. 2011.
492
317

attracted or repelled by worldly phenomena giving rise to positive or negative feelings.
Positive sensations lead to desire and attachment while negative ones intensify feelings of
desire in the opposite direction – the impulse to escape from negative feelings. This
produces an endless process of attraction and aversion, attachment, desire and craving
without satisfaction or peace. The kind of wisdom needed to remove the desires
associated with the five aggregates is clear insight into the true nature of things.493 In
Penpa’s Five Subtle Desires, he expresses his own version of the sense faculties by
depicting taste (flavour), body, sound, touch and smell, as a series of self-portraits.
Figure 114. Five Subtle Desires 1,

Flavor, 2010, Penpa
mixed media, 140 x 140 cm
In Five Subtle Desires 1, Flavor (fig. 114) Penpa portrays himself and his double
seated at a table one would find in a bar or restaurant, although in this instance the scene
appears more like a set of a theatre production with a backdrop depicting an abstract
version of snow mountains covered in Tibetan calligraphic script or scripture. We find
Penpa and his double at this table, dressed in jeans and boots and jackets, in the course of
a drinking spree. There are bottles of beer on the table and one of his selves is drinking

493
318

from a glass. The other self has passed out on the table, his bottle of beer a fallen soldier
like himself. The work depicts the sense desire of taste, the addictive nature of the senses
and the attachment to something imbibed. The substance of alcohol has the obvious
properties of intoxication and addiction, so the consequences of desire and attachment are
immediate to the viewer. Penpa says that the work is also about the social problems of
drinking.494 He believes that a person may have great potential, but in society the pressure
to conform or perform can result in the addiction to the gratification of the sense
desires.495 While the Buddhist view of the senses is part of the Tibetan culture, the work
makes obvious the universality of desire which applies to all things perceived through the
sense faculties.
Figure 115. Five Subtle Desires 2, Body

2010, Penpa, mixed media,
140 x 140 cm
Speaking about the second work of the series, Body (fig. 115), Penpa explained
that after looking at himself in the mirror he was reminded of a traditional Tibetan
proverb that says you need to have a good eye to look at other people, but to look at

494
Drinking and alcoholism are increasing problems in Tibet. Indeed, Nortse, has experienced an ongoing
battle with alcohol. The artists Yak Tseton and his brother Tsekal created an installation work out of beer
bottles, entitled Arak Stupa (2010), to highlight the problem. (Conversations with artists, Nyandak and
Nortse, Lhasa, 2010, 2011.)
495
Penpa, conversation with author, Lhasa, 2011.
319

yourself you need a celestial mirror. In other words, you need to see yourself through
others.496 In this work the artist is standing before a wall-mounted mirror wearing street
clothes of jeans and jacket, his long hair tied back in a pony-tail. His back is to the viewer
while his reflection in the mirror shows his face and front. However, his reflection in the
mirror is naked, lending a surreal aspect to the work, not unlike Magritte’s unexpected
twists and surprising disconnects.
In Penpa’s work the man standing before the mirror wears clothes to cover up his
real self. Penpa believes that you don’t show your real or true self when with other people,
the true self is masked while out in society. But underneath the outward show lies the true
self, the real person. It is the celestial mirror that reveals this clearly; the naked person is a
metaphor for the true self.497 With regard to the Buddhist concept of the ‘no-self’, the
work shows the person standing before the mirror as existing in the mundane reality
rather than the higher reality, while the self in the mirror, is naked, stripped down to its
essential higher reality essence. The Magrittism here is that we normally associate the
mirror with illusion, but in this case it is the mirror that contains the true self. The
celestial mirror reflects the state of ‘emptiness’.
In Five Subtle Desires 3, Sound (fig. 116) Penpa portrays himself on his knees
against an abstract backdrop of Tibetan calligraphy. His hair is loose and his mouth is
wide open as if emitting a cri de coeur, while he wrenches at his clothes. Penpa
completed this work at the time of the death of the musician Michael Jackson.498 The
portrayal of sound emanating from the artist’s mouth is that of grief and loss. Thus Penpa
portrays both aspects of attraction and aversion of sound; the pleasure of the sounds
created by Jackson and the loss of the same by his death. The futility of his scream for the
loss of his country echoes around the snow mountains formed by the Tibetan calligraphy.

496
Penpa, conversation with author, Lhasa 2011.
497
Ibid.
498
Ibid.
31:

Figure 116. Five Subtle Desires 3, Sound

2010, Penpa, mixed media, 140 x 140 cm
Figure 117. Five Subtle Desires 4, Touch

2010, Penpa, mixed media, 140 x 140 cm
For the depiction of the sense desire of Touch (fig. 117) Penpa portrays himself
seated on a stool with a globe of the earth clutched to his lap. His hair is tied back, he is
naked from the waist up and his jeans are undone. Before deciding how to accomplish the
work Penpa researched the word ‘touch’, as in the ‘sense of touch’, in the Tibetan
dictionary and noted a sexual element involved in the definition of the word. Following
321

this aspect of the sense of touch Penpa portrays himself as in the act of coitus with the
world, or even raping the earth.499 It symbolises the taking of the power of the world or
leaving an imprint by insemination on the earth, making a future mark on the planet. On a
political level Penpa suggests the work is an allegory for the possible situation of the
extinction of Tibetans as a race in greater China. In that eventuality there is also the fact
of an indelible impression left on the planet by them which will endure.500
Penpa feels that this is the most successful of the series in portraying the particular
sense desire. Of all the works in the series this one seems to function on the most levels.
It emphasises the importance of the sense of touch in the sex act and equates it to the
touching of the earth – something primordial. The work also equates the desire for sex
with the desire for power, for in both these instances the desire can be overpowering. As
much as they can lead to pleasure and accomplishment, they can also lead to destruction.
For the sense of Smell (fig. 118) Penpa portrays himself seated on a chair wearing
a gas-mask against a backdrop of the stylised snow
mountains of Tibet. While Tibet has been renowned
for its pristine atmosphere, there is increasing
pollution from industry and urbanisation brought by
Chinese occupiers and foreign investment. Although
Penpa does not consider himself a strict Buddhist, the
Buddhist ideas permeate his work.501 The work asks
how much of Tibet will survive for the next
generation.
Figure 118. Five Subtle Desires 5, Smell,

2010 Penpa, mixed media

499
Penpa, conversation with author, Lhasa 2011.
500
Ibid.
501
Ibid.
322

The works are crafted in pencil and ball point on canvas. They are monochromatic
with sketchy abstractions of Tibetan scriptures or calligraphy in each background. This
type of portraiture is not known in traditional Tibetan art. 502 Depictions of deities and
important religious persons abound, but they generally repeat standard characteristics as
identifiers, although there are many examples of the likeness of patrons being painted into
religious works.503 In his art practice Penpa wants to pursue a form of contemporary art
through personal narrative as a means to express himself and the broader ideas. The
medium of pencil gives the works a feeling of intimacy and rawness that enhances the
personal narrative as well as the allegorical portrayal of Buddhist and abstract concepts.
Figure 119. Letters, 2010, Nortse, installation, welded metal, earth, butter lamps, 180 x 85 cm, x 30
Like Benchung and Penpa, Nortse has also explored the Buddhist concept of
impermanence and the erosion of Tibetan culture. Nortse’s 2010 installation work Letters
(fig. 119), first shown at the Scorching Sun of Tibet exhibition in Beijing, combines a

502
Although Leigh Miller states that self-portraiture is a rarity in Tibetan contemporary art, citing only one
or two other examples, we note that the artist Nortse has created a number of series of self-portraits. (Leigh
Miller, doctoral thesis, 473–474).
503
See for example, Maitreya Buddha thangka. Rhie and Thurman. Wisdom and Compassion, The Sacred
Art of Tibet, catalogue, 101.
323

number of techniques and mediums. Monumental calligraphic sculptures made from
welded iron plates represent the thirty letters of the Tibetan alphabet. They are each
implanted on an individual bed of earth, and each letter is surrounded by a metal truss
bearing marks of rust and tarnish. The metal is untreated and as the pieces are exposed to
the elements they will continue to rust and erode.
While the work points to the Buddhist concept of the impermanent nature of all
things, it is also a metaphor for the state of Tibetan culture - language being an important
group identifier - which is being eroded by the presence of a dominant Chinese culture as
well as influences from the West. According to Nortse, the dilution of the Tibetan
language has become obvious. Amongst his own generation, Chinese words commonly
enter the conversation, and many of the younger generation of Tibetans now speak
Chinese much of the time. In some parts of ethnic Tibet the loss of the Tibetan language
has reached crisis point with ‘mother tongue’ policies not being enforced and children
being taught only in Chinese.504 Nortse sees language as culture and a necessary part of
our world. So, in his view, the work is not nationalistic but rather international and
humanitarian.505 It is a metaphor for impermanence and loss of cultural identity.
In as much as the work is in a constant state of change and decay, it is forever
unfinished, or ongoing. Nortse thus makes the constant state of change of all phenomena
a part of his work. His intention is to make the work stable by treating or coating it if ever
serious attention is paid to the Tibetan language and literature in China or elsewhere, in
order to redress the loss. Otherwise he wants to leave the work to the elements so that the
disappearance of his work will symbolise the assimilation of Tibetan culture.506
The letter sculptures of the installation are arranged in rows and fill a vast space in
which the viewer can physically experience the Tibetan language and calligraphy.

504
The Valley of the Heroes. A Film by Khashem Gyal, 53 min. 2013.
505
Nortse, conversation with author, Lhasa, October 2010.
506
Ibid.
324

Traditional Tibetan butter lamps are lit between the rows, as if in prayer or hope. The
butter lamps connect the letters to the past and the small flames light the path to the future
in which the status of the language is becoming increasingly more precarious. Language
is the essence of group identity, but the beauty of Nortse’s calligraphy does not escape the
viewer. Tibetans may enjoy seeing their alphabet displayed in such a monumental way.
Non-Tibetans may simply admire the calligraphy and tranquility induced by the butter
lamps. The monumentality of the work seems to insist on the permanence of the language
and calligraphy, against the odds. It is a metaphor not just for the erosion of all culture,
but also extinction and loss of things from this earth.
Figure 120. Zen Meditation, 2012, Nortse, installation, monk’s robes, metal frames, butter lamps, Chinese
money, scriptures, sand, 100 x 100 x 80 cm, x 6 (Art Gallery of NSW)
Nortse has made further explorations into similar themes using the same concept
of materials in another installation work called Zen Meditation, 2012 (fig. 120) which
formed part of the Go East exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 2015. In
this work Nortse has used the same type of iron framework as in his Letters work. There
325

are six individual frames containing sand and butter lamps. Instead of monumental letters
he has placed inside each frame bundles of robes of maroon cloth like those traditionally
worn by Tibetan monks. In each sculpture the robes are arranged as if they are inhabited
by an invisible person seated in a position of meditation. In Tibetan monasteries, row
upon row of maroon clad monks sit for many hours chanting scriptures and meditating in
the gloomy sanctum, lit only by butter lamps and clouded by wafts of incense. It is the
effect of this familiar yet ancient scene that Nortse intends to portray with this
installation, transplanted to the art gallery. In effect, the art gallery becomes the sanctum
for meditation and contemplation.
For the viewer standing before this work it would be easy to imagine the sound of
mantras being chanted and the aroma of incense and to feel a sense of calm descend.
However, in Nortse’s portrayal, the robes are empty and the butter lamps placed before
each bundle are knocked over or upside down.
On the one hand this work recalls the aniconic era of Buddhist art where the
empty space, in this instance inside the robes, symbolised the true essence of existence as
‘emptiness’. While on the other, it contains the sense that the essence of something, the
Tibetan culture or religion, has disappeared or diminished under the weight of external
forces. These two levels of meaning appear to be equally represented in this compelling
work by Nortse. As Tenzing Rigdol comments, this work recalls the thangka paintings
used by Tantric practitioners for deity meditation “in which everything is intact except the
body of the deity.” 507 Rigdol suggests that Nortse is perhaps “speaking about the
negation of the self, or the disappearance of one’s cultural identity, or … simply inviting
the viewer to assume or feel the volcanic, pure energies of those Buddhist monks and

