Home > Artwork > Thangka Drawings by Carmen Mensink > Stupas

Stupa (Tib.: Chorten)

The Enlightened Body, Speech and Mind

A Stupa is a spiritual monument that usually contains Buddhist relics.
The stupa represents the Buddha’s body, speech and mind. Every part of the construction of a Stupa shows the path to full enlightenment.

Here depicted are three out of the eight different types of Stupas in Tibetan Buddhism that each refer to a major event in Buddha’s life. All of them are shown below.

A close up of one of the stupas with The Buddha:

Three Stupas
Drawing on paper
Copyright: © Carmen Mensink 2002
Status: For sale

Related to this subject:

Carmen posing with her students in front of this beautiful stupa in northern Italy during one of her thangka drawing and painting retreats in Italy that she offers there every year.

Stupas in front of the Potala Palace in Tibet, and the beautiful eyes on the great Kumbum Stupa in Gyantse that look deep into your soul.

In Tibetan Buddhism eight different stupas are distinguished. You can check out the complete list with names of the Eight Great Stupas in Tibetan Buddhism here.

The Stupa of Boudhanath in Nepal with its distinct eyes. These famous eyes were also painted during on of Carmen’s thangka workshops in collaboration with Windmill De Kat (the Cat) in Zaandam, The Netherlands, where her students learned to make their own paints before creating Tibetan symbols with it on handmade paper that she brought from Nepal.

The stupas in the famous caves of Dambulla, Sri Lanka, that Carmen visited with her thangka group on the sightseeing tour after one of the Thangka Painting Retreats that she offers in Sri Lanka. During one of the visits, the whole thangka group poses with Banthe Dhammaratana, who you see on this picture standing in between all the thangka students. Besides being the head of the Bellanwila temple near Colombo (the capital of Sri Lanka), Ven. Banthe also leads the Paramita Buddhist Centre near Kandy, Sri Lanka. In this retreat center, beautifully situated on a rock in the jungle, the thangka painting retreats are held. Check out all upcoming Thangka Retreats

A different thangka group posing in front of the Stupa at the Paramita Buddhist Centre (near Kandy, Sri Lanka), together with all monks, nuns and staff of this retreat center. This is one of the places where Carmen offers her thangka drawing and painting retreats, and each morning the group gathers in the Stupa, where she leads the guided meditation.