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The craft center will function as a working school where trainees will learn through apprentices to their master craftsmen. The center will teach the traditional Tibetan arts of religious painting, wood carving, precious metal work, sculpting and tailoring. It will also provide accommodation & workshops for the master craftsmen and their apprentices.
The craft center will contain the following elements:
Thangkha Art
In the main monastery there are many wonderful murals especially the series of 9 large thangkhas on the fourth floor of the shrine hall that depict the 8 great lineages of Tibetan Buddhism, the murals that cover the walls of the protector meditation room, the Four Great Kings who grace the entrance to the main temple, and the universal mandala/wheel of life found at the southern entrance to the monastery.
Wood Carving
The wood carver creates elaborate tables, shrines, thrones, and other furniture in the traditional Tibetan motifs of dragons, snow-lions, garudas and auspicious symbols.
The Metal Smith
The smith works in all precious and ordinary metals producing highly intricate statues, jewelry, mandalas, offering bowels, and musical instruments on the small scale; and door panels, spires for rooftops, and suchlike on the large scale.
The Sculptors
The master sculptors create delicate, intricate, and unique statues, decorative moldings, and creative pieces such as the Lama Dance masks or the snow-lions that guard the stairs to the shrine hall in the main monastery.
The Tailor
The Tibetan tailor not only learns how to sew traditional Tibetan dress, but there are many elaborate robes, ceremonial hats, banners, and wall hangings of brocades and silks. Embroidery has to be mastered as well as leather work to produce a true craftsman.
At present all of the elements of the craft center are spread throughout Palpung Sherabling. In the future, they will all be moved to the building for the center. The building was built in 2005 whose facilities would serve them all and bring craftsmen from traditions. It is hoped the craft center will maintain the traditional Tibetan religious arts here in Palpung Sherabling.
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