507
Tenzing Rigdol. “Tenzing Rigdol on Nortse,” Art Asia Pacific (Issue 80, Sep/Oct 2012), 23.
326

nuns to whom the world has turned their deaf ears.” 508 In this work, Nortse has relocated
the aniconic meditational painting in installation form to express his concerns at the
erosion and dilution of Tibetan culture.
****
In this chapter I have attempted to demonstrate how the contemporary Tibetan
artists have used the abstract concepts of Buddhist philosophy in their art practice, which,
in effect, marks a development from aniconic Buddhist art to contemporary conceptual
art. In the hands of the Tibetan contemporary artists, aniconic art is no longer only about
the philosophical aspects of Buddhism, but also the ethical and philosophical questions of
twenty-first century society.
In expressing philosophical concepts, the work of the contemporary Tibetan artists
tends away from the narrative towards the abstract and the conceptual, but also uses
figurative representations in new ways unknown in traditional Tibetan art. The artists
incorporate new mediums which have no tradition in Tibetan visual culture, in some
cases combining them with traditional or conventional techniques and materials with new
materials. Thus we see work assisted by computer or digitally enhanced such as that of
Palden Weinreb which transmits to the viewer a meditation and visual mantra, or invokes
the sublime by use of artificial light sources. In the plastic and found objects or ready-
made objects of modern mass manufacture in the works by Kesang Lamdark and Tenzing
Rigdol, who incorporates scriptures in his work, the viewer is confronted with
incongruous synthesis of East and West. Through Nortse’s mixed-media installation
constructions and Benchung’s video installations we are compelled to contemplate
impermanence on a spiritual level as well as the socio-political implications of change.

508
Tenzing Rigdol. “Tenzing Rigdol on Nortse,” Art Asia Pacific (Issue 80, Sep/Oct 2012), 23.
327

Penpa’s series of works, which explore the Buddhist view of the human condition, depart
from tradition in the treatment of portraiture combined with abstraction.
In advancing into conceptual art, the artists come full circle in their deconstruction
and reconstructions of their artistic and cultural heritage, yet their commitment to their
cultural concepts remains undiminished. They explore philosophical concepts, such as
identity and cultural change, in a way not seen since the aniconic era of Buddhist art
before the second century, in which complex concepts were expressed by abstract
symbols.
328

Chapter 6. Lhasa and Exile - A Disparate Cohesion
The contemporary art of the artists working in Lhasa and the Tibetan artists of the
diaspora form a cohesive movement in many ways. Both sets of artists work with
Buddhist and Tibetan symbolism and motifs and use or reference Tibetan materials.
While drawing on their Tibetan artistic heritage, they are innovative in the use of these
elements. They know each other (indeed some of the older artists have been teachers of
the younger generation) and exhibit together in group exhibitions, exploring issues of
Tibetan identity as well as universal themes such as globalization and climate change.
Nevertheless, there are some differences in approach that can be discerned between the
two sets of artists, particularly in relation to questions of identity.
On the one hand, the diaspora artists often focus on how they fit into a non-
Tibetan environment. Their work often suggests a continual re-negotiation of self-identity
with displacement and unfamiliar cultural situations. Even the second generation artists,
who were born outside Tibet, explore the dichotomy of their Tibetan heritage and
Western upbringing. In Lhasa, by contrast, the focus is more upon modern Tibetan
society in the Tibetan Autonomous Region of China, the perceived stereotypes, and the
effects of globalization and foreign influences (both Chinese and Western) on their
culture and physical environment. In the first instance the concern is with the experience
of geographical displacement from one’s original homeland whereas in the latter case it is
with encroachment of foreign influences from outside.
The Diasporic Experience
In his essay on exiled Tibetans in the West, Tibetan scholar Gyaltsen Gyaltag
identified the issues experienced by the artists in the diaspora as common to Tibetan
329

refugees. He noticed that it is difficult for a Tibetan youth growing up in the West to find
his or her identity. Young Tibetans commonly lose their original identity as a result of the
necessary adaptation to local conditions. At the same time, they cannot simply adopt the
identity of the host nation, and this creates a vacuum that they attempt to fill in an often
painful and conflict-laden process of finding oneself within the framework of two
different cultures.509
Gyaltsen says that Tibetans in exile bear the responsibility of preserving Tibetan
culture against the threat of extinction. However, he emphasizes that rigid conservation
“in the way a museum preserves a specimen” is not enough. Tibetans in exile must be
open to development and renewal.510 As he writes:
Such an understanding of culture is very important because in today’s world a

social-cultural existence without influences from outside, such as the Tibetan
experienced before 1959 in their self-imposed isolation, is no longer possible.511
Gonkar Gyatso’s work, My Identity (fig. 121), epitomizes the struggle with identity
experienced by many of the Tibetan artists in exile. Although each of these artists has
their own personal journey, as I have demonstrated in the course of my thesis, they share
the same sense of displacement and the necessity of negotiation with their new
environments. As Diana Baldon notes, Gyatso’s work, My Identity, reaches beyond the
artist’s “own experience to engage the modernist dilemma facing contemporary
Tibetans.”512 The dilemma is, as discussed in Chapter One, the question of what is
‘Tibetan’ today.

509
Gyaltsen Gyaltag. ‘Exiled Tibetans in Europe and North America’. In Exile as Challenge, The Tibetan
Diaspora, Dagmar Bernstorff, Hubertus Von Welck (eds.), Orient Longman (New Delhi: 2004, 244–265),
252–253.
510
Ibid. 263–264.
511
Ibid. 264.
512
Diana Baldon. “Gonkar Gyatso – My Identity: Style exercises in self-identification.” In A Question of
Evidence (exhibition) Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna, 2008, 140–141), 140.
32:

Figure 121. My Identity 1 – 4, 2003, Gonkar Gyatso, digital photographs, 56.6 x 70.6 cm each
In the photographic self-portrait series My Identity 1–4, Gonkar Gyatso portrays
four versions of himself as an artist in different circumstances, articulating his temporal,
spatial and metaphysical journey as a contemporary Tibetan artist. The work is both
autobiographical as well as a projection of personal and Tibetan identity backwards and
forwards in time, across continents and cultures, capturing the shifts in ideology which
accompany this journey.
Gyatso’s work references a photograph of Tsering Dondrup, taken in Lhasa by the
American traveller, Charles Suydam Cutting in 1937.513 (fig. 122) In that photograph, the
senior thangka painter of the thirteenth Dalai Lama, is seated before a traditional wooden
stretcher frame (kyang shing) bearing an unfinished deity thangka. He holds his brush in

513
It appears that an error is being perpetuated, that Cutting was the first American and Westerner to enter
Lhasa (see Smithsonian Intitution Archives http://siarchives.si.edu/collections/siris_arc_296615; and Diana
Baldon, Op. Cit.). The Italian Jesuit, Ippolito Desideri, was in Lhasa as early as 1716 (Filippo De Filippi,
An Account of Tibet, the travels of Ippolito Desideri, 1712–1727 (New Delhi: Rupa & Co., 2005), the
British army entered the city in 1904 (Peter Fleming, Bayonets to Lhasa (London: Rupert Hart-Davis,
1962)), and the American, Prof. William Montgomery McGovern, claimed to have entered Lhasa in the
1920s (To Lhasa in Disguise (New York: The Century Co., 1934)). The Newark Museum states correctly
that Cutting was the first American to officially enter Lhasa. He was one of the few Westerners to be
granted a Tibetan visa (Tucci was another) during a period when the country was largely closed to outsiders.
331

his right hand and looks toward the camera. He is in a room or studio, surrounded by his
painter’s box and table holding the accoutrements of his trade. Gyatso replicates this
composition in each of his four images.
Figure 122. Tsering Dondrup, thangka painter. Lhasa, 1937, Charles Suydam Cutting
(The Newark Museum Archives)
In the first image of Gyatso’s work, the artist portrays himself as the traditional
court painter from a bygone era. All the major elements of Cutting’s photograph are
repeated. He is seated before a canvas painting a Buddha thangka. Next to him, are his
painter’s box, paints and brushes. The costume marks his status in society; the long
turquoise earing (so-byis) for example, is worn in the left ear only by lay officials.514 The
image portrays the same era as the Cutting photograph (1930s), and, in the series of
images, represents a pre-1959 Tibet. Thus, Gyatso imagines himself as an artist in a time
when virtually all art when was religious art, and conduct and dress were closely
prescribed and regulated in a rigidly stratified society.515 Although Gyatso did not
experience this Tibet personally, it is his patrimony as an artist. Growing up in Lhasa
during the Cultural Revolution, Gyatso had no knowledge of traditional Tibetan art. It

514
Tucci, Tibet, Land of Snows, 51; Valrae Reynolds. Treasures of Tibetan Art from the Newark Museum
(Munich: Prestel, 1999), 99.
515
Tsering Yangdzom. The Aristocratic Families in Tibetan History, 1900–1951 (Beijing: China
Intercontinental Press, 2006), 241.
332

was only after he left Tibet that he learned about traditional Tibetan visual culture, firstly
in India amongst the Tibetan exiles, and then in West where Western Tibetologists
published their Tibetan researches and museums amassed collections of Tibetan art.516
During his artist residency at the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford in 2003, Gyatso
viewed hundreds of images of Tibet from the museum archive collections.517 For all the
‘museumizing’ perpetrated by the West upon ‘exotic’ cultures, these collections can form
a bridge for someone like Gyatso whose link with his own history has been severed. He
wrote: “I grew up in Chinese-occupied Tibet, a land where history had been almost
erased.”518 In viewing historical images Gyatso is, of course, at the mercy of the
collectors and the curators and their selection and interpretative processes. In this respect,
he is like any other visitor to the museum. However, while a non-Tibetan may view the
images as an interested outsider or scholar, a Tibetan may scour the images for points of
reference, recognition and familiarity. Thus, in the first image of Gyatso’s photographic
series, he is exploring the past, his Tibetan heritage, to find a link with his modern self.
As this is the only image in the series depicting a Tibet before the Chinese
occupation, it carries the burden of representing Tibet up to that point. Yet in reality, the
era depicted, as it is modelled on the Cutting photograph of 1937, was a time in which
significant changes were occurring in Tibet and a modernization process had already been
set in motion.519 This fact is born out by the Cutting photograph itself, which serves as an

516
Conversation with Gonkar Gyatso, Brisbane, 21 August 2011.
517
Clare Harris. “The Buddha goes global: some thoughts towards a transnational art history.” Art History
(September 2006: 698–720), 711.
518
Gonkar Gyatso. “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet, The Experience of an Exiled Tibetan
Artist.” Tibet Journal (Vol. XXVIII, nos. 1 & 2, 2003. 147–160), 149–150.
519
In the few decades since the Younghusband military expedition in 1904, a British Trade Agency had
been established and there was a permanent British plenipotentiary presence in Lhasa. An English school
was set up in the 1920s, and other students were being sent abroad for education. Electricity was introduced,
vehicular roads were constructed, and the Dalai Lama imported some cars to Lhasa (these cars are the
subject of a 2004 painting by Karma Phuntsok, Vehicles). There was a strong faction, including some
military commanders, that was committed to modernization. Amongst this faction there was an ostentatious
adoption of Western uniforms, dress, customs such as drinking sweet tea (rather than Tibetan butter tea),
shaking hands, playing tennis and polo. This faction was considered by others to be a threat to the
333

illustration of the observer effect. Although Cutting (who had presented an autographed
photograph of the American President Hoover to the 13th Dalai Lama520) may have
intended in an Orientalist manner to capture a quintessential Tibetan painter he has
contributed to the changes in Tibetan society by being there, with his Western manners,
dress and technology. The Tibetan painter is changed by the technology used to capture
his action, but Cutting obtained an image for posterity that fixed the quintessential
Tibetan painter in time. The subject of the photograph will grow old and see the changes
in his country; the viewer of the photograph sees only one static image of Tibet.
In the second image, Gyatso portrays himself during the period of the Cultural
Revolution, a time which Gyatso personally experienced. As he has said of this time:
My family was a model of Communism, with my father serving as an officer in the

