The Great Perfection རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོ

The Great Perfection of 'Aa'. 57x76 cm, Black Chinese ink
on heavy water-colour paper.  ⓒ Tashi Mannox 2012.

The central character illuminates white and resplendently pure among aura like swirls spinning from the blackness of limitless space.

As this is the root syllable ‘a’in the classical Uchen script, the last letter of the Tibetan alphabet, from which all other sounds are produced, it is considered essentially pure and stainless. It represents the ultimate true nature of mind, which is equaled in all beings, who are countless as all the stars of the universe.

The lower line of calligraphy in the Tibetan Petsug script translates as “The ultimate true nature of the uncontrived great perfection dzogchen that is embodied and expressed in the sound of the essential syllable ‘a’.”

གཤིས་རྫོགས་པ་ཆེན་པོར་མ་བཅོས་ཨ།

The above art piece "The Great Perfection Aa" was especially created for the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial April 2012, the exhibition called “Universe” hosts celebrated Islamic calligraphy artist along with a few international artist of other denominations. 


This image is now available as limited edition prints of three sizes:
Large size 57 x 60 cm or 22½" x 30" inches
Medium size 50 x37.5 cm or 19¾" x 14¾" inches
Small size 35 x 26 cm or 13¾" x 10¼" inches

The reproductions are premium-quality giclée printed, on a heavy weight museum conservation rag paper, ensuring stability and a colorfast longevity.

Each image is carefully colour matched and in sharpness to the original artwork. The prints are edition numbered and hand signed and stamped with the artists’ personal seals. 

To place a print order, please follow this link to the TashiMannox on-line store.

Constructing the art-piece,  January 2012.

Tibetan script styles

བོད་ཡིག་གཟུགས་ཀྱི་སྐོར།

དབུ་ཅན་དང་དབུ་མེད།

A sample of a woodblock print showing both Uchen and Lantsa Sanskrit, the original script style of the Buddhist manuscripts of India in the 6th century.

Perhaps the most well known Tibetan script style in the West is the classical Uchen script དབུ་ཅན། recognisable by it's distinct angular appearance, especially in the straight heads of the letters that align horizontally; from which the rest of the letter hangs down from.

The name Uchen translates as 'with head', as apposed to another class of Tibetan script styles 'without head' called Umé དབུ་མེད།

དབུ་ཅན།

A page from a Sutra, illuminated in gold hand-painted Uchen lettering on a polished indigo/black stained paper. Traditionally it was considered a meritorious act of reproducing sacred scriptures as well as a way to preserve the 108 volumes of the Buddha’s teachings 'Kangur’ and the 224 volume commentaries 'Tengyur’ to both the ‘Sutras’ and ‘Tantras’. These vast manuscripts were often copied in pure gold ink by highly skilled scribes and held in the monasteries as treasures of veneration and as a symbol of the holy dharma

Historically the Uchen script style was developed to accommodate the translation from Sanskrit and the reproduction of the Buddhist teachings that migrated from India into Tibet around the 7th century A.D.  

As Buddhist literature was commonly reproduced in Tibet as wood block prints, the Uchen script was further adapted to lend its self as a more practical script style for hand carving the wood blocks. Because of this employment of the Uchen script; it is sometimes known as 'block script', which also describes its angular appearance, very much as a result of the nature of wood carving.

Woodblock printing Tibetan manuscripts, this ancient form of printing is still being practiced at the famous printing house in Dege, East Tibet.

Although Uchen is known as the classical script style and has an important role in Tibetan Buddhism, there are far less Tibetans that actually write Uchen. Tibetan handwriting is more practically practiced with the faster cursive Umé class of styles, as apposed to Uchen which takes much more care and time to construct.

"The Four Noble Truths" 

Japanese mineral paint on Bhutanese Tsasho bark fiber paper, 58x80 cm 

Above is a clear example of a hand painted Uchen script, this particular style is a 'high' form of Uchen, used mostly for the head page of illuminated manuscripts, this style derives from a text of the 15th-16th century from the great Tsurphu monastery in central Tibet, famously known as the seat monastery of the Karmapa's.

