Sky Above and Earth Below: Tibetan Landscapes and Thangka Paintings

Sky Above and Earth Below: Tibetan Landscapes and Thangka Paintings by Karma Tsering Lama, Nima Gyamcho Lama & Binod Moktan. "...Though they live today in Nepal and the United States, these three artists work in a Tibetan painting tradition which stretches back over a thousand years. The earliest extant thangka paintings date to ninth century Tibet. Meaning literally 'rolled art,' the thangka is a Buddhist scroll painting used for a variety of spiritual, didactic or social purposes. They might be commissioned to teach the young, to help heal the sick, to aid the dead in their reincarnation, or more commonly as a focus of meditation by the faithful. Subjects might be the Buddha or numerous other deities, great teachers, or ornate mandalas - geometric diagrams of the cosmos."