Explore Common Ties between Christian & Buddhist Deities

STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
By Michael J. Fressola

"Amitabha Buddha," by Tashi Dhargyal

NEW YORK — Renaissance painters imagined heaven as a luminous cloudbank overflowing with angels and saints. They didn’t own the concept. Traditional Buddhist artists had a similar hunch about the eternal after-party. They also put the land of the gods above the earth, but unlike their Christian counterparts, they imagined many, many deities — all adrift on lotus blossoms in yoga positions. Buddhism absorbed much of the existing Hindu myths and personnel and added more of its own. Traditional Tibetan painting has an established range of subjects and characters, all governed by customary formulas. Much as the Virgin Mary is always presented in a blue veil and white gown, Tibetan deities can be recognized by their distinctive attire, posture, complexion, weaponry or lack thereof. A small segment of the huge and lively Buddhist pantheon is portrayed in a nine-piece show at The Jacques Marchais Museum of Tibetan Art, where “Artist Tashi Dhargyal and the Menris Tradition of Thangka Art,” continues through Oct. 9. [link]