Wheel of LIfe: Shakyamuni Buddha Thangka
48" x 37" Framed. Painting27" x 20"
Shakyamuni Buddha, at the moment of enlightenment, invoked the earth as witness, as indicted by the fingers of his right hand which spread downward in the gesture of touching the earth. As the Buddhist Sutras relate, the sun and the moon stood still, and all the creatures of the world came to offer obeisance to the Supreme One who had broken through the boundaries of egocentric existence. As the Buddha continually taught, it was not he who was to be revered but the possibility he presented. At the end of his life, Buddha said," Be a light unto yourself". Become a Buddha, an awakened being, he urged, but never a blind follower of tradition.
This thangka depicts a series of twelve major moments in the life of Buddha. These twelve important moments give an overview of Siddhartha, the person who became Shakyamuni, and his Buddhist teachings. These twelve events are:   Queen Maya's dream, Siddhartha's birth, Raising the young prince, Life at the court, The four encounters, Siddhartha secretly leaves the palace, Asceticism, Mara's attack, Enlightenment, Proclaiming the teachings, Extraordinary events, and Parinirvana.
It would be too lengthy to describe these moments here but to read up on them is most interesting.  This is an important Thangka with remarkable detail and design.
This piece has a wood rod to anchor the bottom with lovely silver endings.
By Romio Shrestha &  Ian Baker: Celestial Gallery
Handpainted by monks in Nepal