My 2016 East Coast tour started by offering a  5 day thangka drawing & painting retreat at the renowned Omega Institute, where I taught my students about the Medicine Buddha and how to work with his meditation and mantra, as well as all about the most used healing plants in Tibetan medicine, what illnesses they are used for and how to draw and paint them according to the old Tibetan Buddhist Tradition. A very wonderful week!

Check out all pictures of this retreat on the Thangka Painting FaceBook Page:

 

During the week I also gave a lecture to all people on the Omega campus, and after that people came closer to view the original thangkas that I had brought with me to show:

Next I offered an evening class at the Rubin Museum of Art (which I consider the best museum on Himalayan Art world wide), where the participants learned everything about Tibetan Buddhist Amulets and learned how to create a protective amulet connected to Chenrezig (Buddha of Compassion) and Vasudhara (female Buddha of Abundance & Prosperity).

The subject of this special amulet class was chosen in connection with the current leading exhibition:

The East Coast thangka tour ended with a wonderful weekend course at Tibet House, that was organized by the Shantideva Meditation center.

In this weekend students learned how to draw Chenrezig (named Avalokiteshvara in Sanskrit) following the Buddhist tradition, learned all about his symbolism in Tibetan Art, and how to work with his meditations and his famous mantra Om Mani Padme Hum. New people started with drawing the face of the Buddha first.

On Sunday evening, after the course, we went out for dinner & drinks, as it was my last day in New York before I flew back to Amsterdam.

> More pictures of thangka art classes at Tibet House can be found on the Thangka Painting FaceBook Page in the album section

A new invitation for me to teach this year was at the Alix Experience, an international membership of dynamic, engaged women professionals who travel globally for business and leisure.
I offered an evening class on Tibetan Buddhist Symbols (the Eternal Knot, the Lotus Flower and the Eyes of the Buddha), combined with drinks, food & networking. Their office on Broadway has amazing views of the city. 

I’m guiding Deborah Kalantari (and her parrot Fulton!) on painting a beautiful thangka of Avalokiteshvara (Chenrezig in Tibetan)

> Click here to learn more about Private Thangka Teachings

And I’m teaching Anjie Cho (and her dogs Javier & Pearl!) how to draw and paint the Mandala of the 5 Buddha Families.