About the various kinds of black thangka and the history.

Black thangka, based on black, outlined with pure gold, embellished with a small amount of color or symbolic blending to create the main structure and light and shade of the characters and scenes, mysterious and deep, this is the Tibetan Buddhist art and painted thangka in the same line, but also self-contained painting form - black thangka, Tibetan called "that Tang". Black thangka art is produced under the connotation of the teachings and rituals of Tibetan Buddhist tantric culture, which is the creation of great wisdom of Tibetan Buddhist cultural thought, and embodies the wisdom of countless generations of eminent monks and folk craftsmen. With its strong regional characteristics, mysterious religious implications, simple national sentiments and profound humanistic spirit, this unique form of artistic expression has also become the best collection of eminent monks, scholars and celebrities.

A large part of the reason for the black thangka is the Tibetan people's preference for black, which comes from the Bon belief that developed from the ancient primitive religion. Bon is commonly known as the "Black Sect", and is named because Bon people like to grow long hair and wear black clothes. Judging from its doctrinal laws, this practice of black has a very long history, and is reflected in the black-and-white dualism of the Bon creation doctrine and the esoteric philosophy it symbolizes. Later, Tibetan Buddhist Tantra flourished in Tibet, absorbing a large number of local primitive religions and Bon teachings, and various Tibetan Buddhist art forms adapted to them came into being. Black itself has visual aesthetic qualities such as ferocity, violence, majesty, darkness, and mystery, as well as color symbolic connotations. Therefore, the black thangka is extremely suitable for expressing the unpredictable artistic conception of the tantric gods, and using black as the base has become the qualitative nature of the black thangka in the form of expression.

Black thangka art also developed the use of gold to the extreme. The Tibetan people's love for gold originates from the worship of the sun god in the heavenly realm in the Buddhist theory of the Three Realms of the Universe, which is the pursuit of the light of nature, symbolizing the yearning for the source of life of all things in the world, and gold also represents treasures and wealth. Therefore, gold is regarded as the most sacred way of offering to the gods and Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism, and many techniques using gold have been created in long-term artistic practice, such as hooking, painting, grinding, carving, and dyeing gold commonly used in thangkas.

The best expression of the black thangka is the exaggerated dynamics, angry expressions, and fierce wrath of the Tibetan Buddhist tantric deities. Most of them are transformed from Buddhas and bodhisattvas to protect Buddhism from foreign enemies, or to deter and warn against unhealthy views and evil thoughts that hinder the practice of the Dharma, which are called "ignorance." The images of these gods have many characteristics such as primitive and simple, mighty and powerful, mysterious and deep, so that they can achieve the purpose of propagating teachings, upholding Buddhism, and maintaining divine power with strong deterrent power. As a result, the black thangka has become an indispensable and solemn ritual for idolatry in Tibetan Buddhist art.

In Tibetan Buddhist art, the depiction of the body of the main god and Buddha in the murals and thangkas must be based on the provisions of the "Three Sutras and One Shu" classics such as the "Buddha Statue Measurement Sutra" to express different religious symbolic connotations. For example, the body color of Sakyamuni is flesh red, the Ashan Buddha is dark blue, the Baosheng Buddha is golden, and the Great Pessimistic Guanyin is white. The coloring method of black thangka can be called a must in the painting world, and under the principle of following the principle of measuring the statue, he has created a drawing technique based on lines and dotting and dyeing colorful parts. This technique further strengthens and highlights the majesty, strength, solemnity and mystery of the deities in Tibetan Buddhism. For example, the flame coloring method in the black thangka, only a little smudge at the end of the flame, the charm of the flame dancing will be vividly painted, which is far better than the whole body red coloring method. At the same time, this kind of color is like gold, and the picture retains a lot of black background expression, which is the same as the expression technique of white ink and virtual instead of real in Chinese landscape painting, which strengthens the deep, ethereal and mysterious religious connotation of black thangka.

Black thangka art is produced under the connotation of the teachings and rituals of Tibetan Buddhist tantric culture, which is the creation of great wisdom of Tibetan Buddhist cultural thought, and embodies the wisdom of countless generations of eminent monks and folk craftsmen. This unique form of artistic expression is widely spread in the Tibetan Buddhist cultural circle with its strong regional characteristics, mysterious religious implications, simple national feelings and profound humanistic spirit.

As for the Red Lotus Karmic Fire, the Red Lotus, the Hell:

The seventh of the Eight Cold Hells. The Sanskrit name is padma, which is translated as red lotus. For the cold, the skin and flesh are divided, such as the red lotus flower. Yoga Treatise No. 4 says: "The red lotus is different from this, and after this green, the color becomes red." The skin splits, or ten or more. Therefore, the name of Naraka is called Red Lotus. Kusha Guangji 11 said: "Bo Temo, this cloud red lotus flower." The cold is pressing, and the body becomes broken, like a red lotus. ”

Bad karma harms the body, such as fire. Also known as the fire that burns hellish sinners. The latter is also caused by the negative karma of previous lives. The eighth chapter of the Lengyan Sutra says: "The fire of karma is dry. ”

The hidden treasures refer to the scriptures that Bon and Tibetan Buddhists hid when their religion was in calamity, and later re-excavated scriptures, which are divided into book collections, sacred relics collections, and knowledge collections. The book collection refers to the scriptures, the holy relics contain the finger vessels, the relics of the great monks, etc. The most miraculous of all is the knowledge of the treasure, which is said to be hidden in the depths of someone's consciousness by the gods when a certain scripture or mantra cannot be passed down in the event of a disaster, so as not to be lost. When the conditions for retransmission are met, under some mysterious revelation, the people who have been given the scriptures (some of them illiterate farmers and herdsmen) can recite or record them. This phenomenon is the hidden mystery.

