Chuntui's paintings are exhibited at the C.X. Silver Gallery through December and are available for viewing all week by appointment or drop in. Call (802) 257-7898 ext. 2 or (802) 579-9088 or email to cxsilvergallery@verizon.net.
A thangka is a Tibetan scroll painting, the artwork mounted on embroidered silk brocade in rich colors and a variety of patterns. Paintings take weeks and months to complete. First, the painting surface is prepared. With the contents and design of the thangka in his mind, the thangka artist lays out the composition, and then the long process of painting begins. Thangkas decorate monasteries, temples and homes. As a scroll that can be also rolled up and unrolled, the portability of the thangka has been useful for lives on the move, such as for nomadic and displaced peoples. Thangkas are a living tradition that depict Tibetan Buddhist culture, evoking its values, stories, and legends with most themes having a relevance to other cultures, such as orienting oneself and others with compassion, acting virtuously, and gaining in wisdom.
Although thangkas typically show Buddhist enlightened beings, they are not icons, but rather visual tools for the onlooker to use in contemplation and visualizations. Thangkas depict a variety of Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and revered masters. Bodhisattvas have decided to remain in human form to help all beings reach enlightenment. Tara is one of the feminine bodhisattvas and exists in Chinese culture as Guanyin. Other subjects of thangkas are circular or square mandalas which also act as teaching tools and guides to visualizing one's personal spiritual growth.
In creating his art, Chuntui Lama says he begins with a handmade canvas that he paints with pigments from Nepal and Tibet. He further explains that "the mandala represents a sort of floor plan of the palace(and mind) of the deva, who can be seen as a sort of archetype of the higher nature of the Buddhist practitioner. The intricate visual elements of the mandala are highly symbolic. The design is actually a set of mandalas, of Enlightened Body, Speech and Mind, one within another, and within Mind, at the center point, the mandala of Enlightened Bliss."
The Gallery's current exhibition is showing Chuntui's thangka painting through December and into January, and includes images of Buddha, bodhisattvas, Tara, buddhist masters and their lineages such as Karmapa, the Wheel of Life, the Seven Chakras, the Kalachakra diagram, dragon images, and mandala compositions. All paintings are for sale. There are also embroidered satchels, singing bowls, bronze statues, silver bracelets with the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra engraved, and books on Buddhist culture. Thangkas are shown with brief explanations of the subject matter. If one chooses, there is great depth to the meaning and significance of the thangka images that can be further explored on one's own or with local resources on Buddhist culture.
At 814 Western Avenue, one mile west of I-91 exit 2, two miles up High St. from Main St., Brattleboro, the C.X. Silver Gallery is open daily except Christmas by appointment or drop in whenever the Gallery Open sign is up. Morning, afternoon and evening visits are all possible by calling (802) 257-7898 ext. 2 or (802) 579-9088 or email to cxsilvergallery@verizon.net. The exhibition will be also on the website, www.cxsilvergallery.com. The event and exhibition are free and open to the public, with donations welcome to help with Cultural Center event programming and to provide an honorarium for guest presenters and performers.