White Tara: White Tara is associated with long life, healing, and protection. By praying to White Tara, one can seek her blessings to overcome obstacles, improve health, and experience physical and mental well-being. Her compassionate nature and ability to alleviate suffering make her an ideal deity to invoke for long life and the removal of obstacles on the spiritual path.

Amitayus (Aparmita or Amitabha): Amitayus is revered as the deity of longevity and is associated with the practice of extending one's lifespan. By praying to Amitayus, individuals seek his blessings to increase their life force, enhance vitality, and counteract illnesses and afflictions. Amitayus is believed to bestow blessings that support a long and healthy life, enabling practitioners to continue their spiritual journey.

Ushnishavijaya (Namgyalma or Ushnisha Vijaya): Ushnishavijaya is associated with longevity, purification, and the removal of negative karma. Praying to Ushnishavijaya is believed to purify negative actions, speech, and thoughts, thus helping to eliminate obstacles and negative karma that can shorten one's life. By engaging in her practice, individuals seek protection from premature death and the ability to live a meaningful and virtuous life.

These sacred paintings serve as objects of contemplation, inspiration, and instruction, guiding practitioners on their spiritual path. Thangkas provide a visual gateway to the world of Tibetan Buddhism, encapsulating its rich symbolism, iconography, and spiritual concepts. With their vibrant colors, intricate patterns, and skillful craftsmanship, thangkas offer a profound visual medium for deepening one's understanding and connection to the teachings of Buddhism.

Thangkas come in various sizes, ranging from small pieces resembling Western half-length portraits to grand-scale creations spanning several meters in each dimension. While the larger thangkas are intended for temporary display during religious festivals, the majority of these artworks are designed for personal meditation or as educational aids for monastic students. The compositions of thangkas are meticulously crafted, featuring intricate details and often incorporating numerous small figures. A central deity or focal point is typically surrounded by a symmetrical arrangement of other divine beings, symbols, or narrative elements that convey profound spiritual teachings.

How is Thangka made

First, the canvas on which the painting is to be executed is laid on a wooden frame to determine the required dimensions. This canvas is an extremely finely woven cotton material, referred to in the Holy Scriptures as "Çura Canvas".

Then the canvas is cut, hemmed and, with the use of sturdy strings, very tightly mounted in the wooden frame. Painting is carried out with the frame in an upright position, without any further rigid support or backing.

In this studio, our primary artist, who works virtually exclusively for us, applies the undercoat consisting of a mixture of chalk and glue to the canvas by hand. Other Thangka workshops have turned to mainly using industrially pre-primed canvas.

This photo shows how the canvas, after receiving its base coat followed by a second coating of bone glue, is polished and smoothed by hand with a stone to attain a perfectly smooth, featureless painting surface. Through this process the canvas becomes quite rigid, thereby providing perfect conditions to evoke very finest artistic detail and over-all superior painting quality.

Using a different Thangka, we see how, after mounting, the complete basic pattern of the respective theme is applied to the canvas.

The following picture shows the steps in creating a gold-based Thangka, such as our No PH 9, the "Holy Mount Kailash". To achieve more intensive colour, yet another prime coat, in ochre, is applied, followed by a coat of pure gold. The so-called Thangka painting gold is traditionally produced by members of the Newar people in Nepal. 24-karat gold is ground to finest powder and mixed with bone glue and water in proportions suitable for direct use in painting. Thus, the Thangka gold is not gold leaf at all! Silver can be processed and used in the same way: Mount Kailash and the surrounding peaks in our completed Thangka were not painted with white paint, rather with precious silver.

Here, the nearly completed piece has been removed from the wooden frame. Now only the very finest finishing touches remain to be added, such as compacting the gold and giving Mount Kailash its silver mantle.

K. Lama regarded his already half-finished thangka proudly

The Mount Kailash Thangka, including the black margin (which can also facilitate the fastening of a traditional brocade frame), is now complete. Only the background gold must be compacted in the places where it is later intended to exhibit a sheen.

Here we see an old ballpoint pen casing into which a specially cut agate has been fitted. The back of this semi-precious stone is slightly concave and can be used to compact gold over extensive areas of the Thangka, while the blunt point is used to lineally compact gold, thus creating a shiny effect.

In this way, through partial compaction of the gold or refraining from compaction, nearly three-dimensional effects can be achieved. The glorious sheen of gold artistically treated in this way richly rewards the beholder or meditator with a Thangka possessed of an extraordinarily aesthetic aura.

Thangka Making Video

Buddha Aparimita is invoked or worshipped for lengthening the life span or fast relief from dreadful diseases or from mortal danger. In Nepalese Mahayana tradition the dharani of Buddha Aparimita is often recited by the devotees in the presence of dying patients. the recitation of this dharani is said to be efficacious when carried out in utter sincerity. It is said that the famous Madhayamika Buddhist philosopher Arya Nagarjuna had escaped his early death after recitation of this dharani for one complete day and night.

Mantra of Amitayus

Full Description
There is a story from the time Guru Shakyamuni Buddha was on earth concerning a deva called Paripu Denpa. Due to karma, when devas start experiencing the signs of death, they spontaneously remember their previous lives and see their future lives; they perceive that they are about to be reborn in the lower realms and so forth. Since their realm has unbelievable enjoyments thousands of times better than those of the richest country on earth, when they realize that they are about to leave a life of such pleasure and be reborn where there is incredible suffering, their minds suffer greatly.