དབུ་མེད།

There are many different forms of the Umé scripts, when learning Umé there is a specific chronological order, from the more uniformed constructive forms called Tsugring ཚུགས་རིང། meaning long form and Tsugtung ཚུགས་ཐུང་། meaning short form, to the more cursive styles གཤར་མ། of which there is the every-day writing styles of Khyug dri འཁྱུག་བྲིས། meaning nimble writing and Kyug dri རྒྱུགས་བྲིས། meaning quick writing.

There are other intermediate script styles བར་བྲིས། such as Tsugmakhyug ཚུག་མ་འཁྱུག། a sub style between Tsugtung and Khyug yig. Petsug དཔེ་ཚུགས། often used for hand-written texts and books, of which is traditionally associated with different regions of Tibet, such as the Khamyig ཁམས་ཡིག། a script style referring to the Eastern Provence called Kham.

For the more artistic form of calligraphy Drutsa འབྲུ་ཚ། is used, this script style is particularly flamboyant and cursive in style, traditionally used for official documents and titles.

In old Tibet the monasteries where the great power houses of learning, they provided education starting at a young age, a number of schools and universities could be found within the grounds of the larger monasteries, where learning to read and write the Buddhist scriptures was an important part of the monastic education.

ཚུགས་རིང།

The first script style to be mastered is Tsugring or sometimes spelt sugring སུག་རིང། meaning long limb, indicating the distinct character of this script style as long height of the letters.

Much practice with a steady hand is needed to pull the long tails or limbs of the letters to a straight unwavering vertical line. As paper was an expensive commodity in Tibet, young monks practice on slates or black painted wooden pallets called "Jangshing", these are marked with construction lines at the desired proportion, then dusted with chalk.

A bamboo cut pen is then dipped into water, the letters are then marked through the chalk dust, to be practiced over and over re-chalking the pallet each time.

A young Tibetan monk practicing the Tsugring handwriting style, Photograph courtesy of Shannon O'Donnell.

Once the Tsugring script style is mastered, then the student moves onto the next script style of Tsugtung, (a shorter form of Tsugring) accomplishing each style respectfully; until the more quick/swift Khyug script styles are achieved, only then may a student be inclined to learn to write the Uchen style.

Corresponding script styles of the first five letters 
with the four vowel signs of the Tibetan alphabet

Here below is the first part of the Alphabet in the Tsugring script is shown with the construction lines as a guide for neat handwriting and to give the correct letter proportion.

The correct proportion of the Tsugring letters is determined by the thickness of the pen nib, 
this measures as 'one' unit, the main body of the letters is made up of two parts of 4 units, 
totaling 8, the long tails of the letters is a further 11 units.

ཚུགས་ཐུང་།

Tsugtung is similar to Tsugring in style, the main difference is that the letter height is overall shorted.

ཚུག་མ་འཁྱུག།

Tsugmakhyug is a sub script style that sits between Tsugtung and Khyug. It has a less formal appearance, with a more rounded letterform and shorter vowel signs.

དཔེ་ཚུགས།

The next script style is Petsug ,often used for the publication of books, as this script style has a distinctive short angular style with short vowel signs, this means that the lines of text can be placed closer together. It was commonly used in the Kham Province of East Tibet, which lends it another name Khamyig, meaning ‘writing of Kham’. 

འབྲུ་ཚ།

Drutsa is the most cursive of the Tibetan script styles, because of this it is used generally for artistic calligraphy. Perhaps more feminine in appearances, the rounded forms of the letters can be exaggerated and flourished to fit all shapes and orientations.

འཁྱུག་བྲིས།

Khyug is known as the quick writing style, used for swiftness needed for normal handwriting. Its cursive form with vowel signs that stand up freely yet joined up to the main body of text, means that a separation of a different colour is not easily possible.

Guru Padma

༄། པདྨ་འབྱུང་གནས་ལ་ན་མོ།

For Tibetans Guru Rinpoche or Padmasambhava in Sanskrit, is regarded as the second Buddha, who historically came to Tibet during the 8th century to transmit Vajrayana Buddhism. At that time Tibetans were known to be wild and unruly, a land to be subdued of its demons. Guru Rinpoche, meaning precious guru, tamed and established Buddhism in Tibet, founding the first monastic community at Samye in central Tibet. This formed the today's oldest tradition called the Nyingma school, which is very much the foundation of the other great schools of Tibetan Buddhism.

