Sunapati Thangka School

We are a community of artists creating traditional Buddhist and Hindu paintings called Thangkas and Mandalas. In our workshops we create also hand-crafted wooden Himalayan wall Masks that we sell worldwide in our online thangka painting store.

Religious Art and Social Media Censorship

Dear friends,

Namaste.

After three months we finally restored and updated our secure payment system. So we are happy to welcome new orders from new visitors and our affectionate customers.

Traditional Art of Nepal is now five years old and we are proud to announce that we now collabore with three more thangka painting schools in the Bhaktapur district. This allowed us to support and welcome new students willing to learn this beautiful art in any of the schools that we partner with. All this could not be possible without your kind and generous contribution. Thank you so much!

During the time our website was offline we lost lot of traffic so we decided to start a little social media campaign on Instagram and Facebook to reach more people around the world and share our works of art with them.
However today Instagram decided to not boost one of our post with the following reason:

Your ad wasn’t approved because it doesn’t follow our Advertising Policies for advertising adult products or services. We don’t allow images or videos that show nudity or cleavage, even if it’s portrayed for artistic or educational reasons.

This is the post we tried to boost:
White Tara Painting censored

It was our desire to repost this in order to thank you all and extend our best wishes to all the new visitors for a long and happy life.
To do so we wanted to use  this gorgeous thangka painting of White Tara, perfect symbol of the feminine compassion and love.
When we had this post rejected we felt that somehow people could be offended by artworks like this. If so we apologise as it is not our intention to offend anyone.

Few weeks after we tried to advertise another post on Facebook displaying a Thousand armed Avalokitesvara thangka painting and we received the following message.
Avalokitesvara Painting Censored

By learning how to paint thangka we try our best to assimilate the teachings behind each brush stroke.
Living a small village in Nepal, visited by tourists from different countries, we learned to respect other cultures and welcome everyone with a smile.

We all really hope that one day both traditional media and social media will understand the importance of this art and will look at the whole picture, and not simply at a small, little, tiny part of it.

Thank you again to everybody for the support, patience and immense affection.

Blessings,

Traditional Art of Nepal

Orders on Hold

Namaste. We are currently updating our platform and we will accept new orders soon. Feel free to contact us anytime if you want to request or commission any artworks.
Thank you for your patience and kindness. Om Mani Padme Hung.

Mexican Inspired Tribal Masks

Mexican Skull Masks
Our master carver Furba Lama and his lovely family designed a new collection of colorful and unique masks inspired to the Mexican Skulls Masks tradition.

Traditional Mexican Skull masks have their origins in the pre Hispanic period.
The depiction of death in pre Hispanic Mexico was not fearful but rather part of life.
Skull masks represent death still, and can be basic white or with fanciful decorations. Some are serious and others are laughing.

As in here in Nepal and other shamanic cultures in many countries in the world, some masked characters represent abstract concepts such as time and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Check Master Furba Lama new collection of skulls masks inspired by the Mexican cult of the Dead.

The Life Of Buddha Narrated In Traditional Thangka Paintings – Part 2

In the first part we described the first four main episodes of the life of Siddharta Gautama.
Following the narration depicted in the beautiful thangka painting realized by our master artists we will explore the events that led the young prince to leave the palace and start his quest for the true meaning of life.

5. The four Encounters.

Having been warned by the court astrologers that his son may well give it all up and choose the path of meditation, Buddha’s father tried his best to shield him from the harsh realities of life.
This state of affairs continued until one day, Siddharta decides to leave the palace with one of his servants driving the chariot.
During his journey the prince encounters an old man, a sick man and a dead man leading to great turbulence in his mind.
He also comes across an ascetic monk and after questioning him Gautama decides to follow his example, convinced that herein lay the way to quell his mental agitation.

Buddha's four encounters

Buddha’s encounters out of the palace

Having made the decision, Siddhartha leaves the palace to pursue his quest and find the truth about life, suffering and genuine happiness.

6. Siddharta leaves the palace and starts his ascetic experience.

According to the legend Gautama left the luxurious palace of his father in the middle of the night, leaving behind his sleeping wife and son.
The first thing that Siddharta did after leaving his home was to cut his long and beautiful hair. his episode is depicted in the thangka painting in representation of Buddha’s strong commitment.

Ascetic Buddha

Buddha cuts his hair and starts his ascetic experience

Dressed as a beggar, the young prince wanders from place to place with his begging bowl.
During this time Siddharta encounters several teachers and he learns how to meditate.
Despite what he had learnt he could see that he was still subject to old age, sickness, and death and that his quest was not over.

7. The six years of austerity

Wandering in his search for enlightenment, Buddha came to a pleasant hermitage by a lovely stream where he joined five mendicants practicing a discipline based on severe fasting. The legend says that he ate a single grain of rice for each of the first two years, drank a single drop of water for each of the second two years, and took nothing at all during the last two. For six long years he did these practices becoming so skinny that when he touched his stomach, he could almost feel his spine.
The thangka shows Buddha sitting in lotus position meditating under a tree with his body severely affected by this experience.

Austerity years Buddha Life

Fasting Buddha in lotus position

In spite of the great pain and suffering Gautama did not find wisdom or the answers to his questions so he decides to go back begging for food and build up his body.

8. Striving for enlightenment

Gautama went to Gaya and looked for a suitable place to sit down and meditate. He found a banyan tree and sat on its east side,
There he met a village girl named Sujata who offered him a bowl of rice. It was the first food he had accepted in years and it instantly restored his body to lustrous good health.
Sujata was so happy and excited that the holy man accepted her food so she starts dancing with joy and comes back in company of her servant with more offering as illustrated in the painting.

Buddh Enlightened

Buddha under the bodhi tree in Gaya

Abandoning himself to meditation, Gautama vowed not to move from that spot until he had attained full enlightenment.

In the third part we will explore the episodes that led Siddhartha to fulfill his search and his commitment to spend the rest of his life teaching others how to achieve enlightenment for themselves.

Endless Knot Symbol

How To Order

Please contact us before placing an order.
To check the prices choose your favorite design and select quality and size.
Click on “Product Inquiry” specifying your selection and we will send you pictures of the artworks that are immediately available for your consideration.

All our works of art are handmade and each one is unique.
If we don't have what you are looking for, we will make it for you according to your preferences. We also accept commissions of custom designs.

Shipping and Payments

We offer a traceable shipping service that delivers in 5 to 10 working days worldwide. Check the shipping costs by selecting your country on the cart page. We accept PayPal, debit/credit cards and bank wire transfers provided by wise.com

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Since the earthquakes of 2015 we contribute to the restoration of our village and support projects of non profit and grassroots NGOs.

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