#tsakali

[fromthedust]

Initiation card (tsakali) - opaque watercolor on paper - Western Tibet - 15th century 

Tsakali cards were used by a practitioner, usually a monk or nun, under the guidance of a teacher to evoke a Buddhist deity. As these teachers traveled from one monastery to the next, using sets of portable tsakali cards was an efficient way of presenting the vast pantheon of Buddhist gods. The cards were presented in a set — arranged as a mandala — so as to create a portable temple to be venerated in order to purify the mind prior to undertaking advanced tantric techniques.

[whatevergreen]

Tsakali painting of Begtse, the protector deity of Mongolia. c19th century.

[nununiverse]

[amare-habeo]

Anna-Maria Tsakali (Greek, born 1959)

The dream of plants, 2014

Tempera and oil on canvas, 200 x 159 cm

[amare-habeo]

Anna-Maria Tsakali (Greek, born 1959)

Green rain, N/D

Oil on canvas

[rhianna]

“Initiation Card (Tsakalis): Manjushri (Tibet)”. (Siglo XV)

[rhianna]

Tsakali cards were used by a practitioner, usually a monk or nun, under the guidance of a teacher to evoke a Buddhist deity. As these teachers traveled from one monastery to the next, using sets of portable tsakali cards was an efficient way of presenting the vast pantheon of Buddhist gods.

--  Evoking the Divine: Mental Purification Using a Tibetan Tsakali Mandala   Kurt Behrendt, Associate Curator, Department of Asian Art

[amare-habeo]

Anna-Maria Tsakali (Greek, born 1959)

August Moon, 2005-2006

Vinyl and oil on canvas, 200 x 180 cm