Art Works in the Home of Jampa Tsondue and Kunga Choekyi
SubjectPortrait of
Kunga Choekyi
(Tibetan)
SubjectPortrait of
Jampa Tsondue
(Tibetan, born 1959)
DateNovember 2013
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.246.1-.9
DescriptionCCHAP visit to the home of Jampa Tsondue and Kunga Choekyi to view art works displayed there in 2013.
2015.196.246.1: born digital image showing thangka made by Jampa's daughter Yangchen, created through his teaching her this art form in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2011. Displayed in the family's meditation room.
2015.196.246.2-.5: born digital images showing cotton wall hanging embroidered with Buddhist symbols by Kunga Choekyi
2015.196.246.6-.8: born digital images showing butter sculptures with Buddhist symbols, displayed in the family's meditation room
2015.196.246.9: born digital image showing part of the family's meditation room with Tibetan Buddhist art works displayed, including a thangka painted by Jampa of Buddha Sakyamuni, a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, lotus, figures of deities, butter sculptures made by Yeshi Dorjee, and offerings.
NotesSubject Note: Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project brought 21 Tibetans from India to live in Connecticut in 1992, the state has become home to one of the fastest growing Tibetan communities in the U.S. Several Connecticut Tibetans are traditional artists of great skill who are deeply committed to expressing and passing on Tibetan culture. The story of the Tibetan community in Connecticut shows resilience and commitment to making a home in a new world. These first arrivals were sponsored to live in Old Saybrook, and they quickly found housing, jobs, and a welcome there. Many of them still had spouses, parents, and children back in India and Nepal so they applied for family reunification visas which often took years. The community has thrived and grown rapidly, choosing to remain in this part of the state. Recently the availability of jobs especially in the Asian gaming sections of Connecticut’s two casinos has encouraged many new Tibetan arrivals to settle in Norwich, bringing the community’s population up to about 500. Tibetans gather regularly for community social and ceremonial celebrations in Norwich and Old Saybrook, and they work tirelessly to educate others about the difficult situation faced by Tibetans in Tibet as they fight to protect their centuries-old culture that is threatened by a dominant political and social Chinese presence.2015.196.246.1: born digital image showing thangka made by Jampa's daughter Yangchen, created through his teaching her this art form in the Southern New England Traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program in 2011. Displayed in the family's meditation room.
2015.196.246.2-.5: born digital images showing cotton wall hanging embroidered with Buddhist symbols by Kunga Choekyi
2015.196.246.6-.8: born digital images showing butter sculptures with Buddhist symbols, displayed in the family's meditation room
2015.196.246.9: born digital image showing part of the family's meditation room with Tibetan Buddhist art works displayed, including a thangka painted by Jampa of Buddha Sakyamuni, a picture of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, lotus, figures of deities, butter sculptures made by Yeshi Dorjee, and offerings.
The Tibetan Association of Connecticut was formed in the early 1990s by the first Tibetans to settle in Connecticut, and it is active in bringing the state’s Tibetans together for social, cultural, educational, and spiritual events. “We have a thriving Tibetan community in State of Connecticut and this organization allows us to share common experiences of modern life in addition to keeping alive a strong sense of ancestral pride. TACT is dedicated to preserve, promote and flourish Tibetan culture for upcoming generations.”
Many of the community’s excellent traditional artists continue a wide variety of art forms as a way to sustain their language and culture and pass their heritage on to their children. Music and dance, featuring flute player Lakedhen Shingsur and dancers both young and old, are part of every Tibetan gathering especially Losar (New Year) and the Dalai Lama's birthday celebration in July. Dadon, a leading singer and composer of popular music in Tibet, was very active in performing in Connecticut and for several large Tibet benefit concerts in New York City. Yeshi Dorjee, a Buddhist monk, lives in Old Saybrook where he offers spiritual support for the community’s ceremonies and teachings. A multi-talented artist, Yeshi creates sand mandalas, butter sculptures, religious paintings, book illustrations, and is a storyteller. Jampa Tsondue paints thangkas, religious images of deities and Buddhist teachings, and has taught his daughter this process. Carpet weavers Tentso Sichoe and Kunga Choekyi participated in CCHAP’s Apprenticeship Program to share and teach their specialized craft and produce new carpets on a loom donated by weaver Tsultim Lama. Tibetan families use these folk arts every day in their homes, especially in the rooms devoted to their Buddhist spiritual practice. Many of these artists as well as other Tibetans from New York and New England participate in TibetFest, an annual gathering in Litchfield County that began in 2005.
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.
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.
"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."
Subject Note: In 2011 Tibetan artist Jampa Tsondue taught his daughter Tsering Yangchen the process of creating Tibetan Buddhist thangka paintings, under the Southern New England traditional Arts Apprenticeship Program. Jampa began teaching his daughter this art form when she was a teenager and the apprenticeship took place during her senior year of high school. Creating a thangka requires several steps, all done by hand. Jampa showed Yangchen how to prepare the canvas by stretching cotton on a bamboo frame, apply several coats of chalk or clay gesso to the cloth, and rub the smooth side of a conch shell over it to make the surface like paper. Next they sketched the design in ink as laid out precisely by Buddhist texts. Yangchen learned to apply colors one at a time using pigments of natural minerals crushed and mixed with water and herbs, sometimes with a little glue. She added a variety of subtle shading and toning techniques throughout her painting, along with outlining details and facial features. Together they carefully applied and burnished 24-carat gold paint to create patterns on clothes or ornaments. The finished thangka is now displayed in the family’s meditation room.
Biographical Note: Tsering Yangchen was born in South India in 1989 and her family immigrated to Old Saybrook, Connecticut when she was six years old. “ I’ve always wanted to get back in touch with my culture and to reconnect with my Tibetan roots, so I asked my dad to be my mentor. My dad and I, we’re a good team, I think, because he’s very honest and so am I. He teaches me a lot. We help each other connect more, too, within ourselves. We kind of create more dialogue because I’ll ask him questions and he has no choice but to answer me. We get to know each other, too, because I’ll understand, ‘Oh, this is how my father communicates.’
Growing up, I myself began to delve into anything that was artistic, whether it was photography, music, or the one I love best; drawing. My father’s work is not only a profession, but it is a profession that upholds one the aspects of Tibetan culture. Therefore, for my senior year at high school, I worked on my Thangka (Tibetan painting) for a whole year with the guidance of my father. I gained knowledge on the specific material needed to construct one, the significance of the deities on the Thangkas, the importance of the minerals for paint, and the history of Thangkas. I taught myself how to draw, sketch, illustrate, paint, mold, and create. My father does not have to teach me how to draw, but my father is my primary source on how to create a Thangka. The master artist and I have chosen to work together on this program is to, most importantly, keep our Tibetan culture going strong. I am a part of our Old Saybrook Tibetan community, but in the larger picture, I am a part of the Tibetan community in general. Therefore, if it benefits me as an individual, I am benefitting not only my community but the whole Tibetan community, all six million of us. As a Tibetan, I take this opportunity as my duty to carry on Tibetan culture. So, in the future I can be useful in teaching the younger generation more about our culture.”
Additional materials exist in the CCHAP archive for these artists.
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
Jampa Tsondue
2018 March 10
