Tashimannox.com

It is with pleasure to announce the launch of a new website of Tibetan calligraphy & iconography:

www.tashimannox.com

'Laughing in the face of jealousy' Acrylic paint, gold and silver leaf on heavy water-colour paper,  57x76, 2006. Copyright Tashi mannox 2009.

This website features calligraphy art pieces spanning the past ten years to Tashi's current full colour Illuminated Iconographic master pieces, as above.

Tashi’s creative process involves a fundamentally meditative approach, based firmly in a life long dedication in traditional Tibetan calligraphy.

He attributes the element of spontaneity in his work to "the Ultimate Mind", which, he believes, is as instrumental in shaping the final image as his brush.

In the execution of the contemporary Tibetan calligraphy pieces, Tashi’s trained brush strokes move freely across the paper, harnessing the power of both negative and positive space. The philosophy at the heart of his creations is born from his years as a Buddhist monk. Moreover, the influence of his western heritage and personal charm and vitality make these fascinating contemporary works.

Using pure, almost sculptural forms in many of his works, combined with wit and insight, Tashi produces works that vary from a more abstract, confident and bold expressions, to a lighter and precise calligraphy that seems to dance around the page. This variation from playful to serene connects with the viewer, evoking a sense of intrigue, space and ease.

The introduction of colour and iconographic images in Tashi’s later works; illuminates his calligraphy rich in symbolism and meaning.

www.tashimannox.com

The Heart Sutra.

Thus i have heard......

Click here to hear an upbeat version of the Heart Sutra in Tibetan by Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche, produced by Gary Dyson.

"Emanate from Emptiness" Tashi Mannox 2010.

The above calligraphy is in the Dru-tsa script style, the tails of the letters swirl to the center as if Emanating from Emptiness.

Tashi Mannox, ink on paper 38x56cm 2010.

The mantra of The Prajnä Päramitä Sutra:

tayata om gaté gaté para gaté para sam gaté bodhi swa ha.

The below page from the Heart Sutra survives the destruction of Tsurphu monastery in 1959, the original seat of the Karmapa's in Tibet. 

An old monk friend pulled this old text page from the rubble of Tsurphu during its restoration in the 1980's.

This page is clearly from the latter part of the Heart Sutra, painted in a gold Uchen script on a black polished paper.

This is a technique used for the more important illuminated manuscripts, such as Sutras, evidently robust enough to survive the 30-40 years buried, though it did not seem to escape a splattering of Yak dung!

Front page detail.

Back page detail.

oṃ supratiṣṭha-vajraye svāhā

Homage to my Teachers.

"Namo Guru Benza dhara Ye"

"Homage to my teacher the bearer of reality"

Akong Rinpoche and Tashi Meeting H.H 17th Karmapa in Tsurphu, Tibet, 1996

His Eminence Tai Situ Rinpoche amused with Tashi, Samye Ling temple 1995

ACKNOWLEDGMENT 

to my teachers:

To His Holiness The 17^th Galwang Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje.

His Eminence The 12th Tai Situpa, whom is an inspiration and guide in Tibetan calligraphic art.

My spiritual father and scriptural moderator, the late Akong Tulku Rinpoche, along with his brother Lama Yeshe Losal Rinpoche, Abbot and retreat master.

To my beloved teacher in the Tibetan arts, Master of Thanka painting, the late Sherab Palden Beru.

Also my teacher in Lanza and Wartu Sanskrit scripts, Lama Pema Lodrup of Dharamsala.

To Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, who opend my eyes to contemporary Tibetan calligraphy.

To the late Tenga Tulku, for his precise instruction in the art of creating Mandalas.

Not forgetting some of my other teachers such as, Thrungu Rinpoche, Lama lodro of Palpung and the late Lama Thubten of Palpung and Nyingma Lama Pema.

Tashi Mannox happily sandwiched between Sherab Palden Beru and Akong Tulku Rinpoche, London Samye Dzong 2008.

Tashi with Lama Pema Lodrup in 2000, at his home with beautiful garden, at the Men-Tsee-Khang, Khara Danda road, Dharamsala, India.

Palpung Lama Lodro and Tashi at Karma Naro in the Welsh borders 1987.

Tenga Rinpoche leading a course on 'Vajrayana ritual/mandalas' in the old shrine room of Samye Ling Johnstone house 1986.

Trungpa's Crazy Wisdom

"Crazy wisdom is natural, effortless, not driven by the hope and fear machine of the ego."

an interview with Steven Goodman

The late Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche pictured here at play with irony. It can be said it was he who introduced the concept of crazy wisdom to the the West, America being his favorite play ground.

'Wisdom' in Tibetan Umeh script, the smaller text reads 'crazy wisdom' calligraphy Tashi Mannox 2009.

