Video 1
Tradition
Mandalas are best known as Buddhist icons created in sand or painted on canvas. This art form goes back 2500 years or more to Tibet and Nepal and has even earlier origins in India.
Less well known mandala themed art forms are present in Christian, Judaic and Islamic art. The circle seems to appear as a meaningful symbol in many cultures. Circular labyrinths have been found carved in the Celtic landscape and ancient Egyptian art. The Navajo sand paintings of native America often inhabit the circle and the Celtic knot work of pre Christian Europe regularly appear in circular form.
Mandalas are often referred to as Cosmo plans of external and internal reality. They often point to the notion of the ‘part representing the whole’ and the principle of ‘as within….. Without’.
Solas Art draws much inspiration and pays great reverence to the wisdom of our ancestors. The ancient origins and cross cultural presence of mandalas lends a sense of gravity to our work. Although we are far from experts in this field we hold a passionate interest in the traditional foundations of the mandala art form and harbour desire to some day train with the Buddhist masters.
There is much literature on traditional Mandala. ‘The Architecture of Enlightenment’ by Robert A.F. Thurman is amongst the most influential articles in this area for Solas Art.
Here it is in full for you to enjoy courtesy of the author. We are very grateful for his generosity and kindly remind readers that all work is copyrighted and remains the ownership of the author.
The Architecture of Enlightenment - (click here to download article)
Robert Thurman
Robert A.F. Thurman is the Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Indo-Tibetan Buddhist Studies in the Department of Religion at Columbia University and co-founder and President of Tibet House US, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Tibetan culture.
The author of many books on Tibet and Buddhism, his most recent is Why the Dalai Lama Matters: His Act of Truth as the Solution for China, Tibet, and the World (June 2008). A personal friend of the Dalai Lama for over 40 years and the first American to have been ordained a Tibetan Buddhist monk, Professor Thurman, who later switched from monk to ordained lay Buddhist, earned B.A., A.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard. He writes and lectures frequently on Buddhism, Asian history, and critical philosophy, with a focus on the dialog between the material and inner sciences of the world's religious traditions.
Noted in a NY Times Magazine profile as "the Dalai Lama's man in America," Robert Thurman has cultivated a worldwide awareness of Tibet through his writing, translation of important Buddhist texts, and commitment to finding a peaceful resolution to the China-Tibet conflict.
