UPDATE: Tibet Week
A puzzle for you
While the Carlos Museum can't welcome you for Emory's annual Tibet Week, Professor Sara McClintock of Emory's Department of Religion, who was scheduled to speak about a thangka painting depicting the lives of the Buddha, has helped bring Tibet Week to you.
Using the central panel of the painting (below), she created a puzzle for you. It will provide you an opportunity to notice the details of the painting as well as a time for play—something we can all use!
Thanks to Jigsaw Planet, the Carlos Museum will continue to share puzzles made from works in the collection for you to enjoy. They will also be available on the museum website. You can make the puzzle easier or harder by selecting "Play As" in the top right corner of the screen.
Here is some information about what to look for in the painting from Professor McClintock:
- The central panel depicts the culminating event of the Buddha Śākyamuni's quest for enlightenment, the defeat of Māra (Māra-vijaya).
- Seated under the awakening tree (see the bodhi leaves at the top of the image), the Buddha is assailed by a demon army emanated by the deity Māra ("death"), the embodiment of all that is negative and unwholesome. Due to the strength of his mental training, the Buddha recognizes the ultimate unreality of all obstacles even as Māra's army rains down arrows and hurls curses upon him.
- Although not depicted here, traditional accounts of this event tell us that the projectiles turned into flowers before reaching their target, falling as offerings at the feet of the Buddha.
- As is typical in such scenes, the Buddha here touches the ground with his right hand, calling the goddess Bhūmi ("earth") as a witness to his millennia of positive and wholesome deeds.
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https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=237ad8b62c8e
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Tibet Week 2020 (20th annual)
March 23-28, 2020 UPDATE
The monks of Drepung Loselung Monastery will present an opening ceremony on Monday, mandala construction Mon-Fri, and closing ceremony on Friday. The Dalai Lama has recommended the practice of Green Tara for solace during this pandemic, since "Tara" represents both nurturance and protection from danger and illness.
Time: 10am-5pm ONLINE ONLY at bit.ly/DrepungLive
Carlos Museum, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
Highlights:
- Daily live sand painting of the mandala of Manjushri, the Buddha of Widsom
- AntiquiTEA with Dr. Sara McClintock, who will discuss a thangka painting depicting scenes from the life of the Buddha
- Sand Painting for Families
FOR FULL SCHEDULE AND EVENING PROGRAMS, SEE FLYER BELOW-
"Philosophy as a Bridge Between Science and Buddhism"
"Healing the Divide: A Tibetan Abbot’s Perspective"
FILM: “The Dalai Lama: Scientist”
"Why SEE Learning Matters”
For one week in March, the Carlos Museum hosts Emory’s annual celebration of Tibetan culture. Tibet Week includes daily guided meditation, lectures, and discussions that will focus this year on the establishment of Emory’s new Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics, with whom the Carlos will be working in the coming months to develop a tour of the collections based on themes related to empathy and compassion.
Tibet Week also includes the creation of a sand mandala by Buddhist monks from Drepung Loseling Monastery. Mandalas are visual representations of the universe whose imagery and colors corresponds to meaningful Buddhist concepts, and the process of its creation is a form of meditation.
The subject of this year’s mandala is Manjushri, the Buddha of Widsom. Bodhisattvas are divine beings that take human form as a representation of specific qualities and character traits. When the monks create the mandala of Manjushri, they will meditate on wisdom.
In addition to Ackerman Hall, where the mandala will be created, visitors can encounter Avalokiteshvara in the Asian gallery in the form of a stele. Created in Bengal, India, sometime between the 11th and 12th centuries, the stele depicts Avalokiteshvara looking down upon the world and its suffering as he bestows a blessing.
Avalokiteshvara is also featured on Odyssey Online: South Asia, an interactive website featuring Buddhist and Hindu art in the museum’s permanent collection. Here, users can hear the pronunciations of Avalokiteshvara and the associated Sanskrit mantra, look closely at the stele’s symbolism element-by-element, and even watch a video of monks creating the Avalokiteshvara mandala during a past Tibet Week.
Museum visitors are encouraged to further immerse themselves in Tibetan culture by making their own sand mandala on Saturday, March 28, before Tibet Week comes to an end with a closing ceremony and the ritual “withdrawing” of the mandala at 2 PM