Chogyam Trungpa is famous for his explanation on crazy wisdom, indeed many would agree that He was also a great practitioner of crazy wisdom......

"He subdues whoever needs to be subdued and destroys whoever needs to be destroyed." The idea here is that whatever your neurosis demands, when you relate with a crazy-wisdom person you get hit back with that. Crazy wisdom presents you with a mirror reflection. That is why Padmasambhava's crazy wisdom is universal. Crazy wisdom knows no limitation and no logic regarding the form it takes."

Crazy Wisdom by Chogyam Trungpa: Shambhala Publications

ISBN 978-1-57062-894-8

Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche pictured here as a monk in Bhutan during the early 1960's.

Tashi recalls "I always remember one of my early teachers, Lama Thubten of Palpung, He would say, "A Bodhisattva such as Trungpa Rinpoche has the realization and confidence to leap like a lion over mountains, His followers unequaled, try to jump like little lambs, yet stumble and fall to break their legs.

As a Dharma practitioner there is the justification and danger to use 'crazy wisdom' as an excuse to act irresponsibly, this would be better called 'crazy stupidity'!"

One of Trugpa's sons, Gesar Mukpo wrote a moving poem of the anniversary of the death of his father.

The Beauty of Change

The word 'impermanence' mi rtag pa in the Tibetan Drutsa script style.

The fragile nature of flowers and paper.

Photographs and calligraphy Tashi Mannox, 4th May 2009.

'The Beauty of Change'

Tibetan Uchen script of the word Impermanence.

Acrylic on hand tinted heavy water colour paper. 57x76cm

Tashi Mannox 2007.

Five buds to bloom, to delicate decay: Pride, jealousy, attachment, stupidity and anger, a turmoil cocktail, an emotional entanglement, even the most beautiful fall.

The word 'transformation' in the Drutsa script.

'Opportunity'

Acrylic on hand tinted heavy water colour paper. 57x76cm

Also available as a limited addition print, please follow the link:

Tashi Mannox 2007.

The Tibetan Drutsa calligraphy in this piece translates as ‘to seize the moment.’ These words depicted entangled with the stems and leaves of five different coloured lotus flowers. Each of these flowers represents the five wisdoms of the five Buddha families. Even the leaves themselves are hooked to grab as opportunists.

“Impermanence”

Chinese ink on heavy water colour paper. 57x76cm

Also available as a limited addition print, please follow the link:

Tashi Mannox 2007.

Nothing ever stays the same!

The words ‘mi rtag pa’ meaning 'impermanence' in the toppling Tibetan Tsugring script, are made up of small dancing skeletons, this figures fade into decay at the base of the letters. The personal seal of the artist is also broken into two.

Calligraphy artist Tashi Mannox. all images shown and not stated otherwise are created by the artist and the photographer. please respect the copyright. Thank you.

The Six Perfections.

Tsering Tashi (Mannox) above Samye, Tibet, escaping a sand-storm in the great valley below.

What the Six Pāramitās means to a Tibetan Buddhist monk. 

The upper sleeveless garment called a Tonga, is additional to the monks robes of south Asia, evolved for warmth in the cold altitude of Tibet. This monks waist coat, besides making a very handy pocket in the crossed fold, is also a symbolic reminder of perfecting the six Pāramitās:

1. Generosity

2. Morality

3. Patience

4. Effort

5. Meditation

6. Wisdom

Each of the perfections is represented by the traditionally organised patches of various different brocades.

These are shown as five sections (repeated twice), easily seen here on the right hand side of the Tonga, the sixth being the larger square on the back.

Front view

Other meanings of the garment are the many pleats on the underarm, which represents the 84 thousand Dharmas.

The blue coloured piping to edging the arm holes is in respect to the blue robes of a Chinese Buddhist order, when one of the Fully precepted Monks was drafted in from China to make up a required number of 10 to continue the ordination tradition. 

This was during the time of the Anti-Buddhist King Lang Darma of Tibet, who had killed all the fully ordained monks accept 9.

Another reminder of the fragility of the tradition and of impermanence in general is the red lining of the collar, this represents the gums and jaw of the lord of death, a precarious place for ones head!.

back view

This antique Tonga from Tibet is typical colours and design of the Karma Kagyu order.

The Six Perfections: 

listed in the Uchen script style

Calligraphy Tashi Mannox 2009

Geomantic dream flag

༄། རྣམ་མཁྱེན་རྒྱལ་དར། །།

Photo: James Wainwright 

The 16th Gyalwa Karmapa, is well known for his visions and prophesies, one such divine manifestation is commonly known as the 'Kagyu flag' and more famously called the 'dream flag', in reference to the fact that the banner appeared to him in a dream.

