Nepalese Art and Culture

A Short History of Buddhist Art
Newari Sculpture of Nepal

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A Short History of Tibetan and Nepalese Buddhist Art

This adoptive spirit enhanced the unique flavor of the visual arts and art history of Tibet and therefore of Nepal. Rin-Chen Bzang-po (980-1055) is a most revered saint who studied Buddhism in Kashmir, India, and then returned to Tibet with a wealth of religious texts and thirty two craftsman artists. This started a tradition of expression of religious beliefs in visual arts, through sculpture and painting. The major artistic influences were Kashmir, Gupta and Gandharan. Afgan and Swat influences lasted until Muslim conquests of the fifteenth century. Buddhism in East India lasted a little longer.

Rin-Chen Bzang-po was a translator monk who also established temples and monasteries in Tibet, Ladakh and Guge. The greater monasteries became the belongings of its inhabitants and abbots were chosen by a system of succession by incarnation to minister religious proceedings. From the seventeenth century onwards the nobility and monks administered the country under the supreme pontiff, The Dalai Lama. By the middle of the twentieth century there were over three thousand monasteries with perhaps a quarter of the population being that of monks and nuns. The dominant sect in the last centuries has been the "dge-lugs-pa" (yellow hats), although there are different sects with varied emphases and practices. These sects have no animosity towards one and another.

Tibet, now secularized, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China, fighting for their freedom. His Holiness, The Dalai Lama, exiled from his homeland since 1959, presently lives in Dharamsala, India, and his people inhabit various settlements in the Himalayan mountain, with the courtesy extended to him and his people by the Government of India.

The Tibetans are trying to maintain and preserve their art history and their cultural heritage. The pressures of the late twentieth century, their refugee status, a lack of permanent settlements and monasteries along with scarce economic resources, make this task difficult if not impossible.

The patronage of tantric cults challenged the sculptor to refine his skills in casting, enamel work, inlaying and repousse. Traditionally Nepali bronzes are cast in a copper rich alloy. This gives them a beautiful soft reddish patina. This alloy lends itself to guilding and to the application of gold and silver, i.e. repousee (beaten metalwork). Encrustations with semiprecious stones is common. The images themselves have an androgynous sense also seen in Indian sculpture of the Gupta period (A.D.320-600).

Iconographically, images are portrayed clad in the classic monastic garb of unstitched garments, the right shoulder and arm uncovered. Five supernatural signs are usually shown. Elongated earlobes; tuft of hair between eyebrows; three marks around the front of the neck; curls of hair positioned clockwise; and the 'USHNiSHa'-Cranial bump. Five hand gestures seen are Reassurance, Earth touching - 'JaTiKA', turning the wheel of Law, Meditation and Charity. There are also five colors used in the figures; Red, Yellow, White, Green and Blue signifying meditation, fearlessness, purity, knowledge and charity.

The meaning of the title 'Padma-pani' is 'One that bears a Lotus'. The meaning of the name itself is more intricate. The element -Ava, means -down. Lokita means -looking, or -beholding. Ishvara, the final element means, Lord. Thus the name is interpreted by some Buddhists as meaning 'The Lord Who looks'...down...over the world. In Sanskrit his name reads 'the Lord who Looks Down From on High'.

A relevent text states that he is thus known because he 'regards with compassion, beings suffering from the evils of existence'. Every pore of the body of Avalokiteshvara pours forth thousands of Buddhas and bodhisattvas of all kinds. From his fingers flow rivers of ambrosia that cool the hells and appease the appetites of hungry ghosts. It is he that gives the great meditation, inscribed on prayer wheels, all over the buddhist world, 'OM...MANI..PADME...HUM': OM... The Jewel (of consciousness) in the Lotus (of the world)... HUM. He is the embodiment of compassion. His Holiness The Dalai Lama, is said to be his reincarnation.

One may ask about the Lotus flower, that which Lokeshwara holds so gracefully. A relevent text addresses this. '...one may think of these symbolic flowers and their blossoming as referring either to the macrocosmic order, the flowering of the universe within whose bounds we dwell, or to the microcosmic opening of an individual's consciousness to his or her own potential amplitude.' Consider this thought in the light of the meditation associated with Lokeshvara.

He is also the Hindu God 'Shiva'. In Tibet he is the protector of the tent. He is usually portrayed dark, sometimes the color of a water laden cloud, raised hair, holding a diadem of skulls, mouth open and fangs showing, a third eye in the middle of his forehead, a tiger skin stretching behind his back, he is scary and vicious looking.

He wears a garland of skulls and supports various implements in his sometimes multiple hands to include swords, spears and choppers. He is often shown standing militantly on corpses, with one leg bent and the other extended at the knees.

The angry manifestations which are particularly predominant in Tibetan art, do not represent the evil 'Demons' they appear to be, but portray what scholars call 'Mysterium Trendum'. They are the other side of the coin, in a manner of speaking, the side that represents the 'Wrath of God'. Externally this wrath can be the plague or sickness and other afflictions of mankind, and internally this can be expressed as our own personal character defects, the demons of pride, anger, lust etc.

It should be emphasized that all deities are only aspects of the Greater Universal God or 'Sunyata', the supernatural presence, and are given multiple arms, legs and fiery forms to symbolize their cosmic nature.

We have here a distinctive and an enigmatic article of Buddhist religious practice, The Phurpa. It is also called ritual or magical dagger. The component "Phur" in Phurpa is the equivalent of the Sanskrit word "Kila" meaning peg - from the function of the object, one of binding down.

Tibetan Phurpas consist of three sided blades resembling pegs that hold down stay ropes of tents. They are made of common metals. Copper alloy and bronze are favoured. The hilt usually shows three heads of one of many protective angry deities, the common one is Mahakala. The instrument is then crowned by the head of Yamantaka, God of death. Sandwiched between the head and the blade is a Dorje, a representation of the lightening bolt symbolizing the absolute. Wrapped around the base of the Dorje, with tail extending onto the blade, which itself extrudes from his open mouth, is the serpent, symbolizing hostility. It is interesting how this iconographic embellishment elevated a simple peg to become the Phurpa, an important tool of religious practice that is used to this day.

Padmasambha, an Indian Buddhist monk, is credited with the invention of the instrument. He was invited by the rulers of Tibet to establish Buddhist thought and teaching in their lands. He is said to have pulled out a "Peg" from a tent of a non-believer and, using the peg to nail down evil spirits, consecrated the ground on which the Samye Monastery was established in the eighth century A.D.

Source: Khazana art pages.

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