Our Brick n Mortar Store

Monday, December 8, 2008

Saving my Tankhas

Our first trip as a family after the birth of our lil’ Sarah was to Dharamshala, abode of his holiness Dalai Lama…and my shopping therapy was as important a part of the schedule as the schedule itself. And that is where I picked up my first tankhas. The dealer gave me a choice of brocade fabric …which they use to stitch the tankha on and do a neat job of framing .
Lo and behold …on reaching home, my gut feeling told me the fabric I picked was not really happening. The Tankhas somehow did not look as magical as I wanted them to. I just could not hang them up as they were. Any ardent shopper knows, it’s not a nice feeling. And yes, they did find themselves a place in the back shelf.
A nagging guilt to make it work and a hunch that it just might work…I took it to my framers. Was not sure if I was going to actually ask him to cut the brocade... that is just what I did...and asked him, to leave just about 1 and a half-inch of border of the brocade fabric around the tankha. To high light the beautiful pieces I had, I gave a 4 inchs of, off white mount around it. The frame I picked was brushed gold and antiqued finish.
It worked.

4 comments:

trueblue said...

Rajee,
They look gorgeous !
But i am curious to know, what are they ?

-Aswathy

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Aswathy,
Its great you asked that question ... I'll do a special post because there is so lilttle known about them ...
TAnkhas are paintings ... done by the mountain people of Tibet ... and the subject matter is the avataara of Buddha... or the cycle of life (again by depicting it in Buddhas context )and the famous mandalas... You'll find very few who'll be able to give you exact description of the painting subject.But as an art lover ... the are amazing ... you can keep staring at them and making your own interpretations.
If you are in CA... let me know I'll tell yoyu where all you can go and look them up.YOu'll love them guaranteed :)

trueblue said...

Hey, Thanks a lot ! Thats very interesting to know :)
Yes, I am in CA, in the Bay Area. I would love to check them out .

PS: Hope your little one had a great birthday !

Rajee Sood said...

Hi Aswathy,
read your comment first thing in the morning ... so from the top of my head the first place that just comes to my mind ... use to be in downtown Mountainview ... I think it was called World beads ... or some such name ... if they are still around you'll love this place anyways ...
They used to keep Tankhas ...in fact in carmel ... on ocean ave., if you find anystore with ethnic or tibetan things you'll definitely find tankha paintings.
If I can think of anymore will let you know ... in the mean while if you are on facebook let me know its lot easier to get and find things as I am slowly getting my blogger friends on it as a group. ;) Since we all think alike and are looking for the same things. :)

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