He  named the banner 'namkhyen gyaldar' meaning "Victorious Flag of Buddha’s Wisdom”.
Imparting the details of his vision to his close disciples, His Holiness Karmapa went on to proclaim: 

“Wherever this banner is flown the Dharma will flourish.”

Since the birth of the flag, there has evolved a few different versions of the Karmamap's dream flag, most of these versions seem to have strayed from the flags' original legacy; as perhaps its new creators simply did not know and appreciate the profundity of its sacred geomantic construction.

This blog post is to explain and re-introduce the original proportionate construction and meaning behind the banner. There is also a true version of the dream flag that can be freely taken and reproduced for your own purposes, found at the bottom of this post.

This flag shows the incorrect  

construction and shades of colour.

Here shows the flag in respect of the 
correct colours and construction.

During the early 90's Tashi was asked to reproduce the Dream flag by the Samye Ling Monastery in Scotland, who's intention was to donate the flag to Karma Kagyu Buddhist establishments around the world, in order to replicate the flag correctly, in respect of its original design. 
Tashi was privileged to have first-hand authentication of the original banner design to him from two different sources:

One such original design of the banner hangs framed on a wall of a The seat  monastery of H E Jamgon Khontrul Rinpoche in Pullahari, above Boudha, Kathmandu. 

Tashi was sent to investigate the flag with instructions to take notes so to replicate the flag correctly to the right design and dimensions.

The other reference of the flag, was personally explained to Tashi by H E Situ Rinpoche. As Situ Rinpoche was witness to the original creation of the flag while together with his Guru H.H. the 16^th Karmapa. 

The proportionate construction of the dream flag.

A sketch made by H.H 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje
Confirming the correct construction of the dream flag.

The sketch above is by the hand of Situ Rinpoche, (note his signature bottom right) who made the drawing especially for Tashi, explaining the geomantic arrangement of how the two waves are approached and swirl together from all four directions: two sides, top and bottom. 
It is also important to noted that in this drawing; the over-all dimensions of the flag was dependent on the dimension of the piece of paper to hand at the time. Never-the-less, the same proportionate construction of the waves should not be altered from their horizontal axis when applied to a more standard 2:1 flag proportion, as shown in the image below.

Situ Rinpoche explained further that the center point of the two waves/swirls should be at the same horizontal plain, contained within the rectangular construction box (as he indicated in his drawing above), this 'construction box' should be placed squarely at the center of the flag and not on a sloping angle, (as many other versions of the dream flag are reproduced) 


The possible reason for the misinterpretation of the wave alignment placed on a sloping axis in other corrupted versions of the flag, could have been confused with to the angular division between the two colours of yellow on the bottom side and blue on the top. This division runs from bottom left up to top right corners, as if aspiring from earth to heaven. 
It seems that such profundity of design could have easily been overseen, if not fully understood while creating the banner and lead to the misrepresentation of the dream flag.

The correct proportionate lined construction of the banner is shown more precisely on the diagram below. This is has also been designed to fit with the international standard 2:1 flag proportion.

The geomantic proportionate construction of the dream flag applied to
the 2:1 standard flag proportion, as drawn by Tashi Mannox
from the instruction of Situ Rinpoche, 1993.

 The colours of the Flag.  

Moreover, Situ Rinpoche explained the colours of the flag to be a bright  sky blue and should not be too dark, the yellow should be earth like, not Lemon yellow and compliment the sky blue in tonal brightness, as the far below colour image  shows. 

During 2012 H.H 17th Karmapa Ogyen Trinley Dorje confirmed the two flag colours, officiating them as Pantone 306 C  and 116 C


To demonstrate the correct balance of tone, the flag colours in the image directly below, have been converted to black and white. 
As you can see there is little difference between the tones, which indicates a similar balanced in brightness within the colours. 
The contrast that catches the eye is more in the colour rather than with the tone, as the particular blue and yellow used is far apart in the colour spectrum and complimentary. 

The tonal balance of the Dream flag.

The meaning behind the dream flag.

"Victory Banner of Buddha Wisdom”

The elements of the flag's geomancy and colours are symbolic of the relative and absolute truth. Relatively the colours blue and yellow represent the sky and the earth, the waves symbolize the Buddha Dharma.

On the absolute level the colours represent the union of emptiness and clarity, the true nature of mind. The intertwining waves symbolizes the union of compassion and emptiness, which is the essence of all phenomena.

The Karmapa's official Namkhyen Gyaldar  Dream Flag.

Please feel free to take this above image for your own use and publish it in keeping with the Karmapa's wishes: that wherever this flag graces, Dharma will flourish. 

May goodness increase !