About The Artist

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."