Thus, as he was dying, the deva Denpa saw that he was about to be reborn as six types of animal'dog, monkey and so forth. Very worried, he asked King Indra what to do. King Indra suggested that he see the Buddha, which he did. Buddha manifested as the deity Namgyalma and gave him the mantra. Denpa recited it six times daily and in seven days completely changed his karma so that he did not have to be reborn as those six types of animal. The Namgyalma mantra is unbelievably powerful for purification. I have translated its benefits and explained how to recite it for people who have cancer and other diseases.

The kind, compassionate Guru Shakyamuni Buddha taught the benefits of reciting the Namgyalma mantra to the Four Guardian Kings. Even if you are in danger of dying because the karma that determines your life-span is running out, if you wash your body, wear clean clothes and, abiding in the eight precepts, recite the Namgyalma mantra one thousand times, you can increase your life-span, purify your obscurations and free yourself from disease.

If you recite the Namgyalma mantra into the ear of an animal, you ensure that this is its last animal rebirth. If somebody suffering from a heavy disease that doctors cannot diagnose does the practice Lord Buddha taught to the deva Denpa, he or she will be liberated from that disease, bring to an end all future rebirths in the lower realms, and after death be reborn in a blissful pure land. For humans, the present life will be their last rebirth from the womb.

If you recite this mantra twenty-one times, blow upon mustard seeds and throw them onto the bones of even extremely evil beings who have created many heavy negative karmas, those beings will immediately be liberated from the lower realms and be reborn in a higher realm, such as that of a deva. Throwing seeds blessed by the Namgyalma mantra onto the bones or body of a dead being purifies that being's consciousness, and even though that being may have been reborn in hell or any other lower realm, that being can be reborn in a deva realm.

If you put this mantra in a stupa or on a banner inside your house or above the roof, whoever is touched by even the shadow of that stupa or banner will not be reborn in the lower realms. Also, any being touched by a breeze that has first touched a stupa, banner or statue containing this mantra is purified of the karma to be reborn in the lower realms. What need is there to mention, therefore, how great the purification experienced by those who recite this mantra or keep it on their body.

Namgyalma Matra Full
OM NAMO BHAGAVATE SARVA TRAILOKYA PRATIVISHISHTAYA BUDDHAYA TE NAMA TA YA THA OM BHRUM BHRUM BHRUM SHODHAYA SHODHAYA VISHODHAYA VISHODHAYA ASAMA SAMANTA AVABHA SPHARANA GATI GAGANA SVABHAVA VISHUDDHE ABHISHINTSANTU MAM SARVA TATHAGATA SUGATA VARA VACANA AMRITA ABHISHEKERA MAHAMUDRA MANTRA PADAIH AHARA AHARA MAMA AYUS SANDHARANI SHODHAYA SHODHAYA VISHODHAYA VISHODHAYA GAGANA SVABHAVA VISHUDDHE USNISHA VIJAYA PARISHUDDHE SAHASRA RASMI SANYTSODITE SARVA TATHAGATA AVALOKINI SAT PARAMITA PARIPURANI SARVA TATHAGATA MATE DASHA BHUMI PRATISHTHITE SARVA TATHAGATA HRIDAYA ADHISHTHANA ADHISHTHITE MUDRE MUDRE MAHA MUDRE VAJRA KAYA SAMHATANA PARISHUDDHE SARVA KARMA AVARANA VISHUDDHE PRATINI VARTAYA MAMA AYUR VISHUDDHE SARVA TATHAGATA SAMAYA ADHISHTHANA ADHISHTHITE OM MUNI MUNI MAHA MUNI VIMUNI VIMUNI MAHA VIMUNI MATI MATI MAHA MATI MAMATI SUMATI TATHATA BHUTAKOTI PARISHUDDHE VISPHUTA BUDDHI SHUDDHE HE HE JAYA JAYA VIJAYA VIJAYA SMARA SMARA SPHARA SPHARA SPHARAYA SPHARAYA SARVA BUDDHA ADHISHTHANA ADHISHTHITE SHUDDHE SHUDDHE BUDDHE BUDDHE VAJRE VAJRE MAHA VAJRE SUVAJRE VAJRA GARBHE JAYA GARBHE VIJAYA GARBHE VAJRA DZOLA GARBHE VAJRODBHAVE VAJRA SAMBHAVE VAJRE VAJRINI VAJRAM BHAVATU MAMA SHARIRAM SARVA SATTVANANYTSA KAYA PARISHUDDHIR BHAVATU ME SADA SARVA GATI PARISHUDDHISHTSA SARVA TATHAGATASHTSA MAM SAMASVASAYANTU BUDDHYA BUDDHYA SIDDHYA SIDDHYA BODHAYA BODHAYA VIBODHAYA VIBODHAYA MOTSAYA MOTSAYA VIMOTSAYA VIMOTSAYA SHODHAYA SHODHAYA VISHODHAYA VISHODHAYA SAMANTENA MOTSAYA MOTSAYA SAMANTA RASMI PARISHUDDHE SARVA TATHAGATA HRIDAYA ADHISHTHANA ADHISHTHITE MUDRE MUDRE MAHA MUDRE MAHAMUDRA MANTRA PADAIH SOHA

Mantra of Ushnisha Vijaya