EMBRACING COMPASSION CEREMONY with His Holiness the DALAI LAMA
We are extremely honored to welcome HH the 14th Dalai Lama for the ceremony to receive the unique series of twenty five Thangkas depicting the lineage of the Dalai lamas in each of their incarnations up to the Fourteenth, actual Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso and the nine kings who ruled prior to the first Dalai Lama who was recognized in 1391.
The ceremony will be held at the Norbulingka Institute which is the heart of the preservation of Tibetan Arts and Culture. This ceremony will include the presentation of all 25 original artworks to HH the 14th Dalai Lama. A blessing will be to bring good wishes and merit to all those who made this possible and clear.
Date: March 9, 2017
Time: 9 AM – 11 AM
Location: Norbulingka Institute PO
Nr Dharamsala, Sidhpur,
Himachal Pradesh 176057, India
WHEN WE ARE MOTIVATED BY WISDOM AND COMPASSION, THE RESULTS OF OUR ACTIONS BENEFIT EVERYONE…
The vision of the project was presented to His Holiness the Dalai Lama by the Norbulingka Thangka painting master Temba Chophel in 2002. No such work of this scope on the Dalai Lama lineage existed, at least to anyone’s knowledge, and Temba Chophel was excited at the idea of creating a great traditional work as was executed in the past. l In response, His Holiness commissioned the work, which was completed in the summer of 2015. The seeds of Embracing Compassion which started in 2002 resulted in 25 thangkas ( traditional Tibetan paintings) in total.
The thangkas, which depict a central figure surrounded by the events in the life of each Dalai Lama, capture the historical and spiritual events that marked each one’s life. They begin with incarnations that preceded the recognition of the Dalai Lamas, which include Tibet’s first kings ( 9 thangkas), then each Dalai Lama. Three thangkas are reserved to illustrate the life of the 14th, present Dalai Lama, who is 81 years old for a total of 25 artworks.
Each thangka was carefully researched for content, and Temba Chophel consulted lamas and scholars, notably Chato Rinpoche, then the Abbot of Namgyal Monastery, the Dalai Lama’s monastery, to insure the accuracy and details of each thangka. Temba Chophel passed away in 2007. His main disciple, Tenzin Norbu and his team, completed the series, which had all been etched, in a seamless manner.
These works of art are the product of another time when time was not a factor and the execution of one piece could take as long as a year. Each artwork took approximately nine months to complete, and the result was so rich and exceptional that it became important to find a way to share it with the world. With Embracing Compassion in 2017, after six years of exhaustive research and testing, the artworks are now ready to be presented globally and are scheduled for exhibits including the United States.
We are so pleased to have this historic event take place in the current home of the Dalai Lama. The Dalai Lama is the incarnation of Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, whose goal is to lead sentient beings on the path to enlightenment.
