TibetFest 2012
SubjectPortrait of
Jampa Tsondue
(Tibetan, born 1959)
SubjectPortrait of
Kunga Choekyi
(Tibetan)
Date2012 July 14
Mediumborn digital images
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.267.1-.9
DescriptionPhotographs of TibetFest 2012.
2015.196.267.1-.6: born digital images showing visiting monks creating a sand mandala
2015.196.267.7: born digital image showing Kunga Choekyi holding piece of paper with Tibetan writing on it
2015.196.267.8: born digital image of Tibetan thangka painter Jampa Tsondue with one of his thangkas, in the art display at the festival
2015.196.267.9: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue's thangka painting in process, with his paints and animal skin glue
NotesSubject Note: TibetFest, a volunteer-run annual weekend-long event that celebrated the cultural heritage of Tibet and Tibetans, has been held since 2005. Begun by Michelle Weik of Litchfield who organized the festival along with Tibetans living in Connecticut and New York, TibetFest has been a community-driven, unique, and very popular event. Funds raised are donated to Tibetan causes. The 2018 festival was organized by Students For a Free Tibet, based in New York City, and in 2022 the festival began to be managed by the Tibetan Association of Connecticut. The Festival has presented many renowned Tibetan musicians onstage. Guest speakers give audiences up-to-date information on the situation in Tibet. Audience members and performing artists gather for dance circles. The arts area includes monks creating sand mandalas and butter sculptures, artists showing woodcarving, weaving, and thangka panting – several of them Tibetan artists living in Connecticut, and photography exhibits. New York and New England Tibetan artisans and vendors sell Tibetan art works, books, and jewelry, and food vendors provide Tibetan foods. 2015.196.267.1-.6: born digital images showing visiting monks creating a sand mandala
2015.196.267.7: born digital image showing Kunga Choekyi holding piece of paper with Tibetan writing on it
2015.196.267.8: born digital image of Tibetan thangka painter Jampa Tsondue with one of his thangkas, in the art display at the festival
2015.196.267.9: born digital image showing Jampa Tsondue's thangka painting in process, with his paints and animal skin glue
Since the Tibetan Resettlement Project brought 21 Tibetans 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.
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 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 Tsondue 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." - Jampa Tsondue
Substantial photographic and video materials are present in the CCHAP archive relating to this event, this community, and the 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