Chinese army and my mother working as a clerk for the government. Everything in
our home was Chinese, and the entire family strictly adhered to party guidelines.521
Gyatso’s artistic talents were revealed when he was a schoolboy in Lhasa, and he
was singled out to draw images on the black board in the prescribed manner.522 He thus
found himself making drawings of Chairman Mao at an early age. In this image Gyatso is
painting a portrait of Mao Tse-tung in accordance with the social realist propaganda
aesthetic and ideology of the time. The rich wall decoration and elaborate brocade
covered thangkas are gone, and instead the walls are covered in newsprint and the floor is
bare concrete. The hierarchical society and religious ideology has been replaced by
Communist ideology that eschews bourgeois trappings. The Red Guard uniform that
Gyatso wears is symbolic of the ideology under which he operated as a young artist. Even

established order. (Tsepon W.D. Shakabpa. Tibet: A Political History (New Delhi: Paljor Publications,
2010), 11-12, 342, 397; Melvyn C. Goldstein. A History of Modern Tibet, 1913-1951. (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1991), 89).
520
Tsepon W.D. Shakabpa. Tibet: A Political History (New Delhi: Paljor Publications, 2010), 367.
521
522
Conversation with Gonkar Gyatso, Sydney, 2010.
334

during the later ‘Open Door’ period when Gyatso was at university in Beijing, there was
still an amount of control over the activity of the student artists. He says:
… the program is conservative, there was no emphasis on creativity ... Also they
restrict you to do something, the whole subject matter is very strict … they are
interested in subject more to positive view about the social or daily life, rather than
more personal or religious. I remember, I prepared a piece which … for them
maybe its religious, but for me its more [a] spiritual piece and I wasn’t allowed to
continue with that subject so I have to start something new. Its like, during your
period the teacher will check your sketches and say this is ok this is not.523
In the third image Gyatso appears as a refugee in India, painting the Dalai Lama
in the manner expected by the conservative majority of the Tibetan exile community in
India. The makeshift shed and furnishings attest to the transient and uncertain nature of
this phase in time. As previously mentioned, Gyatso returned from art school in Beijing
and taught at the Tibet University for a number of years. He left Tibet in 1992 after a
period of increased unrest in Lhasa, and he struggled with the decision to leave. His
closeness to his family, loyalty to his students and feelings of powerlessness were offset
by his desire for freedom of creativity and the pull of the established Tibetan enclave in
India where the Dalai Lama lived in exile.524 He says:
The demonstrations in Lhasa in 1989 strengthened my desire to find out more about
Tibet in political and historical terms. By that time the period of liberalization was
over, and even making the images as I painted them became dangerous and, so I
went underground. I felt confused, lonely and lost, like a child without a parent. I
wondered what Tibetans who lived outside of Tibet were like and what the Dalai
Lama thought of contemporary Tibetan art … hoping to fill the void I felt, to find
my roots, I moved to India, to Dharamsala, where the main Tibetan exiled
community is found today.525

523
524
Conversation with Gonkar Gyatso, Sydney, 2010.
525
G. Gyatso. “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet,” 148–149.
335

In Dharamsala, Gyatso studied traditional thangka painting, but privately pursued
his own artistic expressions. However, Gyatso came into conflict with the traditional
Tibetan artistic establishment who disapproved of his contemporary art forms,
particularly the images of the Buddha that did not comply with the strict iconometric
rules of composition. Gyatso felt that he had merely exchanged one ideology for another
and to symbolize this, he portays himself in the third image painting the Dalai Lama.
Gyatso had fled to India as part of the second wave of exiles and it became evident that a
cultural gap had opened up between these new exiles and those who had fled Tibet with
the Dalai Lama a generation before:
… as an artist who had created a new style in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, I
soon discovered that not only was my background unknown, but no one understood
my art either: Dharamsala was not prepared for the “shock of the new.” Modernism
is unacceptable in Dharamsala––it is seen as yet another foreign art style inspired
by China, which reveals a treacherous inclination on the part of the artist.
According to the exiled community, anything new is not really ‘Tibetan’. Thus
there is a tension between the modernist style created in the TAR (Tibetan
Autonomous Region) and the demand in Dharamsala for ‘traditionalism’ of a
special kind. Tibetans in exile are just not interested in modern art. They feel that an
artist has a religious and political duty to maintain traditional culture.526
Gyatso says that while he was in Tibet his modernist style had been a survival tactic,
but that in exile in India it was unmarketable. It only caused him to become marginalized
and rejected by the community with which he sought refuge.527 Gyatso’s personal artistic
vision was at odds with both Chinese communist ideology and the traditional Tibetan
exile community.
Gyatso was the first of the exile Tibetan artists to participate in Tibetan
contemporary art exhibitions in China. When My Identity was shown as part of the Lhasa

526
527
Ibid.
336

– New Art from Tibet exhibition at Red Gate Gallery in Beijing in 2007, the third image
was intentionally omitted from the exhibition and the catalogue, because it featured an
image of the Dalai Lama.528 Although the work explores Gyatso’s questions regarding his
journey and identity it is also a political work, but without the third image the full
implications and meanings of the work are incomplete. The catalogue for the exhibition
leaves a blank space where the third image should be, and its conspicuous absence must
have surely raised questions. Ironically, the removal of the third image enforces the point
of ideological management by power. The decision to leave out the third photograph was
arrived at after discussions with the Australian gallery owner and curator in Bejing, and
not because he was told to by the authorities.529 In the West, Gyatso’s pursuit of his art is
unrestricted. However, when working in China he returns to the habit of self-censorship
that the Lhasan artists deal with constantly.
In the fourth tableau, Gyatso represents the contemporary Tibetan in exile in a
Western flat with a minimalist sensibility of décor, reflecting the ‘White Cube’ aesthetic
of the modern London art gallery. The painting before him is an ethereal and abstract
maṇḍala hovering in a Rothkoesque cosmos. Gone are the precise intricacies of the
traditional iconography and what remains is an impressionist maṇḍala. Now that the artist
is no longer subject to the strict complexities of the iconometric rules and political
ideologies, he is free to explore new ideas and methods in art as well as his own identity
as a cosmopolitan Tibetan and transnational artist. In Dharamsala, Peter Towse, a lecturer
at St Martin’s School of Art and Design in London, was able to arrange a scholarship for

528
Conversation with Gonkar Gyatso, Sydney, 2010. And see Oliva Sand. “Profile: the Tibetan artists
Gonkar Gyatso,” Asian Art. (Dec. 2009, 2–3), 3.
529
Gyatso received his British passport in 2004 and was therefore able to travel to China under this passport.
For Tibetans in exile who do not have a foreign passport it is impossible to enter China. Gyatso now keeps
a studio presence in Beijing.
337

Gyatso.530 However, the move to London was not an easy one. It took a number of years
before he ultimately found his own voice again. In 2003, the year he created the My
Identity series, he wrote:
In the West, now, I am learning how to free myself from my indoctrinated

education, from any preconceived system, not only as a human being, but more
specifically, in my case, as an artist. I want to be able to reach the freedom of
expression that Western artists have enjoyed for a long time. But the freedom I have
met in the West can be confusing as a well as exciting because too many choices
make for no choice.531
By presenting himself in a ‘white cube’ Gyatso is alluding to the fact that even the
political and social freedom in the West does not exclude the presence of an art ideology;
that of market forces, the caprice of fashion, and the art critic.
Gyatso writes of his journey across many borders: national, political and stylistic.
He feels that his journey has brought him to a ‘no-man’s land’ where he is still in search
of his true identity. He believes that true identity is revealed by cleaving to markers of
one’s own culture. Like many of the contemporary Tibetan artists, he sees the process as
the beginning of a new hybrid Tibetan culture and identity.532 Gyatso eschews the
constraints of cultural stereotypes, but insists that his Tibetanness is his essence. To
remain true to himself he has no choice but to draw form his own cultural tradition. And
indeed, in the fourth image the word ‘Tibet’ tattooed on his arm in the script of his
mother tongue, declares that he remains indelibly Tibetan.
While this work has been interpreted by Clare Harris as challenging audiences on
their differing versions of the Tibetan stereotype,533 I suggest that Gyatso is asking

530
Peter Towse. “The long story to a special meeting.” In Oh! What a beautiful day, Peter Towse and
Gonkar Gyatso’s shared vision (London: Anna Maria Rossi & Fabio Rossi Publications: 2006). See also
Donald Dinwiddie. Gonkar Gyatso, Contours of Identity. Artasiapacific (Issue 63, May/Jun 2009, 132–139).
531
532
Ibid., 151; and conversation with artist, Sydney 2010.
533
Harris. “The Buddha goes global: some thoughts towards a transnational art history.” Art History
(September 2006: 698−720), 710, 712.
338

questions of himself: is this me, or is this me, would this have been me? And how do I
reconcile these different me’s? Gyatso’s main purpose in creating this work was to
expose certain parallels in the role of artist in each situation. In Dharamsala, Gyatso
found that the ideological purpose served by the artist was not dissimilar to that inside the
TAR. In both cases, he found himself serving the agenda of the controlling elite.534 There
was no room for self-exploration through art in either case. As Diana Baldon observes,
the transformations of the artist in the images “ask who, and what, has the power to
control forms of iconization beyond time.”535
Baldon argues that Gyatso is attempting to show how divergent artistic traditions or
systems (such as traditional Tibetan thangka painting or Chinese Communist Socialist
Realism) can be turned into highly politicized tools that promote ideologies, by both
religion and a totalitarian regime.536 Gyatso came to this realization during his journey
and experienced a disillusionment which caused him to continue his search.537
In the year he completed this work Gyatso wrote “I am still in search of my true
identity.”538 As such, it epitomises the experience of all the Tibetan artists in exile
discussed in this thesis.539 Perhaps this experience is best summed up by the following
quote from another dispora artist, Kesang Lamdark, who was born in Tibet, brought up in
Switzerland, educated in Switzerland and America, and lives and works in Switzerland:
I search to find an appropriate cultural space for myself, but always felt like an
outsider. Eventually, looking within, I came to understand and reconnect with my
heritage while still living in the West. My displaced multi-cultural upbringing
allowed me a more broad personal energy.540

534
Conversation with Gonkar Gyatso, Sydney 2010.
535
Diana Baldon. “Style exercises in self-identification.” In A Question of Evidence (exhibition) Thyssen-
Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna, 2008, 140–141), 140.
536
Ibid.
537
G. Gyatso. “No Man’s Land: Real and Imaginary Tibet,” 147–160.
538
Ibid., 151.
539
Gyatso has more recently added a fifth image to this series,“My Identity No. 5” (2014), in which the
artist is painting a portrait of Aung San Suu Kyi.
540
Kesang Lamdark. “Statement.” http://www.lamdark.com/popup_text/statement1.html (n.d.).
339

