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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.239.13, Connecticut Historical ...
Tibet’s Living Art Exhibit - Jampa Tsondue
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.239.13, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

Tibet’s Living Art Exhibit - Jampa Tsondue

Subject (Tibetan, born 1959)
Date2007
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.239.1-.34
DescriptionBorn digital images of Jampa Tsondue’s exhibit, “Tibet’s Living Art” held at Wesleyan University in 2007.

2015.196.239.1: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue’s painting “Namkhai Nyingbo," which was the first he painted while in the United States, 1992-1993. The Boddhisattva of compassion holds a lotus in leaf, bloom, and bud, representing the life and wisdom of Buddha, past, present, and future.

2015.196.239.2: born digital image showing Tsondue’s painting “Mitrugpa,” which he began in 1990 and completed in 2006.

2015.196.239.3: born digital image showing close view of “Mitrugpa” -- bottom half of painting

2015.196.239.4: born digital image showing close view of “Mitrugpa” -- top half of painting

2015.196.239.5: born digital image showing “Buddha Sakhyamuni” painting

2015.196.239.6: born digital image showing detail from “Buddha Sakyamuni” painting, which Tsondue began painting in 1994 and finished in 2006.

2015.196.239.7: born digital image of “Namgyal Ma” drawing, created in 1990

2015.196.239.8-.9: born digital images of Tsondue arranging sculptures of Guru Patma Sambawa and Green Tara, 2005-2006

2015.196.239.10-.12: born digital images of Tsondue standing in front of paintings

2015.196.239.13-.14: born digital images of Tsondue standing in front of Guru Padma Sambawa and Green Tara

2015.196.239.15: born digital image showing gallery space, with Guru Padma Sambawa and Green Tara at center

2015.196.239.16: born digital image showing two walls of gallery

2015.196.239.17: born digital image showing three paintings on gallery wall

2015.196.239.18: born digital image showing gallery wall, with a gold thangka in traditional cloth frame in the center

2015.196.239.19: born digital image showing five pieces of art on gallery wall

2015.196.239.20: born digital image showing a gold thangka in traditional cloth frame

2015.196.239.21: born digital image showing a thangka painting

2015.196.239.22: born digital image showing painting with elephants

2015.196.239.23: born digital image showing a watercolor depicting three monks being offered a crown by a woman they meet.

2015.196.239.24: born digital image showing painting, “Lama Tsongkapa,” completed in 2006

2015.196.239.25: born digital image showing close view of Guru Padma Sambawa and Green Tara

2015.196.239.26: born digital image showing close view of Green Tara

2015.196.239.27: born digital image showing close view of Guru Padma Sambawa

2015.196.239.28: born digital image showing Guru Padma Sambawa and Green Tara

2015.196.239.29-.30: born digital images showing “Lama Tsongkapa”

2015.196.239.31-.33: born digital images showing close view of thangka painting

2015.196.239.34: born digital image showing thangka drawing
NotesSubject Note: In February 2007, Jampa Tsondue’s Tibetan paintings and drawings were on display at Wesleyan University, at the Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies, organized by Patrick Dowdey, curator and professor at the Freeman Center. Jampa also did a demonstration of thangka painting there. This was his first exhibition in many years, and his first solo exhibit, "Tibet's Living Art - Paintings by Jampa Tsondue."


Exhibition Description for "Tibet's Living Art - Thangkas by Jampa Tsondue": Jampa Tsondue’s moving thangka with their subtle colors and detailed gold painting, reflect his own spirituality amplified by his training with a monk of the Gyudmed Tantric Monastery in India. He has painted for over thirty years, first in India at monasteries, private chapels and sacred sites and, after coming to the United States in 1992, at the U. S. Capitol in restoration work. He lives now in Old Saybrook. The thangka in this exhibition represent his most recent work. Tibetan sacred paintings – thangka – are the creations of respected painters who, like Jampa Tsondue, were specially trained in the holy tradition, and who work to imbue their paintings with the spiritual qualities of Tibetan Traditional Buddhism. Exhibition on view at Mansfield Freeman Center for East Asian Studies Gallery, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut.


