From Brahma to Buddha, Fall 2007

Well.. I chose thangka painting for the obvious reason, because I’m an artist. Thangka is really interesting though because it follows a really traditional style of learning. We begin the class drawing the lord Buddha’s face, but we don’t just practice it once we drew it about 15 times before we were given the OK to move on to the rest of the body of the Buddha, and then putting on the clothes of the Buddha which was definitely the most fun. We were even lucky enough to move on to beginning to draw the green Tara, which I will be hopefully finishing up today. I think it was unfortunate that the Thankga painting class was actually a thankga drawing class but hopefully I’ll find a way to get some painting done before the end of the program.

As far as my homestay family goes, it’s been pretty awesome. My amala speaks good enough English that we can actually sustain a real conversation. Her husband is a Thankga painter in France. The kids are really awesome and because their father is a painter they are like their own little artists, so we’ve spent some good time drawing together and coloring, it’s been a really amazing bonding time and I’m sad that our time together is coming to an end. I wish I had more time over the course of my time in India to stay with them because I really enjoy spending time with them, it’s awesome. I’ll miss them.