Likewise, Losang Gyatso, based in America, feels that both in exile and in Tibet,
Tibetans have to continually deal with being part of a larger society:
… the larger culture of the U.S. is something we have to confront and live with
and negotiate as our lives change. And in Tibet also, Chinese culture, Chinese
presence is so looming that you are constantly negotiating what you are, who you
are becoming, and what compromises you are willing to make.541
Lhasa – Erosion of Culture
Because the work of the diaspora artists often depicts an exploration of the
metaphysical and spiritual journey and the continual negotiation of Tibetan or hybrid
identity in a non-Tibetan society, it is often autobiographical – such as Gyato’s My
Identity (fig. 121), Tenzing Rigdol’s My Exilic Experience (fig. 100) and Tashi Norbu’s
Adventure of My Life (fig. 35). By contrast, the artists in Lhasa produce work that acts as
an anthropological record of a culture in transition. The erosion or dilution of Tibetan
culture within Tibet is a recurring theme for the Lhasan artists as the new, dominant
culture is the result of the outside forces of foreign occupation and globalization. This is
not a theme that has immediate personal experience for the artists of the diaspora
although they would not be unaware or disinterested in the issues concerning Tibetan life
in the TAR. However, their situations find them concerned with navigating a path through
the dominant culture of their new circumstances that allows them to adapt and retain their
own identities. While artists in the diaspora may receive news about political and social
life in Tibet, their remoteness means that they do not experience the quotidian minutiae of
life there. They are not present and therefore cannot examine, in their work, the everyday
issues that affect the lives of ordinary Tibetans in Lhasa. While they do comment on big

541
Losang Gyatso, video interview, “Losang Gysatso discusses Tradition Transformed,” 2010, Art Babble.
http://www.artbabble.org/video/rubin/losang-gysatso-discusses-tradition-transformed.
33:

questions that affect Tibet, such as minorities, self-determination and globalisation, their
approach is necessarily confined to the intellectual, philosophical and emotional.
Tsewang Tashi’s exhibition Untitled Identity (2009) exemplifies the concerns of
the Lhasan artists discussed in this thesis: the challenge to the Tibetan stereotypes and the
hybrid identity assumed by the younger generations of Tibetans.
Figure 123. Beer Seller No. 1, Figure 124. Beer Seller No. 2, Figure 125. Wine Seller No. 1,
2009, Tsewang Tashi, oil on canvas, 146 x 97 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)
In a series of portraits of young modern Tibetan women (figs. 123, 124, 125) that
were part of the Untitled Identity exhibition, Tashi focuses on the person. There are no
explicit symbols of Tibetanness. They exemplify the new urban lifestyle and pervading
commercialism dominated by Chinese and Western culture. In seeking to capture the
essence of modern Tibet, Tashi set about painting what was right in front of him without
editorializing.542 Tashi comments:
Like the girls selling beer in bars these days … this is not Tibetan, the beer comes
from all over the world, but this is also real life here. These are young local girls,
but they are involved in things far beyond Lhasa …543

542
Conversation with Tsewang Tashi, artist’s studio, Lhasa, 2012.
543
Tsewang Tashi (quoted in “Canvas Lucida,” by Kabir Mansingh Heimsath in Untitled Identity (London:
Rossi & Rossi, 2009, 8–16), 15).
341

The girl in Beer Seller No. 1, wears a Budweiser logo, an American brand of beer.
Her uniform also bears the symbol of the Olympic rings, promoting the 2012 Olympic
Games in Beijing which was to be the subject of many pro-independent Tibet
demonstrations around the world. The young woman in Beer Seller No. 2 is promoting
Chill Beer by Carlsberg (Danish).
Wine Seller No. 1 features the brand of the Great Wall wine company, one of the
largest producers of wine in China. Great Wall red and white wine can be purchased in
convenience stores all over China from Beijing to Lhasa and the Gobi Desert (I can attest).
The Western custom of drinking grape wine is becoming more common in China these
days, and international brands of beer have largely replaced traditional Tibetan beer
(chang544) in cities like Lhasa.
Like beverage promotion models all over the world, the young women in the
portraits wear uniforms of the global companies they work for. As Tashi says, these
young Tibetan women have become part of something beyond Lhasa. They have joined
the global family of consumerism and commercialization as Lhasa becomes more
homogenised under the influence of China and the West.
The artists in Lhasa are documenting their society through direct observation of
changing Tibetan life. Their physical proximity means that they can record what they see
around them, allowing an audience to glimpse the realities of modern Tibet. We are
presented with images of modern Tibetans negotiating their identities in a changing
environment and, indeed, a Tibet that is collectively trying to define itself in the modern
world, as we see in Gade’s New Tibet (2006), for example. The dialectical tension
between two interconnected concepts of identity, the Chinese Tibet and the Tibetan Tibet,

544
Tibetan beer or chang is made from fermented barley, one of the few crops that can be grown at such
high altitudes.
342

is ever-present. Whilst the Chinese presence and influence in Tibet is irrevocable, the
artists from Lhasa work to ensure that their culture survives in some form that continues a
lineage but expresses the modernity of their experience. As Joseph Kosuth expressed it:
“The artist perpetuates his culture by maintaining certain features of it by ‘using them’.
The artist is a model of the anthropologist engaged.”545
The different context within which the artists in Lhasa work impacts on their art in
other ways as well, such as the greater constraints and scrutiny under which they work.
As mentioned earlier, while artists in the diaspora such as Gonkar Gyatso have had to self
censor their work when it has been exhibited in China, this kind of self-censorship is
something that artists in exile rarely have to contend with. However, it is something that
the artists in Lhasa have to consider constantly. The result is that the Lhasan artists often
use coded or cryptic visual language whereas the artists in exile may directly confront
political issues or events if they so wish. This self-censorship contributes to the erosion of
culture in Tibet, as does censorship anywhere, because it allows only one biased version
of history or the present.
While the artists in Lhasa are not stood over and told what to paint and what not to
paint, as Gonkar Gyatso remembered from his university days in Beijing, their work
suggests a certain amount of self-censorship. Sensitive subjects are avoided or are
concealed within the work in coded language, as we have seen in such works as, Railway
Train (fig. 69), New Tibet (fig. 73) and Ice Buddha Sculpture – Lhasa River (fig. 19) by
Gade, Buddha Head (fig. 20) and Paper Plane (fig. 21) by Nyandak, Letters (fig. 119)
and Zen Meditation (fig. 120) by Nortse, as well as Floating River Ice (fig. 111) by
Benchung.

545
Joseph Kosuth. Art After Philosophy and After: Collected Writings, 1966-1990 (Cambridge,
Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 1991), 117.
343

By contrast, artists in the diaspora have been able to deal with such contentious
issues as the self-immolations of Tibetan monks protesting Chinese occupation. In his
work, Alone, Exhausted and Waiting, 2012 (fig. 126), Tenzing Rigdol fuses the
iconography of the reclining Buddha in parinirvāṇa with the image of a Tibetan monk on
fire. The resulting work is both aesthetically beautiful and full of pathos. The reclining
Buddha represents the Buddha at the moment of his death and achieving complete
nirvāṇa. It is thus implied that the death of the monk will result in the achievement of his
own nirvāṇa, however it also suggests support for the Tibetan independence movement.
It"#"$###$"('!(!#"#"+
Figure 126. Alone, Exhausted and Waiting, 2012, Tenzing Rigdol,

collage, silk brocade & scripture,122 x 396 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)

Losang Gyatso, who like Rigdol is based in the United States of America, has also
been affected the protests by monks in Tibet. His series of photographic works, Labrang
1–6 (fig. 127) and Jokhang 1–6 (2008) are based on news footage; freeze framed and
digitally processed, then printed on aluminium sheets. The events captured are from two
protests and demonstrations by monks inside Tibet at temples in different locations in
2008; one at the Jokhang Temple in Lhasa and the other at Labrang monastery in North-
eastern Tibet.
344

Figure 127. Labrang 1-6, 2008, Losang Gyatso, digital images on aluminium
(Tibet House, Amsterdam)
For Gyatso, the footage captures the energy, anxiety and adrenalin written on the
faces of the young monks who, he believes, have courageously and heroically broken
through the silence.546 Distilled from moving images, the original energy of the footage is
revived in the frozen frames by the digital process producing a kinetic effect, particularly
when the works are seen in their totality, that is, all twelve frames. The power of these
works lies in the ghost image, which is a particularly poignant device in this instance,
revealing the usually unseen anonymous faces. The abstract dimension of the works
creates a remove from immediate context and at the same time powerfully reminds us of
the universality of the human condition: oppression and the will to resist.547
Most directly, however, these works reflect a particular reality of contemporary
Tibetan society. As Gyatso says:
… sometimes it feels like making art, whether its visual arts or film and video or
even writing fiction, seems highly superficial, inadequate in the face of the

546
Losang Gyatso, Interview with Simonetta Ronconi (audio) Tibet Art Now, Amsterdam, 2009.
547
Email communication with Losang Gyatso, June 2010.
345

tremendous political and human rights issues that Tibetan people are facing ... So
it seems like there’s a disconnect between making art and the Tibetan situation but
I really sincerely believe that there’s a role for art, literature and films that
Tibetans produce … in creating a future Tibetan society ….548
It is not possible for the artists in Lhasa to create works that obviously refer to
such politically sensitive events. Yet we see the possibilities in the work by Losang
Gyatso, which is so abstracted that it has the capacity to conceal its true import.
Perhaps the only work by a Lhasan artist that overtly touches on taboo subject
matter is by Nyandak, as mentioned in the introduction. The protests in Tibet in 2008
were the largest and most serious since the 1980s, and Nyandak witnessed the violence
first-hand. Cars and shops were set on fire and armed police clashed with Tibetan
protestors. Tanks patrolled the streets.549 The footage of the monks used by Losang
Gyatso in his digital works were part of the larger protest which started in Lhasa and
spread to other parts of Tibet and the subsequent crack-drown by authorities. The riots in
Lhasa inspired Nyndak to create Middle Path, 2008 (fig. 128), which was exhibited in
London in 2008 in Nyandak’s solo exhibition The Lightness of Being.550
Figure 128. Middle Path, 2008, Nyandak, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 80 x 127.5 cm (Rossi & Rossi, London)

548
Email communication with Losang Gyatso, June 2010.
549
Jim Yardley. “Violence in Tibet as Monks Clash With the Police.” New York Times. 18 March 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/world/asia/15tibet.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0.
550
Nyandak’s 2010 work entitled Boy No. 2, which depicts a boy standing in front of a miniature tank,
formed part of the Scorching Sun of Tibet exhibition in Beijing in 2010.
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In the midst of the riots, Nyandak was moved by a boy prostrating in religious
observance. Prostration is a ritual in Tibetan Buddhist worship and pilgrimage and is
performed by thousands everyday around the Jokhang temple in Lhasa. On normal days it
a common sight. In the context of violence, however, the act struck Nyandak as both
incongruous and a powerful statement of faith in Tibetan religion and culture rather than
an act of submission. Nyandak places the child in a desolate and featureless landscape
that is characteristic of his work from that period. The child prostrates before some
miniature tanks while fire and smoke streak the horizon. For us in the West, Nyandak’s
image brings to mind the ‘unknown protestor’ standing before the tanks in Tiananmen
Square, Beijing, in 1989.
When Nyandak was questioned about this work by the authorities he explained
that it was not a political comment on events or the Chinese regime, but that he was
merely expressing his emotions at witnessing the riots.551 With regard to the painting
Middle Path, he says:
The child, I feel, is innocence – a bit like civilians and ordinary people caught in
the middle of these problems. Just innocent, and it is the big ideas that clash, and
somehow nobody can see the middle way.552
However, despite Nyandak’s disavowal of political intent, the presence of the
armoured tanks in this work is quite startling, more so than if the work was by a diaspora
artist.
Like Nyandak, many of the contemporary Tibetan artists do not want to be
regarded as political artists. The artists in Lhasa are well aware of what artistic subject
matter will be tolerated and what will not in the current political climate. Religious
themes, forbidden during the Cultural Revolution, are now tolerated (as long as the image

