DVD: Creating Buddhas

Creating Buddhas:  The Making and Meaning of Fabric Thangkas

by Isadora Gabrielle Leidenfrost, featuring Leslie Rinchen-Wongmo

Soulful Media, Madison, Wisconsin     ©  2008     60 min.

The beginning of this film is entrancing as we watch monk after monk pour out of a monastery doorway carrying a 300-pound thangka rolled up like a carpet. The ten-story high piece is hung on the side of a mountain for a few hours of ceremony, and then carried back inside for another twelve-year wait when it will be be seen again. It becomes even more interesting as we learn this is not a thangka painted on a fabric canvas, but a creation entirely of silk, appliquéd and embroidered, entirely made by hand, and embellished with gold thread and precious and semi-precious stones. Leslie (Freilich) Rinchen-Wongmo was similarly struck when she first saw fabric thangkas, so struck she moved to Dharamsala to learn more about Tibetan Buddhism and the art of fabric thangka-making. This moving film documents her life, artistic process, and completed work. Highly recommended, especially for those interested in Buddhism, textiles, or sacred art.

-- submitted by Jennifer Knight

To visit the blog and see more reviews and quotes from books in the collection of Center for Sacred Sciences' Library, click here https://centerforsacredscienceslibrary.blogspot.com