Tsherin Sherpa Tibetan spirit

Yet, it is not Travolta that Sherpa is referencing, but Andy
Warhol and his paintings of Elvis Presley (Fig. 4). Sherpa
appreciates the iconic turn of Warhol’s work, noting,
In contemporary culture, Elvis began to have such a
mythology and worship surrounding him that even after
his death people still have sightings as if he were a
spirit. [With] Warhol’s repetition of the image and
degradation through silk-screen mistakes, he begins
to erode that projection of fame.
Sherpa continues,
In a similar manner, Tibetan deities have various
meanings projected upon them. People who have
not been properly initiated might be missing the
essence behind the painting, thereby attaching
themselves to a…simpler [and] incomplete meaning. 12
Sherpa’s goal in repeating a spirit image is to force viewers ‘to
see their own perceptions’, which he hopes will create a
dialogue that comes closer to his intended view for the piece. 13
Warhol’s eight repetitions of Elvis have a particular
resonance for Sherpa. The number 8 is a potent signifier in
(Fig. 3)
8 Spirits
2012
Gold leaf, acrylic and ink on canvas
127 x 228.6 cm (50 x 90 in)
Tibetan Buddhism. It refers to the Eight Auspicious Symbols,
bkra shis rtags brgyad (the lotus, endless knot, golden fishes,
parasol, victory banner, golden treasure vase, right-spiraling
white conch shell and dharma wheel). 14 As well, it refers to
the Eight Worldly Concerns, Jigten Choe gyed (the desire
for wanting what one wants, for happiness, fame and
praise, and the fear of the opposites of these concepts).
Most powerfully, it refers to Sakyamuni Buddha’s Noble
Eight-fold Path 15 : the path of progressive detachment that
leads to the extinction of the self and escape from the cycle
of rebirth into nirvana.
With this in mind, Sherpa’s explanation of why he has
grouped the spirits together in this painting is poignant:
The figures…stand together in unity since we are
currently seeing more cohesion around the world
of the Tibetan diaspora. The self-immolations
have created a shared awareness throughout
the community who are now keeping that focal
energy alive. 16
Consequently, the fundamental reference of this work is not
a Warholian Elvis but a popular culture of a different order:
the Buddhist faith of Tibetans. The ultimate meaning of the
eight spirits’ pose is one of victory; specifically, the victory
of the god, and the victory over negative emotions, in this
case, self-immolation. This painting is a representation of the
triumph of the Buddhist doctrine, and through it, the release
of the soul from the world of suffering.
Still, the painting has yet another undercurrent running
through it, and that is the theme of commercialism. The record
price brought in a recent sale of Warhol’s Eight Elvises
resonates for Sherpa with the sale of thangkas as souvenirs
or artworks rather than for their meditational and devotional
properties. For Sherpa, this is yet another instance of the
secular world putting a price on the iconic.
Where the theme of self-immolation was not immediately
obvious in 8 Spirits, in 49 Gas Cans, it is clear (Fig. 5).
49 Gas Cans features seven rows of seven multicoloured
gasoline cans. Each can is in a different colour, and each
bears the face of a wrathful protector spirit. The spirits’ faces
are painted in ghostly white outline, enmeshed in the starshaped
thik tse grid measurement. This grid is an element
taken from the traditional Tibetan painting technique for
establishing the correct scale and form of icons.
The separate paper sheets for the cans represent traditional
square or rectangular Tibetan prayer flags. The cans’ repeated
order from yellow, purple, red, green, orange, blue and
pink, and back again in alternating rows, suggests the flags
flapping in the wind, disseminating prayers through space.
As the colours are not strictly traditional, however, they
represent an adjustment to the iconography. Whereas traditional
prayer flags are always in yellow, blue, red, green
and white colours, 17 here, the purple, orange and pink are
new additions to the form. That the white flag is not present
is not a comment on what white can symbolise, but rather a
comment on shifting Tibetan needs. Nonetheless, Sherpa’s
reference is more ideological than specific, and as such
represents the concept of a new and modern prayer flag
responding to new and modern prayers. 18
The new iconography of the prayer flags cum gas cans is
a clear-cut response to Tibetan self-immolation. Moreover,
in this painting, Sherpa’s forty-nine gas cans represent the
forty-nine days of formal Buddhist prayer ceremonies that
are held after a person dies and whilst waiting for the soul
to decide to reincarnate or attain nirvana. 19
The phenomenon of self-immolation is new to Tibetan society.
It was only in 1998 that the first Tibetan auto-cremated. 20
Yet, at the time of writing, already more than fifty Tibetan
monks, nuns and laity throughout the world have
extinguished themselves in flame. As Tibetan Buddhism
scholar Janet Gyatso explains, “Today the target of Tibet’s
recent self-immolations is an outer enemy: an intrusive, repressive,
unsympathetic state” of the People’s Republic of
China. This is in contrast to the traditional form of ascetic
practice, which “targeted an inner enemy: selfish clinging,
vanity, enmity”. 21
(Fig. 4)
Andy Warhol
Eight Elvises
1963
Silk-screen ink, silver paint and spray paint on linen
208 x 358 cm (82 x 141 in)
© The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts / Artists Rights Society
(ARS), New York/DACS, London 2012. Reproduction taken from Phaidon
Editors, Steven Bluttal & Dave Hickey, Andy Warhol “Giant” Size, London:
Phaidon Press, 2006, p.197.
Not on view in the current exhibition
12
Sherpa, email to the author, 5 September 2012.
13
Sherpa, email to the author, 5 September 2012.
14
Robert Beer, The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols
and Motifs, Boston: Shambala Publications, Inc.,
1999, pp. 171–87.
15
Sakyamuni Buddha preached that the Noble
Eight-fold Path is attainable through the Right Views
(i.e., the understanding of suffering and its cause), Right
Resolve, Right Speech, Right Conduct (moral life), Right
Livelihood (preferably the monastic life), Right Effort
(the maintenance of will power), Right Mindfulness (the
examination and evaluation of one’s progress) and
Right Meditation, where meditation is the final step and
the only means leading ultimately to enlightenment.
16
Sherpa, email to the author, 5 September 2012.
17
Sherpa explains that the five colours of the
traditional prayer flag represent the Five Enlightened
Buddha Families (Nampar nangdze/Nam namg
[Sk: Vairocana]; Mitrugpa [Sk: Akṣhobhya],
Wöpakme [Sk: Amidtābha], Rinchen Jung ne/Rin
jung [Sk: Ratnasaṃbha] and Dön yö drub pa/Dön
drub [Sk: Amoghasiddhi]); the Five Directions and
the Five Elements (earth, space, fire, air and water).
Sherpa, email to the author, 24 August 2012; Beer,
The Encyclopedia of Tibetan Symbols and Motifs,
pp. 90–93.
18
Sherpa, email to the author, 24 August 2012.
19
Sherpa, interview with the author, 4 August 2012.
20
Thubten Ngodup, a Tibetan layman living in exile
in India, put himself to the flame in New Delhi in
1998. Edward Wong, ‘Tibetan Who Sets Himself
Afire Dies’, The New York Times, 17 March 2001,
www.nytimes.com /2011/03/18/world/
asia/18tibet.html, accessed 4 September 2012.
21
Janet Gyatso, quoted in Asia Sentinel, 3 September
2012, http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option
=com_ content&task =view&id=4789&Itemid =189,
accessed 4 September 2012.
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