551
Conversation with Nyandak, Lhasa 2010.
663Ibid.

347

of the Dalai Lama is not depicted). This volte-face by authorities has provided a way for
the artists to reconnect with their heritage and attempt to reclaim their visual culture from
an occupying foreign force. Also, since the repudiation of the Cultural Revolution by the
Communist Party after Mao’s death, it is now permissible to be critical of it. For the
artists in Lhasa who grew up during this era, the imagery of the Cultural Revolution has
merged with traditional Tibetan iconography as part of their common history and
common heritage with the Chinese and they are now able to employ it in a more self-
reflexive manner than before as we have seen for example in Gade’s Mao Jacket (fig. 16),
Thousands Bound (fig. 17), Raging Fire (fig. 48) as well as Red Sun, Black Sun (figs. 38
and 39) and Mandala–The State of Unbalance (fig. 40) by Nortse and The Red Decade
(fig. 49) by Ang Sang. Indeed, Chinese artistic influence on Tibetan art goes back many
centuries. The addition of Cultural Revolution motifs to Tibetan art serves to perpetuate
the historical narrative. It is yet to be seen if these motifs will endure or prove an
ephemeral indication of a particular point on the historical trajectory.
By contrast, the language of the Cultural Revolution occurs rarely in the work of
the diaspora artists. Whether the artists left Tibet when they were very young, or were
born outside Tibet or whether they left Tibet as adults, their imagery generally derives
from a traditional artistic base, modified and enhanced by influences from Western art,
whether in iconography, materials or techniques.
Transnational – Beyond Tibetan Identity
There are particular challenges facing contemporary Tibetan artists in the
international context. While the visibility of marginal artists and emerging movements,
such as the contemporary Tibetan art movement, continues to grow, these artists can
remain locked into the very essentialist version of identity that they attempt to resist.
348

Despite the efflorescence of hybridities in a transnational art world, along with the
diversity of art practices of Asian artists, these artists still tend to be characterised mainly
with reference to their national or ethnic identities, Moreover, the idea of ‘tradition’
continues to frame the discussion around Asian modernities.553 However, while issues of
Tibetan identity are important for these artists, as I have demonstrated throughout this
thesis, their work also addresses issues of global concern. Their concern is not simply to
preserve tradition but to show how it is relevant to addressing global issues such as
consumerism, globalisation and environmental damage. Indeed, cultural identity is a
global issue. Tibetan identity and culture are being used as a metaphor for the loss of
traditional culture in a globalised world as, for example, Nortse has expressed with regard
to his work Letters (fig. 119).
In the case of contemporary Tibetan art, the movement is still in its infancy and the
number of artists is relatively small when compared to some other Asian countries such
as India or Japan. As John Clark notes, the typical Asian modernity begins with the
historical break of colonial or neo-colonial rule and the reaction against this, so it is not
surprising that contemporary Tibetan artists still draw from a repertoire of iconic cultural
symbols as a means of self definition, but at the same time they seek to imbue these
symbols with a significance which goes beyond their role as signifiers of national
identity.554 There are, of course, many variations and analogous circumstances, and
Tibet’s story comprises its own constellation of these historical and political elements.
Within Tibet, the artists are consciously reacting to an overpowering exogenous
force that had arrogated control of the visual culture of Tibet to itself. Indeed, it is within
their own lifetimes that the Tibetan artists have seen the change in government policy
which allowed them to explore their Tibetan cultural heritage. In the circumstances, it is

553
Gennifer Weisenfeld. “Reinscribing Tradition in a Transnational Art World,” in Transcultural Studies
(Vol. 1, 2010, 78-99).
554
John Clark, “Asian Modernisms,” In Humanities Research Journal (Series 2, 1999, (ANU), 5–14), 8.
349

unsurprising that the artists are drawn to tradition. At the same time, Tibet has been
catapulted into modernity and a forced unequal marriage. The result is a double-
consciousness,555 in which the Tibetan and Chinese worldviews are in a constant state of
tension, that raises questions of authenticity. A return to the past is impossible and
attempts to resurrect a purely traditional visual culture (as has occurred in Dharamsala)
may be seen as an inauthentic construct. The artists in Lhasa have asserted a neo-
traditional556 art form, which derives from their double-consciousness, with their roots in
a Tibetan past and their feet in a globalised present. Losang Gyatso does not see any
contradiction in the direction of contemporary Tibetan art. Gyatso, who believes that
Tibetans are constantly re-negotiating identity in a changing world, feels that he is “at the
front end of a process that began hundreds of years ago.”557 For Gyatso then, the process
that he is a part of is an organic one rather than a construct.
Nevertheless, as John Clark proposes, there has been a prolonged inability in the
West to accept Asian art modernisms that appropriate forms that originated in the West as
authentic.558 Consequently, non-Western art has been segregated and framed in terms of
ethnicity, culture and tradition. In a globalised art world, the boundaries are more
pervious and many of the Tibetan artists, even in Lhasa, have connections with
international art dealers who curate exhibitions of their work around the world, even if the
artist is not always able to travel freely to those exhibitions.
Those Tibetan artists who are situated in the West have greater access to the
international art scene. Yet in that milieu, like other non-Western artists, they are often
seen as marginal or ethnic. In addition, the Tibetan artists, along with other artists who

555
Dorothy J. Hale. “Bakhtin in African American Literary Theory.” In ELH (Vol. 61, No. 2, Summer,
1994, 445–471), 446.
556
John Clark. “Asian Modernisms,” 7.
557
Losang Gyatso, video interview, “Losang Gysatso discusses Tradition Transformed,” 2010, Art Babble.
http://www.artbabble.org/video/rubin/losang-gysatso-discusses-tradition-transformed.
558
John Clark, “Open and Closed Discourses of Modernity Asian Art,” In Modernity in Asian Art. John
Clark, ed (Sydney: University of Sydney East Asian Studies No. 7, Wild Peony), 2007.
34:

have sought refuge in the West, are often propelled into artistic discussions around
asylum and human rights. Indeed, in 2003 Gonkar Gyatso joined a collective called
“Artists in Exile”, a Glasgow based association of artists from around the world, for an
exhibition entitled Sanctuary, Contemporary Art & Human Rights.559 Then in 2008, he
took part in an exhibition called A Question of Evidence560 comprised of work by artists
who commentated on issues such as identity politics, human rights, democratic reform
and restriction of free expression.561
Alex Rotas argues that while refugee artists have the ability to express and
represent the human experience, they are burdened with the responsibility of representing
human displacement in a community that is alien to them. Moreover, the expectation is
that the refugee artists may only express that displacement and nothing else. It is as if
their refugee status is also their artistic genre. They may not simply be ‘artist’, a
designation reserved for the artists of the host nation alone.562
I would argue that, at this point in time, the importance of the subject matter in a
world experiencing a constantly escalating refugee crisis now serves to elevate the status
of these artists beyond the quaint, ethnic, refugee artist. They join together with other
artists from around the world, so it is now an international group courted by prestigious
galleries and museums.563 Kesang Lamdark, Gonkar Gyatso and Palden Weinreb, for
example, all see themselves as part of the international art scene rather than simply
Tibetan artists, although their Tibetan identities remain important to them personally.564

559
Donald Dinwiddie. Gonkar Gyatso, Contours of Identity. In Artasiapacific, (Issue 63, May/Jun 2009,
132–139), 137. Sanctuary, Contemporary Art & Human Rights (Glasgow: Glasgow Museums, 2003).
560
A Question of Evidence. Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary (Vienna, 2008).
561
Daniela Zyman & Diana Baldon. A Question of Evidence (exhibition) Thyssen-Bornemisza Art
Contemporary (Vienna, 2008, 12–19), 12.
562
Alex Rotas, ‘Is Refugee art Possible?’, Third Text (18:1, 2004, 51–60), 52–53.
563
Gennifer Weisenfeld. “Reinscribing Tradition in a Transnational Art World,” in Transcultural Studies,
(Vol. 1, 2010, 78-99), 87.
564
Kesang Lamdark, Gonkar Gyatso, Palden Weinreb. “Symposium at Rossi & Rossi, London, UK, 2008.”
At Mechak Centre for Contemporary Tibetan Art.
www.mechakgallery.com/symposium_at_rossi__rossi_london.html.
351

The question of whether he sees himself as an international artist, a Tibetan artist,
or both, is a subject about which Gyatso has given a lot of thought:
… that’s one of the arguments I’m always struggling with. I’m an international
artist, but in some ways my work is even more Tibetan, so that’s something I do
struggle with. My situation has allowed me to be international or transnational.
Tibetan-ness is something I can’t get rid of … I am still Tibetan, but compared
with Lhasa I am much further than that.565
For the Lhasan artists, the challenge to be taken seriously in the contemporary art
world is even greater than their diaspora colleagues. Firstly, they are far removed from
the artistic centre, and are also in a situation with stricter controls on movement and
expression. Despite these obstacles, many Lhasan artists have been able to travel and
study abroad, mix with other artists and exhibit internationally. Benchung and Tsewang
Tashi have both studied at Olso University in Norway, and travelled to mainland Europe.
Nyandak and Nortse have undertaken artist’s residencies in California in 2011, and both
these artists lived for sometime in Dharamsala, India, during the Open Door era of the
1980s, before returning to Tibet. They strive to create work that expresses their own
truths and yet, at the same time, may be universal and relevant on a world stage. Both
Ang Sang and Nortse expressed to me the intention for their art to be international and
universal, and not merely national and ‘Tibetan’.566 As Nortse has commented, the
references to Tibetan language in some of his works do not arise only because he is
Tibetan and loves the Tibetan language. But rather that “this kind of culture is part of our
world, so its not out of … personal attachment or nationalistic approach … its not
nationalistic at all. It’s more kind of international, humanitarian ...”567

565
566
Conversations with Ang Sang and Nortse, Lhasa, 2010
567
Conversation with Nortse, Lhasa 2010.
352

Being identified as Tibetan or refugee artists may be something that Gonkar
Gyatso and other Tibetan artists will perhaps always struggle with. However, it is clear
that, with the proliferation of exhibitions like Sanctuary and A Question of Evidence,
together with regular events such as the Asia Pacific Triennale in Brisbane, and the
promotion of marginal artists by galleries such as Rossi and Rossi in London, the status
of these artists, both in exile and in Lhasa, has changed.
The centre–periphery paradigm has indeed changed for both the contemporary
Tibetan artist in exile and at home. As Nicolas Bourriaud has said, “artists are now
starting from a globalized state of culture.”568 Modern methods of communication, media
and networking mean that local artists are not isolated, even in Tibet. They are connected
and are aware of issues affecting local places as well as international events. Not only do
they participate in group exhibitions in different parts of the world, such as Asia,
Australia and Europe, they can combine to participate in web exhibitions via the internet.
This democratizing medium is now part of global culture in which all can participate on
an equal basis.
According to Bourriaud, a new modernity is emerging that is reconfigured to
globalization and can be understood in economic, political and cultural terms. Bourriaud
calls this phenomenon an ‘altermodern culture’. In altermodern culture, everyone is “the
other” (alter is Latin for ‘other’). As we have seen, and as Bourriaud states, artists are
responding to the new globalized perception: “[t]hey traverse a cultural landscape
saturated with signs and create new pathways between multiple formats of expression
and communication.”569

568
Nicolas Bourriaud, “Altermodern explained: manifesto,” Altermodern at Tate Britain, Tate Triennial,
2009. http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/altermodern/explain-
altermodern/altermodern-explained-manifesto.
569
Ibid.
353

Bourriaud proposes that we are on the precipice of this new era, leaving behind
the postmodern period and the failure of the multicultural model which, rather than
engendering plurality, propagated an essentialist view of difference. According to
Bourriaud, under this postmodern multicultural model, the meaning of a work of art was
crucially connected to the social background of its production, reducing the artist’s
identity to their origins. This approach, Bourriaud says, is in crisis and must be called into
question.
Writing at the end of last century, Homi Bhabha was already proclaiming the
imminence of a new age and looking for ways to define and describe it. According to
Bhabha, we were living on the borderlines of the ‘present’ for which no other term had
been devised except by the addition of the prefix ‘post’.570 More than two decades later,
the search continues for labels and terminology to define and classify phenomena of the
present. Bourriaud’s solution is ‘altermodern’.
The altermodern does not cling to the linear narrative of history. Bourriaud
defines altermodernism as the moment that human history could be properly seen as
being constituted of multiple temporalities, or a state of heterochrony571 in the
Foucauldian sense of co-existing slices of time.572 According to Bourriaud, heterochronia
questions the notion of what is considered contemporary. What he proposes is “a
disorientation through an art form exploring all dimensions of the present, tracing lines in
all directions of time and space.”573 The altermodern artist is nomadic,574 related to
experiences of migration, displacement and exile, creating a language that is not limited
by nationalisms, and is engaged in a network of global dialogues.

