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Learn how to create a Tibetan Mask!
Did you know that I am also asked to offer classes on Tibetan Art forms other than Thangka Painting? I’m talking about workshops in related art forms such making a traditional Tibetan Amulet, where I teach you how to create a traditional Buddhist paper amulet. This year the Rubin Museum of Art in New York has asked me to offer a course on making masks.
Becoming Another: The Power of Masks
The signature exhibition this year at the Rubin Museum of Art in NYC is called ‘Becoming Another: The Power of Masks’ (from March 13, 2015 to February 8, 2016).
This exhibit illuminates both the common threads as the differences in the many mask traditions from Northern India, Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Mongolia, Siberia, Japan, and the tribes of the North-West Coast of America. Transforming ones identity speaks to the human impulse.
In addition to this beautiful exhibition I was asked to develop a workshop on Tibetan Masks.
Tibetan Masks
I started this special workshop with my talk and slideshow on Tibetan Masks that are used in a lively costumed and masked dance called ‘Cham’ dance, that is associated with the Buddhist festivals in Tibetan Buddhism. It is traditionally performed by monks and accompanied by music from the traditional Tibetan instruments.
Sketching in the galleries
After that I led the participants around the exhibition and asked them to made sketches in the galleries
of the masks that were appealing to them. These sketches formed the basis to create 2- and 3-dimensional masks, by using all different kinds of materials. At the end of the workshop everyone went home with their own beautiful mask they created.
Would you like to learn how to create a 2 or 3 dimensional Tibetan Buddhist Mask yourself?
Check out the Buddhist Art Classes page or subscribe to the newsletter to stay posted.
