Parnashavari Thangka

 

Parnashavari fine art giclée prints on archival paper from original watercolor thangka painting, signed and numbered by artist Kayla Komito are available for purchase here.

Parnashavari (Parnashawari) is a form of the female Buddha Tara who has the power to build devotees' inner strength to quell the effects of plagues and pandemics. Parnashavari (Tibetan; LoGyonma), also known as the "Ancient Goddess of the Forest" in India, pacifies pandemics and other calamities such as drought, fire, famine poverty and war. I finished this thangka painting on Dec 2020 and it contains 6 months of her meditations, prayers and mantras for the pacification of the COVID19. I first found the prayer to Parnashavari & her mesmerizing image on ZaChoeje's FB site and immediately felt a passion to paint her. Via zoom we were lucky to be able to take an initiation into Parnashavari practice given by ZaChoeje Rinpoche. I hope you will enjoy this offering no matter what spiritual tradition you embrace as the positive intention is there for helping all sentient beings.

There is a video on my YouTube channel, Kayla Komito Sacred Art, that shows the Parnashavari thangka painting progression from beginning to end. The beautiful melodious Parnashavari mantra is sung/chanted by Khenpo Pema Chopel Rinpoche (and used with his permission). In a second video, I talk about the inspiration, the selection of images to work from, the creation of the iconic grid, my background, teachers etc.

Here is a little more information on the Magical Mandala Creatures: Garudas, Makaras, Dragons, Nagas & Naginis, Dakinis, Snow Lions, Magic Deer, Tigers & Ravens. These are all traditional symbolic elements in Tibetan thangka paintings. They are creatures of myth and magic that guard our blessed Mother Earth, the elements water, fire, earth, air and space, the plant & animal people that exist in the subtle realms. They are often unseen by our coarse every day mundane consciousness, but encountered by those who meditate and participate in those subtler realms. Many of these creatures get very upset when the human race pollutes the elements, cuts down their forests, mines and fracks the land and generally with disregard and no respect creates havoc for them. They are known to cause personal disease, epidemics and harm to those who have in turn harmed them and tainted their environments. Blessed Parnashavari and Tara are known to have the ability to pacify them and in turn pacify pandemics, fires, floods, famine and diseases of all kinds. Thus I have included in this Parnashavari painting many of her forest mandala creatures. 

Giclee of archival inks on acid-free rag paper. Signed, limited edition.

Green Tara Thangka

 

This thangka print of Green Tara is available for purchase here. 

In this thangka Green Tara is surrounded by Machig Labdron in the lower right, Green Tara in her aspect of Protector from Fire in the lower left and Atisha at the top. Tara appears in the mystical background of Pagosa Hot Springs, Colorado. This thangka was commissioned as a meditational deity for the practice of Green Tara and as an offering to accumulate positive karma by a Buddhist who wanted to protect his community of Pagosa Springs from forest fire. She is revered as the aspect of the Buddha that can transform and open the practitioner's mind to great compassion and with loving kindness, skillful means and wisdom, take that compassion out into the world. This is symbolized by her right leg and foot stepping out of the meditation posture (of White Tara) onto the Lotus footrest and out into the world. This image is an amalgamation of various Green Tara proportional grids and images chosen in working closely with my client to best help him in his visualization process. The painting has a number of local sites and animals, such as raven, coyote, bear and deer, as well as the Pagosa hot springs themselves and the local mountain silhouette.

Giclee of archival inks on acid-free rag paper. Signed, limited edition.

White Tara Thangka

This thangka print of White Tara is available for purchase here. 

White Tara is the female Buddha who grants longevity and removes obstacles to meditation practice. This White Tara has Amitabha in the upper left and Chenrezig (Avalokiteshvara) in the upper right. A four-armed Mahakala is in the lower left. Achi Chokyi Drolma, who is the chief protectress of the Drigung Kagyu lineage, is in the lower right. My work was inspired by a 19th century thangka. The original was commissioned for a temple in New Mexico. The arrangement of bodhisattvas and protectors was chosen by the teacher at that temple.

