Wednesday, August 22, 2018

The Big Thangka at Sera Monastery

The thangka wall is prepared for the festival


Thangkas are scroll paintings; maybe not only paintings. Are you concerned, how thangka is correctly spelled? Please don’t be! Other spellings of thangka are: thangka, tangka, thanka, or tanka. I think thangka is the best way to spell it. Just don’t spell it tanker.
On the day of our departure, the Tibetans were celebrating the Yogurt Festival; the correct name is Sho Dun Festival (Chinese: 雪顿节). The festival runs from the 15th to the 24th of the 5th lunar month, which mean about the middle of August. Now, this was the first day of the festival – and we were also preparing to leave. On these days the big thangka at Sera monastery usually is displayed. When I got up this morning I heard a heavy rain and we were concerned if the thangka was displayed at all. The Tibetans would feast in the rain and wait for the next day to look at the thangka, which is important to acquire good karma.
We were going as near as possible to Sera, which means not very near as streets were closed because of the large masses of people (a mass movement, so to say). The thangka was on display! Actually it isn’t a painting but a picture being stitched together out of pieces of colored silk. So rain isn’t feared but the sun.
We had a clear view but I had to use all of my camera’s 30x optical zoom.




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