570
Homi Bhabha. The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1995), 1.
571
Nicolas Bourriaud. Altermodern: Tate Triennial (London: Tate Publishing, 2009),13; and
http://www2.tate.org.uk/altermodern/explore.shtm.
572
Michel Foucault. “Of Other Spaces, Heterotopias.” Architecture, Mouvement, Continuité 5 (1984): 46-
49, 48.
573
Nicolas Bourriaud. Altermodern: Tate Triennial (London: Tate Publishing, 2009),13.
574
Ibid., 24.
354

In the last two decades the contemporary Tibetan art movement has progressed
from an embryonic stage to a mature art movement. The artists are to varying extents
nomadic, they criss-cross the world both physically and virtually. They participate in
Biennales and Triennials and group art shows of both Tibetan artists and larger plural art
events in the West and in Asia. Moreover, their art practices reflect a state of
globalisation. The disparate nature of the art movement, with artists as far apart as Europe,
America, Australia and Lhasa, renders it a truly global movement. While the artists in
exile have greater access to global news and information, the artists in Lhasa do not seem
as cut off from the world as they would have been only two decades ago. They are
represented by the same agents as their exile confreres and are concerned with similar
global issues.

355

Conclusion
This study has largely confined itself to the iconographic aspects of contemporary
Tibetan art which inextricably link Tibetan Buddhism with Tibetan culture. The research
focuses on artists who draw from the iconography of traditional Tibetan art, and their
cultural and religious heritage, modifying it in a way that renders it more relevant to
modern life in both exile and in Tibet.
As I have demonstrated in this thesis the artists considered here, far from being
iconoclasts, use traditional iconography in profound ways. It is indicative of the heavy
significance of these symbols that they can be used to carry profound meanings in the
present, as they did in the past. The result is a fusion of ideas and styles that transcends
cultural and geographical boundaries. As mentioned in my introduction, Nicholas
Bourriaud has proposed that the new starting point for many contemporary artists is one
of a globalised state of culture, so that while ethnic identity and cultural origins are still
important, the context is one where different influences all play a potentially equal part in
the global flow of ideas. Indeed, the contemporary Tibetan artists can be seen as part of
the greater transnational art movement, as artists from both Lhasa and the exile
community join forces in international exhibitions in, for example, Hong Kong, India,
Australia, Germany and London. These exhibitions can be accessed via the world wide
web, sometimes with the capacity for interactive blog communication, as in the case of
the Tradition Transformed exhibition in New York in 2010.
The contemporary Tibetan art movement emerged from the fringes to come to
realisation in the prestigious galleries of the West, presenting hybrid art forms, part
spiritual, part ethnic. Whether they are situated in the TAR or form part of the Tibetan
diaspora, they are equally represented at Biennales along with other transnational artists
356

of every background, engaging in a global dialogue and a vision of human civilisation as
one of plurality and diversity.
For a culture in transition, these are the spaces opened up by the contemporary
Tibetan artists, as Homi Bhabha articulates, in the on-going process of re-negotiating
identity. For ‘minority’ artists such as these, who form a cosmopolitan elite in their
communities, the negotiated spaces open a gap for others to follow in a rapidly changing
world, not only for Tibetans but also non-Tibetans who, through engaging with these
artworks, can respond to a Tibetan identity beyond the cultural stereotypes. In terms of
Said’s Orientalism, the ‘altermodern’ would appear to provide an antidote – if we all
become ‘the other’.
I have examined how the changed cultural context within which the Tibetan artists
now operate has impacted on the iconographic, mythological and stylistic features of
Tibetan art. Through an employment of Panofsky’s methodology of iconographic analysis,
I have sought to interpret the work of these artists through the lens of this context as well
as the artists’ own stated intentions, in order to temper the subjective nature of
interpreting another’s cultural manifestations.
The contemporary Tibetan artists I have discussed now operate largely in two
contexts, which both represent a significant cultural change from the pre-Chinese
occupation Tibetan society. These are the present day Tibetan Autonomous Region of the
People’s Republic of China, and a life in exile in other parts of Asia or the West. Both
these circumstances represent a marked change in the cultural milieu. In the first instance,
dominating foreign cultural influences have been imported into the traditional Tibetan
homeland while in the second instance, individuals or groups are transported into the
midst of a foreign culture.

357

Both situations have, as we have seen, involved a hiatus with regard to access to
cultural knowledge for different reasons, and then a resurgence in interest and cultural
activity once access had been restored. In the TAR, this occurred after the death of Mao
and the ushering in of the ‘Open Door’ policy of the 1980s when restrictions on the
practice of culture were alleviated to an extent. In exile, the awareness of Tibetan history
and religion has built up over time thanks largely to the Dalai Lama and the community
in India which has preserved knowledge and exported it to the West. This has led in some
quarters to priority being given to the preservation of traditions and thus a new
efflorescence of traditional arts. However, in the case of the contemporary Tibetan artists,
their personal and collective journeys have resulted in a move away from the strict rules
of sacred Tibetan art, towards a reinterpretation of Tibetan Buddhist iconography,
mythology and traditional stylistic features. These artists emerged at a time which
converged with the beginning of globalisation and were in a position to capitalise on the
opportunities presented by the intersection of socio-historical trajectories.
Both the artists in exile and the artists in Lhasa have also benefited from
instruction in Western art technique and ideas which have clearly influenced their own art
practices. Consequently, the contemporary Tibetan artists have created an entry into the
Western (now global) art world, where works take on a different purpose from traditional
religious visual culture, and this is reflected in the artist’s altered treatment of traditional
iconographic subjects and stylistic features.
In the contemporary art world, the gallery has replaced the house of worship. In
the art gallery it is not the strict adherence to aesthetic and liturgical rules and systems of
proportions that matters, but the exploration of concepts behind the works and the
mastery of new techniques and materials. This allows a resolution of ideas and
communication to a new audience which expects to fulfil their part of the artistic equation
358

by contemplating the levels of aesthetic and philosophical elements of the art work. In
this new ‘anything goes’ artistic environment, we find that the contemporary Tibetan
artists reinterpret iconography while retaining essential underlying philosophical ideas or
otherwise use this iconography to make profound social comment. Ultimately, there are
both exogenous and endogenous forces contributing to the contemporary Tibetan art
movement. The result is the expression of a modern Tibetan identity that absorbs
disparate influences and emits a new ‘creole’ visual language.
In terms of visual language, the artists in Lhasa frequently use motifs from the
Cultural Revolution while in the West, these symbols are seldom employed by the
Tibetan artists. However, it cannot be said that the Lhasan artists use these symbols
because they are stuck in a time warp. Rather, they employ the symbols of the Cultural
Revolution, with great dexterity and ingenuity, because the period is part of their cultural
repository and modern identity, as expressed in the Gedun Chophel Artists’ Guild
manifesto.
On the other hand, the artists of the diaspora make use of symbols, icons and
images from their immediate Western environments or the global ecumene. For example,
Tenzin Rigdol has used images of the New York subway map, the president of the United
States and Aung San Suu Kyi. Gonkar Gyatso has used the figure of an indigenous
Australian in his Reclining Buddha work.
While together the two branches of the contemporary Tibetan art movement form
a coherent ensemble, different mirrored concerns can be ascertained. The artists in Lhasa
are to a great extent concerned with the erosion of Tibetan culture in their homeland by
foreign cultural and political forces. Amongst the diaspora, artists are concerned with
negotiating their Tibetan identity within a wider foreign society. Both situations result in
a double-consciousness comprising Tibetan culture and something else, and these two
359

parts of their identities run along parallel tracks through their lives. It is more than the
coexistence of traditional and modern, but the double-consciousness of one who lives
partly within and partly outside their common culture.
These contemporary artists treat and use the traditional iconography to both
express traditional Tibetan Buddhist philosophical concepts in new ways for a modern
audience, as well as metaphorical and allegorical devices to express current socio-
political concerns.
Contemporary Tibetan art presents a more complex picture of a community, a
society and a culture, than is often portrayed in movies, books or exhibitions of traditional
art. The contemporary Tibetan art movement provides new cultural spaces for a re-
negotiation of modern Tibetan identity in a globalised world, beyond the nostalgia for
another time or place, or an invented idea of identity based on that nostalgia. The purview
of the movement is indeed the renewal of Tibetan art and “an encounter with newness”
which provides “the terrain for elaborating strategies of self-hood … that initiate new
signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration, and contestation, in the act of
defining the ideas of society itself.”575
To conclude, this study has shown that the changed cultural contexts, which include
exile, occupation and globalisation, within which the Tibetan artists now operate has
impacted on the iconographic, mythological and stylistic features of Tibetan art. The
artists treat and use the iconographic material of the Tibetan religious art traditions in
order to interpret modern culture and current issues, in a way that is not iconoclastic but
rather deconstructs and reconstructs these traditions to suit their modern sensibilities.
Accordingly, the contemporary Tibetan art provides space for re-negotiation of
modern Tibetan identity. These artists challenge the stereotypes, myths and assumptions

575
Homi Bhabha. The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1995), 7.
35:

regarding Tibetan culture and Tibetan identity and take their place in the modern world.
While their art expresses their historico-psychic trajectories, it does not hark on nostalgia
but presents as part of the modern art phenomenon that records culture in transition.