Giclee of archival inks on acid-free rag paper. Signed, limited edition.

 

Yamantaka / Vajrabhairava Thangka

 

This giclee fine art print of the Tibetan Meditation Buddha Yamantaka / Vajrabhairava is available for purchase here. 

The print is a high resolution copy of an original thangka commissioned by a practitioner in 1998. She had searched for an accurate portrayal of Yamantaka or Dorje Jigje on trips to Nepal, Tibet and Dharamsala India and had come up empty handed. There are many 'thangka sweat shops' in these places which have a mass production assembly-line using very young artists, who aren't too concerned with accuracy of proportion or color and this is all that she saw. She asked me if I would do one for her, being a watercolor painter who worked in a similar style and a practitioner. We consulted my Tibetan Lama Denma Locho Rinpoche and I was given permission to do it and subsequent thangkas, as long as I used the proportional grids.

This Tibetan Yidam is used (under the guidance of a Lama) to meditate on transforming anger into wisdom and transforming the fear of death. A mirror of sorts for our deluded perception of reality that causes the anger to arise. It is traditionally said though, that just 'looking' at this image can pacify anger and this is one of the reasons I offer it to the 'lay' community as well, in the form of a print. The Tibetan Lamas at the top are Tara Tulku, Je Tsongkapa and His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. (when the Dalai Lama saw this, he had a chuckle, because I put glasses on him and normally the Tibetan painters wouldn't have done this, because poor eyesight is a sign of mundane imperfection). At the bottom of the print stands: Kalarupa (or Yama the Lord of Death) and his sister Chamundi on top of a bull, protectors of the practitioner who meditates on this tantra.

The giclee print is done on Archival Paper with Archival Inks. Signed, limited edition.

Vajrayogini Thangka

This thangka print of Vajrayogini is available for purchase here. 

Vajrayogini (aka Naro Dakini) is the Buddha in the female form of the clear light mind. Here she is standing in her tetrahedron, which is within the mystical landscape of her mandala. Her protector Chitipati is in the lower right. This thangka was commissioned for a temple in western Massachusetts. The teacher in that temple asked that the background blend the physical environment and animals of Massachusetts with those of Tibet. In accordance with this wish I painted jewel-bearing naginis and a tantrika in the lower left. A Western longevity dakini and bear-faced dakini are on the middle left and a Tibetan longevity dakini and a Crow-faced dakini are to the right.

Giclee of archival inks on acid-free rag paper. Signed, limited edition.

 

Shakyamuni Buddha Teaching the Lotus Sutra Thangka

 

This thangka print of Shakyamuni Buddha Teaching the White Lotus Sutra on Vulture Peak is available for purchase here. 

There are actually only a few historic examples of this event in collections of Tibetan art, though they are common in Chinese and Japanese art. I have chosen to take as my model an 18th century thangka in the collection of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Foundation. The image can be found in Worlds of Transformation by Rhie and Thurman. They write: "This is the culminating scene of his teaching the White Lotus of Truth Sutra. According to the Chan and Zen traditions ... at the high point of the ... teaching the Buddha wordlessly held up a white lotus and gave a radiant smile, at which moment Mahakashyapa ... gained his own fully enlightened understanding. The dragons entwined around the Buddha's throne are the gardeners of the Vulture Peak paradise who bring clouds each early morning to water the jewel trees and plants ....." The Buddhas of the ten directions surround his aura. Four armed Avalokiteshvara is at the top center, and White Tara is beneath the Buddha's throne. The Buddha is surrounded by bodhisattvas, yakshas, nagas, Kubera, a kinnara, world gods, monks and humans making offerings. The lower right side vignette is a scene from the sutra.

The original painting is 30" by 41". Giclee of archival inks on acid-free rag paper. Signed, limited edition.