Buddhist Hand Painted Thangka of Milarepa, Real Gold, Lama`s Art with Marpha, Gamepapa and Mahakala

These sacred paintings serve as objects of contemplation, inspiration, and instruction, guiding practitioners on their spiritual path. Thangkas provide a visual gateway to the world of Tibetan Buddhism, encapsulating its rich symbolism, iconography, and spiritual concepts. With their vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and skillful craftsmanship, thangkas offer a profound visual medium for deepening one's understanding and connection to the teachings of Buddhism.

Thangkas come in various sizes, ranging from small pieces resembling Western half-length portraits to grand-scale creations spanning several meters in each dimension. While the larger thangkas are intended for temporary display during religious festivals, the majority of these artworks are designed for personal meditation or as educational aids for monastic students. The compositions of thangkas are meticulously crafted, featuring intricate details and often incorporating numerous small figures. A central deity or focal point is typically surrounded by a symmetrical arrangement of other divine beings, symbols, or narrative elements that convey profound spiritual teachings.

How is Thangka made

First, the canvas on which the painting is to be executed is laid on a wooden frame to determine the required dimensions. This canvas is an extremely finely woven cotton material, referred to in the Holy Scriptures as "?ura Canvas".

Then the canvas is cut, hemmed and, with the use of sturdy strings, very tightly mounted in the wooden frame. Painting is carried out with the frame in an upright position, without any further rigid support or backing.

In this studio, our primary artist, who works virtually exclusively for us, applies the undercoat consisting of a mixture of chalk and glue to the canvas by hand. Other Thangka workshops have turned to mainly using industrially pre-primed canvas.

This photo shows how the canvas, after receiving its base coat followed by a second coating of bone glue, is polished and smoothed by hand with a stone to attain a perfectly smooth, featureless painting surface. Through this process the canvas becomes quite rigid, thereby providing perfect conditions to evoke very finest artistic detail and over-all superior painting quality.

Using a different Thangka, we see how, after mounting, the complete basic pattern of the respective theme is applied to the canvas.

The following picture shows the steps in creating a gold-based Thangka, such as our No PH 9, the "Holy Mount Kailash". To achieve more intensive colour, yet another prime coat, in ochre, is applied, followed by a coat of pure gold. The so-called Thangka painting gold is traditionally produced by members of the Newar people in Nepal. 24-karat gold is ground to finest powder and mixed with bone glue and water in proportions suitable for direct use in painting. Thus, the Thangka gold is not gold leaf at all! Silver can be processed and used in the same way: Mount Kailash and the surrounding peaks in our completed Thangka were not painted with white paint, rather with precious silver.

Here, the nearly completed piece has been removed from the wooden frame. Now only the very finest finishing touches remain to be added, such as compacting the gold and giving Mount Kailash its silver mantle.

K. Lama regarded his already half-finished thangka proudly

The Mount Kailash Thangka, including the black margin (which can also facilitate the fastening of a traditional brocade frame), is now complete. Only the background gold must be compacted in the places where it is later intended to exhibit a sheen.

Here we see an old ballpoint pen casing into which a specially cut agate has been fitted. The back of this semi-precious stone is slightly concave and can be used to compact gold over extensive areas of the Thangka, while the blunt point is used to lineally compact gold, thus creating a shiny effect.

In this way, through partial compaction of the gold or refraining from compaction, nearly three-dimensional effects can be achieved. The glorious sheen of gold artistically treated in this way richly rewards the beholder or meditator with a Thangka possessed of an extraordinarily aesthetic aura.

Thangka Making Video

Videos of Applying Gold in the Thangka

Biography

Gampopa was born in the Nyal (or Nyel) district, Central Tibet and from an early age was a student of medicine in the Indian, Chinese and Tibetan medical traditions. Later in his life he moved to the region of Dakpo (dwags po) in southern Tibet and hence was also called Dakpopa (dwags po pa), the man from Dakpo. The region is also near Gampo Hills, hence his other name, Gampopa. In his youth Gampopa studied under the Nyingma lama Barey as well as under the Kadampa teacher Geshe Yontan Drag. He married a daughter of a man named Chim Jose Darma Wo (mchims jo sras dar ma 'od) and had a child, but they both died, causing him to renounce the householder's life. In 1104, at the age of twenty-five he took ordination, either in Dakpo or in Penyul, at Gyachak Ri monastery ('phan yul rgya lcags ri), receiving the name S?nam Rinchen (bsod nams rin chen)." After becoming a monk in the Kadampa lineage under Geshe Loden Sherab and focused on studying the Kadampa teachings. In his 30s he sought out and became the foremost student of the yogi Milarepa. Milarepa instructed him in the practice of Vajravārahī, tummo (gtum mo) and Mahāmudrā.