361

Appendix A: Gedun Chophel Artists’ Guild – Mission Statement
Usually groups are formed through someone’s initiative. However, this particular Gedun
Chophel Artists’ Guild came together naturally through shared experiences and common
interests. We were all born in the turbulent 60s and 70s. We lived through the rationing
period of Chairman Mao, and remember his passing away. We also have experienced the
radical modernizing changes brought about by Deng Xiaoping throughout China. Like
other young people, we like to keep up with the times and trends, but we also respect and
value the traditional aspects of our unique cultural heritage. Some of us were born here in
Tibet, and some have come from other places. However, we always stick to drawing out
originality and inspiration from the new multi-faceted Tibet, which is far beyond the
image of many outsiders. Thus, with our shared ideas and vision, we have formed the
Gedun Choephel Artists’ Guild in 2003, the very year of the centenary birth anniversary
of 20th century Tibet’s great leading intellectual and artists, Gedun Choephel, an
inspiration whose spirit is living in us to this day. We do not wish to simply make a living
from our art, but wish to contribute to the development of contemporary art. We want to
faithfully show our innermost thoughts and feelings through art by whatever medium we
choose to use.
(Gedun Choephel Artist's Guild, 2004)

362

Glossary
Note on language
For Tibetan words, I have used the Tibetan and Himalayan Library (THL) Simplified Phonetic
Transcription of Standard Tibetan throughout this thesis.
I have also employed the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) for words in
the Sanskrit language.
Tibetan (T), Sanskrit (S).
ālidhāsana (S): standing posture, as in yab-yum figures.

arhat (S): worthy one, perfected person.
bhū́mi (S): earth.
bhūmisparśa mudrā (S): earth-touching mudra.
bodhi (S): realization, enlightenment.
bodhisattva (S): one who aspires to enlightenment not only for themselves but for the
benefit of others.
buddhapāda (S): Buddha’s footprints.
cakra (or chakra) (S), khor-lo (T): wheel.
cakrasaṃvara tantra (S): The Discourse of Śrī Heruka.
cakravartin (S): universal monarch or ruler.
chang (T): Tibetan barley beer.
chatra (S): dgugs (T): parasol, umbrella.
chuba (T): long sheepskin coat.
ḍākinī (S): female spirit creature, sky-dancer.
devī (S): goddess.
dharma (S), (chö, T): universal law.
dharmacakra (S): wheel of law.
dorjé (T), vajra (S): diamond, lightning bolt.
drilbu (T): ritual bell.
jātaka (S): birth stories – stories about the previous lives of the Buddha.
kālacakra (or kālachakra) (S): Wheel of Time tantric system.
kang-ri (T): snow mountain.
kyang shing (T): traditional wooden stretcher frame for thangka painting.
karma (S): action, law of universal cause and effect.
katag (T): ceremonial scarf.
klu (T): spirits.
363

kyang shing (T): traditional wooden stretcher frame for thangka painting.
lung ta (T): wind horse.
mahāpuruṣa (S) - great man.
mahāyāna (S): great vehicle.
makara (S): mythological sea-monster.
mālā (S) trengwa (T): prayer beads.
maṇḍala (S) kyinkhor (T): circle, mystic diagram; dul-tson kyinkhor: sand maṇḍala.
Mañjuśrī: Boddhisattva of Wisdom.
mantra (S) ngak (T): sacred sonant formula.
Māra (S): demon of Buddhist mythology.
matsya (S): fish, one of the eight auspicious symbols of Buddhism.
māyā (S): illusion.
mudrā (S): gesture, posture.
Nāgārjuna: Buddhist philosopher c.150 – c.250 CE, India.
nāga (S): sacred snake.
nirvāṇa (S) myang-'das (T): “blowing out”, beyond saṃsāra, liberation.
oṃ (S): seed mantra embracing the secrets of the universe.
ӧsel (T): clear light
padma (S) pema or padma (T): lotus.
parinirvāṇa (S): complete or final nirvāṇa.
pecha (T): sacred manuscript.
phurpa (T): ritual dagger.
rig gnas (T): branches of knowledge
Śakti (S): divine consort of Śiva, female principle.
Śākyamuni (S): the historical Buddha, prince of the Śākya clan.
Śambhalaḥ (S): mythical kingdom in Buddhist and Hindu traditions.
saṃsāra (S): “wandering”; process of birth, death and rebirth, world of suffering.
sangkhang (T): stove for incense offering.
śilpa (S): texts devoted to the explanation of arts and crafts.
Śiva (S): third god of the Hindu Trinity, the Destroyer.
skandha (S) phung po lnga (T): elements that constitute and explain mental and physical
existence.
so-byis (T): long turquoise earing worn by lay officials.
srin mo (T): supine demoness of Tibet.
364

stūpa (S), chöten (T): shrine, reliquary.

śūnyatā (S): tongpa nyi (T): emptiness.
sūtra (S): scripture, collection of discourses of the Buddha.
svastika (S): auspicious symbol of luck and prosperity.
Śyāmatārā (S): Green Tārā.
tantra (S): esoteric Buddhist texts.
Tārā (S) Dölma (T): Buddhist female deity.
terma (T): revealed scripture (lit. hidden treasure).
theravāda (P): doctrine of the elders.
trinayāna (S): three eyes.
utpala (S) (T): lotus attribute of Green Tārā.
uṣṇīṣa (S): topknot.
vāhana (S): vehicle of a Buddhist or Hindu deity.
vajrāsana (S): seated meditation posture, as in the seated yab-yum figures.
vajrayāna (S): dorjé-thepa (T): diamond vehicle.
yab-yum (T): father-mother.

365

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394

Interviews
(formal interviews with artists and others were augmented by informal conversations and email
correspondence)
Ang Sang, artist (Nyandak translator) Artist's studio, Lhasa, 30 September, 4, 6, 7

October 2010.
Ang Sang, artist (Benchung and Nyandak translators) artist's studio, Lhasa, 12 November
2011.
Benchung (Benpa Chungdak) artist, artist's studio, Lhasa, 26, 28 September, 4, 6 October
2010; 12 November 2011.
Choje Lama Shedrup (Ven.), Palpung Kagyu Thigsum Chokyi Ghatsal Tibetan Buddhist
Monastery, Launceston, 2010–2014.
Dedron (Dechen) artist (Nyandak translator) artist’s studio, Lhasa, 2 October 2010.
Donlup, artist, artist's studio, Lhasa, 11 November 2011
Doctor Dawa (artist, author and former director of Tibetan Medical Astrological Institute).
Tibetan Medical Astrological Institute, Dharamsala, 11, 20, 21 November 2010.
Gade, artist (Nyandak, translator) artist's studio, Lhasa, 26, 27, 28 September, 4, 5, 7
October 2010; 19 November 2011.
Gade and Nyandak, collaboration between author and artists on translation of catalogue
essay for the “Scorching Sun of Tibet” contemporay Tibetan art exhibition. Lhasa, 26
September to 5 October 2010.
Gonkar Gyatso, artist, Sydney, 12, 14, May 2010; Brisbane, 20, 21 August 2011.
Gupta, Santosh (Tibetan art gallery owner) Lotus Gallery, Kathmandu. 11 October 2010.
Karma Phuntsok, artist, artist's studio, Kyogle, N.S.W., 27 July 2011.
Kunchok, artist (Tashi Gyatso, translator) Dharamsala, 19 November 2010).

395

Lu, Zhungde, artist (Nyandak, translator) Lhasa, 7 October 2010; Gedun Chöphel Artists'
Guild, Lhasa, 19 November 2011.
Ngawang Dorjee, artist (Tashi Gyatso, translator) Dharamsala, 19 November 2010.
Nortse (Norbu Tsering) artist (Nyandak, translator) Lhasa, 12 November 2011.
Nortse (Nyandak and Benchung, translators) artist's studio, Lhasa, 26, 30 September, 4, 6,
7 October 2010.
Nyandak (Tsering Nyandak) artist, Lhasa, 25, 26, 27, 28, 30 September, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7
October 2010; 11, 12, 15, 19 November 2011.
Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 17th Gyalwang Karmapa (artist and head of the Karma Kagyu
lineage of Tibetan Buddhism) Gyuto Tantric Monastery, Dharamsala, 3 November 2010.
Pema Donyo Nyingche Wangpo, Vajradhara 12th Kenting Tai Situpa (holder of the
Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism) Palpung Sherabling Monastic Seat, Baijnath, India,
10 November 2010.
Penpa (Me Long) artist (Nima, translater) Me Long Contemporary Art Space, Lhasa, 27
September 2010.
Penpa, artist (Nyandak, translator) Gedun Chöphel Artist's Guild, Lhasa, 19 November
2011.
Samchung, artist, artist's studio, Dharamsala, 21 November 2010.
Shelkawa A Nu, artist (Nyandak, translator) Lhasa, 7 October 2010.
Somani, artist (Nyandak, translator) Gedun Chöphel Artists' Guild, Lhasa, 4 October
2010.
Tashi Gyatso (Contemporary Tibetan art gallery owner) Peak Gallery, Dharamsala, 11,
19, 20, 21, 23 November 2010.
Tashi Lodeo, artist (Tashi Gyatso, translator) Peak Art Gallery, Dharamsala, 23
November 2010.
Tenzin Gyaltsen Ghadong (Wangdue Tsering), applique and embroidery thangka master,
Palpung Sherabling Monastic Seat, Baijnath, India, 17 November 2010.
396

Tsering Namgyal, artist (Nyandak, translator) artists' studio, Lhasa, 2 October 2010.
Tsewang Lhakpa (ven. Lama), Palpung Kagyu Thigsum Chokyi Ghatsal Tibetan
Buddhist Monastery, Launceston, 2010–2014.
Tsewang Tashi, artist, artist's studio, Lhasa, 13 November 2011, Lhasa, 15 November
2011.
Yak Tseten, artist (Nyandak, translator) Lhasa, 7 October 2010.
Varioius Email correspondence with:
Nyandak 2010 – 2014
Gade 2010 – 2014
Gonkar Gyatso 2010 – 2014
Karma Phuntsok 2010
Losang Gyatso 2010 – 2014
Benchung 2010 – 2014
Tenzing Rigdol 2013 – 2014
Jhamsang 2013
397

List of illustrations:
Figure 1. Śākyamuni Buddha, appliqué thangka, Norbulingka exhibition, Hobart 2009 ...4
Figure 2. Artists at “The Third Painting Exhibition of the Tea Houses’ School,” Lhasa,
1987 .............................................................................................................................8
Figure 3. Buddha in our Times, 2008, Gonkar Gyatso .....................................................32
Figure 4. Buddha in our Times, Gonkar Gyatso (detail) ...................................................33
Figure 5. Śākyamuni Buddha with iconometric grid by Wangdrak ..................................39
Figure 6. Basic grid construction for seated Buddha .........................................................39
Figure 7. Edifice SB (Line), 2007, Palden Weinreb ..........................................................40
Figure 8. Poetry of Lines, No. 5, 2008, Tenzin Rigdol .....................................................40
Figure 9. War Peace, 2011, Karma Phuntsok ...................................................................43
Figure 10. Do What You Love, 2010, Gonkar Gyatso, 25 Buddhas ..................................44
Figure 11. Do What You Love (Three Realms), 2012, Gonkar Gyatso, Installation ..........46
Figure 12. Do What You Love (Three Realms), (details) ...................................................46
Figure 13. Buddha, 2011, Kiss the Sky installation, Gonkar Gyatso ................................48
Figure 14. New Buddha series: McDonalds, 2008, Gade .................................................50
Figure 15. New Buddha series: Spiderman, 2008, Gade ..................................................50
Figure 16. New Buddha series: Mao Jackets, 2008, Gade ................................................50
Figure 17. Thousands Bound, 2010, Gade ........................................................................53
Figure 18. Śākyamuni with Buddhas, Boddhisattvas and Lamas,13th century thangka,
Central Tibet ..............................................................................................................53
Figure 19. Ice Buddha Sculpture No. 1 Lhasa River, 2006, Gade (& Jason Sangster)......56
Figure 20. Buddha Head, 2008, Tsering Nyandak ............................................................58
Figure 21. Paper Plane, 2008, Tsering Nyandak ..............................................................59
Figure 22. sTon pa (Skyscraper Buddha) 2006, Tsering Nyandak & Yak Tseten ............61
Figure 23. Sydney Biennale banner 2010, Gonkar Gyatso ................................................62
Figure 24. Sydney Biennale banner 2012, Gade ................................................................62
Figure 25. Kapaladhara Hevajra Mandala, Central Tibet,16th century, thangka ............67
Figure 26. Sand maṇḍala, 2007, Tenzing Rigdol ..............................................................68
Figure 27. Sand maṇḍala, 2007, Tenzing Rigdol ..............................................................68
Figure 28. Monks making sand maṇḍala, Drepung Monastery, Lhasa, 1937, photograph
by C.S. Cutting ...........................................................................................................70
398