As a devotional practice, Guru rinpoche is considered to over-come inner and outer obstacles and therefore furthers ones spiritual progress inwardly and ones outer activity.

Padmasambhava has many names such as Guru Padma and Pema Jungne which mean lotus born. Iconographically he is often depicted seated on a lotus, as above, representing the purity and transformation. His pure land, as much a mind state of liberation, is the place of the copper-coloured Mountain in the North-West part of the sacred realm of Orgyen.

© Tashi Mannox 2022

In the above calligraphy; the mantra of Pema Jungne is shown at the top in a high form of the Tibetan Uchen script, below which is the same mantra in an ancient Lantsha Sanskrit, the original written language from which much of the Buddhist teachings and practices were translated from into Tibetan. The mantra, very much a supplication of the attainment of 'siddhi' and blessing of body speech and mind. In Sanskrit the mantra is pronounced:

oṃ āḥ hūṃ vajra guru padma siddhi hūṃ

The smaller text and as the same in the calligraphy below is known as the 'Seven Line Prayer' of Guru Rinpoche: tsig dun sol deb, this translates as:

hum, to the North-West part of Orgyen, seated in a long stemmed lotus with anthers, such wonder! called lotus born - Pema Jungne, who achieved the highest of spiritual accomplishments and who is accompanied by myriads of Dakinis. I will act according to your example. Please come and grant me your blessing. guru pema siddhi hum.

© Tashi Mannox 2010

Here the seven line prayer has been arranged surrounding the main 'hum' character, the seed syllable of Yidam Pema Jungne. This is a study piece demonstrating the Petsug script style and to work out the layout for the final art piece as shown below. It is often the case when executing a major calligraphy art piece, where a large amount of text needs to fit the confines of a space, the size of the lettering and spacing needs careful consideration and planning.

Tashi adding the finishing touches the multi coloured lotus flower.

☸

ས་མ་ཡཿ རྒྱ་རྒྱ་རྒྱཿ

☸

Tara

Homage to Green Tara.

A delightful line drawing of Green Tara by the master of Tibetan arts Sherab Palden Beru.

The above image shows a 'prayer flag' of Green Tara, who is surrounded by a longer prayer called the '21 Praises of Tara'. 
It is one of the first calligraphy pieces created by Tashi when he was a novice monk during the 1980's. The beautiful line drawing of Tara was the initial inspiration to create the prayer flag, placing the image of Tara as the centre piece of this invocation prayer.

© Tashi Mannox 2022

The seed syllable Tam of Green Tara, here seated on an open lotus flower. 

Short prayer to Green Tara ©Tashi Mannox 2022

This short supplication prayer to Tara that can be repeated much like a mantra, normally recited many times over at the end of the 21 praises and before the actual mantra of Tara, shown below.


The prayer translates as:

Jetsun Pagma Drolma take heed, 

Protect me from fear and suffering.

'Jetsun Pagma Drolma' is the Tibetan name of green Tara.

The above calligraphy called 'Green Tara Prayer' by Tashi Mannox is also available as beautiful limited addition prints in two sizes, if you are interested in ordering a print you may find more information here.

© Tashi Mannox 2022

The Mantra of Green Tara in the Uchen script: 


oṃ tāre tuttāre ture svāhā

This Green Tara mantra is available in many of the different Tibetan script styles as well as Tara's 'tam' syllable on lotus design on the new Tashi Mannox store.

Mangalam.... May everything be Auspicious !!

Quality of sound.

A detail of a piece called 'Vibration' the movement of energy that causes sound, the word sgra translates as sound or noise in Tibetan, calligraphy in the Drutsa script on a disk of Silver leaf, Tashi Mannox 2005.

A Bija letter 'a' in the Japanese Siddham script. Being a key seed syllable of the vocalized expression of sound itself,  the letter 'a' is honorifically seated upon an open lotus, representing transformation with a back-rest of a sun disc representing purity.

