Since the earliest days of Buddhism until today, visual aids have played an important role in conveying the spiritual teachings to lay, and mostly uneducated , population in India. In modern-day Nepal or India it is not unusual to come across a wandering monk or ascetic who spends his time travelling from village to village with a scroll painting depicting the Wheel of Life, or else a deity under his arm. Upon arrival into any given village he quickly becomes the focus of attention for all those wanting to hear news from the surrounding countryside and distant towns. Unrolling his tangkha (literally “written record”), he both entertains and educates the crowds as he explains its meaning, at times in ordinary prose, at others in memorable verse or song. As this example illustrates, Buddhist art and Buddhist teachings have always journeyed hand in hand, where the spread of one only supports the transmission of the other.

All sacred images are known in Tibetan as ten.pa, ten meaning support and pa object. In other words, such images support the faith and spiritual experience of practising Tibetan Buddhists. For this reason, the act of creating a sacred image symbol alone is seen as meritorious. Therefore I advise my students to follow the instructions and grids as closely as possible.

Please treat all images drawings with respect, since the images contain the teachings and realisations of the enlightened ones and are important to all those who follow the path. While simple explanations are provided with the images – a deeper, perhaps more subtle, understanding can arise through the experience of meditation and receiving direct teaching from lamas.