Figure 29. Tibetan Guyto monks, sand maṇḍala (Hobart, 2010) ......................................72
Figure 33. Obama Mandala: Mandala of Hope, 2008, Tenzing Rigdol ...........................73
Figure 34. Obama Mandala: Mandala of Hope (detail) ...................................................73
Figure 35. Adventure of My Life, 2013, Tashi Norbu .......................................................74
Figure 36. O Tantric Mandala, 2010, Kesang Lamdark ....................................................78
Figure 37. The New Sutra: Wedding Ceremony, 2007, Gade, ...........................................83
Figure 38. Red Sun (Nyi ma mar po), 2006, Nortse ...........................................................88
Figure 39. Black Sun (Nyi ma nag po), 2006, Nortse ........................................................88
Figure 40. Mandala – The State of Unbalance, 2008, Nortse ...........................................90
Figure 41. Release Life 2007, Nortse ................................................................................92
Figure 42. Paramasukha Cakrasamvara yab-yum, Central Tibet, 17th century ................95
Figure 43. Autonomy, 2011, Tenzing Rigdol ...................................................................97
Figure 44. Guhyasamaja Manjuvajra yab-yum, thangka, Tibet, 16th–17th centuries .......98
Figure 45. The Minority Question 1, 2005, Gonkar Gyatso ............................................101
Figure 48. Raging Fire, 2010, Gade ...............................................................................106
Figure 49. The Red Decade, 2008, Ang Sang .................................................................109
Figure 50. Clear Light Tara, 2009, Losang Gyatso, digital photograph ........................116
Figure 51. White Tara thangka, Tibet, 19th century .........................................................116
Figure 52. Pink Tara, 2008, Kesang Lamdark, sculpture ...............................................120
Figure 53. Blue Tara, 2008, Kesang Lamdark, sculpture ...............................................120
Figure 54. White Tara, Tibet, 17th century, gilt bronze statue ........................................120
Figure 55. Green Tara, Tibet, 15th century, gilt copper statue ........................................120
Figure 56. Standing Tara, Nepal, 14th century, gilt copper statue ..................................121
Figure 57. Updating Green Tara, 2010, Tenzing Rigdol ...............................................123
Figure 58. Green Tara, Tibet, 13th century, thangka ......................................................124
Figure 59. Green Tara, 2009, Dedron ...........................................................................127
Figure 60. White Tara panel, Red Temple, Guge, Western Tibet, 15th century .............128
Figure 61. Tara (New Buddha series), 2009, Jhamsang .................................................132
Figure 62. Tara, 2008, Jhamsang .....................................................................................135
399

Figure 63. The Demoness, 2006, Gade, ‘pecha’ (sacred manuscript) format, .................140
Figure 64. The Demoness of Tibet, Tibet, c. early 20th century, ......................................142
Figure 65. The maṇḍala scheme of temples that subdue the Demoness (Aris) ..............143
Figure 66. The Demoness, Gade (detail – left side) .........................................................144
Figure 67. The Demoness, Gade (detail – right side) .......................................................145
Figure 68. The Kingdom of Śambhalaḥ and Buddhist Armageddon, Eastern Tibet, 18th
century, .....................................................................................................................148
Figure 69. Railway Train, 2006, Gade .............................................................................150
Figure 70. Railway Train, Gade (detail - right) ...............................................................151
Figure 71. Railway Train, Gade (detail - left)..................................................................153
Figure 72. A Buddhist King with Landscape and Heavens, Eastern Tibet, 17th to 18th
century, thangka .......................................................................................................153
Figure 73. New Tibet, 2006, Gade ...................................................................................156
Figure 74. New Tibet, Gade (detail - right) ......................................................................158
Figure 75. New Tibet, Gade (detail - left) ........................................................................158
Figure 76. Shangri-La No. 1, 2008, Tsewang Tashi, digital photograph.........................161
Figure 77. Entering the City II, 1980, Chen Danqing ......................................................161
Figure 79. Pilgrimage (Chaosheng), 1980, Chen Danqing .............................................163
Figure 81. The Women Washing Their Hair, 1980, Chen Danqing .................................165
Figure 83. The Shepherd, 1980, Chen Danqing ..............................................................167
Figure 84. Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express, 2009, Gonkar Gyatso .......168
Figure 85. Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express (detail) ...............................169
Figure 88, Reclining Buddha – Shanghai to Lhasa Express (detail) ...............................172
Figure 90. Pink Himalayan Boulder, 2008, Kesang Lamdark, installation ....................173
Figure 91. Pink Himalayan Boulder, Kesang Lamdark (detail) ......................................174
Figure 92. Our Land Our People, Tenzing Rigdol, October 2011, site specific installation,
Dharamsala, India, Photograph by Bhuchung D. Sonam .......................................176
39:

Figure 93. Our Land Our People, Tenzing Rigdol, 2011, (Bringing Tibet Home, Tenzin
Tsetan Choklay, director, 2013) ...............................................................................178
Figure 99. Buddhapāda with Dharmacakra, stone bas-relief, Amarāvatī, India, 2nd
century C.E. ..............................................................................................................180
Figure 100. My Exilic Experience, 2011, Tenzing Rigdol, collage ................................181
Figure 101. Dharma wheel flanked by deer, Jokhang Temple, Lhasa, c. 14th century ...185
Figure 102. Limestone relief with dharmacakra, Amarāvatī, India, 2nd century C.E. ....185
Figure 103. Wheel (Pink) 2010, Kesang Lamdark ..........................................................186
Figure 104. Wheel (Blue) 2011, Kesang Lamdark ..........................................................186
Figure 105. Parasol, throne, boddhi tree and footprints, limestone bas relief, from
Amarāvatī Stupa, India, 2nd century C.E. .................................................................189
Figure 106. Umbrella, 2011, Kesang Lamdark, installation ...........................................189
Figure 107. Untitled (Parasol) 2007, Palden Weinreb ...................................................191
Figure 108. Flow, 2011, Palden Weinreb, .......................................................................193
Figure 109. Untitled (Oscillate), 2011, Palden Weinreb ................................................193
Figure 110. This is Not a Chair, 2008, Tenzing Rigdol, installation ...............................196
Figure 111. Floating River Ice, 2003, Benching, video installation ...............................200
Figure 112. Auspicious symbols on pavement, Sherabling monastery, Baijnath, India,
2010 ..........................................................................................................................201
Figure 113. Untitled 1, 2006, Benchung, video installation ...........................................204
Figure 114. Five Subtle Desires 1, Flavor, 2010, Penpa .................................................206
Figure 115. Five Subtle Desires 2, Body, 2010, Penpa ...................................................207
Figure 116. Five Subtle Desires 3, Sound, 2010, Penpa .................................................209
3:1

Figure 117. Five Subtle Desires 4, Touch, 2010, Penpa .................................................209

Figure 118. Five Subtle Desires 5, Smell, 2010, Penpa ..................................................210
Figure 119. Letters, 2010, Nortse, installation .................................................................211
Figure 120. Zen Meditation, 2012, Nortse, installation ..................................................213
Figure 121. My Identity 1 – 4, 2003, Gonkar Gyatso, digital photographs......................219
Figure 122. Tsering Dondrup, thangka painter. Lhasa, 1937, photograph by C. S. Cutting
..................................................................................................................................220
Figure 123. Beer Seller No. 1, 2009, Tsewang Tashi ......................................................229
Figure 124. Beer Seller No. 2, 2009, Tsewang Tashi ......................................................229
Figure 125. Wine Seller No. 1, 2009, Tsewang Tashi ......................................................229
Figure 126. Alone, Exhausted and Waiting, 2012, Tenzing Rigdol.................................232
Figure 127. Labrang 1-6, 2008, Losang Gyatso, digital images on aluminium ..............233
Figure 128. Middle Path, 2008, Nyandak .......................................................................234

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Altermodern: Tate Triennial, 2009.

I would like to thank the University of Tasmania for supporting my project. I

In India, the Dharamsala artists: Doctor Dawa, Samchung, Ngawang Dorjee,

Very special acknowledgement must be given to Ogyen Trinley Dorje, 17th

Statement of Authorship ...................................................................................................... i

Chapter 1. The Buddha Form.........................................................................................29

Chapter 2. Maṇḍala – Neo-Tantra..................................................................................64

Chapter 3. Tantra – Male and Female Principles .........................................................94

Chapter 4. Sacred Geography – Land and Landscape ..............................................139

Chapter 5. A New Aniconism – Allegory .....................................................................180

Chapter 6. Lhasa and Exile - A Disparate Cohesion ..................................................217

Appendix A: Gedun Chophel Artists’ Guild – Mission Statement ..................................250

List of illustrations: ..........................................................................................................286

Tibetan homeland and amongst the Tibetan diaspora.

contextual and visual complexity to the oeuvre of the art movement.

Naturally, because of the profound social, political and geographical changes

exhibition, Robert Thurman wrote: “[t]hrough Tibet’s seventeen-hundred-year

The existence of the contemporary Tibetan art movement is still relatively

fine catalogues were produced.4

such as Hong Kong.6 As collections grew, impressive exhibitions of traditional Tibetan

art were held in Europe and North America.7

and artworks were destroyed or stolen, resulting in the decimation of a culture.8

set up a Tibetan government-in-exile, priority was given to the consolidation and

embroidered silk rather than paint), sculpture and wood carving.10

Figure 1. Appliqué thangka with traditional brocade

Nearly twenty years later, Norbulingka is centred around a museum of traditional

part of the contemporary Tibetan art movement.

purposes. Rather it provides a socio-political reflection on contemporary Tibetan and

Emergence of Contemporary Tibetan Art

The initial emergence of a contemporary Tibetan art came after a prolonged

and soldiers. The main purpose was:

exhibitions to come to China, giving artists an opportunity to glimpse the artistic

Tibetan artists was Robert Rauschenberg’s touring exhibition, Rauschenberg’s Overseas

displayed at the Revolutionary Exhibit Hall.19

beginning of the contemporary Tibetan art movement.

The boon of the early 1980s, however, proved to be short-lived in terms of

earlier reforms, culminating in the confrontation in Tiananmen Square in Beijing.27

next generation of artists.

new, Tibetan, Chinese and Tibetan Muslim,30 it is a contemporary Tibetan creative

influence of the Cultural Revolution in their lives.31

sufficient momentum to warrant exhibitions at prestigious galleries in the West.

Siebengebirgs Museum, Koenigswinter, Germany (2006); Consciousness and Form–

Threshold of a New Future, Amsterdam (2009); Tibetan Visions–Contemporary Painting

Occasionally exhibitions of contemporary Tibetan art were held in China during

and the Asia Pacific Triennial (2009).

but not necessarily an equivalent expertise in classical Asian or Buddhist iconography.

dialogue which is beyond nationalism, and which he calls ‘altermodernism’.33

working of traditional Tibetan Buddhist iconography they challenge art audiences to

amongst the Tibetan diaspora.

the Tibetan image inside the TAR.

image which promotes a traditional ‘authentic’ culture; and secondly, a counter-narrative

Harris explores the notion of ‘authenticity’ with regard to culture in a rapidly

determination” as a mutable concept.40 It is subjective and relational, dependent upon

did not exist even prior to Chinese occupation.

the most important contemporary Tibetan artists today.

suffered by Tibetan artists.42

of Tibetan contemporary Art,” Harris discusses the activities of contemporary Tibetan

Harris’ chapter/essay provokes possibilities for further investigation of the phenomena of

have been able to give due attention to this trend in my research.