Gampopa's position in the transmission lineage of the Mahamudra teaching is as follows:

Tilopa (988-1069), the Indian yogi who experienced the original transmission of the Mahamudra
Naropa (1016-1100), who perfected the methods of accelerated enlightenment described in his Six Yogas of Naropa.
Marpa (1012-1097), the first Tibetan in the lineage, who translated the Vajrayana and Mahamudra texts into Old Tibetan
Milarepa (1052-1135), poet and master who overcame Marpa's reluctance to teach but nonetheless attained enlightenment in a single lifetime
Gampopa, Milarepa's most important student, who integrated Atiśa's Kadam teachings and Tilopa's Mahamudra teaching to establish the Kagy? lineage
This lineage sequence, taken together, is called the "Five Founding Masters" by the Kagyu school.

After his studies with Milarepa, Gampopa founded Dakhla Gampo Monastery (Dwags lha sgam po) in 1121 CE. He had many great students who were accomplished tantric practitioners, both monks and laymen. Gampopa's teaching joined the Lamrim teachings of the Kadampa school with the Mahamudra and tantric teachings of the Kagyu school. According to Tony Duff, he taught Mahamudra in two approaches, "one is a gradual approach called the Four Yogas of Mahamudra, the other is a sudden approach called Essence Mahamudra.

Teachings
Gampopa most famous teaching is known as "The Four Dharmas of Gampopa", this is outlined in a key text of Gampopa called The Four Dharmas in Brief:

"It is necessary for: dharma to turn to dharma; dharma to turn into the path; the path to dispel confusion; and confusion to turn into wisdom"

The Four Dharmas in Brief further states about each of the four Dharmas:

(1) Dharma to turn to dharma means to meditate on impermanence, the fact that all things will be left behind at death and that only Dharma is of use, all must be renounced except Dharma.

(2) Dharma turns into the path is explained as:

if there is the rational mind of loving kindness and compassion that cherishes other more than oneself-the fictional enlightenment mind-and then on top of that the understanding that all phenomena, outer and inner, appearing as the coming together of interdependency are illusory, then the primal dharma turns into the path.

(3) The Path is to be used to dispel confusion means that "confusion has to be dispelled from top to bottom", Gampopa explains this as follows:

First, meditation on impermanence dispels the confusion of clinging to this life, then meditation on karma and effect dispels the confusion of bad views, then meditation on the disadvantages of cyclic existence dispels the confusion of attachment to cyclic existence, then meditation on loving kindness and compassion dispels the confusion of the Lesser Vehicle, then meditation on appearances being dream-like, illusory, dispels the confusion of grasping at conceived-of things...

(4) Confusion turns into wisdom:

If, the force of meditation done on all phenomena being free from birth and cessation in suprefact (paramartha satya) causes whatever appears, whatever is known, to be resolved as its own entity, then confusion has dawned as wisdom.

The Life and Journeys of Marpa Lotsawa

Marpa was born into a wealthy family in the Lhodrak region of southern Tibet. Recognizing his fierce, untamed energy early on, his family sent him to study languages. He quickly mastered Sanskrit and local Indian dialects, setting the stage for his life’s great mission.

Driven by an insatiable thirst for authentic Dharma, Marpa undertook three perilous journeys to India and four to Nepal. He carried massive amounts of gold to offer to his teachers, risking bandits, extreme weather, and disease. In India, he spent over sixteen years studying under the great Mahasiddha Naropa, as well as other revered masters like Maitripa. Through intense hardship, he mastered the most profound tantric practices, including the Six Yogas of Naropa, and returned to Tibet to translate and transmit these teachings.

The Relationship Between Marpa and Milarepa

Marpa's Iconography (How He is Depicted in Art)

• Physical Appearance: Marpa is typically depicted as a robust, solid man, often frowning slightly or with a piercing, semi-wrathful gaze that reflects his uncompromising teaching style.
• Hair and Attire: Because he was a layman, he is never shown with a shaved head. He has long, matted hair pushed back or tied up. He wears the traditional long-sleeved garments of a Tibetan householder or the white cotton robes of a yogi, rather than the red monastic robes.
• Posture and Hand Gestures (Mudras): He is usually seated in a relaxed, royal posture (Lalitasana) on a cushion or animal skin. His hands often rest on his knees, or he may hold a kapala (skull cup) representing the transformation of poisons into wisdom, and a vajra (thunderbolt) symbolizing indestructible reality.