Karma Wangchuk paints flourishes on Tseringma’s staff for the 30th Kagyu Monlam.

The torma artists are the unsung heroes of the Kagyu Monlam. Every year they labor long hours in relative obscurity, tucked away in a private space far removed from Tergar Monastery and the bustle of other pre-Monlam preparations and activities. This year there were 64 monks and nuns working from dawn to dusk on the butter sculptures and offering tormas (Tib. shalzes) for the 30th Kagyu Monlam.

(cont.) Kagyu Monlam News –The great display of offerings : tormas of the 30th Kagyu Monlam.

On the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space, Planetary Collective presents a short film documenting astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – a perspective-altering experience often described as the Overview Effect.

The Overview Effect, first described by author Frank White in 1987, is an experience that transforms astronauts’ perspective of the planet and mankind’s place upon it. Common features of the experience are a feeling of awe for the planet, a profound understanding of the interconnection of all life, and a renewed sense of responsibility for taking care of the environment.

via OVERVIEW on Vimeo.

Anders Ostergaard, the director of the 2008 Danish documentary film Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country has been spotted in Bodhgaya these days. Burma VJ won a lot of awards and was even nominated for an Oscar. [from Wikipedia: It follows the September 2007 protests against the military regime in Burma. The "VJ" in the title stands for "video journalists." Some of it was filmed on hand-held cameras. The footage was smuggled out of the country, physically or over the Internet. The DVD includes a message from Buddhist actor Richard Gere comparing the situation in Burma to that in Tibet.] While watching Burma VJ, I was also struck by the similarities between the oppression of Burma and the situation in Tibet today. I think it’s important that stories like this are told. Since this film was made, things have gotten a little bit better in Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi has been permitted  to travel and media restrictions have relaxed a little bit, but in truth, an extremely dark cloud of oppression still looms.

The entire film may be viewed in its entirety on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=24zPJe3Fgwc

The following tormas are in various stages of completion:

Gyu Gon torma made by torma master, Lama Sangye

Ekajati torma made by Lama Sangye

Gakyil Gyens

Buddha descending from Tushita Heaven, torma by Karma Wangchuk

Milarepa Torma

A pretty flower gyen

Beginnings

Shalze Gyens

Karmapa leaving the torma-making site.

(from left to right) Christof Freitas, Anahita Moghaddam and Guy Reid

One always meets the most interesting and stimulating people around His Holiness the Gyalwang Karmapa and this year is no exception. Guy Reid, Christof Freitas, and Steve Kennedy are the very talented filmmakers of Planetary Collective who were in Bodhgaya to interview the Karmapa for their new documentary film Continuum, due to be released in September 2013. Continuum will address the root cause of the environmental and social crises facing the planet today. A few days ago I got to view their 18-minute short called Overview, set to premiere at Harvard University in December, 2012. It was really fantastic, a stunning and thought-provoking piece of visual poetry. For more information check out their website: (www.planetarycollective.com).

The early stages of a butter sculpture statue

Gyens for the shalzes

Flower gyens

Lama Sangye is hard at work on a Mahakala torma.

I’m in Bodhgaya now and yesterday I went to check on the progress of the torma artists. The first person I saw was Lama Sangye and he is hard at work on two tormas, a Mahakala torma called Jugon and an Ekajati torma. He is a master sculptor who trained extensively in meditation (he completed a three-year-retreat at Pullahari in Nepal). In Bhutan, as a youth, Lama Sangye learned statue making from the two pre-eminent Bhutanese sculptors at that time. He is also highly skilled in mask-making. It is thrilling to watch Lama Sangye’s hands work their magic; plus the room where he works is quiet and radiates peace. I hope to follow his progress closely in the coming days and weeks.

Early stages of the Ekajati torma.

They started working on the Kagyu Monlam tormas around Nov. 16th. They’ve already made the shalzes and mixed the colorful wax butter.

A row of naked shalzes.

Bowls of colorful wax butter were already made when I got there.

Wax butter cones of color are standing by.