Serenity
Enshrined: Tibetan Master Artist
TINLEY CHOJOR
by Ross Rice
...and the Nechung Foundation. During his time in India,
he re-acquainted with good friend His Eminence Jamgon Kongtrul
Rinpoche, who was temporarily administering the affairs of
the Kagyu order and the Karmapa, at that time between incarnations
(the seventeenth Karmapa being all of three years old and
yet undiscovered). It was Rinpoche who requested that Tinley
emigrate to the U.S. and be master painter at Karma Triyana
Dharmachakra in Woodstock, New York. Tinley and Wangchen accepted
the offer, and Tinley started work there in August of 1988.
With minimal assistance from apprentices, Tinley spent the
next six to seven years painting KTD, starting with the outside,
then continuing with the amazingly intricate work we see in
the interior. What’s really the most remarkable thing
about Tinley’s art is that he never plans out what he
will do. He gets his five main colors of water-based paint
together, each of which has definite symbolism in Tibetan
art: blue/sky and air, white/cloud, yellow/earth, red/fire,
and green/water. Then, he just. . . paints. Although it does
sound a little corny, Tinley really does “paint from
the heart,” knowing the therapeutic effect his images
will have on the meditative spirit, and drawing from that
beneficial energy. The shapes seem to flow through him into
the brushwork unhindered by ego or self-interest, as he expertly
mixes the basic pigments, creating the hues and shapes identified
with his family’s style. Though he clearly and humbly
appreciates our slack-jawed reaction to his achievement, nonetheless,
it’s still all in a days work for Tinley.
At our next meeting two months later, I realized that as
I was asking questions (through our incredibly capable interpreter,
Acharya Sungrab G. Drongpa), I kept coming back to a distinctly
Western question, which amounted to: ...
CONTINUE...
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