PERSONAL CONNECTIONS WITH TIBET AND HIMALAYAN ART
I have had a long and auspicious relationship with Tibetan art and culture that has greatly contributed to my development as an artist and as a human being.
Below is a picture that my mother clipped from the New York Times on the day I was born. I consider the meeting shown below, the first of its kind in history, to be symbolic of the birth of Transcendental Fusion - my form of art that integrates eastern and western philosophies, symbols, and imagery.
In fact, my connection begins some time before this, around 1960, when my paternal grandfather met with His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama just after the latter’s 1959 escape into India. The Rt. Rev. Kenneth Daniel Wilson Anand, who was the Anglican bishop of the diocese of Amritsar. At the time, this included not only the state of Punjab, but also Himachal Pradesh, as far north as Jammu and Kashmir, and it extended almost to Delhi. It was in Dharamsala that my grandfather met the very young Dalai Lama pictured below. Rt. Rev. Kenneth Daniel Wilson Anand with H.H. the 14th Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India, c. 1960.
Because my parents have studied Tibetan Buddhism since the 1960’s, I grew up surrounded by paintings and sculptures from Tibet. While my mother was pregnant with me, she and my dad studied philosophy with the Dalai Lama's emissary, Geshe Lobsang Tharchin, at the Tibetan Center in Farmingdale, New Jersey. Here is a recent picture of me alongside a thangka painting entitled the Wheel of Existence or Wheel of Life, at my folks' place in Manhattan.
This painting was the catalyst that inspired me to learn more about Tibetan art. The complexity and intensity of this particular version, owned by my parents, has captivated me ever since I first saw it hanging in our home at a very young age.
When I was young, I started to spend a great deal of time researching Tibetan art because of this painting. It seemed that within its borders, a movie was unfolding before me. I learned to see static images as moving, and delving into the depths of this archaic practice was all at once so new and full of discovery. I became as adept as I could in a solitary manner until I decided I would seek out a place that contained the secrets of its origins.
It was for this reason I visited the town of Dharamsala, located in the Himalayan foothills of north India, on two separate occasions. In the summer of 1991, I made my first venture to see the Tibetan community that lives in exile there with their political and spiritual leader, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama. On this initial three-month trip, I studied Tibetan art and Buddhist philosophy and lived at the Library of Tibetan Works and Archives, which serves not only as a collection, but also as a center for cultural education. There I was finally able to see the process of thangka paintings actually being made.
Studying with adept teachers within a culture is completely different from a solitary pursuit of elusive concepts from half a world away, and in a few months I gained a great deal of insight into the aesthetics and concepts expressed in the art of Tibet.
Through researching this highly disciplined art form over the course of several years and by growing to understand the symbolic meaning behind many of the icons and subject matter contained within it, I was able to create the following painting in 1997-
TRANSCENDENTAL ROCKET, acrylic on canvas, 144" x 96 ", 1996.
Click here for an explanation of the symbolic meaning behind this painting.
My first experience in Dharamsala gave me a basis in what I needed to know in order to return seven years later, in 1998, on a Fulbright grant.
Letter to Rajive Anand Informing of Fulbright Award, 1997.
My proposal for the Fulbright was the "Study of Traditional Painting in India," and after a brief time affiliated with the Maharajah Sayajirao University in Baroda, Gujarat, I spent the first six of the nine-month grant in Jaipur, creating Rajput miniature paintings.
When the extreme heat of the desert of Rajasthan began to descend upon me in April of 1998, I moved up to the cool hills of Himachal Pradesh, and back to Dharamsala.
Although I was pleased to once again visit the place where I had spent my first solo journey to India, I saw that so much had changed in the years since I was there. I saw the double-edged sword of tourism - on one side it was cutting through the chains of poverty for many, especially the Tibetans; on the other, it was slicing through tradition and tranquility.
It was something like a 'Paradise Lost' - what was still a charming little hill town in 1991 had started to become a bustling commercial tourist trap with more trucks, cars, pollution, garbage, and violence. There were more, especially young people, addicted to drugs and alcohol. Two inseperable friends I had no longer spoke to one another. It saddened me to see plastic bottles and chips wrappers cascading down the hills en masse and also to hear that western women were getting accosted on the way to Bagsu Nag and Triund.
It was still nice to get a break from the heat and to see that, amidst all the change, the Tibetan culture was being preserved there. I also met the girl from France that was later to be my (now ex-) wife.
I didn't return to India for another eight years, but I still continued to use Tibetan symbols and painting styles in my work.
SPIDER-MANDALA, oil on canvas, 48" x 36", 2003.
Tibetans say that when Buddhism comes under attack, it hides itself away in 'Forbidden Lands.' Some of these are reputed to be in Bhutan, a kingdom in the Himalayas to the north-east of India, a place that I visited in 2006.
The monarch, who is pretty much universally loved by his people, has wisely placed restrictions on tourism. These restrictions take the form of a government tax of $250 US per day and a requirement that all foreign tourists must join a government-approved tour that lasts at least a week or two. The hope is to avoid the kind of ecological, physical, and cultural destruction that has happened in places like Dharamsala and Nepal.
Only few lucky people are permitted to enter Bhutan without having to pay the tax or join a tour. These include volunteer workers, ambassadors, and (since Bhutan and India have very good relations) Indian citizens.
In 2006, the Government of India offered a new program to American citizens of direct Indian lineage for the first time in history - Overseas Citizenship of India. Since my father was born in India and was an Indian citizen until the 1960's, I qualified for this program.
In June of 2006, I received my OCI passport, which grants me the rights of a citizen of India. In July, after eight long years away, I returned to India.
Overseas Citizen of India, 2006.
Inside Cover of Overseas Citizen of India Passport, 2006.
I began this journey in Calcutta, went up to Darjeeling, through Sikkim, and decided to head back down for the Indian border at Jaigon. I walked through the gate at Phuntsoling, and into Bhutan. I checked into a hotel and the next morning I visited the immigration office.
It usually takes a week to secure a visa for Bhutan, and Indians are generally given fourteen days to visit the country. No one in the office had seen an OCI passport before, and the chief officer there had to place a call to the Indian embassy at Thimpu, the capital of Bhutan. I think, for this reason, that I am the first Overseas Citizen of India to enter Bhutan.
I explained in Hindi that I am an artist and a Buddhist, and that I would represent his country well overseas. Because the Bhutanese people were so friendly and helpful, within one hour I was holding a thirty-day permit.
Entry Permit for Non-Bhutanese Visiting Bhutan, 2006.
As stated earlier, although Tibet and its people have unfortunately been subjected to religious persecution, the Tibetan form of Buddhism known as Vajrayana or Diamond Vehicle Buddhism flourishes in many places outside of Tibet. Bhutan and Sikkim are some of those places. For those interested in seeing some images of travels throughout the regions, click here for VIDEOS of India and Bhutan. 
