Buddhist art arrived at the Europe Center in a big way – for several weeks we happily hosted a master of the art of thangka painting: Dawa Lhadripa. He joined us for the Summer Course and stayed on to paint a new version of the Karma Kagyu Refuge Tree thangka (Tibetan scroll painting) ordered for our meditation centers and practitioners by the Diamond Way Buddhism Foundation.
Years ago H.H. 17th Karmapa Trinley Thaye Dorje asked Dawa to bring his painting mastery to the West. Among his work in the West to date are the impressive paintings in the Thaye Dorje meditation hall in Karma Guen, Spain and the oval paintings above the doors of the Yellow Room at the Europe Center.
The Karma Kagyu Refuge Tree depicts all of the important teachers, buddha aspects, liberating teachings, bodhisattvas and protectors of the Karma Kagyu transmission lineage containing over 150 figures with numerous details and symbols. Dawa received instructions on this complex painting from H.H. 17th Gyalwa Karmapa, Shamar Rinpoche, Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche and Lama Ole Nydahl. The complete structure was put together over the course of several years and finalized this summer by lama Sherab Gyaltsen Rinpoche during his European tour, adding his deep knowledge about the details of the different buddha aspects.
Dawa’s current work is a great example of collaboration between East and West. Once finished, it will be not only be used for meditation in Diamond Way Buddhist centers from Vladivostok to San Francisco, but will also be available to all Karma Kagyu practitioners around the globe who wish to have it. Thus this ancient Buddhist art produced in the West will find its way back to the East where it originated from.