The rap artist > is a well-known Tibetan heroic epic, which has developed from its original prototype to more than 100 today, which can be described as a long-form masterpiece. > circulated among the people in two forms, one is in the form of oral rap, and the other is in the form of transcripts and engravings. Oral rap is its main form and is passed down from generation to generation through the troubadours of rap artists, who have various legends.

Among the many rap artists, those who can rap multiple parts often call themselves "God-given artists", that is, the stories they tell and sing are God-given. "God-given rap artists" mostly claim to have had a dream in childhood, and then fell ill, and in the dream they had received the will of God or King Gesar, and after they were sick or recovered from illness, they were able to open the wisdom door of rapping Gesar through chanting sutras and praying, and they could rap from then on.

In Tibetan areas, some illiterate children in their teens are sick or awake and can rap a long epic of millions of words, a mysterious phenomenon that is still unexplained.

Legend has it that more than 1,300 years ago, Guru Padmasambhava went to Qianzang to promote Buddhism, and found that the knowledge of Tibetans at that time could not accept Tantric Dharma, and because the causes of some Dharma were not yet mature at that time, he buried many teachings, Buddha statues, and Dharma medicines in different fields before leaving Qianzang. Some of them are in waterfalls, some are in rocks, some are in the void, and some are even in the deep meditation of the Holy One. These things are waiting for the time to be ripe in the future, so that those who have fate and achievements can start to spread, so they are called "hidden".

The hidden treasure is divided into book collection, holy relics collection, and knowledge collection. The book collection refers to the scriptures, the holy relics contain the finger vessels, the relics of the monks, etc.

The most amazing thing is the knowledge of the treasure, which is said that when a certain scripture or mantra cannot be passed down in the event of a disaster, it is given by the gods to hide it in the depths of someone's consciousness so that it will not be lost. When the conditions for retransmission are met, under some mysterious revelation, the people who have been given the scriptures (some of them illiterate farmers and herdsmen) can recite or record them.

From the time of Guru Rinpoche Huasheng more than 1,000 years ago to the present, in this long historical process of Tibetan Buddhism, the fact of hiding has been continuously revealed in front of people.

The first Han lama to obtain a Geshe degree, Lobsang Pearl Geshe, recorded the saying of "knowing Tibet" in his book "Seeking the Dharma in the Snow Regions". In the Zhayepa Monastery near Lhatse in Houzang, Samye Monastery, the most famous temple in Qianzang, and the Qingpu Cultivation Site, the classics will be dug up.

The oldest indigenous religion in Tibet, "Bon", has a history of "hiding Tibet" under the impact of Tibetan Buddhism. Historically, the Bon side failed the debate and was banned by the Buddhist Trisong Detsen. The Bon did not dare to act openly, and they buried the Bon scriptures everywhere, and these scriptures formed the "hidden" of Bon. In the 9th century, when Langdarma destroyed the Buddha, Buddhist believers also began to "hide".

Later, the Nyingma sect had a theory of digging up the scriptures in a certain place. The Tibetans are known as "Dedenpa", and according to legend, they are the incarnations of Guru Padmasambhava and his disciples, who satisfactorily reorganized the Tibetan scriptures and accurately interpreted the theories and methods of the Tibetan scriptures, the most famous of which are the "Sutra of the Death of the Hidden Tibet" and "The Great Perfection".

Alternative Hidden Theory

Buddhist scriptures introduce alternative ways to discover hidden treasures without relying on treasure maps.

The first is to become a Buddha. All Buddhas and bodhisattvas have divine powers, and they can not only see any hidden treasure of anyone, but also make it run out of the ground. For example, "The Origin of the Buddha in the Birth of the Buddha" records that when the Buddha was born, 500 hidden treasures gushed out at the same time; According to the Amitabha Sutra, when Manjushri was born, seven hidden places poured out at the same time.

The second is to worship the Buddha. If it is too difficult to become a Buddha, you can also worship the Buddha. For example, the "Three Treasures Induction Brief Record" records that there was a poor man in ancient India who wanted to dig up the hidden treasure left by his ancestors, but he didn't know the specific location, so he went to the temple to pray, circled around the Buddha statue a few times, and found the hidden treasure when he went back.

The third is mantras. If it is too troublesome to worship the Buddha, you can also recite mantras. "Buddha's Heart Sutra" on the first volume of a paragraph "Ten directions as the same seal top mantra", as long as the hands are crossed, stretch out the middle finger, read "Om Vara Grits Grits Varo", you can see through the ground, see all the hidden within a radius of five miles. There is also a mantra in the second volume of the "Great Buddha Ding Guangju Dharani Sutra", which says that the lotus seeds, borneol, bezoar and tulips are mashed, mixed with milk and paste, smeared on the forehead, and recited "Om Amu Gamad Nish Rinra Bowl Head Mu Se Greasy Sand Ground Miles Begging Shasha Ha" 1,800 times, you can see the hidden treasures of the world.

What exactly does the collection mean?

Among the various Buddhist texts, one of them is preserved and opened in a special form, and this type is called the Fu Collection. In addition to the small baskets that contain various secret books and scripture codes, there are also sacred objects such as Buddha statues and ritual vessels. Many people in society and even scientists are unable to explain this mysterious phenomenon, and even some Buddhists do not understand the concept of hiding.

The contents of the collection are very rich, including the practice of the Dharma, Buddha statues, nectar, etc., which can be described as comprehensive, but the most important is the Buddhist scriptures. Part of the sutra is the content of the empowerment, part of the meditation related to the empowerment, part of the sadhana, and a series of other specific practices from the preliminaries to the right path.