The Song of Life on the Big Tree | Tree in the Himalayan Imagination (Part 2)
ལྗོན་པའི་ཤིང་རྣམས་གཡོ་བའི་གར་བགྱིད་ཅིང།
འཁྲི་ཤིང་ཡལ་གའི་ལག་རྩེད་དུད་པ་ཡིས།
འོངས་པ་ལེགས་ཞེས་མགྲོན་ལ་བསུ་བ་བཞིན།
The emerald trees sway as if dancing,
The vines spread their branches like reaching arms,
Guests arrive, is there not joy!
Lungchinpa Tsultrim Gyaltsen (ཀློང་ཆེན་པ་；1308-1364)
"Dragon Chenba Zunzhe", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
The above text is from Longchenpa's "Zangdok Palri," where he wrote this inspiring article for the practitioners in the mountains. Longchenpa wrote this in his meditation cave. "འདི་དོན་མཐོང་ནས་ད་ནི་ནགས་སུ་འགྲོ་" (Observing and entering the forest), he sees the mountain forest as a gallery for practice, with the Bodhi wisdom mind being the art piece to observe.
Local: Trees and Two Deer
Deer is a symbol of practitioners
Local: Flowers and Two Tigers
"Milaripa, 17th century, private collection
This is a masterpiece with deeply ingrained stylistic marks,
perfectly merging the styles of East Asia, South Asia, and Tibet."
Partial: The Bamboo Grove behind the Elder (སྨྱུག་སྡོང་)
In the context of biography and Daoist poetry, the bamboo grove seems to be a perfect backdrop for depicting spiritual practice. While bamboo is often metaphorically referred to as the "body of no-mind" in texts, Daoist poetry offers another possible perspective: a presence that renounces ego attachment.
"Western Pure Land of Bliss," 18th century, private collection
Local: A decorated wish-fulfilling tree
"Mount Sumeru," 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Local: Sacred Tree Forest
serving as adornments and providing fragrance and fruits.
"Wooden Scripture Holder", 18th century, private collection
"Sandalwood Guanyin Statue of the Potala Palace", 7th century, Potala Palace
One of the "Four Guanyin Statues"
These four Guanyin statues are all made from a sandalwood tree from Nepal
The Sandalwood Guanyin statue in the Potala Palace was once taken by the Dzungar people.
"Guanyin made of Sandalwood from Jilong, 7th century, Jilong County, Tibet
One of the "Four statues of Guanyin"
This statue was once brought to the Potala Palace during the Ladakh War"
"Wu Kang Sandalwood Guanyin", 7th century, Kathmandu
One of the "Four Guanyins"
"Jagamati Sandalwood Guanyin", 7th century, Kathmandu
One of the "Four Guanyin"
Also known as the "Five Guanyin"
The Song of Life on the Big Tree
In the previous article, we discussed the influence of South Asian culture on "tree worship" and Buddhist sacred trees. In Tibetan areas, in addition to tree worship under the South Asian system, their local "soul tree" (བླ་ཤིང་) and "biography tree" (རྣམ་ཐར་སྡོང་ཆེན་) also influenced the status of trees in artistic works (especially as entities that carry life force). In the local religion, trees are the convergence of celestial essence and cosmic elements, so ancient trees are particularly sacred. In the forests of the western and southern Himalayas (such as the Nyingchi region), people have better preserved the worship of large trees.
In some specific contexts, the big tree can be the original ancestor deity, a carrier that was once important in the local deity system but is now gradually overlooked by people. The tree forest centered around the big tree is part of the local natural worship centered around mountain deities. In the later Buddhist culture, the various divine signs in the mountains and forests are also combined with the "forest practitioners" of South Asia (centered around the eighty-four great achievers), becoming the perfect space for Buddhist meditation and practice.
"Calculating the Tree of Life", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
This piece is from the Naxi region of Yunnan, but the religious content of the work is the Calculating Tree of the Bon faith.
Early Bon faith was a widespread belief system.
Local: the Lu god entwined in the sacred tree
As a subterranean deity,
the early image of the Lu god was that of some kind of reptile.
Partial: The Frog (or Toad) Spitting Out the Tree of the Gods
In Tibetan astrology, the frog is the animal that carries the calendar calculations.
Local: The Benzhuo Bird on the top of the tree (known as the Garuda in Buddhism)
Local: birds perched on the leaves of the tree of life
Around the tree of life, there are animals symbolizing different stages of life.
"The Fifth Dalai Lama's Vision of His Immediate Predecessor," 18th century, The Rubin Museum of Art in New York
In the above diagram: Hidden Biography Tree Pattern
With Tsongkhapa as the tree top and the 5th Dalai Lama as the tree trunk
The life stories of the wise men spread out like branches and leaves
"Life of Tsongkhapa" painting, 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Above is the hidden biography tree pattern.
It depicts the life story of the master from the perspective of the disciple Khedrup Je, a student of Tsongkhapa.
This pattern of biography tree helps us to organize the sequence of events in the biography.
The Life of Tsongkhapa in Pictures, 15th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Also known as the Life of Tsongkhapa in Pictures,
In the early art style,
The biographical events are depicted in a grid format.
The image above: viewing order (created by Mr. Jeff Watt)
What can we learn from trees?
