An Sang-Lhasa Artists Guild

WHITE EAGLES

I found Tibetan artist An Sang living in a quiet house in a quieter lane in the historical section of Lhasa, near the Jokhang Temple. As I stared at his painting of a thousand-hand thousand-eye Guanyin, An Sang talked, “Yes, materially Beijing has everything. But in Lhasa I have inspiration for my paintings. To leave this atmosphere, I will leave my inspiration. Lhasa is a place of spirit. I will stay here until I die. As an artist I could not find a better place than Lhasa, Tibet. This place has not yet been destroyed. It is clean. Here you can see and feel the force of religious inspiration. But in China’s many big cities this cannot be seen because it has been destroyed. Construction destroys much. In Tibet, you can still see people whose face is pure. From inside a person, you can find that person’s value. So, I must stay here.”

An Sang pointed to his painting of a Bodhisattva. “Guanyin, has one thousand hands and eyes, these hands help people, those in difficulty. She has many eyes to see all those in need. These are my beliefs. So I paint these hands and eyes so more people can understand and know that many people still live in poverty, do not have enough to eat or wear, and need the help of others. If more people can help others with pure action, they in turn will be repaid for their purity. To be human is to be pure. People’s hearts are expressed through one’s eyes. So I paint many eyes to remind people that they should reach out with many hands.”

An Sang’s paintings expressed a sense of solemn power through recurring images, Tibetan women covered in turquoise, thousands of hands and eyes, the unrestrained energy of white eagles. For Tibetans white eagles carry special symbolism. They are the birds who eat corpses at sky funerals.

An Sang explained the symbolism. “Buddhism is purity and ultimate contribution. A Tibetan sky burial is the most final contribution of a person. You present the meat of your body to wild eagles, and they bring you to heaven. Death becomes an event of life which exceeds reality. So I paint white eagles. This is a part of human experience. In Tibet white eagles encircle an altar where corpses are prepared. The priests who cut the bodies recognize the eagles and even can call them by name. An eagle’s dead body cannot be found on the ground because when eagles die they fly to heaven. It is all very clean. In one’s mind, we are transposed to heaven. I feel the eagle’s spirit. Like my mother and father we are simple pure people. The eagle and our family have no great difference between us. You see, he is quite pure as well.”

An Sang’s paintings send a message of compassion, which he puts into action. An Sang designs costumes for the Tibet regional dance troupes and other products made by fifty handicapped Tibetans working at the Lhasa Handicap Handicraft Center. Their livelihood is entirely supported by the Handicap Center. It is also their home, their social circle, and their entire life.

Jampa Tsundhup, the factory director gives them direction in life, opportunity, hope. When two disabled workers get married, he represents their families as paternal father to both. In many cases the disabled workers do not have any other family members to attend their weddings.

Jampa Tsundhup started his factory with little money, no outside support, no funding from the government. In the beginning they had to cook on open fires in the cold of night, as there was no kitchen. These were the toughest times. Gradually, the factory was able to receive projects from people like An Sang who were influential in pushing the Tibetan regional dance troupes to assign the making of costumes to the Handicapped Center. For years they squeezed by making barely enough to keep everybody fed while building their orphanage and school. When SARS hit China, the factory’s business finally turned for the better as demand for Tibetan medicinal incense boomed throughout China.

Tibetan Buddhism adheres to a philosophy or logic of causational effect. Each person is responsible for his or her actions and intention, which always lead to a reaction or result. In 2003 SARS arose and spread fiercest through some of China’s most materialist and greed-consumed cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou. Throughout the entire epidemic, Tibet, Qinghai, Sichuan, and Yunnan, all regions where Tibetan Buddhist attitudes toward life and environment are strongest, did not even witness a single case. While this may be entirely coincidental, the symbolism has not been lost on many quietly observing the cycle.

Jampa Tsundhup was once a Buddhist monk. Then one day he decided to leave the monastery. There, in monastic isolation he could only help himself, but could not reach out and help others. He discarded his robes to bring his belief into reality by helping those who needed help the most. In the minds of many he is a living Bodhisattva.

In addition to supporting themselves, the fifty disabled workers support one hundred Tibetan orphan children, many of whom are also disabled. Jampa Tsundhup also serves as headmaster of Lhasa Jatson Chumig Welfare Special School for the orphans which he has built on the small factory compound with proceeds from the sale of arts and crafts manufactured by the handicapped.

The orphans live in the school and attend classes in Chinese and Tibetan languages. They also perform songs which they wrote. Jampa Tsundhup called together some of the children. They sang:

“Watch a grand eagle, soaring in the sky, where he is flying; Coming to this school we value life, wild flowers are blooming…We are grateful for this opportunity in life, it is too sad not to know your own culture…To realize beautiful dreams, please do not pass the good years in vain.”

Their song captured stillness in the late Tibetan afternoon when sunlight is strongest and shadows become deep, protruding abstractions of one’s imagination. The sorrow of their condition was drowned in the joy of their singing. They were overcoming predicament.