The letter 'a' is the first letter of the Sanskrit alphabet, the last letter of the Tibetan alphabet. It is the root letter from where all quality of sound is born.

The first section of the Sanskrit alphabet is shown below in the Tibetan Uchen script, named by Tibetans as the 'ali kali' for its melodic rhythm as it is recited: om, a ah, i ih, u uh, ri rih, li lih, etc etc, normally chanted first thing in the morning as a blessing of speech.  

Clearly the 'a' is the root sound to which the vowel signs added; change the quality of sound.

  

 'a' in the Sanskrit Lanza script.

The seed syllable 'Ah' has a different spelling to the root letter 'a', in that a small 'a' is attached to the bottom of the main character, aspirating the sound:  'ah'  

The sound 'ah' is traditionally used the express the quality of speech, as one of the 'Three Gates' meaning 'body, speech and mind'.

om, white in colour, located at the head chakra, associated with the quality of body.

ah, red in colour, located at the throat chakra, associated with quality of speech.

hum, blue in colour, located at the heart chakra, associated with quality of mind.

Depicted here in a Tibetan Umeh script style for the 'Black on Black' series. Tashi Mannox 2009

The character 'Ah' shown in the Tibetan Uchen script.

"The innate great perfection of the uncontrived ah"

Tibetan Drusta script 2009

Homage to Manjushri

dhi dhi dhi dhi dhi dhi dhi dhi dhi .....

The wisdom mantra of the Bodhisattva Manjushri is pronounced "om a ra pa tsa na dhi" is an essential part of the Yidam practice to Manjushri, believed to enhance wisdom and increase the ability to learn. The mantra is depicted above in the ancient Sanskrit Lantsha script.

Another depiction of the Manjushri mantra in the Tibetan Tsugtung script.

© Tashi Mannox.

For more original Tibetan calligraphy please visit www.tashimannox.com

The root syllable of this mantra is 'dhi', as shown at the top of the page and here on the left,  are  depicted in the Tibetan Uchen script. 


The seed syllable of Manjushri can be chanted as a rapid and continuous flow, rolling off the tongue 108 times in one breath.

Tashi explains....


As a young monk, one of my first Yidam meditation practices was given to me by an age and wizened Tibetan, called Lama Thubten of Palpung. This practices was to recite and meditate on the deity Manjushri. I was told that this would enhance wisdom and help me learn quicker as a novice monk in the many tasks of study.

I remember that part of the Manjushri text explained that one of the signs of fruition, from diligently engaging in the meditation, was that one may dream of writing or even of drinking ink. This notion amused me to think of gulping down a pot of the jet black liquid.

Sure enough i developed a keen interest in the Tibetan language, which i was required to learn as a monk, as the many chanting from the manuscripts are in Tibetan. This sometimes demand 'speed reading', where the congregation of monks all chant together at great vigor and pace.

As i already had a training in the arts, it was a natural step to develop my Tibetan handwriting to a more refined standard. I was soon given the job of 'scribe' where i spent many years painstakingly copying ancient crumbling Tibetan manuscripts, for their preservation and daily use in the monastery. This in its self was a great discipline, which laid a steady foundation, allowing me to be more expressive and free with my current calligraphy art.

In 2008 i was propositioned to create a book of my calligraphy art works, which i am finding a seemingly long process.

One of the requirements of a book is to have a portrait of the author, so i collaborated with a wonderful portrait photographer Rebecca van Ommen.

I expressed to her that i wanted to depict the dream of drinking ink, which i thought was very fitting for a book on Tibetan calligraphy.

During the photo shoot; Rebecca had me jumping in the air to create the composition, she is also very skilled with photoshop, so to my direction she artfully placed letters of the Tibetan alphabet and my paint brushes, in a great swirl topped by a spilling pot of ink to my mouth.We finished the end of the photo shoot with a cut of tea.

"if all the world was paper

and all the sea was ink

and all the trees were bread and cheese,

What would we have to drink?"

As a child my sister used to sing to me this little rhyme.

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.