Thursday25 Oct 12:06 PM
Multivalent Lord Ganesha In Buddhist And Tantric Art
Some cultural critics might argue that remix and appropriation are newly emergent epi-phenomena of the digital world, where copies easily replicate and proliferate freely. But this flow is far from new, and this very drift could be seen as an intrinsic aspect of culture itself.
Just as music and commerce flow along the roads of humans, so too flow ideas about divinity, virtue, liberation and the marvelous. Our perceptions of reality are re-enforced or revised by these encounters, be those with humans or otherwise.
Take our Lord Ganesha, for example, as he drifts and incarnates into the world of Buddhism and Tantra, where his ritual-function and deity superpowers transmigrate, sometimes being exalted (e.g., representing Avaloketeshwara) or subjugated (e.g., trampled upon by protector deities as a representation of the obstacles known as "idle chatter" and "gossip", impediments on the path of Dharma; this view of Ganesha was popularized recently in the opening pages of the original editions of Chogyam Trungpa's Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism).
And then there's the Tantric painting below, depicting a monkey goddess performing fellatio upon Lord Ganesha while menstruating into a cup made from a human skull. That's certainly mixing the sacred with the profane.
All these wonderful images of Ganesha intertwined within these traditions are perusable online at the wondrous Himalayan Art archive. The Ganapati collection page gives a few further details about the appropriation/transmigration of Ganapati (Ganesha, Vinayaka, Vigneshwara, etc..) into Buddhism and Tantra; while the details are interesting, the text doesn't answer many questions. It's probably better that way —the drift is more complex than most art historians can grapple with, and satisfying explanations often evade singular, rational, linear tropes. Lord Ganesha rules categories and transcends them.
Click the images above for more information and to zoom in.
Link to the Himalayan Art Resources Buddhist Deity: Ganapati collection.
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Tue 06 Nov 2007 at 05:14PM
|| Om Shri Hanumate Namah: ||
Wow, I didn't know that. Very Cool Pictures!
Some Versions of Hanuman Chalisa, Hanuman Mantra Jaap Mala, Bajrang Baan and more Mp3's can be downloaded at:
http://hanumanji.wordpress.com
YouRs SinCereLy M!sTer CrippLeD SaM
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