Subject Note: Hung in Buddhist monasteries and family shrines, thangkas usually depict spiritual beings. By viewing and meditating deeply upon a thangka, one's own character can become imbued with the qualities of the figure represented, as a way to transform the self. The process of creating a thangka can be a devotional act for the artist.

"Our thangka painting is totally related to Buddhism. Most of our thangkas represent someone doing meditations - while they are doing meditations they have to concentrate on whatever the god or goddess is, they focus their minds on it. Also so people know how these gods are - Tara looks like this, Yamantaka looks like that...when you look at a thangka, you feel so good! So calm, peaceful, when you go home you feel better, you have no anger, you're really very peaceful. My teacher used to say that when we do painting, before we start, we have to meditate. Then we have a short prayer...the whole day doing painting is for me a meditation. Once you start it you don't like to have a break...external feelings or thoughts never come in, you just focus on the thangka. It's really a meditation."

Religious painting holds great importance in Tibetan Buddhism. Vast stores of Buddhist knowledge and doctrine are written in books housed in monasteries. Paintings both large and small illustrate these texts by depicting central figures and deities, stories of their lives, as well as charts of medical knowledge and elements of doctrine. Tibetan Tantric Buddhism practices visualization as a way to transform the self, to "identify with" Buddha and other deities, and to work toward enlightenment by bringing principles of wisdom and compassion into one's life. By viewing and meditating deeply upon a painting, one's own character can become imbued with the qualities of the figure represented. Both lay people and lamas commission paintings for devotional purposes as well as for aiding health or for teaching Buddhist doctrine.

The usual form of such painting in Tibet is the thangka, a painted scroll which can be rolled up for storage or transport. Thangka painting's origins and influences are complex, going back to 7th century India, with evolution over the centuries affected by Nepali and Chinese styles. Painting methods have also developed over hundreds of years, and are strictly followed by artists. Jampa's training included techniques of canvas preparation, mixing pigments, measurement, outlining and drawing of the design, painting, shading, finishing, and mounting. The exquisite care and skill needed to create an authentic thangka make the costs of commissioning one very high. According to religious tradition, thangkas should not be made and sold in a market. Today, however, this does happen. In America, the difficulty of obtaining the right materials, as well as finding time to devote to such labor-intensive art, has been a challenge for Jampa and other artists.

The process of creating a thangka requires several steps. First a piece of pure cotton is hemmed on all sides then stitched to four bamboo sticks, making a flexible frame. These sticks are attached by strong thread to a larger wooden frame which holds the cloth taut and stretches it when the thread is pulled. An animal hide glue is applied to both sides of the cloth, scraping to make sure no particles remain on the surface. After the cloth is stretched and dried, one or two coats of chalk or clay gesso are applied. Jampa then rubs the smooth side of a conch shell over it to press the gesso into the "holes" in the cotton, making the surface like paper. Next, measurements and calculations determine the exact center to create an axis on the canvas for the drawing. An experienced artist like Jampa can draw the design freehand; sometimes for complicated figures a tracing is made from a book or master draftsman's work. Qualities and proportions of all the deities are set out in exquisitely detailed iconographies within Buddhist texts - the artist does not alter these.

After the sketch is outlined in ink, painting begins by applying base colors one at a time. Pigments are natural minerals crushed and mixed with water and herbs, sometimes with a little glue. A variety of shading and toning techniques are used very carefully and subtly throughout the painting. Outlining details are added as well as facial features. Twenty-four carat gold paint is usually applied for patterns on clothes or ornaments, then burnished. The completed thangka is often encased in a silk brocade frame backed by muslin, with bamboo and cedar dowels at top and bottom for hanging or rolling up. Thangkas used in religious ceremonies are consecrated by a lama.

Additional materials and a biogrphy exist in the CCHAP archive for this artist.


Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
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