"The Tree of Physiology and Pathology"，19th century, private collection
A atypical Tibetan medical tree diagram (རྩ་རྒྱུད་སྡོང་འགྲེལ་), with the central figure not being Medicine Buddha, but rather the Maitreya Buddha in the Gelug tradition's "Maitreya faith palace." The diagram is divided into two trunks, with the left trunk representing the causes of health in humans, and the right trunk representing the causes of illness (following the principle of left good, right bad). The causes of illness are further divided into nine branches and sixty-three leaves.
Partial: The Mi Le Dou Lu Palace, symbolized by the tree at the top of the map.
Local: being healthy and active versus being sick and bedridden.
"The Tree of Physiology and Pathology", 18th century,
Owned by Arnold Lieberman
A typical tree metaphor diagram will use different colors for branches and leaves to classify and designate. Generally, blue for "lung" (རླུང་), yellow for "spleen" (མཁྲིས་པ་), and white for "bacon" (བད་ཀན་); these three are the three essential elements in Tibetan medicine. The imbalance of the three elements in the body leads to the classification of two types of diseases in Tibetan medicine: hot disorders and cold disorders.
Local: Tree trunks with different colors merging within.
The eighty medical thangkas that are commonly seen today were compiled and painted under the supervision of the Fifth Dalai Lama's political heir, Sangye Gyatso (1653-1705). However, the practice of using tree metaphors to explain medical principles had already been well developed even earlier (possibly as a product of indigenous knowledge systems). The 18th-century Tibetan medical master, Be Lotsawa Ngawang Kunchab, once pointed out: "This method did not come from divine wisdom, but is the crystallization of the knowledge of the snow land sages; it was spread widely by Yuthog Yonten Gonpo." (There is academic debate about whether the historical figure Yuthog Yonten Gonpo from the 12th century really existed during the Tibetan empire).
With the arrival of the golden age of Tibetan medicine in the 14th to 15th centuries, there was a proliferation of folk tree metaphor diagrams. It wasn't until the official version during the time of Sangye Gyatso that the tree metaphor diagrams were fully standardized in art history. It is important to note that we often refer to the two schools of medicine during the golden age of Tibetan medicine as the "Southern and Northern Schools", but this is fundamentally incorrect. According to strict classical texts, it is better to refer to them as the Su School (ཟུར་ལུགས་) and the Jang School (བྱང་ལུགས་). The use of tree metaphor diagrams is a practice of representing the principles of nature in natural forms, a wisdom that can continue to be used for centuries in classical medical thought maps.
"The Tree of Diagnostic Principles", 18th century, stored in Arnold Lieberman's collection.
The Tree of Diagnostic Principles is divided into three main trunks,
Corresponding to inspection, palpation, and interrogation;
With the inspection section further divided into observation of the tongue and observation of urine.
Local: Three diagnostic methods
"The Tree of Therapeutic Principles" from the 18th century, housed in the collection of Arnold Lieberman.
Local: Four treatment methods
vol.4
Trees between reality and imagination
"The Thirteenth Karmapa", 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Local: Peach tree and magpie
The peach tree symbolizes the Dharma lineage.
Local: The magpie offering practice commonly used by the Gelug tradition.
In the art theory of Buddhism, the presence of trees not only adds specific religious interpretations to the images but also creates a certain special "beauty of trees" in themselves. Trees can be used to metaphorically represent the bodies of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas: soft and delicate trees symbolize female deities, while tall and sturdy trees represent spiritual masters. In Denzang Pencuo's "The Mirror of Colored Painting Techniques," it is mentioned that "trees have various colors, can represent various forms, and can manifest various emotions." Traditional Tibetan painting schools all include the depiction of trees as a basic skill to varying degrees, and good artwork can often reveal the artist's personality and passion through trees, grass, and stones. Among the various painting schools in Tibetan areas, the Karma Gadri painting school's depiction of trees can be considered exceptional.
"The Three Great Achievers", 19th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Most of the artists of the Karma Kagyu painting school belong to the Gelug tradition, and the emphasis on depicting great achievements in the Gelug tradition, which has its origins in the history of the sect. Limited textual records provide artists with room to imagine, bringing achievements from South Asia to the mountains and forests of Kham.
Local: Trees beside the cliff
"The Three Great Achievers", 19th century, The Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Local: Trees next to the cliff
"Three Great Achievers," 19th century, New York Ruben Museum
Local: Trees next to the cliffs
The three above-mentioned works belong to the later period of the Karma Gadri painting school. Although they are from the same school, they have different styles and themes despite their similar compositions. As the polymath Sidu Qoigijonae (1699-1774) once said, "One can take the beauty of trees from the sacred realm of India, the land of Han, and what one sees in Tibet, and paint them in one's own way." Some researchers unfairly attribute the natural landscapes in the Karma Gadri painting school entirely to their imitation of East Asian aesthetics, which is a biased view.
"Sujata Thera," 18th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Thought to possibly be a self-portrait of Siddhartha Renboche
As artists living in a place, they often immerse themselves in their surroundings (Tibetan painters are often asked to observe every detail around them). Without seeing the extraordinary beauty of Tibet, how can one know that Tibetan artists have already positioned themselves as observers of a pure land, while the paradise that ordinary people yearn for is actually found in the trees and stones around them. The scenery doesn't speak, the painters do.
"Rongzompa", 17th century, Rubin Museum of Art, New York
Local: Pear tree and pear blossom
Partial: Peach tree coexisting with pear tree
The beauty of a momentary glance at a tree is indescribable.